Lowey Will Not Seek Re-election in 2020

White Plains, NY – Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY17/Westchester and Rockland), Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, announced today that she will not seek re-election next year in the following statement: 

“After 31 years in the United States Congress, representing the people of Westchester, Rockland, Queens and the Bronx, I have decided not to seek re-election in 2020. 

“It is my deep honor and privilege to serve my community and my country, and I will always be grateful to the people who have entrusted me to represent them. 

“I am proud of the help my office has provided to thousands of constituents on matters ranging from health insurance and veterans’ benefits to Social Security and student loans. “As a long-time Member of the House Appropriations Committee, I have secured funding to clean up and protect Long Island Sound and the Hudson River; increase access to Head Start, after school programs, and community health centers for thousands of local children and families; provide New York’s fair share of homeland security assistance; and make the commute across the Hudson easier and safer on the new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. In difficult times, including after September 11th and Superstorm Sandy, I have fought hard in Washington for federal assistance to recover and rebuild. 

“I authored legislation to institute the .08 standard of enforcement for drunk driving, which has dramatically reduced DWI fatalities. My legislation to require commonsense, clear allergy information on food labels has improved and saved countless lives. I am also proud of my successful efforts to require contraceptive insurance coverage for federal employees and to dramatically increase investments and gender equity in federal medical research. 

“As the Chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee that writes the foreign aid bill, I have advanced record funding for women’s health and basic education - especially for girls - around the world, a strong U.S.-Israel relationship with bipartisan support, and other investments that support American interests abroad. 

“I am honored that my colleagues in Congress elected me as the first Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee and will fight vigorously for House Democratic priorities as I negotiate spending bills for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. 

“I am especially thankful for the dedication and wisdom of my current and former staff in New York, in Washington, and on the House Appropriations Committee. Partnerships with countless advocates, leaders, and elected officials in New York and Washington have been invaluable. I look forward to more time with my husband Steve and our family, who have strongly supported my career in public service. 

“Thank you to the people of my district for the opportunity to serve. I will continue working as hard as ever – with the same optimism and energy – through the end of this term in Congress.”

Break-Ins Surge According to Email

 Even without receiving campaign emails from the corner office about what’s going on around Town, it’s no longer a secret that the Greenburgh Police Department has lessened their traffic control presence throughout the Town. It was most notably observed in several neighborhoods that used to have an officer in either a marked, unmarked or “shadow” vehicle sitting with a radar gun monitoring traffic, speeders and issuing tickets. The officers doing this have apparently been removed from these locations and either reassigned or perhaps even retired. While we don’t have a reason for this, we know the lack of traffic policing has not gone unnoticed.

Many residents have reached out to their civic associations to complain and find out why. The police department has admitted they are short-staffed. Quite possibly a personnel shortage might, in fact, be the reason. But we also read that the police department decided not to fill a vacant position to purchase several motorcycles. Clearly, this move would indicate the position that was open was not necessarily impactful or critical to the police on patrol. Or was it?

In one of his recent daily email campaign blasts, Mr Feiner wrote to residents that “Over a dozen unlocked vehicles were entered last night in the Joyce Road section of Hartsdale and property was stolen from within the cars. Additionally, one unlocked vehicle with a key left inside was stolen.  If each of these cars was locked this email would not have been written!” We doubt that. In fact, he would simply discuss something else. Such as, since the professionals he hired to repair the 9-11 memorial wall at Presser Park (formerly Webb Field) failed with their last attempt, he has enlisted the help of students to repair the wall and try to keep the individual tiles from falling off again.

He continues, “We are stepping up patrols and asking residents to help protect themselves by locking their vehicles at night. This crime of opportunity is plaguing many communities in Westchester and we believe the Greenburgh police have previously arrested the subjects responsible for last night’s crimes. Our officers have been in the Bronx most of the day following up.” What it sounds like is that a lack of patrols by our police might be what’s missing. Perhaps one of the new motorcycle police officers could do the patrol more stealthily than a regular patrol car?

Finally, he says, “The Greenburgh police department also has a neighborhood watch program. Neighbors who participate in the neighborhood watch efforts help the police look for suspicious activity. Let us know if you're interested in setting up a neighborhood watch program on your street. We can have a police officer meet with you and your neighbors at someone's home, provide neighbors with safety tips and advise you what action steps you could take to help us keep your neighborhood very safe.”

We are all for Neighborhood Watch programs and encourage the public to report any suspicious activity, regardless of a Neighborhood Watch or not. But Mr Feiner has cleverly switched the subject from a lack of action with the thefts in the Hartsdale neighborhood away from the real issue, that of a lack of police presence in all of our neighborhoods. Our police department is one of the best to be found anywhere. Sadly, the police chief answers to, and the department falls under Mr Feiner’s purview. 

While all of the rhetoric from the corner office will no doubt change the subject, Mr Feiner will offer to meet with anyone who is willing to talk to him. If he hadn’t already changed the subject prior to his arrival, he will do so once he is there. Then he will try to enlist the help of that person to assist him in creating a program to... We need a more visible police presence in all of our neighborhoods to thwart crime. We need speed monitoring and ticketing of those offenders who violate the law. If we have the police in our neighborhoods instead of in the Bronx or riding motorcycles, maybe we can prevent more crime here as get to know our police officers better. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Elmsford School Board Recommendations

We’ve posted previously that we don’t usually endorse candidates. There are five candidates running for two open seats. ABG joined them at an open forum event at the Village of Elmsford Village Hall. It was sponsored by the Elmsford Author’s Fund as part of their “Meet the Candidates” Forum. Those candidates are incumbent Matthew RC Evans, and four newcomers, Justin Datino, Tilsa Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Christopher F. Sia and Theodore Thomas.

Each candidate gave an opening statement. That was followed by direct questions to each candidate from the Forum’s moderator. As with any event of this nature, time is always the enemy and limits a candidates answer. It also works to everyone’s advantage as it mandates concise, pointed answers. Mr Thomas seemed most able to be brief but effective. Several audience questions were specific to existing programs that were answered best by Mr Evans – only because he has a more intimate familiarity with policies as the incumbent. 

During the exchanges, there were never any personal attacks nor were the candidates critical of each other or their ideas. The four newcomers offer a wide diversity of backgrounds that may all bring something different to the “table”. 

Mr Justin Datino, an Assistant to the Scarsdale Village Administrator, with a background in Government Administration focused heavily and pointedly on Transportation costs, acknowledging there are unchangeable fixed costs for personnel, pensions, and operating expenses while saying he is still willing to look at them and see what might be able to done to save the district more. 

Ms Rodriguez-Gonzalez, is an educator in the Bronx. She detailed her background as being two-fold. One part of what she does is as a teacher of Health and Physical Education. The second part of what she does is to study informational data to better assist her colleagues in the school improve how they teach to reach students better. ABG apologizes for not having gotten the title of that position. She was asked why her three children attended private schools? She stated it was a personal reason and still explained some of her reasons. ABG found her answer acceptable. One statement ABG did not find acceptable was a comment she made about the position she was seeking, saying, “After all, it is a volunteer position.” While this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for her, and we found her qualified, we were dismayed to hear that comment.

Mr Sia, who works for the County of Westchester at the Archive & Records office on 9A, made an enlightening comment. He stated as a somewhat recent graduate of Alexander Hamilton High School, he felt ill-prepared for college. He felt his poor experience in high school, and his deficiencies in math, computer knowledge and English made college more difficult for him. He said he would look to help the students be better prepared for their next educational journey after high school.

Mr Thomas, recently retired from the Elmsford Police Department and previously from the insurance industry offered an interesting proposition if he were to be elected. He would invite Governor Cuomo, several elected leaders, local PTA members, School Board members and a few students to lunch trying to help bridge the gap from his small community to the larger state entity. He would also work toward acquiring funds through grants from various sources to help offset the costs of education already saddling our taxpayers. As a retiree, he is willing to go to Albany and/or Washington DC as often as necessary to help the Elmsford School District and community. 

The Forum was an enlightening event. It was a meeting chocked full of good questions and good answers. School taxes are the bulk of all taxpayers’ overall tax bill. Given it’s significance, you would think everyone would come out and vote. The public is faced with five choices in this Tuesday’s School Board election. There are no bad choices in this upcoming election. Based on what we heard this afternoon, ABG believes the two strongest contenders are Mr Justin Datino and Mr Theodore (Ted) Thomas. There’s a saying in politics, GOTV: get out the vote. So go. If you haven’t followed the candidates or aren’t sure or just need to be pushed along, vote for these two candidates we just mentioned. Just go vote!