democratic candidates for village board, L-R, Manny Rawlings, Leilani Yizar-Reid, Lou Young
Two democrats slates face off for village board June 28
By Dan Murphy
This reporter’s interest in the politics of the Village of Mamaroneck began when Village Administrator Jerry Barberio filed a discrimination complaint with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC and the NYS Human Rights Commission in February. Barberio accuses Village Trustee Dan Natchez of inappropriate behavior, including threatening Barberio by saying, “I have the votes (on the Village Board) to fire you.”
Natchez is running for re-election, on a slate with Richard Litman and Andrew Spatz, three democrats who have been endorsed by the Mamaroneck Village Democratic Party.
Another democrat on the Village Board running for re-election is Lou Young. You may remember Young as a former CBS NY news reporter who covered Westchester. Young is running with two other democratic candidates for Village Board: Leilani Yizar-Reid and Manny Rawlings.
A recent story in Black Westchester on the petitions of Young’s slate being challenged in court by the Mamaroneck Democratic Committee, sparked my interest. The Judge tossed out the challenge and a June 28 primary for Village Board is still on.
We spoke to Young to try and find out more about this election and some of the characters involved. First Young explained that he is supportive of the Mayor of Mamaroneck, democrat Tom Murphy (no relation), and does not blame him for what he sees as, “a do-nothing majority of the Village Board.”
Young also supports Village Manager Barberio, saying that “Jerry has done a spectacular job,” and added that the allegations made against Natchez in the employment complaint are “Tampering with the job of a Village manager. It is a key allegation.”
Young said that the tampering allegations against Barberio stemmed from the unauthorized used of overtime by a Village employee.
Young explained that “Six democrats presented themselves to the Village Democratic Committee and we all made our pitch. I knew that I wanted to run with Leilani and Manny, who are such good candidates. I’m an incumbent trustee, and I’m running with two terrific African Americans with deep roots in Mamaroneck.”
The ongoing problem of flooding, and integrity, are the two primary issues that Young and his running on with Yizar-Reid and Rawlings. Young claims that the democratic majority) on the Village Board have failed in their elected duty to maintain Village property and have not attempted to rectify the major issue that befalls the village every time a superstorm comes to Westchester.
“The Old Mamaroneck Village Hall is falling apart. There is mold in the Police Department and the courthouse, and they have known about it for years. Two years ago, the board sent the Village Manager back to get more bids for renovations and forgot about it. Then the big floods came from Superstorm IDA. Jerry declared an emergency and took $2 million to stabilize Village Hall. He is doing that job well, but the flooding in some parts of the Village continues,” said Young.
“I recently found out that the Village has a river maintenance line in the budget that hasn’t been used in 8 years and nobody can explain it. Apparently, some neighbors complained about the work (flood remediation) being done and the board wouldn’t back the staff. So, they stopped doing work in a flood zone, with no reason why.
“The Village Manager declared another emergency from the storm and had crews have removed debris from the Mamaroneck River. The cost for this project is $1.36 Million. Federal funding to pay for an $88 million Army Corp of Engineers cleanup and dredging of the river will also happen soon. One solution will not solve the problem of flooding. We need to be working on different solutions.
“I have only been on the board for four months. Some of the concerns have been studied to death and for the residents whose homes gets flooded every storm, nothing gets done. Mayor Murphy has been working with an incompetent board and its time for change.”
Recently, Young and Natchez got into a back and forth, with Natchez claiming that Young is trying to take credit for the flooding remediation currently underway. “Without me it wouldn’t be happening. I found out they weren’t spending money cleaning up the river. I reached out to the village manager and said this is an emergency and it can’t wait. He decided to declare an emergency and the board voted for the work. Trustee Natchez voted for my initiative. If you want to take credit for something do something and we will give you credit. Let’s get rid of these guys,” said Young in a Facebook video post.
Young said that the additional allegations against Natchez in Barberio’s complaint, which can be read at,
www.themamaroneckproject.com/_files/ugd/782b32_21bf4ac8e42045cbb0cc1efc0a59eb0e.pdf
is “ a terrible situation. Even if he is able to fight these charges or they are unproven, he should leave the board. But the leaders of the democratic party in the village seem so invested in him and I don’t know why. I’m running on this ticket because we have board members who don’t know what their job is. There job is not to tinker with professional staff. Their refusal to set proper guidelines creates a vacuum that the Village Manager and the Mayor have had to fill.”
Natchez has publicly said that he will be “fully vindicated” of all charges made against him.
Early voting in this election will begin on June 18-June 26, at Mamaroneck Town Center, 740 W. Boston Post Road, Mamaroneck, NY 10543.
