LWV of Scarsdale to Host Candidate Forum March 8th

Scarsdale residents will have the chance to learn more about the candidates for Village Trustee at the League of Women Voters Candidate Forum. The Forum will be held on Thursday, March 8th at 7:30pm in the Scott Room at the Scarsdale Public Library. After the candidates for Scarsdale Village Trustee speak there will be a question and answer period.

The League has invited the three candidate nominated by The Scarsdale Citizen’s Nominating Committee, as well as independent candidate Harry Reynolds to participate in the panel. In late January, the CNC announced that they had nominated Trustees Kay (Katherine) Eisenman and Jon Mark for second two-year terms, and David Lee to serve a first two-year term.

Since that time, Harry Reynolds has submitted his petition to run as an independent candidate.

Here is some background on the four candidates

Kay Eisenman has lived in Scarsdale for over 42 years and raised three children here. She works as a planner in the Planning Department of Westchester County giving her a broad understanding of land use issues. She served as the Chair of the Scarsdale Conservation Advisory Council for many years where she spearheaded efforts to get people to recycle and is now behind a new effort to get people to mulch leaves where they fall, rather than blow them to the curb for pick-up. In her statement to the Nominating Committee, Eisenman said, “As in most municipalities, here in Scarsdale we are constantly called upon to deal with these types of issues, and in the last two years alone have grappled with the possibility of a new community center under the pool house, development in the Heathcote Five Corners area, the possibility of a roundabout and the important issue of property re-evaluation for the entire Village. We oversaw the Popham Bridge reconstruction and a new pump station on Ardsley Road as well as the completion of the new police and fire safety building on Fenimore Road. I think that having started work on all these projects, and with more to come, I would like the opportunity to see them through to completion in the next couple of years.” Looking ahead, she anticipates continuing to work on storm water management issues to relieve flooding as well as the upcoming Village budget.

Jon Mark, also nominated to serve a second term grew up in Scarsdale in a family with a tradition of public service. His father served on the Town and Village Committee and his mother was an elementary school teacher at Heathcote, Greeenacres and Edgewood for over 20 years. He returned here with his wife B.K. Munghia to raise their two children and works in corporate law as a partner at Cahill, Gordon and Reindell.

As Chairman of the Land Use Committee during his first term as Trustee, Mark managed a very difficult negotiation with residents and the property owner at 2-4 Weaver Street concerning the sale of a strip of Village land at the site. Listening to both the residents and the developer he was able to draft a term sheet for the sale of the land that addressed concerns about potential development on the property while permitting the developer to move forward.

Mark said, “I am honored and delighted to be re-nominated as a candidate for election as a Village Trustee. Among the issues that came before the Board during the last year and nine months, issues involving budget, land use, storm water management and re-valuation were among those that presented the greatest challenges. These sorts of issues will continue to present themselves in the years ahead. Of course, analysis of budget issues has been made even more complex by virtue of the State property tax cap legislation, the absence of mandate relief in that legislation and the continuing decline of Village property values due to general economic conditions. If elected, I look forward to having the opportunity to address these issues, and other issues that come before the Board, together with the Mayor and fellow Board members.”

First-time nominee David Lee is also a Scarsdale native. He and his wife grew up here and later returned to raise their own family in town. Like Trustees Brodsky and Mark, Lee is a lawyer, and his specialization is trusts and estates. Lee spent many years coaching soccer, baseball and softball teams in Scarsdale. Most recently he served as Co-President of Congregation Kol Ami in White Plains where he developed and managed the annual budget and worked with many constituencies to build consensus.

In comments about his nomination, Lee said, “I'm excited about what's ahead - the election, and, assuming I'm elected, getting up to speed on the issues, working with the mayor and other trustees, and meeting and talking with Scarsdalians about what's on their mind. My schooling, professional work, and civic efforts have taught me the value of listening carefully to others, asking questions to help draw out relevant facts, and analyzing issues thoroughly. I have a good bit of experience at working on thorny issues in a group setting and helping the group reach consensus. Most of all, I have deep respect for the process, that it be fair, open-minded and respectful of all who wish to provide input, so that the decisions reached are not only sound but arrived at with integrity.”

Longtime Scarsdale resident Harry Reynolds is running Village Trustee as an independent candidate. Reynolds, an attorney worked outside the Non-Partisan system to gather the signatures necessary to file his petition with the Village Clerk to vie for a seat on the Scarsdale Village Board.

A Bradley Road resident and an attorney, Reynolds has five children and nine grandchildren living in town. He received his undergraduate degree from Fordham University and his legal training at NYU School of Law where he was an associate editor of the Law Review. During his career he served as a Clerk of the Court of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Executive Assistant to the presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, and as Chief Counsel to the Department Disciplinary Committee for the 9th Judicial District when Richard M. Nixon tendered his resignation from the bar of the State of New York.

In his statement Reynolds pledged to “support increasing metered parking from 15 to 20 minutes to which the meter mechanically will add a grace period of 6 minutes to prevent ticketing, all for the usual 25 cents.” He explained that the increase “will tend to make travel, shopping, eating, and personal appointments in the village occasions unmarked by tension and confrontations with meter enforcement officers sadly disclaiming the power to forgive as they write out tickets,” and added, “Such has been the experience in White Plains and other local governments. If it is good for them, why not for us?”

Reynolds also stated his opposition to the Non-Partisan System, saying, “I will oppose the Non-Partisan system because it keeps secret the identities of all who apply to be considered for nominations and it keeps secret the statements made by those applicants when they appear before the nominating committee. As to the first, we should know who were rejected and how they compare with the person nominated. As to the second, does the Non-Partisan system seriously tell Scarsdale’s voters that they should not be told what an applicant knows, thinks, believes, plans, or desires concerning the public office he seeks? No other electoral system in the free world keeps secret information, particularly of the second type, without which a democracy cannot be said to exist. Why this affection for secrecy by the Non-Partisan System?”

According to the Reynolds, “The secrecy in the present Non-Partisan system is said to protect us against the stink and clamor of political parties. Where is the logic, and indeed what is the motive, behind that flagrantly false claim? We can without secrecy have a Non-Partisan System by doing what we in fact do now - we simply will not support local political parties in the village. If we don’t want them, they won’t come. As it is, we have Trustees who were nominated in secrecy after foregoing the meeting of any issues in an election, leaving us, the citizens of Scarsdale, to walk around like unemployed extras on a movie lot. So detached are we from the system that it notoriously, and embarrassedly, goes out seasonally to the village’s roads and fields to drag people into the system to rouse it into a life that it does not have in the public mind. Indeed, the system disappears after every election, leaving the public nowhere to go with grievances they may have.”

The League of Women of Scarsdale’s Forum will be held on March 8 at 7:30 pm in the Scott Room of the Scarsdale Public Library. The public is invited and encouraged to attend. The election for Village Trustee and Village Justice will be held on Tuesday March 20th at the Scarsdale Library.