Cameroon debt forgiven, Churches for a dollar, City Yards to be moved at great expense, sweetheart deals for developers and colleges, what else is next? We have a city management system with no accountability that can only accomplish thing with deals and give-a -ways. New Rochelle City Management is nickel and diming the citizens to a point where hard working families can’t afford to live in New Rochelle where they were born and raised any longer. Residents are forced to make some hard choices while management makes one bad decision after another. That is not what they are paid for and paid very well for I might say. They receive great salaries and benefits while working and in their retirement. The citizens will be paying for poor performances for a life time. It is time for a reality check.

It’s April, Federal taxes are hopefully done and now it is time to drop off or mail the April tax bill for the New Rochelle Tax Collector, more money going out without seeing any noticeable return. Every time I write out the check, I want to cry. It is just a painful reminder of what poor shape New Rochelle is in. Over taxed, over staffed except for police and fire and just very poorly managed. We cannot continue to do things here the same way. Someone needs to step up to the plate and lead and clean the slate and start with a fresh mind and fresh ideas on how to correct all the wrongs of the past and present. This is not Charles Dickens; there are no ghosts of governments past to send a message to The City Council and Mayor. They had their own demons to deal with back then. The massage needs to come from the living breathing citizens of New Rochelle before it is too late!

The following resolution was passed at the April 17, 2012 meeting of the New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club.

Whereas, the City Manager of New Rochelle has stated membership in ICLEI was implied because a representative came to speak to the City
Council,

Whereas, the City Council of New Rochelle has never taken a vote to join ICLEI;

Whereas, no proven benefits have come to New Rochelle as a result of this ICLEI membership which has a cost;

Whereas, the New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club does not agree with membership in ICLEI and also with some sections of GreeNR;

Be it resolved, that the New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club feels a City Council vote should be taken on the ICLEI membership for the City of New
Rochelle,

Be it further resolved,
The New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club does not support City Council decisions made by implication.

Submittted: by Peggy Godfrey, President

Seconded by: Lorraine Pierce, Secretary

Development, Development, What we need is development? Not of buildings and parks, we need to start with building a community. A community that communicates. A City that communicates with its citizenry. A communication of ideas and visions that work towards the betterment of New Rochelle. Not any Outside developer or organizations regardless of what they stand for. No one stands up for New Rochelle more than the citizens of New Rochelle. Now we need our City Council Members to do the same tonight. Use Echo Bay as a catalyst for bringing the citizens and government of New Rochelle together towards one goal, a better, brighter, thriving and community minded New Rochelle. Below is an E-Mail I sent yesterday to The City Council:

Mayor Bramson and City Council Members,

Let me start by saying that my comments have no political motives attached. I speak only in the interest of the betterment of The City of New Rochelle. We cannot continue to keep going about business the same way. Change is hard but change is necessary.

Under advice from my physician, I am taking time off from my activities. I hope and expect this willl be temporary. I will continue to monitor TOTS as I consider this to be indispensible to the community and, in time, the rebirth of the City.

I am especially happy to sense that my last post on Noam's Legacy, should he choose it, would engender so many comments. Doing the math, it looks as if 277 reads led to close to 7% response rate. All of these were typical of TOTS, different voices, all who loved the City, and all who were willing to work to make it thrive.

I have tried to walk a road that few people walked. Whatever I offered came from the eyes, ears, and voices of citizens, the rests from the considerable experience as a business executive, senior consultant and educator.

I have not pulled any requests for information through Open Meeting and other channels; preferring to supplement my thoughts with those avaiable in other sources in the Internet.

Noam it has been hard for your recently but you can restore and rebuild your legacy while rebuilding and restoring your city. You are not alone; it may seem that way, but good people are a dime a dozen in these parts. What you can accomplish with the hands, hearts and minds of others here is more solid than the stone on marble plaques. It is more important than names from the past on plaques anywhere here: library Plaza, Train Station, City Hall.

You probably feel otherwise. Few remember the name of the astronaut who sat in the spacecraft when Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon. But, they remembered and so have many in NASA who know the mission would have likely failed without Michael Collins.

No comfort? You may not recall George C Marshall. Marshall was the head of military operations in Europe during WW II. But, most folks remember Dwight Eisenhower But, millions upon millions of survivors throughout Western Europe and their descendents will ever forget him.

I listened to the April 10 City Council meeting and it was a light in a dark room. There is much to do, many reasons for some to be suspicious, even angry. But every journey begins with the first step.

No one has been a more vocal critic of governance in New Rochelle than me and it has not come easy to me to come forward as I have. I will continue to come forward and I hope all people do. But, there is a need to build a community and that includes respectful debate, even strong action against the administration when and where needed. Yes, it is subjective often, but I continue to say without malice that I was close to Noam Bramson. Perhaps my disenchantment is stronger than most of yours. It was personal yet I still believe that there is a man of great intellect and substance behind this this current facade and I hope this shows up as it did somewhat tonight.

Why was this meeting so special? This will not be consistent with all of your views. While I think too much time is spent on some issues, I would rather have that than not enough time.

Dissatisfaction with many areas of new Rochelle City Government were expressed by the members of the New Rochelle Citizens Reform Club at their last meeting. Councilmen Ivar Hyden (Democrat) and Albert Tarantino (Republican), when asked, had serious reservations about proposed developments in the city.
Tarantino was skeptical about the up-coming vote on the Echo Bay proposal and also has serious concerns about the Albanese proposal. Neither project was voted on at the March 21 meeting. The hearing for a new cabaret licensing procedure which would allow the Council to grant the license rather than the police was supported and did pass at that Council meeting.

"I have found the enemy and he is us." Pogo is right; but to be fair, there are degrees of fault as their are degrees of sin. My purpose today is not to indict, but to state that things do not remotely work in New Rochelle because we act or do not act in ways that encourage and support these outcomes.

I don't see any real value, except to ventilate anger and frustration, to do little but excoriate office holders for acting the same as most office holders have learned to do over the past half century or so. Noam Bramson is mayor of New Rochelle, yet by the authority explicit in the New Rochelle Charter/Code, he as assumed power and responsibility that is not explicit in the Charter and has taken the lead set by his predecessor and to a degree, those who came before the predecessor. There is no value in labeling him as sinner, or for that matter, even saint. He is acting well outside of role; he has assumed power not granted to him, and you must conclude that the City Council has tacitly permitted this to occur and his community support base, has done this as well through apathy, ignorance, or tacit support.

An important legal decision relating to the New York State Freedom of Information Law (“NYFOIL”) was released this past week in Westchester, which should place local governments on notice that they cannot pass local laws restricting the availability of documents and information to the public beyond the clear language of NYFOIL, even if the local government does it in the interest of protecting confidentiality.

This decision in the New York State Supreme Court, Westchester County by the Hon. James W. Hubert was filed and entered on March 20, 2012 in the case captioned The Journal News v. City of White Plains.

This litigation deals with an attempt by the newspaper The Journal News to acquire documents from the City of White Plains relating to the ethics investigation of former Mayor Adam Bradley.