A Letter From Virginia Calcutti

In his letter last week, Trustee Brian Pugh said that he is currently “one of the two remaining Democrats on the Village Board.” This is false.

There are actually four registered Democrats on our current Village Board, including Trustee Ken Walsh and Mayor Greg Schmidt from Croton United.

It seems as if Trustee Pugh doesn’t consider you a real Democrat if you don’t march to the same beat of the drums as his organization, the Croton Dems. I’ve been a registered Democrat for over 50 years, which I believe is longer than Trustee Pugh has been alive. However, by Trustee Pugh’s standard, I guess I’m not Democrat enough for Trustee Pugh either.

So, between all the Democrats that aren’t real Democrats and all the Republicans that Trustee Pugh obviously wants to ignore, it becomes very clear that Trustee Pugh and the Croton Dems represent only a small number of residents in our village.

This is exactly the type of thinking that needs to change in Croton. Only Croton United has stated their intention to represent everyone in the village and, only Croton United proves it by opening its organization to all residents, regardless of national affiliation.

That’s why I’m supporting and I hope you will support Croton United’s candidates, Mark Aarons and Dan McNatty, for Village Trustee in the November 8 election.

Virginia Calcutti
Croton-on-Hudson

Mark Aarons & Dan McNatty for Village Trustee

Croton United is pleased to announce the nomination of Mark Aarons and Dan McNatty as its candidates for the two open trustee seats on the Croton Village Board.

“We are very proud to once again offer village residents a slate of candidates that will bring both proven experience and new ideas to our village board,” said Croton United Chair Roseann Schuyler. “Mark and Dan bring a wealth of professional knowledge to the table which will be critical as we deal with the challenges of keeping taxes low and levels of service high.”

Mark Aarons lives in Croton with his wife, Karen, and their two sons, Grant and Brady. A 20-year resident of the village, he has been a Cub Scout den leader, baseball and football coach, a member of the Croton-Harmon school district transportation committee, and a five-year member of the Croton Planning Board.

Mark is a Vice-President and Deputy General Counsel for Modell’s Sporting Goods where he is regularly engaged in contract review, construction, budgeting and regulatory issues. He has also served as a valued panel member of the American Arbitration Association, where he was considered an expert on advanced arbitration techniques.

The Aarons love all the outdoor recreation opportunities that Croton has to offer. They keep a boat on the Hudson River and greatly value Croton’s hiking trails, parks and nature preserves. Mark is particularly proud of his involvement as a co-founder the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and the work the organization continues to do in the areas of environmental protection, consumer rights, government reform, and other vital issues.

“From my five years on the village planning board, it seems to me that there are so many ways in which to enrich the experience of living in our wonderful village,” said Mark. “By bringing my thirty plus years as a lawyer to the village board, I believe I can be a valuable asset in facing some of the challenges ahead of us, while focusing on a future full of vitality, hopefulness, and community spirit.”

Dan McNatty was born in New Zealand, moved to the United States 20 years ago and became a proud American citizen 4 years ago. He and his wife, Hayley, have lived in Croton for 10 years and have two sons. Dan has worked in finance for 20 years in Hong Kong, London and New York. His volunteer activities include acting as an accountant for Rebuilding Together NYC (a nonprofit housing organization dedicating to improving the homes and lives of low-income New Yorkers), treasurer for the Croton Harmon Education Foundation (CHEF), and seven years of coaching Croton AYSO.

“I’m running for Village trustee because I believe I can make a positive impact in the role,” said Dan. “We face many challenges as a Village, in particular, ensuing we continue to provide the services necessary to maintain the quality of life we enjoy here while doing so in a fiscally responsible manner. I believe we need a healthy and transparent debate at the board level where diverse opinions are brought to the table and discussed rationally in order to meet these challenges. I can work effectively with different people in order to build consensus and get things done.”

Croton United is a bipartisan community organization—not a political party—made up of Democrats, Republicans and Independents who believe that national parties and partisanship have no role in village government. We receive no funding from local, county, state or national political parties. Our only focus is on village issues. Our only goal is to do what’s best for all village residents.

Dan McNatty (left) and Mark Aarons (right)

Dan McNatty (left) and Mark Aarons (right)

Fiscal Sustainability

The following letter was published in this week’s issue of the Gazette.
To the Editor:

One of the principal reasons the bipartisan community organization Croton United was formed was to stop the unbridled spending of the Weigman administration. We ran on a platform including fiscal responsibility and sustainability.

Croton United has been in office for six months and has worked closely with the village staff to improve processes and efficiencies with the ultimate goal of retiring debt and making the village more fiscally sound.

We also reached out to the community to find finance professionals who would be willing to share their knowledge, expertise and time to help achieve that goal. The response was wonderful. Numerous resumes were submitted and vetted by the village manager and the board. The selection process was open, transparent and bipartisan.

The Fiscal Sustainability Committee held their initial meeting last week with Mayor Schmidt and myself, and are now digging into the job ahead.

I must mention in closing that contrary what the Croton Dems are saying, Croton United is a community organization and not a political party. Everyone is welcome to participate. We receive no funding from local, county, state or national parties. Our only issues are Village issues. Our only goal is to do the best job possible for all Village residents.

Bob Anderson
Trustee, Croton-on-Hudson

Did Croton Engage in Exclusionary Zoning Practices?

The following letter to the Gazette will be published in the July 7 issue.
To the Editor:

At the June 27th work session, the village attorney discussed recent communications between the village and James Johnson, the housing monitor appointed to oversee the implementation of the legal settlement between Westchester County and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Village residents may recall that back in May, Mr. Johnson encouraged the federal government to give serious consideration to bringing suit against seven Westchester communities—Croton among them—that he determined had engaged in exclusionary zoning practices.

Croton is a wonderful, diverse community that has, in fact, encouraged, supported and—in HUD’s own words—“affirmatively furthered” fair housing opportunities. It is unfortunate that our community is on Mr. Johnson’s exclusionary zoning practices list, and very worrisome that Croton lives under the threat of costly, and likely high-profile, litigation by the federal government.

But I want to make sure village residents understand that Croton is on this list due to an ill-considered and politically motivated change to village code promulgated by the members of the Wiegman administration, including current Trustee Ann Gallelli. On Monday night Ms. Gallelli professed to have no idea of why the village would have gotten into trouble with HUD, even though she and the other members of the prior administration were warned at the time that passage of a law that would explicitly restrict the development of certain types of rental housing would likely result in consequences for the village—particularly at a time when the federal government was intensely focused on fair housing issues in Westchester County.

The housing monitor has recently been provided with evidence of Croton’s commitment to diversity and fairness in housing, but more may need to be done before our community is removed from the Housing Monitor’s list. I look forward to the day when Croton’s well-deserved reputation as a welcoming, egalitarian community is restored, but want to set the record straight on why we find ourselves listed as a community that has engaged in intentional housing discrimination.

Roseann Schuyler

A False Accusation

The following letter was published in this week’s Gazette.
To the editor:

Last week John McBride, former chair of both the Croton Democratic Party and the Cortlandt Democratic Party, wrote a letter to the Gazette accusing the Croton United Trustees of violating a New York State Village Law when we voted recently to approve a payment to a village resident for damage done to that resident's property by a village contractor. The Village Attorney was involved in the discussion before a decision was made on this issue. After I read Mr. McBride's letter, I spoke to the Village Attorney, who confirmed that the board did not violate either the law that was cited or any other law.

I wish that people would come to me directly to ask clarifying questions or discuss their position if they do not understand why I am doing something, rather than make accusations in either the Gazette or online. If Mr. McBride had come forward, either when the matter was discussed at a work session, or when it was being voted on at our regular meeting, his questions could have been addressed by the Village Attorney directly.

Working together starts with open and honest communication.

Ken Walsh
Trustee, Village of Croton-on-Hudson

Misleading and Misguided

The Village has responded to a “misleading and misguided” article published by The Guardian (a British newspaper) that was critical of the Village’s water collection and testing protocol.


The article was about lead contamination and testing procedures in the "81 most populous cities and towns east of the Mississippi".


Croton is not one of the most populous cities and towns, nor does the evidence indicate that the Croton water supply is unhealthy.


Croton United has disagreed with the previous administration on many issues, but there has always been broad support for the efforts of the Board of Trustees as they dealt with maintaining the quality of our water supply.


As former Mayor Wiegman correctly observed at a work session a few years ago, home plumbing systems account for most of the impurities in residential tap water. This is particularly true with lead contamination.


Homes built before 1930 used lead pipes, and lead solder was used for home plumbing into the 1980s. Prior to 2014, many home plumbing fixtures contained lead content of up to 8 percent. Those sources of lead have nothing to do with any municipal water supply and in fact are beyond the control of the Village.


Contrary to the implications of the newspaper article, there is no indication at all that any Village official has ever used testing procedures which would prompt "criminal charges" against CoH Village employees similar to the case in Flint, Michigan.


Croton United is not aware of any evidence that either current or former elected officials have acted in bad faith or tampered with water test results. On the contrary, our elected officials and our Village Engineer and our current and our former Village Manager have consistently put politics aside when it comes to the quality of our drinking water.


The newspaper article is not truthful and does a disservice to all the Trustees and Village employees who have worked over the past decade to serve the residents of Croton.

Playing Politics With a Playground

We were disappointed to see that at last night’s Village Board meeting, Croton Dems trustees Ann Gallelli and Brian Pugh chose to make a playground a political issue by refusing to join us in voting to approve the resolution that would have permitted the renovations of Sunset Park to move forward. The new bid of $172,475 was less than the $185,000 appropriation for the project that Trustees Gallelli and Pugh themselves previously approved. If passed, the resolution would have put into place the renovation plan that was developed through the collaboration of an ad hoc citizens committee and village staff, along with the expert participation of students at Carrie E. Tompkins Elementary School.

Bungalow Road Safety

The following letter appears in this week’s issue of the Gazette.

To the editor:
I am glad that our village board worked with the residents on BungalowRoad to try and improve the long standing safety issue of people speeding around the blind curve on Bungalow Road. While on the campaign trail last fall, I listened to the concerns of the residents. Our village board collaborated with the residents, the Croton Police Department and the Croton Department of Public Works to develop a solution that will hopefully solve the safety issue. The solution of putting up warning signs to slow down as people are approaching Bungalow Road from both directions is now implemented. We will monitor the impact of the solution and see if the solution solves the safety issue. From the time that our board came together in December, then started having conversations with the residents in early January, to the implementation of the solution, took four months. I look forward to listening and working with more residents to solve their problems.

Ken Walsh, Trustee
Village of Croton-on-Hudson

Gingold Responds to the Croton Dems

The following letter appeared in this week’s issue of the Gazette.

To the Editor,
The spate of semi-hysterical letters that has appeared in these pages in recent weeks makes it eminently clear that the Croton Dems have yet to recover from the drubbing they took at the polls last November. I guess it must be very difficult for them to accept the abject rejection of their policies and practices by the great majority of their constituents.

So despite the fact the next election is more than seven months away, they flail madly about seizing upon one topic after another in the vain hope that one of them will gain traction with the electorate. And, as always, they take some significant liberties with the facts in trying to make their case. You will recall that these are the same folks who have been cited by the Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee for making misleading statements in each of the last two election campaigns.

Leading the charge are Trustees Brian Pugh and Ann Gallelli, who must be terrified that they will suffer the same fate as their former board colleagues in the next election, as they have begun their re-election campaigns early and regaled us every week with their comments on a variety of subjects. Which, of course, is certainly their right.  It is most interesting that Mr. Pugh, who had barely a word to say in public during his first year on the board, has become the most vocal of them all. Perhaps it’s the freedom he feels finally being out from under the thumb of our erstwhile mayor. You go, Brian!

But I am most surprised by the reemergence of defeated Trustees Andy Levitt and Maria Slippen, key pillars of the morally and ethically challenged Wiegman administration. One would have thought that, after his obscene tirade of a few months ago, the foul-mouthed Mr. Levitt would be too embarrassed to strut once again on the public stage. But, what the heck, it’s a free country, and remorse and apology have never been high on the Croton Dems list of virtues.

Most ironic is the recent screed by Ms. Slippen touting her lifelong support of transparency and open government. Unless someone of the same name has recently moved to our village, is this not the same Maria Slippen who led the fight in the previous administration to prevent you from questioning board members and otherwise participated in that administration’s countless instances of obfuscation and withholding of data from public scrutiny? It appears that the Croton Dems do value hypocrisy among their followers.  But, hey, guys, whatever you think might work.

So far, the presidential campaign has been nothing else if not entertaining. Looks like our local politics may follow a similar path. Stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Joel E. Gingold

Flabbergasted!

The following letter appeared in this week’s Gazette.

To the Editor:
Maria Slippen isn’t the only one who’s flabbergasted. I’m sure many Croton residents were as shocked as I was by her letter in last week’s Gazette, falsely accusing Deputy Mayor Bob Anderson and Croton United of politicizing the replacement of the Rescue 18 truck. It’s perfectly obvious to anyone who reads this paper that it was her fellow Croton Dem, Eileen Henry, who has attempted to make this a political issue with her letter in the February 18-24 issue and her second letter on the same subject last week. Ms. Slippen even has the chutzpah to fan the flames herself by implying that the Croton United board majority is not concerned with fire safety. Deputy Mayor Bob Anderson said it best in his recent letter, “To imply that public safety is at risk is simply not true. To do so for partisan political purposes is simply wrong.”

Shame on you Ms. Slippen!

Doris Daubney

Can’t We All Just Get Along?

Like the Washington Post, which during the early days of Watergate published Attorney General John Mitchell’s vulgar comments about publisher Katherine Graham on the front page, verbatim, we want to alert the residents of Croton to some similarly vulgar statements made by former Croton Dem trustee Andy Levitt.

After the board meeting last Tuesday night Levitt verbally assaulted Croton United Treasurer Joel Gingold in the hallway of the Municipal Building. Despite the fact that Joel had spoken in favor of the Community Choice Aggregation program—which Levitt was presumably at the meeting to support—Levitt called him, among other choice epithets, an “a**hole” and a “motherf***er” before ordering Mr. Gingold to leave the building.

We don’t know whether he was upset at the outcome of the CCA vote or the recent election (or both) but we hope that from this point forward, the Croton Dems will honor their campaign promise not to “snipe at each other when there is important work to be done in this Village.” We urge them to join with us to make Croton a “safe space” for civil discourse.

Let’s Wish Them Well

The following letter was published in this week’s Gazette.

On December 7th at 8:00  p.m. the Village will hold it’s organizational meeting at the Municipal Bldg. Based on the support you all gave to Mayor-elect Greg Schmidt, Trustees-elect Bob Anderson and Ken Walsh, it would be great if you could attend to wish them well as they take office.    

A special thank you to all our senior residents who gave them their overwhelming support. Again, thank you and I'm hoping to see many of you there.

Ginny Calcutti

Please Join Us!

Next Monday Greg Schmidt will officially become Mayor of Croton-on-Hudson and Bob Anderson and Ken Walsh will become Trustees when they take the Oath of Office at the annual Organizational Meeting of the Board of Trustees, prior to the regular Board Meeting. 

This short ceremony will be the culmination of everything we worked so hard to achieve and the beginning of a new era for the village we all love.

Please join us! 

Monday, December 7 at 8:00 p.m.
The Stanley H. Kellerhouse Municipal Building
1 Van Wyck Street
Croton-on-Hudson, New York 10520

If You Can’t Stand the Heat . . .

This letter was published in this week’s issue of the Gazette.

To the Editor,
I was saddened to see the tear-stained screed from Croton Democratic Chair Paul Rolnick, abetted by Trustees Maria Slippen and Brian Pugh, bemoaning their citation (for the second year in a row) by the Westchester Fair Campaign Practices Committee (WFCPC) for making misleading statements during the recent village election campaign, and their continuing efforts to falsely accuse Croton United of following the low road during that campaign. In fairness, neither Mayor Wiegman nor Trustee Andy Levitt joined that chorus.

The accepted procedure after one loses an election is to offer congratulations to the winners and pledge to work together for the betterment of the community (even if it is not totally sincere), and then retire to meet in private to lick ones wounds, try to figure out what went wrong, and develop a plan to do better in the future. I had fully expected that the Dems would follow this well-traveled path and, while there will certainly be honest differences between the two camps on a number of critical village issues, we would then proceed together on a positive basis and without such recriminations. But I guess they just can’t let go of past events.  

I would point out that the WFCPC citations belie Mr. Rolnick’s claim of a Dems campaign based on “. . . fact, substance, and utter respect for the opposing candidates and voters.” As I read it, the principal issues in the campaign were the fiscal policies of the outgoing board and the honesty and integrity of their candidates. Croton United presented a variety of facts in these and other areas, and not once, to my knowledge, did the Dems take specific exception to any of them nor could they demonstrate that they were false. They did, of course, offer excuses and otherwise try to justify their actions, but these attempts were soundly rejected by the voters of Croton.

It is a little-known fact that the Dems did submit a rather specious claim to the WFCPC regarding Croton United’s activities, but it was quickly dismissed by the Committee. I have no doubt that, if there was anything truly untoward in Croton United’s campaign, the Dems would not have hesitated to shout it from the rooftops and file claim after claim after claim with the WFCPC.

Mr. Rolnick, your side lost. Get used to it. Nobody likes a sore loser. Get past the election and instruct your followers, acknowledged and otherwise, to stop sniping from the sidelines. As Harry Truman said (you do know who he is, Mr. Rolnick), “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!” Instead of whining about the past, let’s all get together, both newly elected board members and those who will remain, and focus on the hard work ahead.  

If you’re upset by the repeated WFCPC citations, Mr. Rolnick, I suggest that, in the future, you follow the biblical admonition to “Go and sin no more.”

Sincerely,
Joel E. Gingold

Every Vote Counts . . . Once it’s Counted

We’ve been waiting for the Westchester County Board of Elections to count the absentee ballots and certify the final results of the election that was held more than three weeks ago. We’re pleased to announce that the tally of village absentee ballots, which were only counted Tuesday, have overwhelmingly supported Croton United's candidates. 

The results are below, but we first want to note that this lengthy delay in finalizing the village election—along with the election night debacle that resulted in wholly incorrect vote counts being reported both on television and online—leads us to believe that the village may have made an error when village elections were moved from March to November approximately four years ago. When we controlled our elections the final results, including the tally of absentee ballots, were counted and announced on the evening of Election Day. We wonder whether this issue requires further consideration.    

ABSENTEE BALLOT TALLY

38   Schmidt
18   Wiegman

38   Anderson
38   Walsh
18   Slippen
17   Levitt