William P. Harrington is a classic Westchester story.
Raised in Yonkers, Harrington went to school at Iona Prep, played Division I basketball at the College of William & Mary, and now, following in his father”™s footsteps, is managing partner at Bleakley, Platt, and Schmidt L.L.P., one of the most prestigious law firms in White Plains.
Outside of his work at the firm, Harrington, 54, is a CYO basketball coach and father of four; a proud Irishman and devout Catholic; a realist and an optimist.
He sees the challenges: not only the new ones posed by the economic crisis, but the old ones brought about by the departure of most of Westchester”™s Fortune 500 contingent, by an aging population, by long-term systematic government dysfunction, and by a fragile medical infrastructure.
Great as those challenges may seem, Harrington still sees Westchester and its residents”™ collective potential.
For that reason and more, Harrington was named Chairman of the Westchester County Association last month to succeed Al DelBello.
“The energy level he brings to the table and the commitment and passion is amazing to me,” said WCA president William Mooney. “I feel so good about him being the leader of the Westchester County Association.”
When asked about his goals as chairman, Harrington joked that the question was akin to asking someone stranded on a raft in the middle of the ocean what their goals were.
“The goal is to survive,” he said.
As a youth growing up in Yonkers, Harrington watched as manufacturers like Otis Elevators, Alexander Smith and Sons Carpet Mills and Precision Valve employed thousands of local residents and were among the world”™s biggest manufacturers in each of their respective industries.
Later, Westchester was home to General Foods and Texaco and other multinational corporations. But today, the playing field has changed, he said.
“They”™re all gone. They employed thousands of people and they”™re all gone,” and today, Harrington says, Westchester finds itself “at a crossroads” as a result.
“We have a transformed business community, a transformed demographic, and a housing market that”™s made it difficult ”“ if not impossible ”“ for young people to live in the county,” not to mention a huge tax burden, he added.
So why take the position? Why accept the seemingly enormous task at hand?
“It”™s because Westchester is one of the greatest places to raise a family in the world,” Harrington said. “My goal is to energize this organization, to energize the county. We can make such a meaningful difference in the lives of people.”
That will require, in Harrington”™s words, a new set of pronouns and a new attitude, so that the current generation leaves Westchester as a place where anyone ”“ regardless of age or income ”“ can grow up and raise a family.
“We have to stop talking about these issues as ”˜Me, Mine, I,”™” he said. “We created them (the problems). We all have skin in the game. Our collective goal should be to fix our problems, understanding that we will all have to bear in the pain.”
That means addressing mandates and spiraling pension costs, reforming the way government operates, and being an advocate for economic development.
Harrington applauded the past leadership of DelBello and progress the WCA has already made in many of the latter areas, but said what”™s needed now is a new push to broaden the scope of the organization.
“My goal is to be an advocate to push, prod, force, and cajole the county to fulfill its greatest destiny ”“ to be one of the best places in the world to build a business and to raise a family.”
Doing that will mean engaging the younger population and minority populations more so than in the past, he said.
“We need someone with fresh eyes to come in and be a force for change,” he said in reference to the county”™s future business leaders. “We are all in this together.”
