The piles of empty pizza and doughnut boxes and scattered coffee cups that furnish a campaign and transition headquarters were replaced this week by the more ornate décor of City Hall as Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano took office. At the start of the holidays, though, the former Democratic state assemblyman still was hustling between overheated rooms to meetings with newly named commissioners in a spartan office suite above Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana on Central Avenue.
“They said they did $3 million last year,” Spano said of the downstairs restaurant that opened in Yonkers about two years ago, the first New York venture for the renowned Connecticut pizza king. A city in financial crisis still can make a new business with a good product feel welcomed.
As the city”™s new mayor, Spano has larger sums to slice. The city”™s projected budget deficit is $5.5 million for the current fiscal year, “and we”™re coming into this mid-cycle,” he said. “Next year”™s budget deficit could be $60 million. It could be $100 million. That”™s 5 to 10 percent of the gross budget.”
Searching for ”˜inefficiencies”™
In the mayor”™s chair he inherits from Philip Amicone, the two-term Republican, “The biggest challenge will be coming to terms with (the) budget deficit to try to reduce this government to a size that the taxpayers can afford.”
Spano has set his sights on the city school district, which “has been in crisis for a number of years now.” Parents are faced with cuts to school transportation, after-school and sports programs, and teaching staff, he said.
With the city providing $500 million to the board of education budget, “We”™re going to be looking for more access since we cover half of that budget.” The mayor said he will put in place an education redesign team to look at ways to reduce school expenditures ”“ which amount to about $21,000 per pupil ”“ to bring them in line with the city”™s budget allocation.
Spano said the city and school district could save $5 million to $15 million by sharing human resources and buildings and maintenance services. The school board”™s legal costs also could be reduced with a shared-service agreement.
“We have a corporation counsel in Yonkers,” he said. “We have 15 attorneys on staff. There”™s no reason the board of education should have to hire outside counsel at $300,000.
“We”™re in a crisis. We have to come up with a new strategy.” As his administration examines board of education spending and school district operations, “I have no doubt that we will find inefficiencies there,” Spano said.
Spano suggested more inefficiencies might be discovered by his management team once in office. In the post-election transition, Amicone was less than fully cooperative, he indicated. The mayor-elect”™s team was not allowed to interview department heads and staff without Amicone”™s deputy mayor, William Regan, in the room.
Without Regan present, “I think that the department heads and the department members may have been a little more forthcoming about some of the issues that are facing the city,” said Spano. “When we asked the tough questions, the deputy mayor answered the questions.
“I still think there are many surprises yet to be uncovered when we take office.”
Focusing on economic development
Among his commissioner appointments and shuffling of some top department officials into new jobs, Spano said Louis C. Kirven will not be retained as Yonkers commissioner for planning and development. That commissioner has a key role in promoting the city”™s economic development and attracting private investment. Spano said Kirven expressed interest in staying in the post.
Sharon Ebert, deputy commissioner in the planning and development office, will stay in that position. Spano said she is interested in the office”™s still-vacant commissioner post.
The new mayor expects the city”™s master developer, Struever Fidelco Cappelli L.L.C., to return to the city early this year with a reduced proposal for its stalled downtown development project.
Spano noted the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York still has not released funding earmarked for the city”™s development agencies to acquire private properties needed to make way for SFC”™s River Park Center project off Getty Square.
“There has been a ton of public money invested in that project,” he said. “We”™re not going to give it away. We”™re not going to let any developer use the economy to not give Yonkers the best deal.”
Spano said the recent uncovering of the Saw Mill River at downtown Larkin Plaza “will be a real positive for the waterfront.” But more public access to the waterfront is needed, he said.
“The Ashburton (Avenue) arterial is critical to getting access to the waterfront.” A public-private Ashburton improvements project launched by the Amicone administration to rebuild the neighborhood”™s businesses and housing “is happening but really in piecemeal,” said Spano. “We”™re going to have to push real hard to get more federal money.”
The new mayor said he”™ll also push for a convention center at the Yonkers Raceway site. “I think we can do much more with Yonkers Raceway,” he said.
In that effort, Spano might have to navigate past conflict-of-interest charges. His older brother, former state Sen. Nick Spano, reportedly has Yonkers Raceway as a client at his Albany lobbying firm, Empire Strategic Planning.
