There is life in the Westchester GOP. After the blue wave crashed down on Westchester in the elections of 2017, and with the news that one of four remaining republican county board members will switch parties, young republicans are stepping forward to join well known and popular republican incumbents like Harrison Mayor Ron Belmont and Eastchester Supervisor Tony Colavita.
Chris Garitee, candidate for the 10th District legislative seat, is renewing the call for the removal of Legislator Damon Maher from the Westchester County Public Safety Committee after Maher failed to show up at a May 6 meeting of the Board of Legislators and vote in support of crucial law enforcement funding for Mount Vernon, Yonkers and New Rochelle.
On April 29, the Westchester County Board of Legislators Public Safety and Budget and Appropriations committees, both of which Maher is a member, met as part of their regular scheduled meetings to take up grant funding from the Edward J. Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which had been applied for by, and was being awarded to Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle police departments. The funding, which involves no county or taxpayer dollars, comes to the county as pass-through funding and gets distributed directly to the municipal police departments.
Maher, who represents Eastchester, Tuckahoe and New Rochelle, was present at both meetings but refused to vote in favor of the agenda item and instead voted without prejudice, allowing the funding request to head to the next county legislative meeting for a full board vote.
That opportunity came May 6, and the funding was approved, with bipartisan support from the Board of Legislators at the full board meeting. Maher, however, skipped the vote by not attending the meeting.
According to Garitee, the lack of support for crucial law enforcement funding comes on the heels of a recent incident where Maher displayed blatant bias against all law enforcement by verbally berating a Westchester County Police sergeant during a community meeting in New Rochelle. As a result of that meeting, Michael Hagan, president of the Westchester County Department of Public Safety PBA, called for the immediate removal of Maher from the Public Safety Committee.
“This is just one more example of total bias and complete contempt for the men and women of law enforcement,” said Garitee. “District 10 deserves a legislator who supports all of law enforcement and who actually shows up at the meetings and does the jobs he’s paid to do. Chairman Ben Boykin needs to acquiesce to the request made by the Westchester PBA and remove Maher from the Public Safety Committee. There can be zero tolerance of this behavior by any legislator who is elected to represent all of our county residents.”
The funding for the New Rochelle Police Department grant totaled $14,000 and will be used toward new police radios and in its ongoing community policing efforts.
Garitee, who lives in Tuckahoe, is running against Maher for the county board seat that represents Eastchester, Tuckahoe and New Rochelle.
