As the newly elected Westchester County Executive Kenneth B. Jenkins began to speak at the Westchester County Association’s “Impact in Action” annual leadership event – held Wednesday, Nov. 19, at Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle – WCA President and CEO Michael R. Romita handed him a note.
“Will the owner of a black Rivian please return to the valet stand,” Jenkins announced. That’s the WCA for you, Romita later said – taking an adaptable approach to nurturing business growth in the county, even if that flexibility manifests itself in facilitating valet parking.
On a night that featured some substitute speakers, the flexible event program contained a big surprise – an appearance by Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, who received a standing ovation that began as she was still making her way from the club’s kitchen to the event space. She exhorted the more than 450 attendees to build quite literally on the success of the organization’s 75 years through more affordable, multiuse structures that will attract young families to the county. Hochul pointed to host city New Rochelle’s continuing efforts to create multipurpose spaces for commuting residents and how the county and business community have transformed what was a desert surrounding Metro-North Railroad stations into vibrant neighborhoods. Much has been accomplished, Hochul said. More needs to be done.
The governor, who hails from Buffalo – “Go Bills,” she said, giving a shoutout to the football team – recalled that when she was a student at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, her mother, a homemaker and social activist, wanted to open a flower shop. Neither knew anything about starting a business and needed guidance – the kind of guidance that WCA and its members provide, Hochul said.
The nonprofit has been doing this for three quarters of a century, beginning with founding members Bleakley Platt & Schmidt LLP, Con Edison, the Construction Industry Council of Westchester and Hudson Valley Inc., IBM, Sarah Lawrence College, The Building and Realty Institute, The Journal News/lohud and Turner Construction. They received the Founding Members Award.
One of those members, IBM, delivered the keynote with Ed Lovely, vice president and chief data officer, pinch-hitting for Joanne Wright, senior vice president of Transformation & Operations. From Lovely’s remarks on the company’s focus on the latest technologies, it was clear that this isn’t your grandfather’s IBM. While those technologies may include all things AI, artificial intelligence succeeds best when it is handled most responsibly, Lovely said.
It was a night when the past reached out to the future, not only in Lovely’s keynote but in the New Leader Trailblazer Award, which Andrew Weisz, president of RPW Group, and Brad K. Schwartz, partner in Zarin Steinmetz LLP, presented to land-use attorney Steven M. Wrabel, partner in McCullough, Goldberger & Staudt LLP. Wrabel got a laugh when he said that his 6-year-old told his father that he shouldn’t be getting a new award since he’s old. Everything it seems, including age, is relative.
But some things never change. Joan McDonald – director of operations for Westchester County, who received the Alfred B. DelBello Visionary Award – talked about her conversations with DelBello when he was county executive (1974-1982), championing civil rights, with a county office for women’s issues; the environment, with a sanitation to recycling facility; health care, with the Westchester Medical Center and Bicycle Sundays on the Bronx River Parkway; efficient policing, merging the county police and sheriff’s departments; affordable housing and transportation; and support for the arts. McDonald — who has held New York City and state offices and oversees all county departments and employees as well as Westchester’s $2.5 billion budget – said he reminded her that the work of governance takes place at the grass roots.
In continuing its own local efforts, WCA will proceed with a new chair of the board. The event concluded with Susan Fox — president and CEO of White Plains Hospital, who assumed the WCA chair as Covid-19 hit in 2020 – passing the baton to Christopher B. Fisher, partner in Cuddy & Feder LLP. Fox will be known as chair emerita.
Now, Fisher said, it’s on to the next 75 years.
