On March 20, 2023, Westchester County Legislator Damon Maher attended a meeting of New Rochelle Against Racism (New RoAR) to speak and answer questions about his candidacy for Mayor of New Rochelle.  The conversation lasted about an hour and was recorded and transcribed.  New RoAR News will publish excerpts from this meeting as a weekly series over the next several weeks.  The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

New RoAR also invited New Rochelle Council Member Yadira Ramos-Herbert, who is also running for Mayor, for a similar discussion.  Despite several efforts, Council Member Ramos-Herbert has not scheduled such a meeting.

The Democratic primary vote will take place on June 27, with early voting from June 17 through June 25.

Q:  What’s your driving force and what are you hoping to accomplish as mayor?

DM: I have had real accomplishments in the five years I have been a County Legislator. The budgets really show that. We’re doing a lot better for working families in areas such as affordable housing and daycare. That took me threatening to not vote for one budget and then actually not voting for one of County Executive George Latimer’s budgets.  That helped get hundreds of thousands of additional dollars to support community based organizations like the Y and the Boys and Girls Club, in addition to a lot of good social policy legislation.

The main reason I’m running is to bring better communication.  I think that’s the biggest problem we have.  That is typified by Citizens to be Heard or, as many are calling it, Citizens to be Ignored.  To see these folks sitting up there on the dais either completely impassive or looking bored and not responding at all. It’s completely bizarre to me.

When I was on the Library Board we established a good model for dialogue with the public. We gave people three or four minutes to talk. We often responded and, when we did, we gave the person 30 seconds to respond to us. I think that helped lead us to make good decisions. 

The dismissal of four members of the Housing Authority Board needs to be undone. The board was on the way to doing something very interesting and exciting and looking to create equity both in social terms and financial terms for the actual descendants or figurative descendants of the folks that were in Pugsley Hollow.  After two Citizens to be Heard sessions, where everybody criticized the removal of the Commissioners, the City had nothing to say.  That’s absurd.

I’m still shaking my head every time I think about that Starbucks drive-thru being allowed right under the windows of the folks who live in Westhab’s supportive housing on Fountain Place.  I was actually in one of the apartments doing my canvassing and a woman showed me where the drive-thru is right under the window, with a couple of kids in the place.  To me, that’s the ultimate picture of environmental racism. 

Q: Could you identify three areas of particular concern about New Rochelle, things that you most want to change in your time as mayor, and how your administration would be different from the administration of the current mayor?

DM:  First, I’ll be out in the community as much as I am now as I run for Mayor. You never see the mayor in the community just talking with people. 

Number two, holding developers to the promises they made.  They have not come anywhere near what was promised and required in exchange for their tax breaks, in terms of local youth hiring and apprenticeship programs, true union apprenticeship programs. We need more Union work. Also, there’s no green space.  There’s no playgrounds for kids.

The rents are too high for any kind of small businesses on the ground floor and they’re supposed to be making some concessions on that, so we’d have actual small businesses, boutique kind of things, maybe a bookstore, small crafts and jewelry type stores.

Speaking of promises, it looks like we’re going to be the last municipality in Westchester County to have food scrap composting, and even then it’s going to be very inconvenient, behind Home Depot, where the new City Yard is going to be. 

Personally, I’ve been waiting for bike lanes that have been promised for about 15 or 20 years and other pedestrian safety.  It’s so much worse than White Plains, it’s unbelievable.

Number three, hold the City Manager accountable. We’ve been told what some of the limitations are in the city manager form of government. I don’t underestimate the difficulty in this form of government in attempting to get things going in a different direction in an entrenched bureaucracy.  We have to set strong policies and bring in the city manager and have regular evaluations and discussions of whether or not he or she is following those policies.  Ultimately it’s the power to hire and fire that the City Council has.

Q:  The City Council has been notorious for being a one vote situation.  No one disagrees.  By the time it gets to the public, they’re all in concert.  And the city manager is a fairly powerful position.   How are you going to change that?  How are you going to allow for public debate, for people having a different opinion?  How are you going to change the culture of the City Council, and how are you going to really make the city manager accountable?

DM:  I think we have to slow down and allow questions and ask questions.  If you ever watched the meetings of the Committee of the Whole when they’re in that little room around the table, I assume they’ve discussed in some way the items that come before them, but basically they just rush through.  What does the Mayor say say, “Unanimously moved, seconded and adopted.”   I  would like to see public discussion. I think either they’re talking about too many things in advance without having them recorded or witnessed by the public, or they’re just not doing it at all, and the mayor is deciding what goes through and what doesn’t, and the rest of them are just going along with it. Having yes people around isn’t helpful.  It doesn’t add to the learning or the discussion.

As far as the Influence of the city manager, the city is technically a corporation, and the City Council is a board of directors headed by the mayor, who is chairman of the board.  But it’s not involved in day-to-day decisions.  That’s the Chief Operating Officer, the city manager.  We have to set strong policies and then have a quarterly review of the actions of the city manager. Like in a corporation, you have goals and timetables and they’re expected to meet them.  If they don’t, they start going through due process. According to the City Charter, we can’t interfere with hiring and firing of Commissioners, or anyone else.  That’s the city manager’s job. But we can hire and fire the City Manager.

The mayor chooses who’s on the planning board, and the zoning board. The Council votes as a whole for IDA members.  Those are more important positions, they shape the look of the city, where the money is spent, how we’re spending taxes and things like that.  I would want to see a labor representative on our IDA, as there is now on the Westchester County IDA.  The mayor also appoints two of the three judges.  Another role the mayor has is as the representative of the people, the ombudsman for the people, taking their comments, complaints, suggestions and bringing them to the city manager and to the department heads.  It requires a change in culture.  It’s a reminder that the city manager is the employee of the board, the city manager is subordinate to the board, and the board of course is subordinate to the people.  The democracy is the people at the top, not the executive office.

My plan is to hold the city manager accountable. To be fair, you have to set goals, timetables, make them clear, make your policies very clear, and then evaluate whether that person is following them.