On the Other Hand

This letter was submitted by Harry Reynolds who recently ran for Scarsdale Village Trustee as an independent candidate: To teh Editor: Now that we know by their vote that the Non-Partisan System is committed to secrecy in selecting our local government, what consequences should follow? Do we have an obligation to refrain from supporting that system, a secret system which, if it was applicable to our nation, would cause a revolution next Monday morning?

Put another way, what should the roughly 30% of the voters in last week’s election consider as an alternative to the Non-Partisan System? Is the current Board in some way representative of the Village residents, and so should be a model? Or has the nonpartisan concept failed in Scarsdale because its Nominating Committee is, inevitably, a place where its members act just as do the political hustlers in Yonkers and White Plains? And if it has failed in that way, then should we consider the return of the regular political organizations? We would have the comfort of getting rid of the pietistic notion that the name “Non-Partisan System” means “Good”, no matter who claims it.

Or in the end will we be involved in bitter academic exchanges over stakes that are so small that we should follow the wisdom of the thousands of Scarsdale residents who regularly do not vote and who indeed probably do not know what the hell the Non-Partisan System is other than something overseen by an ever-present, hard worker named Grodsky.

After all, when in a village of 17,000 residents, of whom 11,500 are registered to vote, and only 468 voted last week, there must be a subliminal message to us from those nonvoters that perhaps, one never knows with certainty, we the talkers and moaners are, in the words of St Francis, shnooks, schlemiels, and plain shlumps.

In short, why complain and wail and yell when Grodsky delivers what we want?

On the other hand, wouldn’t that be abandoning a moral cause in the absence of necessity? Would it be better to set up another entity which will choose its nominees according to its standards, standards leading to a diversity among candidates that voters might not find in present boards. It is this question that I put to your readers. Would they like to see boards more representative of the village than those they now see? For example, many voters may have views about taxation that are markedly different than those acceptable to the present board. There is no one to speak for that group. They feel helpless for lack of a voice.

Harry Reynolds
152 Bradley Road
Scarsdale, NY 10583