VIDEO: New York Assemblyman Mike Spano Says Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone Is A Big Spender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCrtnVL3uj8

Yonkers Firehouse Station 8 Closed

Mayor Phil Amicone has decided to close Station 8, leaving a densely populated "corner" of the fourth largest city in New York State virtually unprotected for an extra few minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CobWm1zwW2Q

Bronx River Parkway Lane Closures December 1st in Mt. Vernon and Yonkers

The northbound center lane of the Bronx River Parkway between Wakefield Avenue and Oak Street will be
closed on Monday, December 1 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

This closure is due to work performed as part of the Yonkers Avenue ramp construction project. A single lane will be open on the parkway in this vicinity during the above hours as the northbound right lane of the parkway
between Wakefield Avenue and Oak Street is currently closed.   

Motorists are advised to seek alternate routes to avoid delays.  

For additional information, contact Westchester County Department of Public Works, Traffic
Division at (914) 995-2555. 

Yonkers Thanksgiving Holiday Closures & Parking Regulations

Following are public notices for the Thanksgiving Day
holiday. Please note that alternate side and meter parking WILL be in effect on
Friday, November 28.

Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 27

All city offices will be closed to the public. Alternate
side and meter parking will be SUSPENDED all day.

Friday, November 28

All city offices will be open to the public. Alternate side
and meter parking WILL be in effect.

Yonkers Real Estate Committee Meeting Slated for Tuesday, November 25, 2008

YONKERS, NY — A Yonkers Real Estate Committee Meeting has been scheduled
for Tuesday, November 25, 2008, at 6:00 pm, in the Council Chambers, City Hall, 4th Floor.

The following items will be on the Agenda:

1) Resolution – authorizing the implementation and funding in the first instance 100% of the federal aid and state Marchiselli Program aid eligible Costs of a transportation federal aid project and approaching funds therefore.

2) Update on Warburton Avenue Rezoning.

3) Any additional items that may properly come before this Committee.

Chuck Lesnick, Council President, and Patricia D. McDow, Councilmember,
are Co-chair of the Real Estate Committee.

Legislation and Codes Committee Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Legislation and Codes Committee Meeting has been scheduled by Majority Leader and Committee Chair Sandy Annabi, at 6:30 PM in the Council Conference Room, City Hall, 4th floor.

The following item(s) will be on the Agenda:

Administration: General
Ordinance – Amending Chapter 109 of the Code, also known as Vehicles and
Traffic, regarding creation of new zones where parking meters will be in force
until 10:00 pm.

McDow: General
Ordinance – Amending Chapter 66 of the Code of the City of Yonkers,
entitled "Noise Management Plan Ordinance" is hereby added, in its
entirety, by the following this ordinance, to read as follows:  Article II
– General Provisions Section 66-2 – Legislative Findings and
Determination. 

Lesnick: General Ordinance
– Local Law amending Chapter 66 entitled "Noise" by adding a new
subsection K of 66-6.

Yonkers Community Development Agency Board Meeting

YONKERS, NY The Yonkers Community Development Agency Board
Meeting will take place on Thursday, November 20, 2008, from 4:00 pm through
5:00 pm at the Mayor’s Conference/ Reception Room – City Hall, 40 South Broadway,
2nd Floor, Yonkers, NY 10701.

Campaign Finance Reform Resolution By Councilmember Joan Gronowski

 WHEREAS, there have been numerous successful efforts during the past several decades to affect Campaign Finance Reform in an attempt to modify the influence of money in politics and in political campaigns; and

WHEREAS, these reform measures have included improved disclosure, tougher enforcement, voluntary public financing of elections and lowering the amount of campaign contributions; and,
 WHEREAS, limiting campaign contributions brings many more people into the election process, since candidates are forced to reach out to a broader number of “real voters” and also frees elected officials, candidates and their campaigns from undue influences, lessening the public perception that political favors are often the result of large political contributions

NOW, THEREFORE,BE IT RESOLVED, that the Code of the City of Yonkers, New York, Chapter 11,
entitled “Campaign Finance Reform”, be amended with the following conditions, to apply for all elected officials and candidates, except where noted otherwise, for any public office in the City of

Yonkers in any primary, general or special election: 

• No
  candidate for Mayor or City Council shall accept or receive a campaign
  contribution from any individual, corporation or unincorporated
  association, of more that Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) per election
  period.
  • Contributions
    include monies, loans, debts incurred, property-in-kind, or things having
    a monetary value incurred or received by a candidate or his agent or
    other person on behalf of the candidate for use in advocating or
    influencing the election of the candidate.

• Candidates
  for office shall be prohibited from receiving any campaign contributions
  from the following:
  • Any
    individual or business entity receiving any manor of government contract
    for services of any kind, has submitted a bid or proposal, or who is
    involved in any business relationship with the City of Yonkers, or who is
    receiving or seeks to receive funds from the city or a grant distributed
    by the city from federal, state or other sources;
  • All
    corporations, developers, contractors, political action committees
    (PACs), labor organizations and other entities which face a substantial
    likelihood of having matters under consideration by the City of Yonkers;
  • Members
    of any mayoral or city council appointed board, commission, or committee;

• Taxpayer-financed
  mailings by incumbents should be banned during the period of six months
  prior to general election and primary, if applicable. Any pertinent
  information required for public consumption can be disseminated by the
  appropriate department head involved, not by the political candidate and
  without the incumbent political candidate’s name being used in the
  notification.

NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the acceptance by any candidate or elected
official, of a campaign contribution in excess of $100 shall create a conflict
of interest with regard to that elected official’s vote on any issue or matter
coming before the legislative and or executive branches involving a benefit to
the contributing; and 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
that all challenging candidates for public office who have successfully
met the criteria set forth by the Westchester County Board of Elections and who
are assured placement on a ballot for a primary, general or special election,
shall be allowed to post their issues on the city’s websites, cable access
channel and public access channels, to be afforded the same opportunity
provided to incumbent candidates, who have unlimited access to these taxpayer
funded media, and which amounts to a substantial financial benefit in a
campaign. 

Submitted to Rules –

November 18, 2008

Yonkers Police Management Study Resolution By Councilmember Joan Gronowski

       WHEREAS, in 1988,
 the City of Yonkers hired the
independent consulting firm of Murphy, Mayo and Associates, to conduct a
comprehensive study of the Yonkers Police Department to identify its
weaknesses; 

      WHEREAS, in 1989, this
study resulted in a 49-page report, prepared by former New York City Police
Commissioner Patrick V. Murphy and his associate, Louis A. Mayo, former
president of the National Institute of Justice; 

      WHEREAS, the
recommendations of this study included a redefinition of the Police
Department’s goals, the elimination and decentralization of certain special
police units which would put more police officers on regular patrols, and a
reduction of police overtime; 

      WHEREAS, for the past
several years, the Comptroller of the State of New York has cited the City of
Yonkers for its excessive police and fire overtime, calling upon the city to
adjust its deployment of uniformed personnel or identify other measures to
reduce overtime and overtime expenditures; 

NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of the City of Yonkers
requests that the City Administration commission a new study by an experienced
and politically impartial police management consultant, to analyze the police
organization with a view toward reducing overtime, and maximizing the workforce.   

Submitted to Rules: 

November 18, 2008

Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone Proposes New Affordable Housing Ordinance

Mayor Asserts Measure will Replace 'Punitive' Federal
Court-Imposed Housing Requirement

New proposal Intended to Encourage Development of Middle-Income
Workforce Housing Throughout the City

YONKERS, NY — With a federal court-imposed housing ordinance set to expire at the end of
the year, Mayor Phil Amicone today unveiled a new affordable housing proposal
that will encourage developers to create more middle-income work force housing
throughout the city of Yonkers. 

The new ordinance, sent to the City Council for its
consideration on Monday, is intended to replace what Amicone called the
"harsh, punitive and onerous" affordable housing requirement that was
imposed by a federal judge as part of an historic desegregation lawsuit brought
against the city in 1980. 

"The long-awaited expiration of the existing housing
ordinance presents us not only with an opportunity to finally put an end to a
troublesome chapter in the history of our city, but also with an excellent
opportunity to fix the well documented problems with the current law and
implement a new one that will actually encourage the creation of new affordable
residential units throughout Yonkers, something that our community desperately
needs," Amicone said in a memo sent to the City Council.

Amicone's new affordable housing ordinance proposal does the following:

* Requires a minimum of 10% of newly constructed units in
multifamily residential developments to be set aside as affordable

* Defines "affordable" as 80% of the

Westchester County

area median income (AMI)

for rental units & 120% of the county AMI

for ownership units

* Establishes a "Yonkers Housing Trust Fund" that
will serve as a funding source for the creation of new affordable housing

* Ends "segmentation" of the community by
establishing a citywide policy, i.e. the same affordable housing requirements
for all parts of the city

* Establishes preferences for the city's critical workforce
(city, school district and hospital employees including police officers,
firefighters, teachers, nurses, and other city workers)

Amicone's memo continued, "This new proposal will fix
the problems with the existing ordinance by reducing the onerous restrictions,
adjusting the income requirements to include more middle-income families and
creating more of an incentive for the private sector to develop work force
affordable housing throughout the city." 

The current court-imposed housing ordinance mandates that a
minimum of 20% of any new residential development units constructed in most
parts of the city (everywhere but Southwest Yonkers) be set aside as low-income
affordable housing, a requirement so onerous that it made the cost of
constructing new housing prohibitive to the private sector.  The existing
law also prohibits the construction of any low-income housing in Southwest
Yonkers, thereby segmenting one part of the community away from
the rest of the city.

Most other municipal affordable housing ordinances
throughout the area have minimum affordable unit requirements of around 10%,
well below the 20% currently required in Yonkers. 

Amicone went on to point out that, other than the 600 units
of court-imposed affordable housing that were constructed throughout the city
as part of the federal desegregation order, not a single affordable housing
unit was developed under the existing ordinance since it was first imposed in
early the 1980's.  "Clearly, the court-ordered housing plan just
didn't work," the mayor said.

By contrast, the new proposal would allow developers a great
deal more flexibility in meeting the city's affordable housing needs, creating
more of an incentive to construct work force housing according to Amicone.

Proposed Flexibility
Incentives for Developing New Affordable Housing:

* Allows developers to construct affordable units on-site or
off-site, or a combination of on- & off-site affordable units

* Provides an alternative to constructing affordable units
by allowing developers to contribute a significant portion (one-third, or 33%)
of a project's per-unit development costs to the "Yonkers Housing Trust
Fund"

* The "Yonkers Housing Trust Fund" would then be
used as a funding source for the construction of new affordable housing

* Opens up income requirements to include more middle-income
workers

"We all agree that the creation of more affordable,
middle-income, workforce housing is a priority for our community.
However, we must acknowledge that the existing court-imposed ordinance did
absolutely nothing to encourage the free market creation of new affordable
housing.  This new proposal will fix that and allow more of our hard
working, middle-income families an opportunity to continue to live and work in
our great city," the mayor's memo concluded.