Sound Shore

The New Rochelle City Council has appointed the members of its new Citizens’ Panel on Sustainable Budgets. Todd Kern, founder of 2Revolutions LLC, described as an “education design lab,” will serve as the panel’s chairman.

Mayor Noam Bramson, who announced the appointments on his website on Tuesday, proposed the idea of convening such a panel as he and the other members of council were in the final stages of passing the 2012 city budget. It had been a contentious process, with officials grappling with the state’s property tax cap and coming close laying off firefighters, crossing guards and other workers.

Bramson had suggested the panel as a means to identify the community’s priorities and develop new approaches to crafting the budget.

According to a separate news release issued Tuesday by the city, the group will be “tasked with analyzing service delivery levels and methods in the face of dwindling resources for 2013 and beyond.”

In addition to Kern, the members of the panel are Judith Berger, David Bieber, Michael Boyle Sr., Emily Bromberg, Kyran Cassidy, Matthew Costa, Michael D’Ambrosio, Jeffrey Hastie, Linda Kelly-Fauci, Bo Kemp, Todd Kern, Martha Lopez-Hanratty, David Peters, Ann Rolett and John Rorer. Bramson will serve on the panel as well.

The city’s release said North Avenue Research would provide consulting services on a pro bono basis.

The panel will have its first meeting in February and work through July.

The New Rochelle City Council adopted the 2012 budget Tuesday night by a vote of 5 to 2. Republicans Louis Trangucci and Richard St. Paul, the latter casting his last votes as a member of the City Council, were the two dissenters. Al Tarantino, the third Republican on the council, voted for the budget, “with serious concerns.”

The 2012 budget calls for a 5.96 percent increase in the tax rate to $185.53 per $1,000 of assessed value. City officials had anticipated a rate increase of 6.38 percent, but the total valuation of the New Rochelle’s properties turned out to be slightly higher than thought. The levy will still increase by 3.6 percent.

None of the council members seemed particularly happy with the budget. Each talked Tuesday night about the difficult choices they had to make in crafting the spending plan. But St. Paul went furthest in expressing his disdain for the budget, calling it a “gimmick.”

The nay votes from St. Paul and Trangucci prompted a scolding from Mayor Noam Bramson, who said, “The easiest thing to do in government is to leave the hard choices to others.”

The New Rochelle City Council on Tuesday spared another position it had planned to cut. Discussing the 2012 budget in advance of the public hearing on the topic, council members and City Manager Charles Strome III revealed, once again, that they had overestimated the amount the state-mandated health insurance rates would increase.

Last week, they announced they had about $1.1 million more than anticipated and would use the money to preserve six firefighter positions, all 18 crossing guards and several community service officers.

On Tuesday, they said they had another $300,000 at their disposal. They decided to use some of it preserve a recreation supervisor at the Hugh Doyle Senior Center and put the remainder in the fund balance.

The decision earned praise from the most of the half-dozen people who spoke at the public hearing. But council members still received a significant amount of criticism, much of it concerning the plan to increase the refuse collection fee from $166 to $220 per household per year.

“It’s an outrage, it really is. It should be eliminated, not increased,” Diana Mason said. She added, “You’re making citizens make choices as to whether they continue to remain in this community.”

The City Council also opted not to move forward on legislation that would have allowed its members to vote to override the state-imposed property tax cap. Council members said they hope to adopt the budget at their next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 13.

New Rochelle’s City Council on Tuesday decided to preserve six firefighter positions as well as New Rochelle’s 18 crossing guards in 2012, reversing cost-saving plans to cut the positions.

City Manager Charles Strome III told council members, who are finalizing the 2012 budget, the city would have to spend about $1 million less than anticipated on health insurance for its employees. As Strome explained, the state-determined health insurance rate increase would be about 5.5 percent, well below the 16 percent he’d allowed for in his proposed budget. He said that figure had been based on early estimates from state officials.

City Council members agreed to use the money to preserve the positions. Byron Gray, head of the firefighter’s union, called the reversal “unbelievable” and said, “Some anxiety has certainly lifted from my shoulders for awhile.”

The move will not affect the proposed tax-rate increase of 6.36 percent.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this post mistakenly swapped “tax-levy increase” with “tax-rate increase.” It now reads correctly. Apologies for that.

A local campaign watchdog organization ruled Roberto Lopez, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the New Rochelle City Council, included “false and misleading” information about his opponent in a mailer.

The Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee said Lopez’s statement that incumbent Councilman Louis Trangucci had “put developers’ profits ahead of the people” was unfair.

The committee said Trangucci’s “votes on the legislation in question did not reflect support for developers or developers’ profits.”

Trangucci, a Republican, defeated Democrat Lopez, in a close race for the District 1 seat in the Nov. 8 election.

The non-partisan committee tries to foster fair campaign practices in races within Westchester County.

New Rochelle City officials are investigating a complaint that on-duty firefighters were distributing campaign literature on behalf of a candidate for City Council.

City Manager Charles Strome III said, “We received the complaint and we are investigating accordingly.”

Roberto Lopez, a candidate for City Council District 1 who is running against the incumbent, Lou Trangucci, filed the complaint. In it, Lopez said on Oct. 29 a group of firefighters responded to an emergency call at Garito Manor, an assisted-living apartment building in the city’s West End. According to the complaint, when it was determined that a resident who had fallen did not need further medical treatment, several of the firefighters left the building. Two stayed behind and, in full uniform, began placing campaign literature for Trangucci at the door of residents’ apartments.

“City employees, especially those on duty, and especially first responders, have no business being involved in political campaigning,” Lopez said in a statement.

Trangucci said, “I have no idea about it. No comment.” He went on to say that he had been endorsed by a local firefighters’ union and that the union’s members only campaign for him on their own time.

All 11 candidates running for the six open seats on New Rochelle’s City Council attended the League of Women Voters’ debate held Monday night at City Hall. With opening and closing statements from and several rounds of questions for each candidate, there’s too much material to squeeze into the pages of the newspaper. So I thought I’d pull out some highlights here on the blog.

The League of Women Voters of New Rochelle is hosting a candidate forum on Monday, Oct. 17. All 11 candidates running for seats on the City Council are expected to attend. The forum will be held at 6:45 p.m. at the Council Chambers in City Hall. The public is invited to submit written questions. The election is Nov. 8.

As a refresher, here’s who’s running for what: In District 1, Democrat Roberto Lopez is challenging incumbent Lou Trangucci, a Republican. In District 2, Republican incumbent Al Tarantino is running unopposed. In District 3, Republican John Earvin Jr. is challenging Democratic incumbent Jared Rice. In District 4, Democrat Ivar Hyden and Republican Kevin Barrett are squaring off. In District 5, Ilyse Spertus, a Republican, is running against Barry Fertel, the Democratic incumbent. And in District 6, Shari Rackman, a Democrat, is facing  Stephen Mayo, a Republican.

At Wednesday night’s City Council meeting in New Rochelle, Councilman and Republican nominee for mayor Richard St. Paul asked why it was Mayor Noam Bramson’s voice, and not that of City Manager Charles Strome III, on the recorded phone messages, or robo-calls, that went out to residents during tropical storm Irene.

Strome said he was too busy managing the city’s response to the storm to tape the recordings. St. Paul pressed, asking if members of council could record the messages next time. He then suggested that during an election year, the mayor ought not be allowed to make such recordings. Other members of council stared down at the table. Bramson seemed exasperated. It did not appear that St. Paul’s objection gained any traction, but it did serve as a reminder, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, that this is, in fact, an election year.

Richard St. Paul, New Rochelle City Council member, Republican mayoral nominee and recently named up-and-comer in New York’s political scene, got a glimpse of the pinnacle of American politics: the White House.

St. Paul and other members of People for the American Way Foundation’s Young Elected Officials Network were invited to the White House to discuss issues facing local municipalities with members of President Obama’s staff. After that, they met with the president himself.

In a news release, St. Paul said, “In these tough economic times, where cities like New Rochelle are struggling to improve their financial outlook, looking to promote investment in our city and create jobs and expand the use of technology, I was especially delighted by the opportunity to meet with the President’s senior economic and technology advisers.”

He continued, “I am also thankful to President Obama for highlighting the work were do as young elected officials and reminding me why I became a public servant when he told us that ‘People should not get into politics to become somebody, but to do something.’”

An Albany-based politics magazine, The Capitol, included St. Paul in its recent 40 under 40 feautre.

(Photo of St. Paul in front of the White House provided.)