By Dan Murphy
The Yonkers City Council meeting held on Nov. 22, to consider extending term-limits for the Mayor and Council to 4 terms (16 years) was one of the wild Yonkers Council meetings that I have covered over 20 years.
Emotions on both sides of the issue resulted in an enflamed public in attendance. I believe that this passion for or against term limits, came to a boil in the council chambers as a result of the toxic, online and social media presence covering Yonkers politics.
I wrote about Mayor Spano considering a 4th term over the summer. I have been talking to many elected officials, both democrats and republicans, about what will happen when and if term limits would be on the council agenda at the end of the year. Some of my conversations focused on the belief that the Mayor would not run for a fourth term.
In the early fall, a rally was held in opposition to changing term limits. Five people showed up, and many prominent Yonkers democrats did not take a stand on this issue.
Onto the council meeting Nov. 22. The crowd overflowed into the hallway. Several attendees were asked to leave the chambers. One of those persons was Hector Santiago, the Stop and Shake founder. A video from the chambers shows police officers not in uniform escorting Santiago into the hallway. Santiago says that he was assaulted by a police officer in the hallway.
The Yonkers Police say that “Hector was being escorted from the chambers for unruly behavior; in the hallway, he struck a detective; the detective struck him back, the group fell to the floor, and he was placed under arrest. This incident, like all criminal incidents, will be adjudicated in a court of law with due process afforded to all parties,” said YPD Lt. Dean Politopoulos
We still don’t have the police report. Santiago is considering legal action. It is unfortunate that Hector had to spend the night in jail. More to come.
The Council vote was 4-3. Three members of the council, Councilwoman Corazon Pineda-Isaac, and Councilmen John Rubbo and Anthony Merante are either considering a run for Mayor or have considered it recently. Rubbo voted for extending term limits so he is not expected to run, but look for Merante and Pineda-Isaac, who both voted against extending term limits, to make an announcement in the spring.
Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy and Council Majority Leader Tasha Diaz were both criticized by many in attendance for their vote in favor of extending term limits. Council President Collins-Bellamy ran a council meeting with one of the more raucous crowds that I have reported on, and she did the best that anyone could have done, except if she cleared the chambers of visitors.
And she explained her vote, and put to rest any rumors about her becoming a city judge or getting jobs for members of her family.
Majority Leader Diaz also responded to accusations made against her, online, and in the audience. She also explained her comments that night in an OP-Ed in our paper and online here at Yonkerstimes.com. We reviewed the video and found Diaz responding not only to members of the audience, but her fellow members of the council, to what she thought was hypocritical behavior. She was loud, but wanted to get her point across in the middle of a loud council meeting.
Some of the accusations made against Collins-Bellamy, Diaz, and Mayor Spano and his family during this process have been way out of control. This newspaper, and website yonkerstimes.com, will not engage in this type of bullying-or abuse.
I know that there was consideration to put changes to term limits up for a referendum. Why that referendum did not happen, I do not know. But I did see the hundreds of attendees saying don’t take away our vote-let us vote. They wanted to vote in a referendum, but their elected members of the city council made the decision, for a second time in 4 years.
It is ok to disagree on this issue. There are columns in this paper and online that I don’t agree with. But that’s OK. There is an election for Mayor next year. That is when anyone can ask for your vote. Let’s enjoy the holidays and start of the political hot stove again in 2023.
