Westchester County is no longer a member of ICLEI.

County Executive Rob Astorino made the decision shortly after taking office to terminate Westchester's membership in ICLEI — Local Governments for Sustainability which came to an end effective December 31, 2011. Membership dues for Westchester County amounted to $20,000 annually.

“When we came into office we reviewed all of the associations to which the County belonged," said Ned McCormack, chief spokesman for Astorino. "We determined that ICLEI was not an essential service and we dropped the membership".

This is a striking turnaround for a county that just four years ago released an ICLEI-inspired Climate Action Plan calling on all municipalities to join ICLEI.

The difference has been Astorino, a no-nonsense fiscal conservative whose stunning upset victory in 2009 over long-time incumbent, Democrat Andy Spano. Under Spano, Westchester County became the highest-taxed county in the nation. Astorino was elected with a 16-point margin largely on his promise to reign in spending and get control of property taxes.

Local Governments That Have Left ICLEI (ICLEI Membership Page)

Last updated April 13, 2012
If you have a link to a recent announcement of a local government terminating their membership in ICLEI please contact us.

California

Colfax
Amador County

Florida

Pinellas County
Plantation
Sarasota County

Maryland

Carroll County

Massachusetts

Carver

New Jersey

Monmouth County
Somerset County

New Mexico

"Never his mind on where he was."

Like Luke demanding that Yoda train him as a Jedi, the Mayor of New Rochelle has been unable to succeed for New Rochelle because his mind is always elsewhere -- on himself, on his resume, on his greater ambition beyond New Rochelle - never his mind on tackling real issues in New Rochelle but creating "solvable" issues for him to "solve", all signifying very little for the people of New Rochelle.

Yoda: All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Jedi craves not these things…

And where has Noam's mind been?

At last night's City Council meeting, Mayor Noam Bramson was asked about ICLEI, Agenda 21 and the United Nations. In response, the Mayor emphatically declared that "New Rochelle is not associated with the United Nations".

When it comes to ICLEI, Agenda 21 and the United Nations, methinks the Mayor doth protest too much.

Let's start with the obvious. Noam Bramson is a proponent of ICLEI. He has been the guiding hand every step of the way, operating directly or indirectly through fronts like Deborah Newborn, Chuck Strome, David Kooris, the GreeNR Committee and others. Noam speaks and their lips move. He brought ICLEI to New Rochelle over 10 years ago under the guise of signing onto an innocuous sounding position paper on reducing carbon emissions. He submitted a proposal to ICLEI in which he offered up New Rochelle as the "ideal laboratory" for experimentation with ICLEI's environmental planning and policies -- with New Rochelle residents as the guinea pigs. Noam Bramson caused New Rochelle to join ICLEI in 2010 without bothering to put it to a vote of the City Council.

A review of the 12 years show how the Mayor has worked tirelessly to help ICLEI get their nose under the proverbial tent.