New Year's Eve in Depot Square

Tuckahoe's annual New Year's Eve celebration is happening again tomorrow night in Depot Square from 10:30 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.

Attendees can bring in the New Year with the band T-Bone, who is scheduled to perform from 11 p.m. - 12:30 a.m.

The village will count down to 2012 with heated tents, confetti, noisemakers, hats and two plasma screens to watch the ball drop in Times Square. The event is sponsored by the Generoso Pope Foundation.

Napolitano wins Fire Board election

Jerry Napolitano won a seat to the Eastchester Fire Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, unseating one-term incumbent and former town Fire Chief Keith Fennelly. Napolitano cruised to victory in a landslide, winning in every town voting district in an election that saw the highest voter turnout since 2000.

Napolitano, 46, works as a solutions architect in Motorola's government and enterprise division. He has been a regular at Fire Board meetings for he past three years. He took home 1,096 votes, easily trumping Fennelly, who netted 318 votes. Also running was David Levy, a town resident and union iron worker, who received 39 votes.

The Fire Board oversees a Fire District that encompasses Eastchester, Tuckahoe, and Bronxville. Each year, a December election is held for one of the seats on the board and voter turnout is notoriously low. The Fire Board is a taxing entity, setting the budget for the Fire District.

Fire Board meetings have grown quite contentious in recent years, with the common scenario being Commissioner Dennis Winter bumping heads with the rest of the commissioners over the district's accounting and communications practices. Winter supported Napolitano's candidacy in this year's race.

In a recent interview with The Town Report, Napolitano said, “I think there’s a lot of ways to communicate better to the public what the Fire Board is doing and make the public more comfortable with what the Fire Board is doing."

Fire commissioners receive no compensation annually and serve five-year terms.

Read more in this week's edition of The Town Report.

Vote Today for Eastchester Fire Commissioner

Polls opened at 2 p.m. for today's the Eastchester Fire Board election and will remain open until 9 p.m.

Incumbent Keith Fennelly is running against challengers David Levy and Jerry Napolitano for one Eastchester fire commissioner seat. Voters in Eastchester, Tuckahoe and Bronxville can participate in the election.

Polling locations for today's election are as follows:

*Eastchester Town Hall, 40 Mill Road (Eastchester)- Districts 6, 7, 8, 9, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 37, 38 & 39
*LeRoy Gregory Post #979, 40 Bell Road, behind Equinox Gym (Eastchester) - Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 23, 27, 29, 34 & 36
*Chester Heights Firehouse, 10 Oregon Ave. (Eastchester) - Districts 15, 31, & 35
*Tuckahoe Community Center, 71 Columbus Ave. (Tuckahoe) - Districts 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 32 & 33
*Bronxville Village Hall, 200 Pondfield Road (Bronxville) - Districts 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22

Eastchester fire commissioners serve for a five-year term without pay. Fire Board elections are non-partisan.

Polling Places in Eastchester

The full list of polling locations for all of the Town of Eastchester's election districts appears below. (Note: several polling locations serve multiple election districts.) Polls are open today from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Vote today in Eastchester and Westchester elections!

Cast your vote today for county legislator, town council and other seats in the town! Polls are open today beginning at 6 a.m. and close tonight at 9 p.m., giving you 15 hours to make your choice in these hot contests:
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Tuckahoe police officers cleared of criminal charges, receive departmental suspension

The two Tuckahoe police officers who were investigated earlier this year for their handling of a 2010 car accident in the village involving an off-duty NYPD officer will not face criminal charges but were suspended without pay by the department, according to a press release issued by Tuckahoe Chief of Police John Costanzo Monday night.

The Westchester County District Attorney’s office had been investigating the actions taken by Tuckahoe Police Sgt. John Cuccinello and Police Officer Vincent Pinto in responding to an auto accident involving damage to Village of Tuckahoe property on April 18, 2010.

A wiretapped phone conversation between two NYPD officers made public on DNAinfo.com in May of this year recounts the accident, which involved 27-year-old Michael Lazarou, a New York City police officer and resident of the village. The conversation was uncovered during a probe by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office into ticket-fixing within the NYPD.

While driving his 2007 Mercury Mountaineer, Lazarou was involved in a crash around 12:45 a.m. that uprooted one of the village’s antique lampposts and caused damage to a village parking meter near the intersection of Sagamore Road and Westview Avenue. However, the investigating officers did not find his vehicle at the scene; instead, Lazarou was found in his vehicle several blocks away on Dante Avenue.

The account of the incident found in the taped phone call indicates that Cuccinello was trying to let Lazarou off with just a property damage summons without any reference to driving while intoxicated. According to the officer making the taped phone call, referred to on the tape as “Chris,” Lazarou was “bombed” at the scene and uncooperative, leading Cuccinello to call on Chris – another NYPD officer who lived in the village – to help convince Lazarou that he was catching a break.

Lazarou was ticketed for damaging village property but the charges were later dropped; the officer’s insurance company paid out the damages to the village of roughly $17,000. He was never ticketed for leaving the scene of the accident or reckless driving, and never tested for alcohol. The department confirmed Cuccinello and Pinto as the two officers who responded to the incident.

According to Costanzo’s release, the Westchester District Attorney’s office closed its investigation, filing no criminal charges against the two officers. However, a separate internal investigation into the incident was undertaken by the Tuckahoe Police Department.

“At the conclusion” of that investigation, Costanzo said in the release, “the members involved accepted command discipline in the form of suspension without pay.”

Costanzo did not specify when the investigation concluded, whether the suspension is ongoing or what specific departmental infractions the officers had been charged with.

“The integrity and reputation of the Tuckahoe Police Department is paramount to every member of the department,” said Costanzo, in his release. “I am proud of the service that each member provides and their involvement in addressing the needs of our community. Every day our members strive to earn the public’s trust while providing first rate police services.”

Campaign Practices Committee Ruling

Here is the ruling from the committee on the Walsh Team ads. Note, the committee has no authority to bar use of further ads, and is simply advisory. It does not carry any punitive authorities either, the decisions are simply to encourage fair play, as the committee state.

Here it is:

The Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee met on October 25, 2011 to hear the complaints of Stephen Malifitano on behalf of the Ron Belmont Team v. Joan Walsh and/or the Joan Walsh Team. Mr. Malifitano and Ms. Walsh represented themselves.

COMPLAINT #1:

A palm card handout for Joan Walsh states that she is “ending the Malfitano spending spree,” and that she is protecting the taxpayers “by paying down the Malfitano Debt.”

FINDING: UNFAIR

As Mayor from 2002-2007, Mr. Malfitano was one of five votes on spending issues during that time; it was not “his” spending or “his debt.”

The committee also noted that Patrick Vetere, a candidate on the Walsh Team, was a member of the Town Board all the time that Mr. Malfiano was Mayor, and regularly voted in favor of the expenditures, bonds, and budget.

COMPLAINT #2:

A palm card handout of Patrick Vetere states that “Pat has been standing up for taxpayers on the Town Board, voting against Steve Malfitano’s irresponsible gimmicks”---

FINDING: UNFAIR

The Committee said that the word “gimmick” is unspecific and pejorative. The word “irresponsible” is not explained. Nor, as noted above, did Mr. Vetere regularly vote differently from Mr. Malfitano.

COMPLAINT #3.

This complaint had many parts, all related to a print ad in the “Harrison Report” dated Oct. 12, 2011.The Committee considered them separately, but had the same conclusion about many statements.

FINDINGS:

a) The statement that “The Malfitano Debt Put Harrison’s Future at Risk” is UNFAIR. This was similar to Complaint #1, in making the town’s debt one person’s responsibility.

b) The statement that “The NYS Comptroller’s Audit Slammed Malfitano’s Administration” is UNFAIR. The report does not specifically mention Mr. Malfitano’s Administration. In fact, the audit covers 2002 to 2009, which includes time in which Ms. Walsh was Mayor.

c) The NY State Comptroller’s Audit said “The Board and Town officials presented unrealistic and structurally imbalanced budgets to the town’s taxpayers”

and “The Town has repeatedly relied on one-time revenues from the sale of properties to finance recurring expenses.” This is FAIR .These are quotes from the report.

d) It also quoted “When budget revenues fell short, the Town was forced to use fund balances to fund operations” FAIR. While it also applied to Ms. Walsh’s mayoralty, it was valid and applicable to Mr. Malfitano’s terms as Mayor.

e) Another quote, allegedly taken from page 7 of the Audit, saying “As a result, the Town’s finances have deteriorated significantly” is UNFAIR. The committee could not find this statement in the audit.

The Committee noted that much of the contested language came from an audit which covered a timeline of eight years, spanning years of both administrations., During those eight years, Mr. Vetere, of the Walsh team, was serving with Mr. Malfitano.,

COMPLAINTS #4 and #5

Palm Cards for candidate Howard Hollander and for candidate Frank Corvino imply that they are incumbents, as each has the position for which he is running at the top, as though to identify them. Nowhere does it say “For” or “Candidate For” or “Elect”.

FINDING: UNFAIR

These are misleading, with the clear implication of an untruth: that they are incumbents.

If a candidate or campaign wishes to quote from a Finding, the Committee requires that it be quoted in its entirety. The Committee regards selective quotation of its Findings as a violation of fair campaign practices.

Committee Members: Evelyn M. Stock (Chair), Miriam Cohen (Coordinator), Dennis Chillemi. Dan Franklin, Victor Goldberg, LaRuth Gray, Susan Pace Guma, Robert Kirkwood, Milton Hoffman, Lee Kinnally, Polly M. Kuhn, Ernest Prince, Susan Schwarz, Lorelei A. Vargas.

Ex officio: Representatives of the Republican Party, Democratic Party, Independence Party, Conservative Party, Working Families Party.

The purpose of the Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee is to promote a climate in which candidates conduct honest and fair campaigns. The Committee encourages candidates to conduct campaigns openly and fairly, to discuss issues, to refrain from dishonest and defamatory attacks, and not to use campaign materials that distort the facts.

The Committee does not sit as a censor of political discussion nor as a body to enforce election law or make legal decisions. Its task is to accept written complaints about alleged unfair campaign practices and to determine whether the action complained about is indeed unfair. Among other things, the Committee will consider to be unfair any campaign practice that is a misstatement of a material fact or that misleads the public.

The Committee has no power to compel anyone to stop doing what it has found it be unfair. If the Committee acts on a complaint, it will release its findings to inform the public. The Committee may choose not to consider a complaint; in that case, a hearing is not held and the parties to the complaint are so notified.