News & Updates

Recommendation: Press Conferences Should Have a Point

By Michael Smith, on Aug 10, 2012

I invited myself today to the Democratic legislators' press conference ostensibly to hear about the “Future of Playland”. My take away from the proceedings: if that's their vision of the future, Playland is in big trouble. Today's presentation just highlighted for me the difference between politicians and business people.

The stream of consciousness type discussion started with a call for a financial audit of the Playland operations. This raises two questions: 1) don't those legislators know that the entirety of Westchester County government’s financial results is audited independently on an annual basis?; and 2) would they be so “political” to imply that County Executive Astorino is cooking the books? Do they really have the audacity to say that the county executive is acting fraudulently?

In a 2% cap constrained environment, where every tax dollar is important, why would the county executive try to create the “appearance” that Playland is losing money? Are they accusing former County Executive Spano of fudging the books also, because Playland lost money under his terms as well? If Playland was losing money under the prior administration, and the attendance has been dropping steadily since then, how does an amusement park operation like that generate a positive operating margin? One of the legislators said that Playland only appears to be losing money because they are being charged for their capital investments and repairs at the property. How do you think your personal financial statements would look if you didn't have to pay for your mortgage or your rent? As I have said previously, if you torture the data enough, it will admit to anything.

Then there were complaints about spending for advertising. Our politicians said that more money should be spent on advertising. Now I am a first-term legislator and even I know that the County Legislature has the ability to add additional expenses to virtually any expense line they want during the budget process. Don't they know that? If they thought this advertising idea is what the “Future of Playland” required, what stopped them from doing it? Last summer, the Legislature was falling all over themselves with special meetings so that they could change the fees for Playland. That worked out as well as all their other financial tinkering, not well.

The legislators also questioned why there were no more capital investments or new rides in the park over the past year. A competent business person would tell you not to make major capital investments in a property that may be undergoing significant redevelopment; something that the politicians may have not learned in politician school.

The final idea proposed today was for the Board of Legislators to take over the Playland RFP process. Seriously? Based on the track record of this legislative body’s lack of achievements over the past seven months, such a "take-over" is a scarier thought than Playland’s haunted house.

The shame of all this today is that I believe the Democratic legislators and their press machine spent more time preparing for this pointless press conference than they did trying to speak to the county executive and his staff on real ideas to make Playland a more financially viable operation.

It's the Taxpayers Stupid

By Michael Smith, on Aug 8, 2012

This week while riding the elevator to leave the County office building, a majority party staff member very politely introduced herself to me. She told me that she avoided taking sides and just wanted to do her job well. I fully understood that her county job was her livelihood and that the partisanship games the professional staff witness is not the best environment for those seeking career stability.

I told her the only side we all should be taking is that of the taxpayers.

How much better do you think life in this County would be, if we were able to elect more individuals who not only said that they had taxpayer’s best interest at heart but actually acted as if that were true?

The Bad Kabuki Theater of Westchester

By Michael Smith, on Jul 30, 2012

Borrowing liberally from the school of “Do as I say, not as I do,” I must admit that the repertory players of the majority party continue to play their roles unfortunately well, much to my amusement.

While the pattern has been near continuous for the past seven months, the past two legislative days present a microcosm of the theater that the taxpayers of Westchester must suffer through. On Friday, I saw way too much feigned righteous indignation over the administration allegedly “not following proper procedures” in a committee meeting, of which I have previously written about. Mind you, this was for the proper legislation to enact the financing structure for the work necessary to meet the current needs of the Ashford Avenue Bridge condition. Minor credit should be given to one majority party legislator who in a moment of frustration actually verbalized an attempt to expedite the legislation, albeit quickly quashed by her caucus.

In a specially called meeting this morning, which in itself for separate reasons reflects the mismanagement of this legislative body, we were subjected to a lecture from the chair about the lack of the administration’s ability to follow proper procedures. Yet in a separate committee meeting that started not less than 10 minutes later, for the countless time, yet another vote was called for an item that was not on the agenda and did not follow the prescribed “proper procedures” in order to be in front of the committee. In the spirit of full disclosure, once again this legislative act passed by the majority caucus represents yet another unbudgeted draw on the county’s ever depleting reserve balances, for those of you who care about such things.

Additionally troubling to me is a question that I am unable to answer at this time. Either certain members of this committee had the inability to understand the seemingly simple framework and positioning of the capital budget amendment or they were intentionally attempting to undermine a vote on the capital budget amendment for this condition they are all too willing to call an emergency. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure which one of the scenarios is worse.

One would hope that at some point, at least one member of the majority party will have the courage to speak up and start voting like they were more interested in serving the taxpayers than their caucus leader. Unfortunately, hope is not a great strategy.

When Everything Else Fails Just Lie

By Michael Smith, on Jul 27, 2012

“Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

During this ineffective legislative session, most of the activity from the Democrat caucus seems to center around foolish press releases. Through multiple blog posts I have identified only a fraction of those most grievous instances whereby their press staff spins their own fiction. I have watched with mild amusement their press office making liberal use of Gregg Easterbrooke’s concept that if you torture the facts long enough, they’ll confess to anything.

Sometimes however it's not just twisting the truth; sometimes it's just flat out lying. In today's press release about the Democrat legislators preening over their “slam” of County Executive Astorino, their press agent states that Katherine Delgado “brought a copy of the capital budget amendment to the Budget & Appropriations committee meeting, insisting upon its immediate consideration.” Insisting? I was at that meeting; nothing even mildly approaching “insisting” occurred.

I was pleased to find out today that some members of the Democrat caucus have been reading my blog postings and I thank them. To any of those members who are willing to do something good for somebody, here's my challenge. Go to the tape archive of today's meeting and identify to me the spot where Ms. Delgado is “insisting” upon “its immediate consideration,” and I will gladly donate $100 to FOODBANK For Westchester to support families in need. If I cannot be proven incorrect, then I ask that the press release be retracted and corrected with an apology granted to Ms. Delgado, and I ask anyone who believes that they are a leader in the Democrat caucus to alternatively make a $100 donation to FOODBANK For Westchester.

Why do I think that this challenge will be ignored? Come on Democrat caucus, stop talking and take some action to help somebody in Westchester for a change. Either you or I can make a donation of some of the excess pay that we have not been earning this session. Anyone?

Legislation By Press Release?

By Michael Smith, on Jul 24, 2012

In yet another congratulatory press release, Democratic members of the Board of Legislators announced with great pride the passing of a Resolution to fund some safety measures for the Ashford Avenue bridge in Ardsley. As you may remember, in June, some concrete fell onto the NY State Thruway. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Immediately the bridge was structurally inspected and any apparent loose concrete was removed.

The bridge had previously been identified as needing structural repairs. The rapid acceleration of the deterioration, as evidenced by the falling concrete, will require additional safety measures in the form of approximately $1.5 million worth of safety netting and planking on the underside of the bridge. As has been said in multiple committee meetings on the subject, the safety netting cannot be purchased at Home Depot and installed the next day. It requires design, engineering, manufacturing, and installation.

To my knowledge, no one has minimized the importance of the safety of anyone who could conceivably be impacted by this bridge and its current condition. The symbolic vote, however, to fund this safety measure flies in the face of good fiscal practice. Just this past week, the county received notice from the Moody's rating agency that Westchester's Aaa bond rating outlook was at risk due to an unsatisfactory level of fund balance. This resolution, if implemented, would be yet another draw upon the precipitously low fund balance. Highlighting in their taxpayer paid for press release, that the “lone Republican at the meeting, Legislator Michael Smith” voted against this resolution is just once again evidence of the partisan political foolishness that has marked this unaccomplished legislative session.

The County Executive’s administration proposed funding this expenditure through a capital budget amendment, which would allow a much more judicious funding of this project and would not negatively impact the county’s Aaa bond rating.

When I asked those assembled at the committee meeting today, would the passage of this resolution expedite the installation of the safety netting and planking any sooner, the answer was no. Press releases and gimmicky resolutions don't solve taxpayer’s problems; honest elected officials with no hidden agendas do.