Richard Thomas thinks he can overcome blight, crumbling infrastructure, inefficient government and high taxes in Mount Vernon, and create a place where developers will want to invest.
But there are a couple of hitches in the new mayor”™s economic development strategy: money and politics.
“Money kind of goes into our budget and disappears,” he said in a recent interview.
As he sees it, other city officials are obstructing him. So, when they come up for re-election, “my business will be to get them un-elected.”
Thomas became mayor in January, at age 33, after serving on city council for four years. He is still trying to figure out the city”™s finances, but he said years of government neglect are obvious in the streets.
“Roads have not been resurfaced since I was born,” he said. “It shows in the potholes. It shows in the sewers that are backing up into people”™s basements. It shows with the street lights that are out.”
The mayor overflows with ideas.
Thomas has identified public works projects that would cost $615 million. He wants the Metropolitan Transit Authority to invest $350 million to cover portions of the rail cut on the New Haven Line, fix bridges, beautify three train stations and connect two stations to Bronx River Park.
He wants to put $96.9 million into roads, bridges and buildings; $66.6 million into sewer and water line repairs; $41.7 million into revitalizing Memorial Field; $32.4 million for parks; $18 million for public safety; $6.7 million for planning and community development and $3.3 million for youth services.
Thomas wants to create housing for millennials and for grandparents raising grandchildren. He wants to give downtown landlords a ground-floor tax break so they can lower rents, fill storefronts, and generate more sales tax revenue.
He envisions a private-public partnership to transform the 4th Avenue corridor into Westchester”™s Times Square.
He has started by focusing on basic government services that enhance quality of life. He has made safety his priority because that is the lever that can begin to turn around the city of 70,000 people.
Thomas talks about safe streets, by which he means streets and sidewalks that are smooth and well-lit and on which people can go about their business without fear. He has already reassigned workers to repair broken street lights and patch potholes.
Even small projects cost money. So where can a city like Mount Vernon, where tax revenues are flat and expenses continue to grow, find money for even simple improvements?
Just as Thomas overflows with ideas, he brims with confidence and optimism and, some would say, ambition. He emulates Cory Booker, the U.S. Senator from New Jersey who, as mayor of Newark, championed economic development and public safety.
Thomas believes he has the management prowess to solve financial problems and the persuasive skills to overcome political obstacles.
He has a bachelor”™s degree in economics from New York University and a master of business administration from NYU”™s Stern School of Business. He was executive director of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance for the past four years. He worked for governors Eliot Spitzer and David Patterson as their Hudson Valley regional director from 2008 to 2011.
Thomas describes problems as opportunities.
“What”™s working to our advantage is that we have a lot of waste in our budget. And as we start identifying wasteful practices we can free up cash flow.”
He has made it a practice to sniff out waste in a city that spent nearly $128 million on expenses in 2014.
“Every check that goes out to a vendor I”™m scrutinizing to figure out why we are paying this,” he said. “I believe the checks tell a story if you follow the money.”
Thomas discovered that the city pays a third-party energy provider nearly three times as much as it could pay the New York State Power Authority for electricity, costing the city an extra $400,000 a year.
Repairing old police cars and public works trucks costs $2 million a year.
Raising the city”™s utility franchise fee to 5 percent would bring in another $1 million a year.
Mount Vernon has legal authority to issue bonds for up to $300 million. Theoretically, Thomas said, the city could cover those bonds without increasing property taxes. It would have to get more state funding, cut unnecessary expenses and apply savings to the bonds.
But his penchant for following the money has collided with politics.
Thomas said that Maureen Walker, the city comptroller, and Marcus Griffith, council president, have been bypassing his authority to review and sign vendor checks, according to a lawsuit he filed on March 23.
And then there is the Third Street Firehouse project. In 2014 the city hired Creative Direction Construction & Design to build an emergency operations center for $930,000.
Fast-forward to 2016. Andre Wallace, CEO of Creative Direction Construction, has been elected to city council.
In February, Wallace filed for a change order requesting a contract extension and $187,546. The document was notarized by George Brown, the city clerk.
Lawrence Porcari, corporate counsel, objected. He pointed out that the contract had expired, the work had been performed improperly and the city”™s conflict of interest rules prohibited Wallace, as an elected official, from having an interest in a city contract, Thomas”™ lawsuit alleges.
Almost immediately, according to Thomas”™ lawsuit, Wallace began questioning the qualifications and eligibility of the mayor”™s appointees. City council vacated eight positions, including Porcari”™s, and ordered appointees to return cars and city property.
Wallace”™s company also sued the city for breach of contract and demanded $236,339.
Thomas claims in his lawsuit that Wallace told him the issue could go away if the mayor responded favorably to Creative Direction”™s request for $187,546.
Wallace denied the allegations in a telephone interview. He said he finished his part of the job. He described the change order as a continuation of his demands for payment for two years. He said city officials had agreed that the city owed the money, but five times they lost his paperwork.
“He is trying to get rid of me because I stand in the way of whatever crooked deals they are trying to do,” Wallace said. He said he will sue Thomas, and he is “bringing a case against him for extortion” with a higher authority.
Brown declined to comment on Thomas”™ allegations. Walker, Griffith and other city council members did not respond to requests for comment.
Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary issued a temporary restraining order stopping city officials from terminating employees and from issuing checks without the mayor”™s signature. He ordered a full hearing on April 27 to sort out all of the allegations.
Thomas, who dreamed of becoming mayor as a boy, remains confident in his ability to navigate politics. He alludes to the Biblical story of David and Goliath, when he points out that he easily defeated the previous mayor and three other political veterans in the September Democratic primary.
“My slingshot is very accurate,” he said.
As he cleans up the city”™s business practices and the streets become safer, Thomas said developers and investors will see Mount Vernon as a destination. He predicted that property values will increase.
“That”™s the red meat on the table for the business community,” he said.
Mount Vernon is poised for greatness, Thomas said.
“This is the land of opportunity,” he said. “This is a field a diamonds. It”™s a galaxy of diamonds!”
How could Mayor Thomas be seeking to unseat his colleagues with whom he has worked for the past four years as a Mt Vernon City Councilman, voting with them every step of the way to implement the same plans or problems that presently exist in Mt Vernon?. Why didn’t he then in his capacity suggest some of his present ambitious plans for the improvement of Mt Vernon? Was it a sabotage of his own government, a purposeful delay until he achieve his selfish agenda of being the top dog himself? Good leaders were always excellent followers Mr Mayor.