JUSTIN BRASCH OPENING REMARKS:
Brasch is currently a Councilman and Highlands resident who comes to our events because he is a neighbor. You see me in the community because I live in the community.
I’m running for mayor as a continuation of my longtime commitment to public service. Started as intern for Congressman Ted Weiss who believed government should work for the people, including the most vulnerable. Have worked on issues of food and housing insecurities and helping people. After college became Democratic State Committeeman in Manhattan and served on various boards working on things such as climate sustainability (Sierra Club.)
Moved to White Plains more than 20 years ago. Since then, I have worked on budget committee and planning committee and school board budget committee. Now on council and working with youth board as well.
Big issues include working on sustainability and better bigger parks in town. I want everyone to feel safe in our city and know how to complain if they have issues. I work on cops & kids programs. Some things I’ve worked on include parking in town – now we don’t have to pay for parking on holidays! When ran for council, I ran on expanding affordable housing (working with Nadine) for the whole city and not just in downtown buildings.
Working recently to make sure our police have non-lethal tasers. We have a great record of training our officers and so we needed to make sure that all officers have training on non-lethal tasers and access to those taser as well.
The biggest thing I want to do in our city is create inter-generational center. Our youth bureau has insufficient space. The senior center is a disaster. So want a center for all. It will help us build community and learn from each other and be together for programming and events. Based on my efforts, the City has put money into doing a study on this proposal and the mayor will continue those efforts.
Another big issue is affordable housing. The proposal at the Galleria will take 7-10 years to complete. Working with State Senator Shelly Mayer to work with developers to add more affordable housing to the project. That’s what you get with me – take what we’re already doing and then try to do it better.
We need a more open and transparent government. We need a public information officer to keep people informed about what’s going on in the city. We need to do a better job with that. Sustainability is very important to me. We need a sustainability director as other smaller cities have. On a fun side, I think we need a skateboard park! Our city is fiscally responsible. We will maintain our top tier ratings. We don’t want to raise taxes, and we want to keep them down for all residents. I go to every community in White Plains. I’m accessible and I return my phone calls and I take pride in that and would continue to do that as Mayor.
NADINE HUNT-ROBINSON OPENING REMARKS:
I’m running because I love the city. I was a council member for ten years and have lived in White Plains for 25 years. My husband and son are third and fourth generation of Robinsons to live here. I know the city and its history. I started out living in the Highlands in a condo when first moved here. Now live in Winbrook area.
When I got in this race, it was clear that I am not an establishment candidate. I am a change agent. I bring different views and approach. When I was on council, I had been serving in the community in other aspects. I’m an attorney. I have run large organizations with big budgets. I know how to push back and I don’t rubber stamp things without asking the tough questions first.
When I lived there, I ran the condo. People didn’t want to deal with the conflict between the condo owners and the various building and budget projects, but I don’t shy away from those challenges, and we got them done and resolved the issues. I Volunteered with young girls through my sorority and chaired the youth bureau. I believe in the next generation. I have always been a volunteer using my executive leadership experience to hold people accountable.
In 2014, I had the opportunity to be on council. I worked with the finance commissioner to protect seniors – specifically seniors who made over $25K/year who weren’t protected from rent increases. I fought to prove that helping those seniors out wouldn’t hurt the city’s bottom line. I suggested incremental increases to the finance team to phase things in to provide data on how the programs would work to help with rent increase protection. I sponsored the legislation, and it has worked now for a decade. I didn’t let the commissioner sway me. I got him to see my side.
I met with planning commissioner and vetted contractors to find a new person to work on community outreach to make sure residence of Winbrook area were part of the construction happening there. I bring an ability to work with city hall and commissioners to bend things to the residents way and to change the course. I am a disrupter for the people.
I don’t believe that people should stay in office for decades. When I left the council after chairing Recreation & Parks and the Youth Bureau, I didn’t know where to go next. So I kicked off a mayoral listening tour to see what people needed and hear their concerns. The number one issue I heard bout was development. I have a history of taking the hard votes. I voted “no” on development when I was on council. I wanted to protect our close neighborhoods. I was told if you vote “no” your career is over. But it was the right thing.
I worked on environmental law and environmental issues. I’m aware of the issues with them. I’m concerned about the development on those issue. I choose people over politics. I felt it was the right thing to do. If a developer was talking about 1,000 students at White Plains High School, I wanted to know how that would work with new buildings and new students and environmental concerns. We pushed. But then they decreased the size of the student body for the proposal. But I didn’t trust it. I didn’t think the numbers added up and that they said they would decreasing the size just to get the vote through and then would increase the size again once passed. So I suggested a moratorium. The developers signed the moratorium and agreed to various promised community benefits. And they didn’t build. And I think it’s because they never planned to do the smaller enterprise in the first place. It has just stalled. So I had to be creative to get the results I wanted. And I’ll bring that creativity to the mayor job.
Galleria should be 20% affordable housing. We need every stratification of people and background so White Plains continues as it is. For example, I’ve been questioning the food hall at the new Galleria. Are these affordable options for a family eating there? Are there other options for food trucks? For outdoor seating? Etc. The galleria needs to stay as the town square that it has been and that has to appeal to all families. With development, we have to make sure the two dozen neighborhoods surrounding downtown are not overdeveloped as a result of downtown development.
Another issue raised on my listening tour is feeling safe. I come from family of police officers. My husband is a retired state trooper. Our men in blue are doing a great job. There are issues of aggressive panhandling in certain areas. We don’t want the deterioration of our downtown. People need to feel safe here. Part of that is getting back to the idea of the cop on the beat. Police presence is a deterrent. This is important especially for our seniors. I have suggested a community public safety board to deal with this issue. That will create a connection regularly with communities that have strained relations with the police.
The last thing I heard on the listening tour was that people don’t feel heard, and no one is listening. I have proposed term limits for the next mayor. The goal is you come in and deliver on your promises and then you get new and more ideas from the next group coming in and improving on your ideas. If you don’t have term limits, special interest groups get their hooks in on your leader and now the special interests are calling the shots instead of the residents.
I’m committed to being the people’s advocate. I’m always going to do what is right for the people even if it is not politically expedient.
QUESTION AND ANSWER SEGMENT:
Question 1 – You mention youth programming and a community center for events, but does that include a center with a gym or a pool or something that everyone can use without having to pay a big membership?
Nadine: I’m working on that in Winbrook. The Slater Center already works with seniors and youth. We want more community rooms to embrace seniors & youths together. We need more rooms for meetings. We need to build out Slater Center and find both public and private partners to build it out
Justin: Yes, we want a facility that has gyms and computers and - if we can afford it - a swimming pool. It should be a place for the whole city. This has been my idea and my baby for quite some time. I have convinced the administration to do a study on how this would be used and how it would be paid for. When I was on youth program, we started a grandpa program which very few cities of our size have. We need a place for them to meet. The Slater Center is a mess. It’s a beautiful community center. But it’s 44 years old and I’ve been distressed by the conditions there. When I was on Council, Council wrote a letter saying the administration should rehabilitate this building. At the time the letter ended up in garbage. And only one person on the Council didn’t sign that letter, and that was Nadine. Now as a result of those efforts we’ve been working towards there, we have a downtown revitalization grant from the state. The Slater Center is getting $600K of that money to at least help make building more accessible and do some of the other necessary improvements. My idea for a community center is its own thing and a new building, but we also need to fix the Slater Center.
Nadine Response: I didn’t sign the letter. I’m a person of action, not rhetoric. I don’t sign well-written but political letters. I knew I could successfully get a contractor for the Slater Center, but I was not sure that a letter was going to get that done. I have done volunteer programs at the Slater Center. The most marginalized groups meet there. That center is a heart of that area and within Winbrook. The Slater Center is named after Pastor Slater at Bethel Baptist Church. I will not be used for political stunts. I don’t do well-placed letters. But I will meet with contractors to get it done.
Justin Response: The letter with other councilmembers was not political stunt. We were trying to get attention on the issue to get resources for it, which we did get as part of that grant money.
Question 2: We have two big holes in the ground in White Plains. How will we know that the Galleria project won’t become another long-term hole in the ground?
Justin: People like me are already working on this issue. We’re 7-10 years out from completion. It’s going to be biggest project in our region. All we can do is work with our contractors to build it. We’ll have 27% affordable housing there. We’re working with developers to get this done. It’s a long-term project but there is a plan, and we meet regularly about it. We do have too many holes in the ground here, and the current administration has been lax about that. I will not be lax about that moving forward. I have calls constantly with the developers involved. The other big hole in the ground was just sold and we are working on that to get things moving there now that the sale has gone through.
Nadine: We need a different approach. We need performance bonds tied in at various stages so that if the developers don’t meet their targets at each phase, we can get the property back to a state that is not an eyesore. There are too many eyesores. We don’t want ugly plastic around properties anymore. Let’s work with ArtsWestchester to make things look better when projects are under construction. With performance bonds, we get the property to a point where it’s not an eyesore while other financial difficulties are sorted out. It’s levels of agreement to assess. Performance bonds motivate corporate America. It’s a carrot & stick approach to motivate.
Question 3: We’ve had a massive influx of motorized scooters in town lately. Are there any regulations or insurance or licenses required of them? Are there ways to monitor this issue to protect people getting run over or hurt in another way?
Nadine: We need to talk to the traffic commissioner to be more stringent about that issue. Where are delivery people leaving their bikes without obstructing driveways? Is there a place to put them? A lot of people don’t know they shouldn’t be riding on sidewalks. We need a 311 and/or educational campaign to let people know they are breaking laws when they are on sidewalks and not storing bikes properly. We need a way to report things to law enforcement. We need to educate people to keep our pedestrian areas safe. We’re a 90% walkability city. We need to push out this info about motorized bike rules and get it to people by pushing it out via apps and such, especially to new residents coming in. For example, we can use the digital signs we have and push out that way
Justin: We have been looking into this. They are big danger. We need racks to park them. Our police are not told to stop them to ticket them or give them warnings and that needs to change if we are to change behavior. We can add rules that insist they wear helmets and have insurance and have certain safety features like lights. They aren’t in place now. And yes, we need to do a better job informing people. As mentioned, we need public information officers. I am unhappy with level of communication from our administration on these issues.
Question 4 (from Sustainability Committee): I’m pleased with current leadership on sustainability issues, but of course there is always more to do. Can you expand on specific sustainability ideas beyond just having a sustainability officer in place as was mentioned?
Justin: When it comes to details of sustainability, I’m not going to tell you I’m an expert. But that’s why we need a sustainability expert in place. It feels like we’re way behind on building codes. We’re doing a lot. We’ve added solar panels. We use led lighting. We’re doing the normal things everyone is doing, and we’re getting the state to pay for it and reaping the benefits. We are working with the county on electric buses etc. But we need to learn what else we can do compared to other cities of our size. We need to look at public transit in our city and reduce cars on our roads downtown. We’re looking at what other cities such as New Rochelle are doing with things like Circuit. I was in the Sierra Club 25 years ago and so this has always been a priority
Nadine: We have done some great things so far as pointed out. We can work more with residents to streamline process for solar. I got solar for my home, and it made a big difference and it was a streamlined process. We need to work on educating residents on issues like blacktopping. Blacktopping driveways creates run-off issues and soil erosion issues. We can educate on more permeable measures that are available. We need the educational campaigns to tell people how their houses should be set up (such as how sump pumps should be connected legally). All that info needs to go to all new residents as well as longtime residents. What can we do with composting on a grand scale with schools and hospitals? We have lots we are doing so far with community farms, but we still have food deserts in town. So how can we connect our farms to those places. We’ve done a great job to protect monarch butterflies. We’re moving away from green lawns to shrubs. The Beautification Committee does a great job pushing that info out, and we need to continue those education efforts.
Question 5: The city owns the land for parking garages at the Galleria there. The city is able to dispose of that land without a competitive bidding process, as has been debated. Is that something you support, and what would you hope to get out of disposing that piece of prime real estate without a formal process?
Nadine: I’m not committed to doing it without bidding. As I told Capelli - are you going to fund the youth bureau or other if you take that real estate at a lesser price? You have to keep your eyes on these developers. Are we going to get all the things that they are promising? Are they underwriting it? It’s a leverage tool. The devil is in the details. We have to make sure we get what we’re promised if we do this in this way. We shouldn’t be grateful they want to develop here. They’re lucky they get to develop here. So we can use this to push back to make this done the right way.
Justin: There are lots of questions on what to do with the garage. We’re going to get full value for that at what the garage is worth. The garage is also a liability. It would cost us $30 million to demolish it on our own, so we have to figure out how to get full value for it without having to pay those costs ourselves. We’re hoping the state might help in those costs. Those conversations are ongoing. It’s our property and the developers can’t walk all over us in this issue.
Question 6: What do we say to our grandchildren in 100 years when there is no parking to get to the library or go to court? Where are people parking for all these jobs and all these homes that are being added to downtown? So when we give this property away what is our response in the long-term?
Justin: We’re working at adding more housing and a 4-acre park where the garage is now. It might not happen. We’re trying to get the housing and the park and the money for what it’s worth. But it’s early in the planning and the devil in the details. It is my belief that we want to and will get the parking back. But it’s still early in the development. We’re still negotiating in good faith on this.
Question 7: On LED/solar that we are putting up around the city -- since it’s not all biodegradable, how do we as a city safely dispose of these materials?
Nadine: We need to figure that out. The science is catching up. The sustainability group needs to look at this. But whole buildings have been credited for their electricity for the year because we have the extra power by switching to LED. We don’t know yet where they go at the end. But we’re looking at how to re-use them. But the science is still working on it. This is about saving cost. We’re bringing in film projects. Let’s go after other industries to try to bring them here for more money.
Justin: That problem has been fixed by science a few years ago. There are studies and reports. They now know how to fix and safely dispose.
Question 8: With all these new buildings and new units going up in White Plains, how are we planning to support the students in schools?
Justin: When I ran for Council, I was told you’re going to ruin the schools with all this development. But in reality, fewer students are going to school here because there are fewer students as our residents aren’t having as many kids. So it’s not a problem for our schools. Our city has 60-65K people and even if we go up to 80K residents, we won’t be really affected. During the day we get 250K people in our city who work here or come in for various other reasons. We have the sewers and roads and water for those people during the day. We add police and fire every year. So we are not hurting for infrastructure for these new residents.
Nadine: If you can come up with a method for cutting cost, you get a bonus. Let’s find that new revenue. In reference to schools – every project that goes through Common Council involves the Superintendent of schools. They weigh in. We look at issues related to sewage and other infrastructure. We have those conversations with developers and those issues are discussed ahead of time. There won’t be a spike of children in our schools.
Question 9: Is there a plan for bike lanes and protected bike lanes since the roads are not safe for riding and sidewalks are crowded (and bikes are not allowed to go on sidewalks).
Nadine: Bike lanes are part of some ongoing meetings. There is a plan on the city website to connect some of the existing bike lanes and add more. But the issue is still being studied. We also don’t want to spend the money on new bike lanes if they aren’t being used. But others say if you build it, they will come. So we work on it. And that meeting where it was discussed was about a month ago
Justin: We are the only city in Westchester that actually has bike lanes but we need more. Some of that state grant money might go to bike lanes, as we’re still trying to figure out how to use that money. Bike lanes were a part of that original proposal, but we don’t know how much yet will be dedicated to that. We did work to reduce speed limits in White Plains and that was successful. We also just passed legislation to put cameras on school buses to fine people who go around buses. Now part of a pilot to bring in speed cameras around schools. So we are always trying to find ways to slow things down and make things safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Question 10: Can any use be made of school structures to serve some of the same uses as the proposed community center would? These buildings are there and not being used all day every day by the schools.
Nadine: A lot of my public service has been working with youths. A lot of those earlier projects are at the schools for meetings, programs, camps, etc – and all at the schools. This is in coordination with youth bureaus and non-profits. That’s the synergy we need for certain projects. We use the schools for community events. We have to get insurance and pay fees but we can meet there.
Question 11: But why do we have to rely on nonprofits? We have pools and bball courts at the schools already. Why can’t we the citizens use them other than for the kids at those schools when school is in session?
Nadine: Recreation and parks works with the school. We set up programs there. I’d like to see that expanded and enhanced.
Justin: I’m not an expert on space management. But we’re working with experts on that. We’re trying to see how we can figure this out. But part of the problem with using schools – which is great in a lot of ways – is that it’s a piecemeal plan. We need fewer piecemeal plans and more holistic approaches.
Question 12: Parking is a nightmare. The Galleria is the only place that doesn’t have a waiting list to get a parking permit. You can’t park on the street. Lots of places you can’t park for more than an hour when you’re going for an appointment that takes an hour. It doesn’t work. People have no place to park at their homes or their businesses.
Nadine: We have to become a more parking friendly city. If you want your stores to have business, there has to be a more parking friendly city solution. It’s not just about hospital parking near fisher hill area, it’s about parking for residents and businesses too.
Justin: We need parking reform. I get tickets all the time. We fixed the holiday parking. We need longer grace periods. We need parking reform. I will work day and night on this.