WHITE PLAINS - The candidates for Common Council bring a range of backgrounds to the table, from finance to private retail to city government. The question will be which of those backgrounds voters want at the helm during an especially tough budget year.

Three Democrats and two Republicans are running for three open council seats. Democrat Tom Roach is the only incumbent on the ballot, as Councilman Glen Hockley is leaving the council to run for mayor and Councilwoman Rita Malmud will retire after 20 years.

The two new candidates put forward by the Democrats are knowledgeable in finance - a strength when the budget is arguably the biggest issue that will face the new council.

Beth Smayda, a past president of the White Plains League of Women Voters, is a managing director for MBIA, focusing on municipal government and health-care financing. She previously worked for Moody's financial rating agency.

David Buchwald is a tax lawyer with a public policy master's degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He also worked as an economics researcher.

Both say they'll bring considerably more oversight and transparency to the budget process and rebuild the city's depleted fiscal reserves.

Smayda recommends bolstering the city's Budget and Management Advisory Committee, having it meet regularly to bring about ways to save money.

"I'd very much like to have more of an honest budgeting process and one that recognizes and examines our budget line items, line by line," Buchwald said at a meeting with The Journal News' Editorial Board last week.

Roach, an attorney for 23 years and a councilman since 2002, pushed for fiscal restraint and the environment, his signature issue. He was council president for two years and served on several environmental commissions and task forces.

"I think what we need to do ... is live within our means," Roach said, "and this constant hunger for new revenue streams is an irresponsible way to govern."
In contrast, the Republicans offer the balance of a government insider and a government outsider.

Leonard Lolis worked in City Hall for 21 years and was White Plains' first director of information services. He left the post this year, taking a job at Emigrant Bank.

Jim Arndt, oppositely, worked as a private retailer for 25 years and is now a store manager for the menswear company Canali.

Arndt suggested increasing city employees' health-care contributions and asking top City Hall administrators to give back 10 percent of their salaries, at least until the recession passes. Having worked in retail, he said, he recognized the needs of the private sector and wanted to use that experience to improve the local economy.

Lolis said he had an intimate knowledge of every municipal department and where waste in the budget still exists.

He said he wanted to rid the city of that waste, such as cutting the number of city cars, and duplication - for instance, consolidating snow plowing in one local agency instead of three.

"Clearly, we are in crisis. The fiscal condition is terrible," Lolis said. "From being on the inside, I can tell you there's many ways to save money."

The Journal News
Author: Ben Rubin
Date: October 19, 2009