The Scarsdale Inquirer – Hometown newspaper of Scarsdale, New York 10583
Ryan re-elected to county board
Bill Ryan won his eighth term on the Westchester County Board of Legislators for the 5th District, comprising Scarsdale and part of White Plains and Harrison, with a resounding 60 percent of the vote, according to unofficial and incomplete results reported online by the county board of elections.
Ryan, 61, who ran on the Democratic, Independent and Working Families tickets, garnered a total of 4,616 votes, with 50 out of 53 districts reporting.
His opponent, Iris Pagan, 57, a science teacher, won 2,547 votes on the Republican ticket and 474 votes as a Conservative, which total 3,021 votes, or 40 percent.
She was one of a slate of “Candidates for a Healthy Westchester” backed by Republican County Executive Rob Astorino, pledging to reduce property taxes through “disciplined fiscal responsibility” and reduce the size of county government.
Reached by telephone, Ryan said, “I’m very, very happy about the result. It was a long campaign, five months, and I tried to keep the most important issues in front of the voters.”
He said the election focused on “property taxes and the economy and the difficulties governments have in tough economic times to provide services with declining revenues.”
Both candidates favored reducing county taxes. But Ryan, a former chairman of the Board of Legislators and current president of the New York State Association of Counties, said that reductions require the reform of unfunded state mandates; nine such mandates consume 90 percent of county property taxes, statewide.
“You can save dollars and cut costs here and there,” he told the Inquirer, “but the root cause of the high property taxes is the mandates.”
He has been a vociferous supporter of a state Legislature proposal to phase out the county share of the state’s Medicaid program — that is funded through property taxes — with the state taking over the full financial costs. (The proposal’s sponsor in the Assembly is Democratic Assemblywoman Amy Paulin of Scarsdale.)
Ryan said he was “surprised by the low voter turnout in many areas” of his hometown of White Plains. In Scarsdale, village clerk Donna Conkling estimated that 1,000 registered voters showed up at the polls, out of 11,400. At press time, Conkling did not have a breakdown of the votes because 90 percent of the election inspectors called in the results from the polling places.
But the monetary cost of the election was very high. Conkling said that 11,500 paper ballots were required at a cost of 75 cents per ballot.
Two inspectors were paid $225 for the day at 18 district polling places, with one inspector getting an extra $25 to serve as chairman, she said.
Two additional inspectors are paid an additional $225 to operate the Plan B machines for handicapped voters.
“It used to cost $13,000 for an election” with the old machines, Conkling said. “This way costs at least $28,000,” not including the costs of moving the machines and privacy booths in and out, and technicians’ fees.
Jeff Levin, a 26-year Scarsdale resident, was elected as Scarsdale Town Justice. He ran unopposed. “I was honored to be nominated, honored to be elected, and am delighted to serve the community.” There is no town court actually — the village justice presides over village court — but Levin said he could use the judgeship “educationally,” going into the elementary schools, for example, wearing black robes for a civic lesson. He also has authority to marry people.
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November 10, 2011
G’burgh elections stick to party lines
There were no surprises in the outcomes of Tuesday’s elections for officials in the Town of Greenburgh or for local representation on the county Board of Legislators. All but one of the Greenburgh town candidates were Democrats and all of the winners in Tuesday’s election had previously won their party’s nomination in September. The unofficial voter turnout was 42,029.
Paul Feiner was re-elected town supervisor for his 20th two-year term, receiving 5,024 or 100 percent of the votes, and thanked his constituents. “I am very grateful to the voters for your support. We have lots of challenges ahead of us and look forward to partnering with you, the voters, as we address the issues facing our community,” he said. Town clerk Judith Beville received 4,263 to Sherron Fantauzzi’s 831 votes, capturing 84 percent of the vote, and incumbent Kevin Morgan and newcomer S. Ken Jones were elected to the town council with 4,692 and 4,547 votes respectively. Jones will fill Sonja Brown’s seat on the board.
Town justice candidate Arlene Gordon-Oliver was re-elected with 3,824 votes; also elected were newcomers Walter Rivera, who received 4,794 votes and Delores Brathwaite with 4,836 votes. Despite losing in September’s Democratic primary, Edgemont resident Bonnie Orden remained on the ballot as a candidate of the Independent and Workers parties and received 1,357, or 9 percent of the vote.
Anne Povella ran unopposed and was elected Greenburgh's receiver of taxes.
On the county level, incumbent Mary Jane Shimsky, representing District 12 — Edgemont, Hartsdale, Irvington, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings and Ardsley — was re-elected to the Westchester County Board of Legislators with 2,995 votes.
With little promotion or exposure, the lone Republican challenger to Shimsky, John Russo ran an 11th-hour campaign as a write-in candidate. Though his chances of winning were slim to none, he said his goals were to bring countywide issues to the forefront, namely alternative energy and environmental conservation, reduction in taxes and spending, and salary cuts for local government administrators. “I had so many more issues that the political class just ignores,” he said, but added, “I was
pleased to have the opportunity to express some alternative views.”
All the elected officials take office Jan. 1.
Read more local coverage of your hometown in this week’s issue of The Scarsdale Inquirer. Newsstand copies are available at several locations listed above, or subscribe today for convenient home delivery.
The Scarsdale Inquirer • P.O. Box 418, 14 Harwood Court, Scarsdale, NY 10583 • (914) 725-2500 Fax (914) 725-1552 • www.scarsdalenews.com
©2011 S.I. Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden without the Publisher’s written permission.
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