In times of trouble it seems prudent, perhaps urgent that health insurance costs be borne minimally by an employee. A 15 percent contribution won praise for being fair. The rationale made headway among some but not others. In Yonkers, the Yonkers Police Department had been doing it for years; so too the Yonkers Fire Department. Accusatory finger pointer Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone demanded it of everyone but has forgotten to logically demand it from the non union represented personnel that reside within City Hall. They will not contribute to lighten the financial woes that consume all of Yonkers. The paradox of the City of Yonkers are the accepted parallel universes that define the City. Mayor Amicone lords over everything Yonkers feigning little or no influence over the Yonkers Board of Education (YBoE). Mayor Amicone prefers to have Yonkers Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio “independently” replicate scenarios of deflection, disparity, and disdain within his alleged realm. The gig is up for both.We see you!
The fiscal trauma suffered by Yonkersites by the hands-off demeanor of now retired Commissioner James LaPerche is revealed by no fiscal issue ever mitigated under his watch. He was relegated the task of squirreling funds away in any fashion possible so they would not or could not be found among the line items of budget proposals that came before the Yonkers City Council. He was so obtuse in his responses before any public forum that his expressions, at times inaudible by his not speaking into a microphone, caused the Yonkers City Councilmembership to run out the clock. He had again won the argument, this time over six Yonkers City Councilmembers. It was an Oscar winning performance. City Hall had played the majority of the Yonkers City Council, except one, for fools. The City Councilmembers each departed their “august” chambers flushed with anxiety, but devoid of shame.
The hormone emboldened, teenager mentality evident in Yonkers politics continues its superstitious route. Remember when you found yourself at a place years ago in which she permitted you a kiss to her cheek. Remember how exhilarating it was? When she found another pleasure and your eyes wandered elsewhere did you gravitate to the same place in the hope that the same exhilaration would become evident once again? At 17 it is de riguer; but now?
At the Yonkers Board of Education (YBoE), Superintendent Bernard Pierorazio kept Joe Bracchitta of the Finance Department from planning a budget in consultation with Dr Martha Lugo of Personnel. The schism Superintendent Pierorzio imposed has led to a $12 million blunder which resides solely within Superintendent Pierorazio’s realm. How many teachers, how many aides, how many people will suffer their accounting screw up? Will they be demanded to right their wrong? Can they, even if they admit they blundered?
Will the administrators be demanded to pay a part of their health insurance costs? Why not?
Will the merit raises that permit excess and waste be excised from the conduct of the Yonkers Public School District? Why not? Who is sharing in these incentives?
Sports programs have been saved! If that is so, how and who will oversee these programs? The entire physical education staff have been let go.
The “step program” was taken from the Yonkers Federation of Teachers last year. They suffered the political retribution then exatced by Mayor Amicone’s marionette puppet. The CSEA is now scheduled to bear the brunt of City Hall’s wrath by the likes of its messenger of ill tidings, Mr Pierorazio.
Mr Pierorazio has promoted all assistant directors to directors without the commensurate pay increase the title carries. When the scheduled increases take affect next, those now upgraded will have earned their silence of this misspending of taxpayer funds and get their pay increases withour a word murmured.
On another front, those enticed to accept the early retirement buyout incentive have done so. One such individual previously mentioned to have accepted the buyout is Jerilynne Fierstein whose position as Communications Director lacked exemplary status among Yonkers Tribune’s acid-tongued bloggers. Now we hear Ms Fierstein is back as a consultant. Yo go girl. Keep on milking the system while you can.
The very concern brought before the Yonkers City Council by Majority Leader Patricia McDow to legally not permit the rehiring of those who accepted the buyout from being rehired was scuttled by some members of the Yonkers City Council to the detriment of Yonkersites throughout the city. Ms McDow deserves the adulation of everyone for conceptualizing in advance the superstitious conduct of Yonkers City Hall and the YBoE. Shame on those among the Yonkers City Council who dissuaded her from moving her resolution onto the agenda for a vote. Her worst fears, and those of all Yonkersites, have become reality.
Other circumstances that beg to be caught by Yonkers Tribune’s acid-tongued bloggers have been deciphered at the Facilities Department. One employee, John Becker, who was hired to oversee capital improvement projects conducted under the aegis of John Carr, was slated to be let go. To the rescue, John Carr had him hired by the maintenance Department as a consult at the rate of $55 per hour. You go John!
The discovery that Christine Sculti, now ensconced on the 9th Floor at the behest of Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino has taken papers belonging to the Yonkers Community Development Agency has yet to be resolved. Upon Ms Sculti’s departure, Yonkers Mayor Amicone hired Kristin Lord Stephens, the former campaign manager for Dan Schorr when he was running for Westchester County District Attorney, who is now Yonkers Inspector General. Yonkers Tribune acid-tongued bloggers are aware of at least two incidences in which Ms Krisitin Lord Stephens asked Ms Sculti for the paperwork allegedly still in her possession. Ms Sculti refuses to return the papers. Yonkers has yet to have them returned to their rightful and proper domicile. In the meanwhile Ms Kristin Lord Stephens twiddles her thumbs, having nothing to work on. Ms Sculti thumbs her nose at Yonkers, and that is the way Yonkers Mayor Amicone likes it; if he didn’t, this situation, now over seven months old, would have long been resolved. Will Mayor Amicone ever rectify this travesty? Will Yonkers ability to move forward on its economic development plans suffer without our regaining possession of these papers?
Circumstance such as those described above promote the impotency of Yonkersites vis-a-vis their ability to challenge Yonkers City Hall. The hopes for a “sheriff” to ride into Yonkers have been dashed. Yet the abuse of government, particularly that of a strong mayor form of government, the present cancer defining the City of Yonkers, holds within its definition the future best outcome for the city presently being flogged at Getty Square every day.
Yonkersites must resolve, as did Theodor Herzyl, the father of Zionism, did over a century ago, to rally about the words espoused in his book, Alt Neu Land - Old New Land: “If you will it, it is not a dream!”
Yonkersites would do well to reflect amongst themselves for a benevolent leader who can be trusted to rebuild Yonkers in the images that languish within the pages of our collective history, tempered by the reality of today, balanced by an honest demeanor, an open mind, and a zest to succeed because there is no other option to satisfy Yonkers yearning hearts.
