Scarsdale Has No Power Over Con Ed: Meeting at the Library 11-4

Several hundred residents attended a hastily called information session at the Scarsdale Public Library at 4 pm on Sunday. Mayor Miriam Flisser, joined by Village Trustees David Lee, Kay Eisenman, Bob Harrison, Jon Mark and Bob Steves and State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, took the stage to answer questions about storm recovery.

Residents were clearly tense, frustrated and hoping to get some answers about why Con Edison has not been more responsive to Scarsdale. The Mayor began with an update, reiterating what has been sent in the daily emails from the Village. This was news to some who had not opted-in to receive the information.

The Mayor reported that Con Edison hoped to restore power to all seven schools in Scarsdale so that they could open Monday and to allow voting to take place on Tuesday. As of Monday morning a delayed opening was planned for the district, but around 8 am parents learned that there would be no school at the Edgewood School and Middle School on Monday as Con Edison had not restored power.

The Mayor discussed the collapse of the Optimum Lightpath communications system and said that the emergency operations team had used their

Paulin, Steves, Harrison, Mark and Flisser

She credited her team with innovations -- such as switching to the analog phone system and hooking up generators to traffic lights. Regarding delays in restoration, she said that the Village could do little to influence Con Edison who only promised to have power back to everyone by November 11, thirteen days after the storm.

Residents asked many questions about what happened and what we could expect and there were few satisfactory answers. Wayne Aaron asked, “Where are we on the list (Con Edison’s list) and Mona Longman asked, “How can we change the timeline?” Linda Shapiro said she spoke to Con Edison at length and that communities like Rye Brook and Pelham had received much faster service. She said, “Why are we on the bottom of the rung?”

The Mayor said that it was not the responsibility of the Village to supply power, and that the “Village could only advocate for Scarsdale.”

Others asked why the Village continues to plant trees in the "right of way" underneath the power lines and if it would be possible for the Village to hire their own crews to repair the power lines. Another said that the utility poles in Scarsdale were old and weak and claimed that other areas have sturdier poles with better footings to withstand higher winds and heavy branches. Peggy Sanchez of Fox Meadow asked if the high school gymnasium could be used by cold residents and the Mayor replied, “We are not able to set up a shelter.” Concerning the use of home generators, someone asked the Mayor if the Village code would soon be revised to allow people who live on small plots to install one. She said that the new law is moving through the system but that “it takes time.”

Paulin fielded several questions and said that she too had no power and was very frustrated with Con Edison’s service. She said, “We met with Con Edison after the last storm and they have not done what they need to do. There will be hearings and the Governor will hold them accountable.” She added that they were able to get Con Edison to open up a few streets in Scarsdale where residents were trapped by fallen trees.

David Siegel Poses a Question

Here are just a few of the many comments the site received following the meeting:

"I found it quite disappointing. This was my first exposure to my elected officials, and wow I found it sobering. No real answers, no foresight to have someone from the Schools present, and a recitation of facts without any real purpose or passion. As many said there, Con Ed has been borderline shameful. But what I also saw was a Mayor who had no ability to take responsibility for being our advocate. Unlike other Mayors in surrounding areas, I don't see her as getting on TV and yelling like hell for us, or refusing to be silent on these "civil" calls. She had little capacity to even empathize with most of the citizens in the meeting. She may be a great administrator, but what we need is a great leader for our Village who refuses to take Con Ed's answers. The only thing Con Ed listens to is pressure, and our local Village leaders are clearly lacking in any ability to apply it effectively. Amy does not fall into that camp. I thought Amy was great, by the way. She was the only one who seemed to get it (amazing how effective a simple "yes, that must be frustrating" can be; something the Mayor should learn). So bottom line, very frustrating. And I think the Mayor needs to go this March, and the star chamber-selected "candidates" selected to run this town should not get too comfortable. Changes are afoot."

“Today's meeting was a disappointment--both for the slow progress of Con Ed to address the problems here in Scarsdale in a timely way, and for the shocking lack of passion, energy, or even simple ability to "feel our pain" by the Mayor and her nameless comrades on the Board. She needs to at least show is that she is truly advocating for us because the demonstration today was a classic example of a nice, earnest administrator completely out of her depth. She needs to show some strength or it will be her last term. You may not be responsible for Con Ed Madame Mayor, but you sure are responsible for making your citizens feel as though they are in the good hands of their local government.”

“Scarsdale is supposed to be a community with superior resources and creativity. Yet we remain tethered to a one-party system and a government-created power distribution monopoly. We should expect our government to lead us with new ideas and solutions. But, despite our leadership's self-congratulations (at all political levels), Scarsdale simply was poorly prepared and is now under-represented in its struggle for remediation resources. Only in school do you get an A for effort - in the real world, especially civic leadership, you only get it it for results, of which to date there are almost zero here in Scarsdale.”

“We are seeing a complete failure of both the Village's professional staff and oversight of the staff by the board of trustees. The professional staff failed in at least two fundamental ways. First, it should have built strong links with ConEd, clearly the most important utility serving the Village's residents. Those links would not have resulted in Scarsdale receiving more resources than we should have been allocated, rather to make sure we receive the resources that we should. Equally as important, those links would allow the staff to learn of ConEd's plan for the region and our village informally, the way all such communication really occurs. Expecting the mayor, who only serves two years, to establish and maintain those links (or serve as an effective point of escalation during emergencies) is not practical. It is only the professional staff, who are typically employed for many years, that can establish these links.

Unfortunately, I can only assume from the lack of meaningful updates from official Scarsdale and the lack of crews in town compared to others in Westchester now being powered back up that those links were simply never built.
The second failure is the lack of planning "business continuity." The instances of failure here are numerous: We have no generators, our website (scarsdale.com) is down, our phone system is down. We are fortunate to have both the emergency notification system and scarsdale10583.com.
Ultimately, the buck stops with the trustees and the mayor, whom we elect first and foremost to make sure our basic needs are met.
Once power is restored, the trees carted away, and our leaves removed, I for one would like to see us (we the people) form an independent commission to review both the state of our Village’s preparedness (the professional staff) and the quality of supervision by the trustees and mayor.”

A second meeting with the Mayor and Trustees will be held tonight, Monday November 5 in the Scott Room of Scarsdale Public Library. Everyone is invited to attend.

Photo credit: Sarah Schuman