Dear Scarsdale Friends and Neighbors,
I am very pleased to be running with my Voters Choice Party (VCP) colleagues this year because:
I believe that the number one concern of elected office holders with taxing authority should be keeping our Village affordable for those who have lived here for years. Scarsdale residents should not be driven out of town by endless tax increases that outstrip general inflation rates year after year, while realizing the impact of massive property value destruction when they are forced to sell. Our taxing authorities have done nothing to provide relief after the virtual elimination of the SALT deduction that drastically increased effective property taxes and devastated our real estate market. Someone has to step up and push for action.
I believe that the projected costs and benefits of any public or public-private project should be modeled quantitatively with the broad and diverse community input of informed residents. Models should be documented fully and validated independently before they are used. Fixed and definitive acceptance criteria should be articulated. In the case of Freightway development these criteria should be at a minimum: 1) the certainty of positive fiscal impact, i.e., the present value of revenues exceeding the present value of costs such that single family homeowners receive property tax relief; 2) no additional crowding on our Metro North train platform and trains; and 3) no additional crowding in our schools. If any of these are not met, we should simply float a parking revenue bond to repair the garage and poll the community to assess types of nonresidential commercial development we want on Village property. The process to date has been conducted in secrecy and without any articulated acceptance criteria; someone has to step up and push for action.
I believe that government transparency, unfettered information flow and credible competition enforces discipline in elected office holders. Scarsdale voters should never be asked to waste their time voting in an uncontested election, and I am not surprised that voter turnout is so low. I want to be part of a group that provides voters a choice of candidates who incorporate residents’ input in decision making processes. I respectfully ask you to vote for our slate. We are ready to serve you!
Very best,
Robert Selvaggio
Bio
Robert Selvaggio and his wife, Lisa Sammaritano, and three children moved to Scarsdale 25 years ago. Lisa is a rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery and Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College
Robert is on the board of the Pelham Community Rowing Association where he has been teaching Tae Kwon Do to teenagers and adults in Westchester for over 15 years. He has been a volunteer basketball and little league coach in Scarsdale. He was a board member of the Scarsdale Teen center for two years. In Manhattan, he was head of the Finance Committee of St. Catherine of Siena Roman Catholic Church, where he was a key player in successful sale of Rectory and former School property to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center providing the Church a perpetuity that ensures its ongoing viability.
Robert is Co-Owner and Head of Analytics at Rutter Associates. Rutter Associates provides advisory services in the areas of market risk management, credit risk and credit portfolio management, economic capital and risk adjusted performance measurement, valuation and model review of exotic derivatives and hard-to-value assets and liabilities, and litigation support. He has long worked in financial economics and public and housing finance.
Robert has a BA in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a PhD in Economics from Brown University.