By Robert Harrison
Next Tuesday at the Scarsdale Library, Scarsdale voters and taxpayers will have a choice in a contested election for Mayor and three Village Board Trustees. We think our voters should cast their votes based on the issues facing Scarsdale and how each candidate would address these issues.
The flawed JF Ryan 2016 drive by Revaluation was the number one issue for our tax paying residents with over 3,000 homes having their assessed valuation going up with the impact on our smaller homes and many senior residents while large homes were reduced in value using a square root model with no details. The current Village Board had at least three opportunities to postpone or cancel the Ryan reval before the June 1st tentative assessment roll file date but did nothing. Two of these Board members are running for reelection.
CNP Mayor Candidate Hochvert had a 5.8 % reduction in the Ryan Reval and never spoke about the Reval at any public Village Board meeting when hundreds of residents protested from the 1,103 grievances that were filed versus the Ryan Reval. CNP Trustee Candidate Ross had a 7.3 % reduction in the Ryan Reval for his home and never spoke about Reval at a Village Board meeting. These candidates did not have a dog in the Reval disaster fight and can not be expected to protect the interest of the majority of our home owners.
The Scarsdale Voters Choice Party candidates, Bob Berg for Mayor and Brice Kirkendall-Rodriguez, Carlos Ramirez and Bob Selvaggio for Trustee have all have all spoken out against the Ryan Reval and will do everything to correct the Ryan Reval so that every Scarsdale property is assessed at fair market value. They will address the dysfunction of the assessor’s office now versus the inaction of the current Village Board.
On roads we cannot continue a road repair policy that paves a mile of road every 30 years. A road condition report from 2009 stated that about 30% of our 79 miles of roads were poor or fair. We need a $ 5 million bond is to repair 15 miles of roads to bring our roads closer to Scarsdale needs and taking advantage of historically low interest rates now before they rise.
We need to rebuild community trust through full transparency with all decisions debated in public meetings that are TV taped for Scarsdale’s public channel. With regard to the Scarsdale Planning Board that was chaired by both Dan Hochvert and Seth Ross in recent years, both men continued the process of discussing agenda items in secret. Bob Freeman, director of the Open Meetings Office and Law in Albany has stated that he knows of no other Planning Board in the State of New York that discusses agenda items in secret. The Town of Mamaroneck presents their Planning Board meetings in total on their local TV. Scarsdale should put their Planning Board meetings on TV including the deliberations of each agenda item.
We urge all Scarsdale voters to vote for the Scarsdale Voters Choice Party on Row B this Tuesday to bring new leadership, managerial and financial skills and open government to the Village Board to correct the recent poor decision making on the 2016 reval and the assessor’s office, and repair of roads and excessive tax increases.
Bob Harrison, Chairman
Scarsdale Taxpayer Alert
Fox Meadow Road