By Dan Murphy
The outrage over the City Council’s decision to modify term limits and allow Mayor Mike Spano and councilmembers to run for a third four-year term never materialized into tangible results or in new candidates willing to step forward and run for office in 2019.
We received the following letter from Queenie Paladino from Yonkers, who is one of the angry residents over the term limits change. She writes:
“Yonkers politics as usual; the citizens are up against a cabal of corrupt politicians who seek only to preserve their power, privileges, perks and get themselves a pension.
“The Yonkers Rising article of 12/14/2018 reports that the ‘supporters of the new Yonkers term limits law question whether the public really opposes the changes made since the petition can’t get 4,000 signatures.’ At the same time, it is significant that there has been virtually little or no independent reporting in the major or local papers and media alerting the citizens of this city as to the existence of the petition and to whom to contact, aside from the one time Mr. Schoen mentioned it in his column some time ago. Moreover, a Google search shows nothing specific as to who or where Yonkers residents can go to sign the petition.
“The City Council has deliberately made changing any City Council vote by ordinary citizens extremely difficult, if not impossible to overturn. While council members have paid staff, resources, and time on their side, ordinary citizens do not; therefore, it is easy to see that while voters are vehemently opposed to what the City Council did and extend term limits for themselves, thereby overturning what the voters had decided years ago – which limited members to two terms. So, the only way forward is for the citizens of this city to vote out of office next November 2019 all those council members and the mayor who voted for the extension of term limits.
“It would be helpful if the New York Times, Yonkers Rising, the N.Y. Post and The Daily News would have an investigative reporter focus on how this City Council and the mayor have been derelict in their duties and chose to serve themselves rather than its citizens. Evidently, it takes a major publicity campaign to fight City Hall, something the originators of the petition can’t afford in terms of time and finances.
“This City Council and the mayor have attempted to circumvent the will of the people many times during their reign. They have increased the sales tax rate, attempted to increase the real estate transfer tax, increased the real estate taxes and overrode the tax cap, put in place the red light cameras that often are used simply to increase revenue.
“The council deliberately makes it difficult for residents to attend council meetings through a number of ploys, such as announcing meetings on short-term notice for meetings to take place at inconvenient times; the administration makes parking impossible for residents by using up any available parking at City Hall’s parking garage set aside and labeled for the inordinate number of commissioners; municipal workers, as well as for their union supporters, are alerted to hours prior to the meeting so that residents are shut out.
“So, is it really not surprising that the petition can’s get 4,000 signatures in the short period allotted? The only option is for the residents to vote these people out of office and for the media to publicize the truth of what is and has been happening in Yonkers.” (End of Paladino letter.)
We print this letter to present an alternative viewpoint on the issue of term limits and the re-election of Spano to a third term next year. Although Paladino’s letter is indicative of the viewpoint of many in Yonkers, it is not, in our view, the viewpoint of the majority.
Yes, we agree that 4,000 signatures is difficult to get, not only in the wintertime and during the holidays, but any time of year. But if there were such an outcry, and opposition to modifying term limits, then volunteers should have come out and collected the necessary signatures required.
Perhaps the reason the New York Times,or the NY Post or this newspaper did not report more about the effort to collect signatures to put any changes to term limits to a referendum was that no notice was sent out informing us of the effort.
The last email, or contact from the Yonkers Committee for Term Limits, was Nov. 5 – the same date the City Council voted to modify term limits from eight years to 12 years. The committee sent an email out on that date with a link to a petition that could be printed out and circulated.
A letter to the editor was also printed in Yonkers Rising on Nov. 9 that was signed by more than 100 Yonkers residents expressing their disappointment in the council’s decision. Perhaps if each of those 100 residents collected 25 signatures, the committee would be closer to collecting the required 4,000-plus signatures.
I do agree with Paladino when she says the best way to speak out against the council’s vote and the mayor’s signature on term limits changes is to run candidates opposed to changing term limits. As a political reporter covering Yonkers for 20 years, if there were truly an outcry over term limits changes, then a candidate should have stepped forward and said publicly that “the decision by the council and the mayor to change term limits without a referendum is wrong and I’m running for mayor or City Council to represent the will of the people.”
Instead, just the opposite has happened. Prospective candidates for mayor have either gotten out of the race or withdrew their names from running. Those previous candidates include:
Department of Public Works Commissioner and Democratic City Leader Tom Meier, former Councilman Dennis Robertson, Planning Commissioner Wilson Kimball, and former City Council President Liam McLaughlin.
City Council President Mike Khader has not ruled out a run for mayor next year, as he starts his second year as council president.
Councilman Anthony Merante, a republican, while announcing his vote supporting a change to term limits, said, “I am certain he (Mayor Spano) will have a vigorous opponent in the general election next November. I should add, that as a proud Republican and fiscal conservative who is committed to protecting Yonkers taxpayers, his opponent may very well be me, since I am seriously considering running against whoever the Democrats nominate for mayor in 2019.”
When we called Councilman Merante to verify his comments earlier this year, he reiterated that “the republican line for mayor next year will not be left blank.” In addition to Merante, former Council President Chuck Lesnick remains the other most likely candidate to challenge Spano in 2019.
Lesncik recently told Yonkers Rising that he doesn’t “have any plans to make plans,” but that he wouldn’t rule anything out. A final decision by Lesnick might not come until the spring of next year, around budget time.
