I got a phone call today from Joe Vandernoot (left), one of the nicest men ever to serve in local government.

Back in the ‘70s, Joe was a Republican supervisor in the town of Mamaroneck where I grew up. He was the kind of public servant, a lost breed, who turned down the perk of free municipal car.

Joe turned 101 yesterday. He wasn’t calling about that, however. He asked me to help him out with a newspaper delivery problem. I told him I’d do practically anything to keep a loyal reader.

Which Joe certainly is. But he said, “Lay off Andy Spano.” Hmm. Speaking of free car…

David Spano, the renegade son of Westchester County Executive Andy Spano will appear  today on my “High Noon” radio show to talk about why he is seeking to overthrow his father in the next election.

The junior Spano, who says he is a candidate for county executive, was given a chance to speak at the Westchester Democratic Committee convention. Though his nomination was seconded, he declared that he was the true “agent of change.”

Spano wants to do away with county government.

Tune in today at 12 noon at 1460 AM or log onto wvox.com. Calls will be taken at 636-0110.

This is one of my favorite places in Westchester County—the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail that goes for miles on the high ground above the Hudson River. It’s truly a gem for walkers, joggers and, in the winter, for cross-country skiers.

Last weekend, more than 30 volunteers from Yonkers Boy Scout Troop 5, Yonkers Firefighters and the Yonkers Department of Public Works picked up litter on the trail between Walnut and Summit Streets.

The effort was spear-headed by Assemblyman Mike Spano.

Good work all the way around.

Thwart the mayor of Buchanan will ya?

It seems that Al Donahue, the eccentric, part-time mayor of the tiny Hudson River village, didn’t cotton to the citizen outrage that resulted from his brazen attempt to hire his own daughter as a village secretary at a clip of close to $75,000 a year.

A lot of people spoke out a public meeting when Donahue broke a 2-2 vote Board of Trustees vote to appoint Cindy Lynch, who wasn’t in line for the job, according to state Civil Service rules.

Now Al is getting back at his opponents, in a strange way. He has sent out Freedom of Information requests to employers of government workers and school employees who stood up at the meeting and protested Lynch’s hiring. She has since declined the job.

Here’s just one letter sent to the Public Information Officer at the town of Cortlandt:

“Please provide documentation/information regarding salary paid, fringe benefits paid directly to or on behalf of and any reimbursement of expenses for Frances E. Surak…for the years 2002 through 2008.”

Several letters of this type have been sent out.

Ten years ago, Westchester County bought 150 acres of IBM property in the hamlet of Millwood and turned it into the Hudson Hills public golf course. Everybody liked the deal, or least nobody openly complained. Nobody, that is except those who thought the county paid too much.

The purchase and golf course construction ran the county close to $10 million.

Flash forward to today. In a May 6 letter to County Executive Andy Spano, with copies sent to the Board of Legislators, New Castle Town Supervisor Barbara Gerrard requested that the county reimburse the Ossining School District for the next loss in taxes on the Hudson Hills property, about $136,000 a year. At the time of the sale, Gerrard was not serving as town supervisor.

I wrote about Gerrard’s request in today’s  column.

Gerrard’s reason for the request stemmed from the county’s recent decision to buy a crummy office building at 450 Saw Mill River Road in Ardsley. The deal included a payoff of $1 million to the Ardsley school district because, like Hudson Hills, the property was taken off the tax rolls as a result of the sale. This clearly set a bad precedent.

County Legislator John Nonna, D-Pleasntville predicted other municipalities would make a similar demand. He was right.

Out of fairness, Gerrard demanded a decade’s worth of lost taxes, or about $1.36 million.

Strangely, Gerrard wouldn’t return my phone calls. But word that I was checking around clearly got back to the merry Board of Legislators because lo and behold, a letter in response to Gerrard was drafted yesterday by County Legislator Tom Abinanti (left), D-Greenburgh, whose district includes Ardsley.

He doesn’t exactly tell New Castle to shove it, but it is clearly a CYA scold.

Here’s Abinanti’s letter in full:

recent purchase of a building  in the Ardsley School District to house voting machines and the county’s 1999 purchase of the IBM property in the

Hon. Barbara S. Gerrard
Supervisor, Town of New Castle
200 South Greeley Avenue
Chappaqua, New York  10514
Dear Supervisor Gerrard:
I am responding to your May 6, 2009  letter to County Executive Andrew Spano concerning the county’s recent purchase of a building  in the Ardsley School District to house voting machines and the county’s 1999 purchase of the IBM property in the  Town of New Castle and the Ossining School District to create a golf course.
The Ardsley intermunicipal agreement is consistent with the county’s longstanding policy of cooperating with communities affected by its actions.  In fact, the development of the county’s New Castle golf course was done in conjunction with your community.
In 1999, your community was clear that it preferred to preserve the property as a golf course rather than permit additional residential development. As a legislator, I agreed to support the county’s purchase of the IBM property at the urging of your then County Legislator Richard Wishnie, the Town of New Castle, the Ossining School District and noted environmentalists who strongly supported the proposed purchase.
The town and school district readily supported the 170-acre property purchase after negotiating an agreement with the county which carved out forty-four acres for development to provide tax revenue, transferred 20 acres to the Town of New Castle for its own use, and honored an earlier IBM commitment to provide an easement for a future town water storage facility.

Finally, this golf course is a significant asset to your community providing residents with a nearby premier recreational facility and a home golf course for your high school’s golf team.

In short, your community got exactly what it wanted ten years ago.
In contrast, neither I nor the Ardsley community ever supported the purchase of the Ardsley property in question.  The monies which the County is providing for certain projects in the school district were designed for several purposes:  mitigate some of the permanent tax loss to the community caused by a project which the community did not want; meet the concerns of several legislators who were reluctant to instantly impose so heavy a tax burden on a small school district by removal of the property from the tax rolls; and enhance certain recreation facilities and open them to the general public.
In both instances, the county was consistent in negotiating with representatives from municipal and school representatives to assist the affected communities.
Thank you for your thoughts on the subject.
Very truly yours,
?
Thomas J. Abinanti, District 12

According to a new Manhattanville College poll, about half of Westchester and Putnam county residents think their family’s financial condition is at best fair, or even poor.

I mentioned the poll in today’s column. In a statement, Richard Berman, the college’s president said: “The psychological impact of the economic decline continues to influence the mind-set and behavior even in the so-called affluent suburbs.

“We see little improvement in perceptions of the economy and people continue to modify their spending behavior in response to personal economic circumstances or their general concerns about the future.”

Berman will talk about the poll in a little more depth on Thursday’s “High Noon” radio show on WVOX, 1460 AM and wvox.com.

Angry reaction has immediately set in over last night’s vote in the state Legislature to close a budget gap for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with the help of a punishing payroll tax that will cost businesses. local governments and nonprofits in New York and surrounding suburban counties a whopping $1.5 billion.

This will be the topic of discussion on my “High Noon” radio program today at 12 noon on WVOX, 1460 AM—or wvox.com. My guest on the phone will be Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining who voted against the plan.

The payroll tax is just part of the plan. Fares will go up, too. Surcharges will be applied to car registrations and licenses as well.

There’s some sort of provision to reimburse school districts for the payroll tax, but as of now it seems no one is sure how this will work. The whole idea looks like a giant mess.

What we do know is that hackles certainly have been raised. Assemblyman Greg Ball, R-Patterson, released a statement this morning that practically calls for a citizen revolt. Ball said the following—
“My message to my constituents: ‘Grab your pitch forks people,’ every taxpayer and business owner, including not-for-profits and the self-employed, and anyone who uses the MTA to commute to and from work should be outraged by this proposal.”

The Westchester County Association is also holding a press conference at 11 a.m., just minutes from now, to announce its opposition to the payroll tax. The business group will be joined by leaders from the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association and from the various counties, including Westchester and Putnam.

Yesterday, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano, who opposes the payroll tax, said it will cost county government $1.6 million and the Westchester Medical Center about $1 million.

If you want to know why people are cynical about government, go no further than the little village on the Hudson River—Buchanan.

My spies tell me that the village’s part-time mayor, Al Donahue, rammed through a resolution last night to hire his own daughter as an “intermediate typist” at a salary of $71,343. This appears to be a circumvention of the state Civil Service Law which requires that the job should be open to a list of qualified candidates who have taken the Civil Service test.

No one else was considered for the post. No interviews were conducted. And the job may not be necessary since it had been vacant for eight months.

What’s most extraordinary is that Donahue didn’t recuse himself from voting on the resolution to hire his daughter, Cynthia Lynch of Montrose. And get this—he was the deciding vote! When the Board of Trustees deadlocked 2-to-2, Donahue broke the tie with a yes vote.

That’s chutzpah. Wait for a lawsuit on this one.

You heard it from me first.

Back in early March, Westchester County Executive Andy Spano told me he was against the controversial state proposal to help close the MTA’s $1.2 billion budget gap by imposing a payroll tax on businesses, nonprofits, school districts and local governments. This is a costly tax that may help out the MTA, but it will certainly cause an economic effect in terms of property tax increases and layoffs.

In response to my off-handed question on March 9, Spano said, “The payroll tax, I think is ridiculous at this particular point.” I put the quote in my column the next day.

To Spano’s credit, he’s on the right side of this issue.

Interestingly, he’s made himself available for a 2 p.m. Q&A today so that he can reiterate his opposition to the payroll tax. The reason this is interesting is because I mentioned the payroll tax in today’s column in a negative context. In the same column, I also pounded Spano’s State of the County Address in which he said that there is no need to “rethink” government. We just need to “rethink our values.”

I used the damaging payroll tax as an example of how, contrary to Spano’s contention, we do indeed need to rethink government.

However, I was probably remiss in not mentioning Spano’s original opposition to the payroll tax, which is about to be voted on the state Legislature. In any event, I don’t know how much influence he can muster to convince anyone in Albany that the tax is a bad idea. And it does seem his official stance is coming a bit late in the game.

Spano’s press conference today appears to be a last-minute effort to cover his tracks on this.

Here’s the press release dejour.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                May 5, 2009

WESTCHESTER COUNTY EXECUTIVE CALLS FOR LEGISLATURE TO STOP PAYROLL TAX
Spano says that tax will cost county residents millions and hurt businesses, non-profits and hospitals

County Executive Andy Spano called for the state Legislature and the Governor to stop a payroll tax that he said would cost Westchester residents millions of dollars and hurt taxpayers, businesses, hospitals and non-profits who are already struggling to survive.
Spano will hold a press availability at 2 p.m. today on the 9th floor of the County Office Building at 148 Martine Ave., in White Plains to discuss his opposition.
Spano, who has vocally opposed the tax for months, released a copy of a memo he sent to members of the Westchester delegation yesterday which reiterates his opposition to the tax.
Spano said the tax would cost Westchester County government alone $1.6 million and the Westchester Medical Center about $1 million.  He noted that Westchester County last year paid $121 million to the MTA out of county tax dollars, sales tax, and mortgage fees and budgeted $119 million for 2009.
He added, that the proposal does not “share the pain.”
“How come Connecticut gets away with not having to contribute when thousands of their riders use MTA transportation? Why is there no toll on the East River bridges? Why do we constantly bail out agencies that are inefficiently run? Yes, there should be relief on MTA fares, but once again, it should not be on the backs of our taxpayers, residents, non-profits and businesses.’’