Legislator Michael J. Smith

A playwright such as Shakespeare would have a field day with the tragedy that has come to be known as the affordable housing settlement.

One would have to be living in a cave somewhere in Westchester County, to not be aware that our federal  government, yes the US government, is boldly seeking to eliminate some of the most fundamental rights we have as taxpaying citizens. They have determined that certain geographic areas that do not pass some arbitrary percentage for minorities must therefore be racist. The US government, through the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), “negotiated” with the prior County Executive Spano, that certain metrics in the form of principally 750 affordable housing units must be created within seven years. If Westchester County did not sign the agreement, then there were threats of fines as high as $500 million. So much for “negotiations”.

First and foremost, the agreement itself was very sloppily worded; the county is now dealing with the consequences. The agreement itself also stripped rights from voters and taxpayers. If HUD’s interpretation were to prevail, independent businesses in the form of property owners would be “obligated” (under the threat of litigation and penalties) to go into business with the government.

This past week a threatening letter which came from HUD was received that essentially could be labeled as a ransom letter. The essence is that if current County Executive Rob Astorino does not capitulate to their demands immediately, then $7 million that rightfully belongs to the Westchester taxpayers will be lost forever. Approximately 90% of that money, was to be given to Westchester municipalities that were not part of the 31 labeled “racist” communities (i.e. sufficiently diverse to HUD's standards).

This being campaign season, as to be expected, silly and stupid political rhetoric abounds. Several legislators have said, even if the county executive is right, he should still do what HUD is demanding. Fortunately, however, this country was built on laws. The premises of contract law are well-established. You may “wish” for something that's not in the contract, but you can't enforce concepts that are not in the contract. That is unless you're being a schoolyard bully, or in legal terms, blackmail.

Essentially HUD wants Westchester County to say that any zoning restrictions anywhere in Westchester County are discriminatory. Despite home rule, HUD wants Westchester County to agree to litigate against any municipality that does not effectively eliminate its zoning.

Isn't it interesting, that HUD is taking this extreme position in the midst of a campaign season for the next County Executive?  Sounds a bit like the hardball Chicago politics we have heard associated with the Washington, DC executive branch. If one wasn't so cynical, one might even say that the US government, in the form of HUD, wants Westchester County to breach the affordable housing settlement. Much to HUD’s chagrin, Westchester County has exceeded every interim benchmark laid out to date. If Westchester County were to complete the 750 units on time, then they couldn't become the poster children of HUD's blackmail campaign for the rest of the country.

I, for one, am extremely proud that in Westchester County, we currently have a County Executive, Rob Astorino, who is standing up to the bully in the playground and says no. Come November Election Day keep that in mind.

In the currently disgraced annual Tour de France bicycle race, there is a one-day segment that is called the “test of truth.” During that day's time trial race, each rider starts individually and competes against the clock without the assistance of any of their cycling teammates. The idea behind this portion of the race is that it identifies who has fortitude when the pressure is on.

Very soon at the Board of Legislators, a number of the elected politicians will be faced with their own “test of truth” as it relates to their personal vote on granting a long-term lease for the handicapped children of Ferncliff Manor at the former WestHELP site in Greenburgh.

During the prior legislative session, there was a politician who was faced with a critical decision as to whether he would be the deciding vote in the problematic 2009 Affordable Housing Settlement. For a multitude of reasons, specific communities within his district should have been excluded from the settlement. He decided to vote (for apparent partisan reasons) against the best interests of the taxpayers who elected him. This incumbent career politician, who was labeled by the Journal News as a potential County Executive candidate, lost to a virtual political unknown. Accordingly, he bears the consequence of not passing his “test of truth.”

There are a number of current legislators who have yet to publicly state their support for the children of Ferncliff Manor, as well as the 250 employees of the organization from our county who are also at risk. Several of these legislators apparently have future political aspirations, most likely in Albany. Their “test of truth” will be their ability to tell their political leader that personal vendettas have no place when our county needs to honestly support some of our most needy Westchester citizens and their families.

If they unfortunately vote in favor of partisan politics and accordingly harm the handicapped children of Ferncliff Manor, it will not be surprising to see them bear the consequences in a future election. It's probably very hard to get taxpayers to vote for politicians who will not help handicapped children in their time of need for merely partisan reasons.

At a time that Westchester County needed leadership, eight Democrats abandoned ship.

On Friday, a majority of nine Westchester County legislators passed a very difficult but fiscally responsible budget. It maintained the prime tenets of a 0% tax increase and not raiding Westchester County’s reserve funds.  Unfortunately, it also separates approximately 100 valued Westchester County employees from employment as of January 1, 2013.

A number of months ago, I had the opportunity to speak to the major labor union representing Westchester County employees, the CSEA. I met with their negotiating and leadership team. While neither I nor any other legislator are authorized to negotiate county labor contracts, I expressed to them my very firm belief, that most, if not all of the positions at risk could be saved through a negotiated contract. I said the contract that you will eventually negotiate in the future will likely be no better than the contract terms they could have obtained at that time, the only difference being that their membership would be decreased by as many as hundreds of CSEA employees. They gambled with too many employees livelihoods, and now we all must bear the consequences.

County Executive Astorino, the seven members of the Republican caucus, and the two brave independent Democrats, Michael Kaplowitz and Virginia Perez negotiated to develop a compromise budget that listened to the needs of our Westchester constituents while seeking to maintain our crucial AAA bond rating.  Each party to the negotiation gave up something that they supported in order to build a coalition. The truth is, when we worked together, we developed a better budget for Westchester County than any one of the groups did in isolation.

The eight Democrats who ran out purposely avoided the most significant vote that they are elected to make by the taxpayers. They essentially wanted to push Westchester County off the fiscal cliff. The bogus budget they proposed would have almost assuredly wiped out Westchester County's triple-A rating.  By trying not to vote on a budget for 2013, they sought to create a chaotic environment in which the County Executive would not be able to run Westchester County government.  I'm surprised that every one of the eight Democrats participated in this dangerous political game. I know that a number of them have future political aspirations in Albany. How will they respond when they are asked why did you run out of the room when it was your time to represent the best interests of Westchester taxpayers? Why didn’t you try to negotiate for some of the things you believed in? What exactly did you accomplish by abandoning the Westchester taxpayers?

It's not fun to be in the minority and not get your way. If you act like a child, you take your ball and you run home. The eight Democrats, who ran away from their fiduciary responsibility, turned off the lights in the legislative chamber, cut the power to the microphones and rang bells to disrupt the continuing meeting. As I have been saying all along, Westchester taxpayers deserve much better from their elected representatives.

As is usual, one can expect more lawsuits because when the Democrats don't get their way, they run to court to ask judges to accomplish what they could not. To the eight Democrats, budget 2013 is complete and finished. County Executive Astorino said that he'd hoped to have all 17 legislators stand with him while he signed the 2013 budget. I believe him.   Given the challenges that we're facing, it's not too early to start discussing the 2014 budget.  To the eight Democrats who temporarily abandoned their responsibilities, please come back to work and do the job that the taxpayers elected you to do. They could use your help.

All too frequently this year I have been embarrassed by the actions of my fellow legislators in committee meetings. Typically, this less than optimal behavior is exhibited in front of County Department Commissioners and their staffs. Not that anyone should ever take comfort in the fact we're wasting taxpayer’s dollars by wasting county employee’s time, at least they know by now what they're in for. This week unfortunately I witnessed this embarrassing behavior in front of the Sustainable Playland management team.

As you are well aware by now, the county undertook an RFP to envision the future of the iconic Playland amusement facility in Rye. There were 12 respondents and three of them warranted the deeper investigation. The initial responses were nicely vetted by a citizen’s commission created for the task. When all was said and done, the County Executive’s team chose Sustainable Playland Inc., a not-for-profit management organization that developed a best in class portfolio approach to optimize the multifaceted jewels of Playland’s potential. Innovative thinking by the County Executive’s team and the skilled Sustainable Playland group developed an approach that truly “reinvents Playland”.

Multiple County Legislators, appropriately asked for the opportunity to undertake due diligence on the proposal; which in itself is not an unreasonable request. This is where once again the County Legislature went awry, corrupting the proper role of due diligence with what can only be called embarrassing behavior.

I could spend a lot of time talking about my belief in the genuine quality and depth of talent in what I've seen to date in the Sustainable Playland team.  That point will prove itself over time. To the extent that the legislators should be doing due diligence, one would expect they would understand what that means. The Sustainable Playland team tried to present the context of the arrangement in the midst of a two hour committee meeting. They were continuously interrupted with half-baked questions and assaulted with all the reasons “why this won't work”. If any of these inquisitors approached a nongovernmental business transaction with this brand of “due diligence”, I would shudder to think of the results. One legislator’s approach to this analysis was to ask where the miniature golf course was going to be.

After watching this debacle, I was thinking about creating one of those phony agreements like some of those legislators did with the Children's Museum group last week replete with a bogus ceremonial signing in the rotunda. But then again I realized I was elected to do things right. Let's hope Sustainable Playland forgets about this week's foolishness and is still motivated to move ahead with its $34 million investment into the future of Playland.