It’s Worse Than We Thought
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- December
- 12
I’ve got this from a reliable source. It seems that “Boss” Bill Ryan, the chairman of the Westchester County Board of Legislators who’s been lately taking considerable heat for trying to slip himself a whopping pay raise, may be attempting to consolidate his power as well.
The board reorganizes in January. And the word is that Ryan is toying with the idea of propping up Jose Alvarado, a Yonkers Democrat, as the chairman of the budget and appropriations committee. Of the nine committees, that’s the most important one because it controls the purse strings.
Alvarado is not the sharpest tool in the shed. But he is a tool, and would be expected to do the bidding of Boss Ryan as well as take orders from the office of County Executive Andy Spano.
To give you an idea of what we’re talking about: The story goes that Alvarado once voted in favor of a county living wage law, and then AFTER it passed and the board was onto other business, he stood up and was allowed to make an extraordinary, out-of-order statement as to why he voted yes. Had he been sleeping while the issue was being debated?
Alvarado is Ryan’s kind of guy. And this is what it has come to.
Besides Alvardo, there are 11 other Democrats holding the majority on the board.
Do any of them have the courage to stand up to Ryan?
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 6:52 pm by Phil Reisman.
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Phil Reisman is a veteran journalist and native of Westchester County. He began his career in 1977 as the head copy boy of a startup New York City newspaper that quickly went belly up. Reisman was not to blame for the newspaper's failure, or so he claims.
They like to skulk in the shadows, Phil. Keep the light on. Like roaches, they’ll eventually have to come out into the open.