By Dan Murphy
The worst of our political discourse has come out in some towns in Westchester for the election of Nov. 5, with the Town of Yorktown becoming ground zero for heated political discourse, Facebook ads featuring “fake news,” and accusations between both parties pointing the finger of dirty politics at the other.
This reporter received a Facebook ad concerning the election in Yorktown. The ad featured a recent story about Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeking to deport individuals who were charged with crimes, and undocumented residents. One of the individuals identified by ICE was arrested in Mt. Kisco.
The Facebook ad stated: “Ilan Gilbert is lying to distract people from his vote in support of making Westchester a sanctuary county. Because of Gilbert’s support, Westchester released an illegal immigrant arrested on child rape charges instead of holding him for deportation. Now, this accused child rapist is on the run and his whereabouts are unknown.”
Gilbert is running for re-election as town supervisor in Yorktown. In his role, Gilbert has no oversight or responsibility over immigration policies. The Individual arrested and mentioned in the story was from Mt. Kisco. He was held in the county jail and given bond by a local judge and with the consent of an assistant district attorney.
Yorktown did pass a resolution about sanctuary communities, but that resolution has no authority over Westchester County law enforcement or the county jail, where most prisoners are held.
What the Yorktown Republican Party has done is bring County Executive George Latimer into the race for Yorktown supervisor. Latimer and the democratic majority on the County Board of Legislators passed last year the Immigrant Protection Act which requires that ICE present a judicial order to detain a person in the county jail.
Last week we interviewed Latimer, who effectively made the case that Westchester is not a sanctuary county, and that local judges and assistant district attorneys determine if illegal residents convicted of a crime are released on bond, and that Westchester County will cooperate with ICE if ICE can get an order from a federal judge.
Latimer commented on the ad posted on Facebook against Gilbert in Yorktown. “For the last couple of cycles we have seen very desperate attacks on democrats to try and hide the fact that republicans have lost the support of everyday Westchester residents,” he said. “Outrageous claims have taken the place of intelligent public policy and I think people see that desperation. The voters will not elect candidates whose platform is based on fear.”
Yorktown Republicans, eager to elect Matt Slater as supervisor Nov. 5, brought another well-known Yorktown Democrat into this election. His name is Marc Oxman, who has served as a democrat and attorney in Westchester politics for 50 years. He is respected by most everyone who watches politics.
Republican Yorktown Councilman Ed Lachterman called a press conference last week in which he accused Gilbert and Oxman of a “quid pro quo,” of unethical conduct. Our review of the matter finds nothing unethical about Gilbert or Oxman’s actions, but here’s what happened, for our readers to determine:
Oxman represented a Yorktown taxpayer, Ed Ciffone, who was suing the town and attempting to prohibit it from paying the legal fees of former Supervisor Michael Grace, for a grievance filed against him in 2017.
Grace lost his re-election to Gilbert, who once elected considered appointing Oxman as the Yorktown town attorney. This is common practice in the local world of politics; when democrats took control in 2017, they wanted to give the town attorney’s position to a democrat and Oxman was a logical choice in Yorktown.
Oxman failed to close out his case, in which he represented Ciffone, and did not officially transfer that case to another attorney. Two republicans on the Yorktown Town Board, Councilmembers Lachterman and Tom Diana, filed a grievance against Oxman for a conflict of interest; he was still representing a client suing the Town of Yorktown while seeking to become town attorney.
“Supervisor Gilbert led the charge to approve the hiring of the Oxman Group to take over the town’s entire legal services,” said Lachterman. “It has now been confirmed that due to Mr. Oxman’s conduct, suing the town, that hiring process was in fact ethically compromised despite my repeated objections.”
“This is called a quid-pro-quo,” charged Diana. “Not only was there a complete lack of transparency regarding the negotiations between Supervisor Gilbert and Mr. Oxman, but the supervisor, who has been an attorney for over 35 years and a former town judge, should have known that any negotiations with the Oxman Group while they were suing the town was completely improper.”
When republican Supervisor Grace was in office, he appointed his own town attorney. Once Gilbert was elected he did the same. Attempts by Diana and Lachterman to accuse Gilbert and Oxman of inappropriate conduct are not factual, after our review.
Oxman responded, linking Yorktown republicans to President Donald Trump, saying: “I’m not surprised that I have become the target of the Republican slime machine. Rather than address meaningful election issues, they instead besmirch the reputation of their democratic counterparts. Sound familiar? Of course it does. It is precisely what President Trump does when he wants to distract you from real issues. It’s an act of cowardice.”
Charges against Oxman were filed for his not transferring the case against the town to another attorney. Those findings are confidential, but it’s safe to say that no serious penalty was rendered against Oxman. “The story is that the Yorktown Republican Party repeatedly goes after well-respected democrats in an endeavor to promote their own political self-interest,” said Oxman “It’s vile and repugnant and it must be called out.”
However, republicans have a case to make against Yorktown Democrats, when supporters of Gilbert have accused Matt Slater, in his former role as chief of staff to State Sen. Terrence Murphy, of racism.
Members of Murphy’s staff wrote a letter to the editor objecting to the characterization, stating: “We are writing because of the dishonest and shameful character attacks being lodged against our friend Matt Slater by Ilan Gilbert and the Yorktown Democratic Committee. They are baseless, ridiculous, and both Supervisor Gilbert and his supporters should be ashamed of their conduct.
“First, as Sen. Murphy’s chief-of-staff, Matt assembled a talented and diverse team that well-served the residents of Yorktown and the entire 40th State Senate District. As we can personally attest, our staff was racially diverse, age-inclusive, and brought together people of different political affiliations, ideologies and personal backgrounds in pursuit of public service.
“Through Matt’s leadership and that of Sen. Murphy, we delivered real results for the residents of Yorktown, including record state funding to repair local roads, purchase new equipment for Yorktown’s fire departments, and expanding the Yorktown Police Department’s K-9 Unit.
“Matt is an accomplished leader who will give Yorktown a fresh start. Unlike Ilan Gilbert’s shameful and slanderous conduct, Matt will be a supervisor that everyone in Yorktown can be proud of. We encourage you to vote for him on Nov. 5.”
The letter is signed by Brian Austin of Peekskill, Michael Jefferson of Mt. Kisco, Darcy Rydlun of Lewisboro, Jamie Sprague of Carmel, TJ McCormack of Somers, Marianne Oros of Cortlandt, John Winton of Putnam Valley and Tom Hagen of Hopewell Junction.
Both sides appear to be at fault in the election in the Town of Yorktown. If I were advising the republicans, I would not want to run against Latimer or Oxman. And if I were advising the democrats, I would say it’s foolish to try and label Matt Slater a racist.
