If Mount Vernon is going to “move forward,” it’s got to get away from the problems of the past and stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again! This year’s budget is another mistake and I have to be honest with you. It’s going to cause future problems in so many ways.

With Mount Vernon facing a fiscal CRISIS, we should start by analyzing what is NOT changing. The Mayor’s office salaries aren’t changing. The only thing the Mayor cut out of her budget is travel expense and promotional spending and that’s because COVID-19 is limiting travel for everyone. Forget cuts, some departments are getting raises! The Office of the City Clerk, Human Resources, the Department of Election, the Department of Management Services, the City Jail, the Animal Shelter, the Youth Bureau and the Planning Department among others. On the other hand, departments that should never suffer cuts like the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Buildings Department, the Department of Public Works, and the Programs for the Aging were on the table for major cuts.

This budget shows you all you need to know about an Administration’s priorities and it’s clear that safety and core city services are NOT priorities. Keeping loyal bureaucrats and friends employed ARE the priorities. With crime going up and buildings falling down, it is obvious that these priorities need to be modified and re-imagined. Our seniors are going to have to fend for themselves because the Planning Department needs more money – a department that hasn’t done anything meaningful in a decade (including when the current Mayor was in charge of it).

On the revenue side of things, the current version of the budget is just as bad. With over 46.665% of businesses in the City closed and not reopening because of COVID, the budget still counts on the same (even slightly higher) amount of sales tax revenue, and that’s a problem. Despite the fact that no one can transfer a title to real-estate property in the City, it projects an increase in transfer tax revenue, and that’s a problem. Then, there are huge increases on the sales and rental of City-owned properties when it takes up to two years to clear a title before that city owned property could be sold. Another problem.

As always, Law Department left off all of the settlements they enter into for legal cases against the City. There’s MILLIONS in judgments this year alone. The City hasn’t paid off the real estate tax settlements for the last three years, let alone this year’s settlements. They also ignore the fact that the Law Department spends WAY MORE every year on outside lawyers than they budget to spend – sometimes over a million more. Why do we have a Law Department if outside lawyers are going to do all of the work?

It’s almost the middle of February and there’s still no budget in final form. By the time this budget is passed by the Board of Estimates, sent to the City Council, becomes subject to a public hearing, published in the newspaper, changed and passed by the City Council, and sent to the Comptroller to process the bills, which takes about two weeks, it will be APRIL. We should probably expect our City tax bill (if we’re lucky) about the same time we’re doing our Federal and State taxes.

There’s a better way to manage this process. When I left the Mayor’s office at the end of 2019, I sat with the Mayor several times to help with a smooth transition. I left the Mayor a blueprint for how to get the budget finalized, even leaving a proposed budget for 2020; but the Mayor chose to do her own budget, which she had the right do. However, the administration had a whole year to work on this budget and it should not be late. As Mayor, I was able to get the numbers I needed from the Comptroller by sitting down together and setting egos and politics aside. As a CEO, the victory doesn’t lie with who’s right or wrong, it’s about what works or doesn’t work to get the job done.

As many of you have heard, I was recently endorsed by the Democratic Party to run again for City Council. I am truly grateful to the Democratic Party leaders and the Democratic Party Chairperson for their recognition and endorsement. As a lifelong Democrat, I am committed to helping this City rise economically. What I’m not going to do is engage in science fiction and pretend that our real priorities can be ignored.

No one is coming to rescue us. Not the State or the Federal government, especially, without a plan in place. We need to do it ourselves. It’s OUR City. It’s time to take control and stop pretending that hope and good intentions are substitutes for hard work and competence.

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at andre@andrewallace.com

I do recognize that we live in a more dangerous world these days, especially online. But, have we lost all sense of context? Has the world devolved into black-and-white rules, with no shades of gray? Are we really supposed to walk down the street, staring at our phones, ignoring EVERY stranger we encounter, looking up only occasionally to make sure we don’t bump into a wall, a pole or walk into the street?

Last week we discussed conformity as a community and how it keeps us from stepping outside the box or moving forward. I felt like I was watching that article playing out before me in the supermarket the other day, just in a different way. I walked out the store wondering how that child’s life will turn out if he’s afraid to speak up. It also made me think about how many of us are still held back by past events in our lives where we were made to feel wrong about so many things. I’ve read that if you chain an elephant to a stake, restricting its movement for 30 days, once freed the elephant will continue to confine itself as if it were still in chains. Unfortunately, I fear that little boy will have a different version of the same problem. By limiting his external interactions, he will turn inward, shying away from new thoughts, experiences and opportunities.

Applying that concept to Mount Vernon’s government, we need to ask ourselves a few questions. What are the chains keeping us in the same place? Are they real or imagined? How long did it take to get here and how long will it take to change? There’s an old saying “Just because something is, doesn’t mean it should be” and “just because it has been, doesn’t make it right.” It’s time Mount Vernon breaks out of its old ways before the world leaves us behind.

I’ve always stated that people are a product of their environment, so if we change the conditions, we can shift the mindset. This year, I watched our world pivot and change its behavior to combat a major pandemic. I’ve seen people stepping up to lift others suffering from financial hardship during these trying times. Unfortunately, I also watched a man’s last breath get squeezed out by a knee on his neck, bringing worldwide attention to the difference between how we treat each other as human beings. In protest, I’ve watched people of all races; colors, sex, and age come together in a common cause for change. It’s always the most difficult challenges that force us to change our mindset and pull together for the better. When that happens, it transports us from “we can’t” pessimistic downers, to “we can” optimism champion.

Why does it take these kinds of tragedies to effectuate change? How come we only focus on being better or stepping up when tragedy hits close to home? Why do we only seem to appreciate life and one another when it appears that the end is near? The ability to rise above and beyond the challenges in life are gifts of strength granted to us all, with no one above another. So, why only choose to use them in times of tribulation? Why ignore these gifts in our daily interactions? Maybe, it’s because many of us are simply too busy focusing inward on ourselves, instead of outward towards others. We’re blinded by looking for the “what’s in it for me” angle rather than “what’s in it for everyone.” I’m afraid there’s still plenty of the same thinking going on in City Hall right now.

Someone once told me that Mount Vernon is going nowhere, and it’s thrilled to death about it. Defensively, I dismissed that characterization at first. As I thought more deeply about it, I wondered if there was some truth to it. This commitment to conformity in our political thinking has taken us nowhere and will continue until we, as a whole shift the dynamic. Mount Vernon has been shackled to a post for too long and we’ve forgotten what it was like to move forward. We must embrace the instinct of that little boy in the supermarket to engage with the world and not run from it because it might be dangerous, messy or difficult.

There are only two possible destinations for Mount Vernon. One is nowhere, and the other requires us to rise above our current thinking and step into our greater selves. If we’re at our best only when we face a life-threatening challenge, then its time to realize our city is dying. So if we’re not ready for the slow singing, or flower bringing, then we must rise to the challenge, or prove that mother in the supermarket and our critics’ right.

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at andre@andrewallace.com.

A couple of questions come immediately to mind: Why do we continue to be subjected to these tax increases and yet our government becomes less productive? Why do we continue to pay more and get less? And, why do we keep paying more and our City gets worse? The approach to answering these questions appears to be throwing money at problems, but the problem is not the money; it’s the people we’ve place in charge to manage that money.

I’ve said it many times over. The City of Mount Vernon is a corporation, and it needs to be operated as such. In order for a corporation to be successful, you must select the right people, those who know how to run a business. Each taxpayer is a shareholder in that corporation. What people often misunderstand is that the shareholders OWN the corporation. They are in charge ultimately. Many have made a large investment by purchasing homes and property in the City. If the City succeeds, our investment gains value. But, if it does poorly, our investment (like our home values) can disappear.

This is why it is so vitally important to have the right CEO and Board of Directors in place if we ever plan to rise. The budget is the single most important instrument we have when is comes to running a city/corporation. It tells us what we have to spend to accomplish our targeted objectives without going over. It tells us what the corporation’s leadership considers a priority. And, it is a test to see if that leadership can live within their means and not only stay within the budget but also strive to be under budget. Why? Because it’s not their money. It’s our money!

Every time a corporation has to go to the market to get new money (i.e., raise taxes), it is an admission that leadership has failed. They are obligated to account to the owners of the company – the shareholders/taxpayers – and explain why they cannot live within their means and why they need more of our money to accomplish less. If Mount Vernon’s leadership ran a company like the way they run our government that company would be out of business decades ago.

The only reason a government can run so incompetently and yet still be in “business” is because everything they do is about convincing the taxpayers that higher taxes every year are the norm. Well, they’re not! They should be the exception!

The most obvious measure of a city’s success is its school system. It gets the vast majority of the money to produce results – graduating students. We’ll discuss Mount Vernon’s school district in another part of this series, however, you can see what the conclusion is going to be: catastrophic failure. Every year, your leadership asks for more money to educate students and every year they fail to do it – in numbers that are crippling our community.

City services are also a good measure. They’re harder to notice, but there are ways you can tell. Look at the litter on the street. Look for patrol cars. Look at the burned-out houses, potholes and run-down businesses. Look at the broken windows and abandoned cars. All of these are indications that city services – fire, police, building inspection, traffic, etc. – are failing. Are they doing more with less, as they should? No! They’re doing less with more! It’s got to stop.

When we buy into that corporation, we do so on the understanding that our leadership understands whose money they are tasked with using. We do so expecting our investment in that corporation to increase in value and even pay a dividend by lowering our taxes every chance they can. What we don’t expect and cannot continue to tolerate is a constant reduction in value, to the point where our investment is entirely worthless.

Transparent leadership, Fiscal discipline, Competent management, Achievable goals and Reasonable priorities are what good corporations live by.

Ask yourself these questions. Are you seeing any of this in Mount Vernon’s government? Or, are you just getting more excuses and a higher tax bill?

In Part 2, we’ll discuss why the 2021 budget doesn’t work, why its assumptions are just bad science fiction and how our City is heading towards a rough landing.

When Apollo 13 called back to Houston, saying, “we have a problem…” it was an admission that if something didn’t change, they were going to have a disaster on their hands. Well, Mount Vernon, “We Have A PROBLEM”.

The other day, while shopping in the supermarket, I saw a couple standing in front of me in line behind a woman with a child who was about 8 years old. As his mother began to check out, the little boy looked behind and said hello to the pregnant woman and her husband standing behind them. What puzzled me was not the sincerity or well-meaning sentiment behind the little boy’s greeting but, instead, the reaction of the mother who forcefully reprimanded her child for saying hello, stating “you NEVER say hello to anyone you don’t know.” In an instant, I watched the child’s mood change from happy to confused and troubled, trying to understand what he did wrong. The question that crossed my mind was “how do we ever meet someone unless we are willing to introduce ourselves?” I was taught growing up that “a stranger is a friend you just haven’t met yet” and it can start with hello.

I do recognize that we live in a more dangerous world these days, especially online. But, have we lost all sense of context? Has the world devolved into black-and-white rules, with no shades of gray? Are we really supposed to walk down the street, staring at our phones, ignoring EVERY stranger we encounter, looking up only occasionally to make sure we don’t bump into a wall, a pole or walk into the street?

Last week we discussed conformity as a community and how it keeps us from stepping outside the box or moving forward. I felt like I was watching that article playing out before me in the supermarket the other day, just in a different way. I walked out the store wondering how that child’s life will turn out if he’s afraid to speak up. It also made me think about how many of us are still held back by past events in our lives where we were made to feel wrong about so many things. I’ve read that if you chain an elephant to a stake, restricting its movement for 30 days, once freed the elephant will continue to confine itself as if it were still in chains. Unfortunately, I fear that little boy will have a different version of the same problem. By limiting his external interactions, he will turn inward, shying away from new thoughts, experiences and opportunities.

Applying that concept to Mount Vernon’s government, we need to ask ourselves a few questions. What are the chains keeping us in the same place? Are they real or imagined? How long did it take to get here and how long will it take to change? There’s an old saying “Just because something is, doesn’t mean it should be” and “just because it has been, doesn’t make it right.” It’s time Mount Vernon breaks out of its old ways before the world leaves us behind.

I’ve always stated that people are a product of their environment, so if we change the conditions, we can shift the mindset. This year, I watched our world pivot and change its behavior to combat a major pandemic. I’ve seen people stepping up to lift others suffering from financial hardship during these trying times. Unfortunately, I also watched a man’s last breath get squeezed out by a knee on his neck, bringing worldwide attention to the difference between how we treat each other as human beings. In protest, I’ve watched people of all races; colors, sex, and age come together in a common cause for change. It’s always the most difficult challenges that force us to change our mindset and pull together for the better. When that happens, it transports us from “we can’t” pessimistic downers, to “we can” optimism champion.

Why does it take these kinds of tragedies to effectuate change? How come we only focus on being better or stepping up when tragedy hits close to home? Why do we only seem to appreciate life and one another when it appears that the end is near? The ability to rise above and beyond the challenges in life are gifts of strength granted to us all, with no one above another. So, why only choose to use them in times of tribulation? Why ignore these gifts in our daily interactions? Maybe, it’s because many of us are simply too busy focusing inward on ourselves, instead of outward towards others. We’re blinded by looking for the “what’s in it for me” angle rather than “what’s in it for everyone.” I’m afraid there’s still plenty of the same thinking going on in City Hall right now.

Someone once told me that Mount Vernon is going nowhere, and it’s thrilled to death about it. Defensively, I dismissed that characterization at first. As I thought more deeply about it, I wondered if there was some truth to it. This commitment to conformity in our political thinking has taken us nowhere and will continue until we, as a whole shift the dynamic. Mount Vernon has been shackled to a post for too long and we’ve forgotten what it was like to move forward. We must embrace the instinct of that little boy in the supermarket to engage with the world and not run from it because it might be dangerous, messy or difficult.

There are only two possible destinations for Mount Vernon. One is nowhere, and the other requires us to rise above our current thinking and step into our greater selves. If we’re at our best only when we face a life-threatening challenge, then its time to realize our city is dying. So if we’re not ready for the slow singing, or flower bringing, then we must rise to the challenge, or prove that mother in the supermarket and our critics’ right.

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at andre@andrewallace.com.

In last week’s article, we addressed an uncomfortable topic surrounding corruption and, this week, it might be just as uncomfortable but also equally important – “ACCEPTING THE TRUTH.” Let’s examine why every turn we take in Mount Vernon seems to land us in the same place we started. Why are we against thinking or coloring outside of the box and favor rigid conformity? Is it a hard-wired human fear of being cast as an outsider or afraid others might think less of us? If so, we need to stop being afraid.

I remember growing up as a child faced with a few challenges, but nothing seemed more challenging than facing my own identity issues. Taunted by kids in the neighborhood because of my dark complexion, I was made to feel broken and inferior. I remember someone even trying to help me by giving me cream and soap that would lighten my skin so I could “better fit” in with those around me. It was an embarrassing and painful time in my life. The constant taunting required me to create a life of pretense to avoid the pain of dealing with the acceptance of who I really was. As painful as it was, I learned to embrace what was perceived as a weakness, transforming it into one of my greatest strengths. Getting past that taught me that it’s okay to look, feel, and think differently and that coloring outside the lines can, sometimes, produce better results.

Those of you who know me know that I have a very independent perspective and won’t hesitate to go my own way at times. I have been characterized by some Democrats as someone who is too unpredictable because of my views and past actions. I was even told that it’s impossible to have conservative ideas and be a Democrat at the same time. If I wanted to succeed in the party, I would need to choose one or the other. This was my first lesson in how conformity works. It is not something we fall into naturally, instead it’s something forced upon us. Why do so many of us believe that reaching across party lines to work with others means you’re not loyal to your party. Why does having a different view of a candidate the party endorses seem unacceptable? Why, because we are told that, and it’s reinforced in every election when outliers are publicly punished for failing to “hold the party line.”

But, blind loyalty is not real loyalty, and taken to the extremes can actually be dangerous. We’ve “outsourced” our intellect and shirked our responsibilities to think for ourselves. As creatures of habit, we take the position of sitting back and having others do our work and research when it comes to electing officials, while reserving our right to complain when it doesn’t work out.

If we are going to change our city, we first must change the way we think. What held me back as the child who once thought he was broken was, essentially, the way I processed my thoughts. I’m not perfect by any stretch, and sometimes I’m riddled with doubt even today. What helped me then and continues to help me now is the realization that my so-called “flaws” and my alleged “weaknesses” were actually projections of the weaknesses of others. When they were telling me how “different” I was, they were actually just announcing their fear of being seen as “different.” Once that realization hit me, I could embrace my true self and move forward without fear of what others may think. As a community, we should examine what is really holding us back from accepting our true selves. What are we hiding from others for fear of being seen as “different”? What’s our individual and collective story hidden in fear of being called “weak”? What are our actual fears, and are they even real? Has this made us complacent in thinking this is the best we can do?

Mount Vernon has many challenges, one more serious than the next. But, we can never move past them until we are willing to be brutally honest with ourselves and truly acknowledge the existence of our problems. Admitting we’ve failed at something doesn’t mean we’re failures; it just means our attempt at achieving something didn’t work. Albert Einstein once stated “anyone who has not made a mistake has not tried anything new.” In order to be successful as a community, we must embrace our failures as much as we acknowledge our successes. However, what we cannot do is continue to ignore our problems by pretending they don’t exist.

Our problems are clear. We have a police department that is corrupted by a few bad actors and their co-workers who sit idle and doing nothing about it. We have elected officials selling out this community, cutting side deals to enrich themselves on the backs of the taxpayers. We walk down our streets, stepping over homeless and mentally ill people as if they don’t exist. Our school system lacks the discipline and desire needed to educate our children; instead, our children are merely pushed through the system, leaving them unprepared for the world just to make some bureaucrat’s numbers look good. Our taxes are through the roof, our streets are filthy, and many homes and stores lie vacant. The fact that we see all of this every day numbs us into thinking this is a normal state of affairs that has become “acceptable” to us. We complain about it, but do nothing to correct it because it’s always someone else’s fault.

Simply put; those who we have placed in charge have failed us and we have also failed ourselves. We have voted for candidates because we went to school with them or a family member. We vote the way the party tells us, or risk being ostracized. We have confused being “born in Mount Vernon” with somehow being able to run this city. If that was the case, why are we still facing so many problems? If what we’ve been doing hasn’t been working, then we need to step outside the box and try something new. We know that our past practices have not worked, so why continue the same methods without deviation? Let’s stop being afraid of doing something different and embrace our perceived weaknesses. I can promise you that the smallest step in the right direction will end up being one of the biggest steps in our lives, producing newfound and lasting strength. The only things we have to lose are the problems that we’ve caused for ourselves.

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at andre@andrewallace.com.

A number of people have asked me to address this topic over the past few weeks. It’s an uncomfortable topic, but an important one, “corruption:” which just never seems to go away in Mount Vernon. In previous columns, we talked about how PILOTs (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) were depriving our City of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue and negatively impacting our property taxes, crime, sewers, and schools. We talked about how real estate developers pervert government through campaign contributions and side deals with elected officials. We talked about how affluent communities in the County have refused to share the burden of at-risk and high-challenge residents equally, and Mount Vernon has been used as a dumping ground by them and by New York City. We talked about how our own government officials were complicit in allowing all of this to happen.

It’s worth discussing again because, unfortunately, it’s playing out right under our noses again. Let’s walk through it slowly so everyone can see how this scam plays out. It all starts with a real estate developer who wants to cash in on the available State and Federal money that is ear-marked for “affordable housing” in poor communities. They basically get the State and Federal governments to pay them to build a low-income development that the developer will own (and later sell). But, they can’t just build these massive developments anywhere. They need permission from the City and, sometimes, they even need help securing the land on which to build the development. So, as you might expect, they find a willing accomplice (sometimes more than one) on the City Council to be their advocate in Mount Vernon’s government. Are there kickbacks involved? Almost certainly. Direct payments in cash? Probably. Campaign contributions? Absolutely.

The problem with these developments is that they offer nothing to the City except a higher burden of taxes, crime, police and fire expenses, and a drain on school resources. By securing PILOTs through the Mayor’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA), these developments avoid millions in taxes for DECADES, forcing homeowners to pay for all those additional services. It costs developers next to nothing to build while costing the City a ton, the developers get a valuable building and pay very little taxes. Sounds like a great deal, right? It is, and that’s why it’s worth paying off elected officials to get them.

The City Council last week introduced legislation to give away five parcels of land on Fourth Avenue to a developer. They claimed the developer would be paying $1.5 million for the properties, but then they immediately proceeded to agree to pay the developer to demolish the buildings that are currently there, at a cost of $1.58 million. Taken together, your City Council wanted to PAY the developer $80,000 to take 5 pieces of City-owned property. What’s more outrageous is the fact that three members of the Council voted in favor of this scam. One sane member voted against it, and one couldn’t be bothered to vote at all.

Luckily, the legislation didn’t pass because it requires four Council votes to sell City property. I wasn’t there, but I hear that at least one Council member was so mad that they wanted to get the Charter Review Commission to propose a change to that rule (which it refused). Tempers were hot in the Council meeting. No one ever pushes a bad deal this hard unless they have something to gain.

Voters in this City have to start asking some difficult questions of their elected officials, starting now. For example, how do certain members of the City Council, on a salary of $33,000 per year (with no other job), afford to pay cash for houses in Martha’s Vineyard and the Caribbean? How do these Council members afford to travel so often? Think of it this way: if you made $33,000 per year ($22,000 after taxes), how many houses would you be able to buy in cash and how many trips would you be able to take, after paying all of your bills? I don’t need to tell you. You can figure it out. What’s worse is that these folks have been winning elections in this City for years. Their schemes have extended across almost half a dozen different mayors which tells me that they have hit upon a system that works no matter who is in the Mayor’s office. Sure, it helps if the Mayor is receptive to similar corruption, but it’s certainly not a requirement. The whole system stinks.

Remember those talks about creating a Master Plan for development in the City? Guess who killed that? If the City has a Master Plan, sales like the ones proposed last week would need to fit within the plan or they could not happen. These Council members know how to hold on to the committees that push these sales and have had their hooks into the Planning Commission and the Zoning Board for years – two entities that can rubber-stamp these scam transactions. I replaced the Planning Commissioner and threw a bunch of folks off both boards when I was Mayor, and I have not been welcomed around certain Council members since!

Unfortunately, the tentacles of this corruption run deep and involve more than just a Council member or two. It’s a culture of corruption that has infested City Hall, and it’s time that WE stop sending the same criminals back there every four years. It’s time WE demand some real accountability around the finances and conflicts of interest in our elected officials. If we don’t do both soon, we won’t have to worry about doing it later. There won’t be a City left to care about and the thieves will be kicking up their heels on a beach in Barbados when the dust settles.

The corruption is real. The costs are enormous. The damage is permanent. It’s time we stop being victims. OUR government has failed us and continues to fail us. As the BOSS, what do we plan to do about it?

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at andre@andrewallace.com.

Lack of Accountability in Government in Mount Vernon

Before we wrap up this 5-part series, we should spend a little time going over what we’ve covered so far. In Part 1, we discovered how the abuse of power by elected officials can and does corrupt OUR government and, unfortunately, how the guilty bystanders who watch them do it and say nothing are equally to blame but often not punished. We found out that many of those guilty bystanders are sitting in their offices at City Hall even today. In Part 2, we learned that the lack of leadership in City Hall can produce and perpetuate corruption, abuse, and intimidation by those charged with protecting our citizens. We also saw how “circling the wagons” to protect the wrongdoing is still the norm. In Part 3, we were reminded that, when we don’t demand a better class of elected official, we are our own worst enemy. We demonstrated how the shiftless, ineffective “leaders” have more private interest in avoiding their work than public interest in doing OUR work. And, in Part 4, we looked at how incompetent mismanagement and poor decision-making is putting our City on a path to financial ruin. For example, I stated, “the City will have to ask for a HUGE tax hike to pay for what it is incapable of managing or cutting. Forget 1% or 2% increases; be prepared for double-digit increases.” Well, just this week, the chickens have come home to roost. For those of you who have not read Part 4, you can find it on AndreWallace.com.

In this column, let’s wrap everything up. Let’s do that by going back to the very basics of accountability. Webster dictionary defines “accountability” as the “obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.” We’ve seen in the previous columns, there is apparently very little “willingness” on the part of our elected officials to take responsibility for their own actions, so let’s focus on the word “obligation.” What does that mean when it comes to government?

It means that those guilty bystanders MUST root out corruption in their departments or face criminal action themselves. It means those elected to office MUST do the People’s work only and not line their own pockets with side deals, kickbacks, or even bribes. It means they MUST make decisions and own those decisions. It means City’s leaders MUST clean house in the Mount Vernon Police Department and eliminate the shameless tradition of entitlement and abuse. It means the government MUST live within its means and do everything possible, including cutting its own fat before making the People pay more money in taxes. Those are basic “obligations” every elected leader in this City and beyond MUST acknowledge and live by.

If we are going to be honest with ourselves, we need to ask this uncomfortable question: Do the People of Mount Vernon have a problem, or is the problem the People? After all, we elected these incompetent “leaders” and continue to put them in office. Therefore, WE share in the blame as their BOSS. Are we asking the right questions before we cast our vote? Are we really thinking about how a person’s skill set will contribute to the advancement and well-being of our community? For many of us, our home is one of our biggest investments. Therefore, if we’re going to make such a large investment, should we seek advice from our barber or hairdresser, or from someone who specializes in real estate? It’s no different with our elected officials. These people have the power to determine whether our community/investment succeeds or fails. It’s a huge responsibility that needs to be continuously monitored and managed.

So what are our “obligations”? We MUST demand open, transparent, and efficient operations in our government. We MUST challenge the lies, deceit, and self-dealing that we see our elected officials engaging in. We MUST demand the resignation of officials who break the law, whether or not they are prosecuted. We MUST educate ourselves on the issues facing our government and the threats from the takers who remove everything of value from our City, while leaving nothing but garbage behind. And as voters, we MUST ask uncompromising questions of our elected officials at every opportunity.

If we’re asking questions, being active, informed, engaging, out-spoken citizens, and still don’t get answers from OUR government, then we are not the problem. If we stop believing and repeating the lies we get as “answers” from OUR government, we are not the problem. If we demand that OUR elected officials hold themselves to a higher standard than others, then we are not the problem. If we do all those things, we’ll realize that we are not the problem. Instead, we will know we have a problem on our hands in City Hall.

The challenges facing this government are enormous. We are broke. We have a corrupt police force. The County and State have stopped taking our calls. No one will work for us because we don’t pay our bills. Our City Council lacks the ability to reimagine government, and our Mayor is more interested in what “being Mayor” means for herself rather than what it means for our City. Our Comptroller is in a never-ending battle about which bills to pay and which to not pay. Everyone is ignoring the City Charter while treating the City’s funds as their own personal piggybank, and nobody can get a straight answer out of any of them. Businesses cannot open new locations in our City. People cannot sell or buy property in our City. And, greedy developers are snapping up the rights to every other city block so they can build more giant housing complexes, tax-free. The schools are a mess when they are open or closed. And, OUR hard-earned money is be utterly and completely WASTED by all of them.

Add to all of that a pandemic that will close about half of our City’s businesses, gut the City’s revenue, and needlessly cost the lives of too many of our citizens because they lack access to basic, necessary medical care.

Now, we hear there’s more corruption, more thievery, and more abuse of power on the horizon related to pandemic relief funds. I will address those issues as the facts become clearer, but I want to use the last part of this series to give you a roadmap for dealing with whatever the “next catastrophe” may be in OUR City:

FIRST, let’s do our homework. If there’s anything we know about elected leaders, we know that they are not above lying to avoid facing the truth. If we have the facts, we have the power.

SECOND, we can’t let them point fingers at others. The “blame game” is as sophisticated in Mount Vernon as it is anywhere else in the world. No one points the finger faster than our elected officials. It’s just a way to deflect attention from themselves and, most likely, the fact that they weren’t doing their job when all of this was happening in the first place.

THIRD, let’s demand resignations. We have to stop thinking that an elected official is “entitled” to finish their term. An elected official who has lost the support of this community or who has abused the trust placed in them by this community should step down or be shouted down at every turn.

FINALLY, let’s acknowledge our own responsibilities. Accountability is a two-way street. There’s an old saying in politics: If you elect CLOWNS, don’t be surprised if you find yourself in the middle of a CIRCUS. Don’t expect a clown to act like anything other than a clown, and maybe just as important, don’t blame a clown when they act like a clown. We must own up to our own responsibilities.

As I have said before, OUR government has failed us and continues to fail us. As the BOSS, what do we plan to do about it?

It’s budget season again. Time for your elected leaders to put on their annual “theatre of the absurd” to try to explain to you why they can’t live within their means (again), why expenses are out of control (again), why nothing can get done in the City (again), and most importantly, why they need more of your money this year to do as little or even less than they did last year (again). There will be a lot of finger pointing at the Comptroller, past administrations, the County, the State, and current events: everyone and everything but the current administration. You’re not going to see anyone in City Hall taking responsibility for another year of financial mismanagement.

I want to explain how and why the budget process is the most important thing our government does every year. Let’s also dive a little bit into why they mess it up every single year.

In one of my earliest columns, I wrote, “If we are going to change our circumstance, we have to change our thinking and educate ourselves. We need to start with the financial basics and understand how to avoid the traps of poor spending habits to better prepare ourselves for wealth creation.” On the government level, that statement is even more important than on the individual level.

Unfortunately, that message never seems to get through to City Hall. Fresh off of a lockdown and a pandemic, with nearly half or more small businesses in the City staying closed for good, we’ve got a full-fledged fiscal emergency on our hands. City Hall is about to publish its budget and you’re not going to see any progress made toward solving that crisis when it finally does come out. The stakes are high because the financial viability of our City teeters on the edge of collapse if not handled properly. This of course will lead us into some serious financial pain for the next few years. Here’s what you should be looking out for from this year’s City budget:

MASSIVE SPENDING REDUCTIONS: Unlike a business, if a government spends more than it makes, it can go to its taxpayers and get more money from them. No one is ever happy paying more taxes, especially when their government cannot control its spending. Revenue for 2020 was completely destroyed by COVID-19 and the lockdown. Sales tax, parking revenue, ticket revenue, court fees, permit issuance, real estate sales, and event revenue has all been gutted. There is no reliable data that 2021 is going to be much different with businesses closed and not returning. That leaves the government with only one option: tighten its belt and spend a lot less. It needs to start with furloughs of City employees, reduction in outside spending on things that should be done internally (e.g., legal fees), and better oversight and management of spending by departments that are notorious for blowing through their annual budgets (e.g., DPW, Law Department, Mayor’s Office, etc.).

BORROWING LIMITS: You may remember that the prior administration drove the City’s bond rating into “junk bond” territory. What you should know is that it’s still there. The current administration hasn’t made a dent in that problem. That means that Mount Vernon has effectively no ability to borrow money from the open market from PUBLIC sources like the bond market. Forget bad credit. Where we are is worse. We’ve got no credit!

With revenue numbers so low, our spending is going to be completely out of line with our revenue, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on this administration to borrow money – at outrageous cost – from PRIVATE sources like local banks and shady finance companies. Remember, no matter how broke you are, you can always find someone willing to loan you money you cannot ever afford to pay back. Sometimes, they break legs in the process. You know what I’m talking about.

The City Council must place a moratorium on all new borrowing – from any source – until such time as the administration reduces spending to reasonable levels.

INFLATED REVENUE SOURCES: It happens every year, but it’s going to be worse this year. The way the budget generally works is that, for example, a department head will say, “we made $XXX in parking ticket revenue last year, so we think we’ll make at least that much next year, plus a little more.” The budget line item will be set to that number on the revenue side. We can’t do that this year unless City Hall publishes the actual revenue numbers from 2020. To say that things will go back to 2019 levels is bad science fiction policy, completely not based in reality. Remember that things like tickets, parking fees, and license revenue all come out of your pocket making them just “shadow taxes.” Pay attention to the details, because that’s where the Devil lives.

Why does City Hall inflate projected revenue numbers? So they can avoid making spending cuts, of course. Not all of the things a City spends money on are in the budget. These are what I call “off the book” expenses. Legal settlements are not budgeted, but they cost millions of dollars every year. Outside lawyers are always incredibly under-budgeted at far less than is actually spent. Tax certiorari (property tax disputes) settlements are always millions over budget, and the courts are going to start padlocking City property if past settlements aren’t paid. Cases involving the Kela Tennis bubble, corruption by the Mount Vernon Police Department, employment issues, and defending our former Mayor Thomas and former Corporation Counsel Porcari in lawsuits brought against them by former employees will also cost this city millions of dollars this year alone. Not one nickel of that money will be included in the budget in any meaningful way. And there’s much more out there, which is just the tip of the iceberg.

UNPRECEDENTED TAX INCREASES. If you ran your household or your business like this, you’d be out on the street. It’s irresponsible, unsustainable, and outright criminal. This City is getting fleeced by its own government, and there’s no words to describe it other than shameful. And it’s about to get worse. Because the City will have to ask for a HUGE tax hike to pay for what it is incapable of managing or cutting. Forget 1% or 2% increases; be prepared for double-digit increases. For a City that is ALREADY the highest taxed municipality in the highest taxed county in America, another increase to cover this level of shoddy service should make you furious.

The budget process is supposed to be one that involves active public input. Demand that you have your say in this year’s budget. Getting involved is the single best way to hold this government accountable. Don’t fall for the trickery or the Ponzi-like-accounting that will one day bring our City down. Demand the truth, if they’re unwilling to give you that, tell them you’ll settle for their resignation, instead.

Never forget that you’re the BOSS in this City. It’s your government; not theirs.

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at ADWCMV@gmail.com.

When it comes to politicians and city government officials, it would not be unfair to classify some as probably insane, some others as probably incompetent, and a few of them as too new to tell just yet. Unfortunately, for a place like Mount Vernon, those folks are not really the problem. The real problem group in government are the do-nothing seat-fillers who expect to assume the mantle of leadership without actually making any meaningful contribution to Mount Vernon. They’re happy to collect their check and medical benefits, of course. But they’re not prepared to stick their neck out to help the people of this City even a little bit.

They are worthless wastes of space and, for some reason, they keep getting nominated and they keep getting re-elected. If we want to know why problems persist in Mount Vernon for so long – sometimes decades – we have to really focus on the root causes. We have to ask ourselves why the people we elect to run this City are so bad at actually running it?

It’s not laziness, necessarily. Laziness doesn’t get you out of bed in the morning. These folks show up to work at City Hall. They just don’t do anything when they get there. It’s not stupidity, either. Stupidity involves making bad decisions because you don’t know any better – like grabbing a hot pan from the oven. In order to make a stupid decision, you have to at least make a decision. These so-called “leaders” cannot be bothered to even make stupid decisions. They know that if they make decisions, they will be criticized, and they might actually lose their cushy spot in City Hall. Department heads, custodians, City Council members, and Mayors alike, they just do nothing instead, hoping someone else will solve their problems.

I’m quite positive it came as a shock to many if not every member of the City Council in Mount Vernon when NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said in his scathing Mount Vernon report last week that the “Council is responsible for providing general managerial oversight of city operations” and “to plan for the future by setting long-term priorities and goals” and “to develop or adopt comprehensive written multiyear financial and capital plans.” Why did that come as a shock to them? Simple. They don’t want to do anything. Not those things. Not anything.

We are talking about a body that likes to issue resolutions but doesn’t like to actually make decisions. Decisions by the City Council are embodied in legislation. When I was in the City Council, the people wanted the parking rules changed, so I drafted and got passed legislation that created common sense rules, eased morning congestion, and stopped the ticket blitz. When I was Mayor, I implemented that legislation. I bring up this example because about the only thing the City Council has done in 2020 is to repeal those common-sense rules and re-start the ticket-writing bonanza. Why? Pettiness and jealousy. I was making them look bad by getting things done. No other reason. Want to know why there’s no Starbucks in Mount Vernon? Same reason.

How can a City Council that issues no legislation, provides no leadership, defers to the Mayor at every turn, and hates to stick its neck out over anything be responsible for managing this City? It can’t. So, feel free to blame the Comptroller if you want, but the real villain in the DiNapoli report was the ineffective, inefficient, and do-nothing City Council. So, having identified a problem, let’s focus on solutions.

First, it’s up to us. We’ve got to throw the bums out, as they used to say. All of them. The same disease at the core of police corruption in Mount Vernon infects City Hall also. Yuhanna Edwards and I Co-sponsored and passed legislation creating the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), legislation that hold the police accountable years ago. Was it implemented? Of course not; it was actually defunded by this current Council. Why? Because it had my name on it. The People need to clean house and tell the world that we’re not going to stand for business-as-usual politicians who are more interested in saving themselves and lining their pockets than in running this City.

Second, we need to stand up to the Democratic Party in Westchester that keeps nominating these same shiftless “leaders.” Lodging all power in a single party, as Mark Twain used to say, is the best way to ensure bad government. Don’t like the way this town runs? Blame a Democrat. Don’t like how Mount Vernon lags behind every other city in Westchester? Blame a Democrat. Want to know why your children are not using Memorial Field or getting the education they deserve? Blame a Democrat. Curious as to why the Federal government is fining and suing this City over discharging waste into our rivers? You got it, blame a Democrat. The Democratic Party has been running this City for over FORTY years unchallenged. They’ve got no one else to blame. I know it feels uncomfortable and frustrating, but the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one. As a lifelong Democrat from a family of Democrats, it pains me to say this, but if we want to move forward, we have to acknowledge some uncomfortable truths.

As Chuck D. of Public Enemy once said, “It’s weak to speak and blame somebody else when you destroy yourself.” Mount Vernon! Welcome to the Terror-dome.

Finally, we need to recognize that the people of this City are the BOSS. When an employee fails to perform their job, the BOSS gets rid of them. When he or she finds out an employee has been stealing from them, the BOSS sends them packing. And when it turns out the employee never had any intention of working in the first place, the BOSS shows them the door.

Your City Council has failed you. Your City Government has failed you. As the BOSS, what do you plan to do about it?

The cornerstone of a government is the length to which it goes to protect the weakest and most vulnerable of its citizens. Often, that responsibility falls to a government’s law enforcement divisions. It’s a hard job, to be sure. And, it’s an important one. Because, if those charged with protecting us are actually harming us, the entire edifice of government comes crashing down. So, they have a monumental responsibility.

What do we make of a government whose police department is out of control? What do we say about a government whose police department fails to protect the weakest and most vulnerable? What can we say when it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish our so-called protectors from the perpetrators they claim to be protecting us from? At what point do we hold those in City Hall accountable for the harm being done to our citizens by its own police force?

Aggravated battery, attempted murder, violent sexual assault, conspiracy, drug dealing, perjury, choking and abusive treatment sounds like the rap sheet of a master criminal, right? Nope. That list is just a small taste of the allegations that have been made against members of the Mount Vernon Police Department in the past two years. Add to that list such charges as unlawful detention, wrongful arrest, forced strip searches, brutal attacks on handcuffed prisoners, falsified court testimony, being in league with drug dealers, and coercive tactics to keep fellow officers silent. Sounds like a police department that is out of control to me.

In a society increasingly focused on police brutality and excessive use of force against Black folks, this kind of day-to-day victimization of citizens cannot continue to go on. However, if you live in Mount Vernon you know that it can, and it does. When your Mayor and your elected leaders headline rallies wearing t-shirts that read “We Can’t Breathe,” you wouldn’t expect this behavior to exist in their police forces, right? Well it does. When your Mayor appoints new personnel specifically to stamp out this kind of brutal policing, it can’t be possible that this still goes on, exonerating this kind of citizen abuse, right? Well, you know the answer. It can, and it does.

Mount Vernon has a policing problem for sure, but its real problem stems from a lack of leadership. MVPD went off the rails under the prior administration when the then-Mayor let his main political supporter put on a badge and drive around in a City-bought SUV as “Deputy Police Commissioner.” He let that guy blare his siren, push people around, and intimidate them into following the Mayor’s chosen agenda. The Mayor’s irresponsible lack of judgment let everyone in the police department know that it did not matter what they did, so long as it made him look good. Get arrest numbers, convictions and confessions. Send them to the hospital if they mouth off or to the morgue if they fight back. What he created was essentially a criminal enterprise that wore badges and carried guns. He allowed his police force to terrorize this community.

Once it becomes normalized within a police force that corruption, intimidation, and abusive tactics are the status quo, it never gets better. That’s where we are in Mount Vernon. During my short tenure as Mayor, I tried to fire as many bad actors as I could and was met with resistance at every turn, including arresting my Police Chief to stop him from carrying out my agenda. They circled the wagons around the overtime abusers and cover-up artists within the Department. They had the union fight me at every turn to keep criminals on the force.

The only way to reform a police department is to clean house. You need to take down those who think they are protected and make examples of them. You need to demand professionalism and immediately punish any shortfalls. You need to set high standards and enforce those standards. There is no “us versus them” – no “thin blue line” of protection. Those old ways of thinking and operating in the police department must be destroyed by eliminating policies that create a mindset in police officers that they’re above the law.

In July of this year, the current administration filled two positions as first deputy police commissioner and deputy police commissioner for “special initiatives.” According to the Mayor, “the leadership we promised to bring to Mount Vernon is what we’ve delivered.” By August, this so-called leadership was put to the test. During an arrest, two separate videos captured a MVPD officer punch a suspect at least a dozen times. Jennifer Lackard, one of those new hires to bring “leadership” to MVPD, stated after seeing the footage, “the videos clearly show excessive force was used.”

By September, the officer involved in that altercation was cleared of any wrongdoing following an “internal investigation” by the other new hire, deputy police commissioner, Ernest Morales III. Wagons were circled. Cops were exonerated of wrongdoing. Business goes on as usual. What comment did Ms. Lackard, the so-called watchdog of the police, have to say? Nothing. She couldn’t be reached for comment, and business goes on as usual.

If you were expecting change from MVPD under this new administration, you have been utterly deceived. All this administration has done is bring in people who will shovel you lines about “reform” while holding the old party line and protecting their own. That’s not “reform.” That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.

When you see an elected official hold a rally about abuse at the hands of the police in others cities claiming to be “with you;” they must first understand that before you march into another city or town demanding that they get their house in order, one must remember to have their own house in order first. Especially when you have the ability to change your own situation but choose to do nothing. Worse yet, when you continue the same abusive tactics of the past while dressing them up as something new and altogether different. Don’t believe the lies and the excuses any more.

You know better. Demand better. Hold your elected officials accountable.

If you have thoughts or comments about this issue or any other, reach out to me at ADWCMV@gmail.com.