By Dan Murphy
Two former Mayors of Mount Vernon have announced their intention to run for Mayor in 2023. Despite the election being more than one year away, and with all indications that the current Mayor, Shawyn Patterson-Howard, will run for re-election, former Mayor Richard Thomas and former Mayor Andre Wallace both announced their intentions to challenge Mayor Patterson-Howard.
Wallace appeared on Yonkers Voice on Aug. 24 and said, “I’m looking to come back and run for Mayor again.” Wallace, who was elected to the Mount Vernon City Council, served as Council President, and then became Mayor of Mount Vernon in 2019 when then Mayor Richard Thomas pled guilty to the misuse of campaign funds and criminal charges that forced his removal from office.
Wallace ran for City Council in 2021 and had the endorsement of County Executive George Latimer and others but lost. “When I was Mayor for a brief time, I got a sense of the responsibilities of being Mayor. And I wondered, why others are not working on the quality of life issues that the people want solved and deserve?”
Wallace, who once commented, “Why does nothing get done in Mt. Vernon,” added in the interview with Ru Ros, “Let me sit in this seat, give me a couple of years. and lets see if we will turn Mt Vernon around and get the quality of life we deserve. Paved streets, garbage pick up, the basics, we have to change the image of Mt Vernon before anyone wants to come here or respect us,” said Wallace. Listen to the interview here, https://www.facebook.com/ykersvoice/videos/419020646986555.
Former Mayor Richard Thomas announced his intentions to run for Mayor in 2023 on Aug. 27, at a press conference in Mt. Vernon, also recorded by Yonkers Voice. Thomas 40, was elected the youngest Mayor in Mt. Vernon history in 2015 said, “ nobody died by a handgun in Mt. Vernon in 2019. We made Mt. Vernon safe, because people understood back then that the respect was on both sides of the badge. Now the expectations have changed, and we have been enslaved by high taxes, taken over by the crime and the grime. It’s disrespectful to the taxpayers and its time to change it back for good.
“Even though Mt. Vernon is the home of the First Amendment, there is no press coming out of City Hall to tell us what is going on. We need to change the charter to require the comptroller to tell the people where our tax dollars are being spent.”
“But there are forces out there that don’t want Mt. Vernon to rise because of toxic politics. Why is Mt. Vernon trapped in this donut hole between New Rochelle and Yonkers. How come they get to build and develop and we can’t,”said Thomas, who was Mayor until he pled guilty to election law violations concerning misuse of campaign funds and inauguration funds. The Mt. Vernon City Council removed Thomas from office two days after he plead guilty.
Thomas was barred from running for office for one year from 2019-20. Other reports say that Thomas wants redemption for his conviction, based on the belief that nobody gets prosecuted for election law violations….except for Thomas.
“I’m coming back to free Mt. Vernon,” said Thomas. Watch his announcement at the following link, https://www.facebook.com/ykersvoice/videos/455672189795754.
