By Robert Selvaggio
Kudos to The Scarsdale Inquirer for keeping our Village informed of the many problems with the Ryan revaluation and our Village Government’s feckless response to it. It is important that Scarsdale voters understand how this crisis could have been avoided at its outset and how it should be avoided in the future. In The Inquirer’s January 27, 2017 front-page story, “The Ballad of John Ryan’s Homework”, Deputy Village Manager Rob Cole is cited as trying to get access to Ryan’s model before the tentative assessments were certified, to offer it for public scrutiny. Had Village Assessor Nanette Albanese cared to follow through on Mr. Cole’s request, the flaws in the model would have been quickly recognized by our knowledgeable citizens, remediated (perhaps by another firm) and there would be no Article 78 proceeding. Had the Mayor and the Village Board of Trustees simply required model validation from Ryan’s firm at the outset of this process, there would also be no need for the Article 78 proceeding. Hats off to Mr. Cole for recognizing the importance of reviewing a model before implementing it.