When knowledge and experience make a difference, Susan knows what needs to be done, both for the immediate short term and to plan and prepare for Yorktown’s future.
- I’ll put issues on the Town Board’s agenda that are being ignored.
- I’ll ask why it’s taking so long to get some things done.
- I’ll explain what the Town Board is doing and why.
Short term issues that need to be addressed NOW !
Hold the line on taxes
We need to be realistic. The only way to cut taxes is to reduce services: Fewer police. Less road paving and more limited snow plowing. Fewer garbage pickups.
If that’s unacceptable, and we want to hold the line of future tax increases, we need to find more efficient ways of delivering the services we want – and new sources of non-tax revenue. We need to:
- Stop giving away unnecessary tax breaks to developers.
- Start collecting developer fees that are on the books but aren’t being collected.
Address growing traffic issues
We need to solve current traffic problems and prevent new ones from happening.
- More carefully review traffic impact of proposed new developments.
- Three pending rezoning applications would add 622 new units to our streets, including Route 6, Route 202 and East Main Street in Jefferson Valley.
Protect our environment and natural resources
We need to achieve a better balance between two critical but competing goals: encouraging solar energy while at the same time preserving our woodlands. We need to:
- Limit clear cutting on undeveloped parcels.
- Rethink whether large scale solar farms should be allowed in residential neighborhoods.
- Require better visual screening.
Support development that works for Yorktown, not developers
We need to be careful and cautious when rezoning property and approving new developments.
- We need to revitalize our business hamlets instead of extending commercial uses into residential neighborhoods that create even more vacancies in our hamlets.
- New residential developments should further the Comprehensive Plan goal of providing for diverse housing: different types of housing units for all age groups.
Honest and open government
We need REAL transparency, not lip service, from the Town Board.
- I won’t participate in illegal discussions of town business in closed door executive sessions, like the $600,000+ tax break for Underhill Farm.
- I’ll walk out of meetings when prohibited subjects are discussed – as I started to do as a councilwoman in 2015; the supervisor quickly ended the discussion.
- I’ll give you honest answers to your questions. Not political spin.
- I’ll tell it like it is, whether it’s good news or bad.
Support a stronger Ethics Law
We need to amend the current law – again. The recent amendments actually weakened parts of the law.
- Make the Ethics Board independent of the Town Board and the town attorney.
- Require the Town Board to make public Ethics Board findings when a town official has violated the Law.
- Require the Ethics Board to notify the people who file complaints with the Board on the status of its investigation.
Replace our aging infrastructure
Where to start? Sewers, roads, drainage, parks, buildings. There’s a wish list of possible projects but no real plan.
- The Town Board recently earmarked $6 million from the fund balance for future expenditures – but without identifying any specifics.
- The Town Board decided in 2022 to spend some of the $3.7 million in federal Covid money on a Yorktown Heights streetscape. Where’s the plan? If we don’t vote to use the money soon, we’ll have to give it back to Washington.
Implement an effective code enforcement program
What good are laws if they’re not enforced? Why have a full time code inspector if he isn’t enforcing our laws? Why is the Town Board’s approach to code enforcement, “We’re looking into the matter”?
- We need the Town Board to require monthly reports from the Building Department listing all code enforcement activities.
- We need the Town Board to direct the Building Department and the town prosecutor to invoke penalty provisions for violations. Why have penalties if they’re never used?
- We need a Town Board to stop “forgiving” developers who don’t adhere to their approved site plans and get away with making unapproved changes in their projects.
Long term issues: Yorktown’s future and how we get there
Planning for our future
Yorktown actually does have a vision for the future. It’s called our Comprehensive Plan. The problem is either no ever reads it, or if they do, they cherry pick sections to support their calls for a rezoning.
Although the Plan was adopted in 2010, and some sections need tweaking to reflect changes in the commercial real estate market, most of the Plan isn’t outdated; it’s on the Town’s web site and I urge everyone to read it.
The Plan includes hundreds of recommendations in more than half a dozen categories ranging from land use, revitalizing our business hamlets, and housing and neighborhood quality of life to cultural and community facilities, parks and recreation, infrastructure and scenic and historic preservation.
As a councilwoman, I’d work to:
- Start planning today for the Town’s future.
- Create a series of community task forces to review the Plan’s recommendations.
- Decide which recommendations are still valid and how they can be implemented.
- Decide which recommendations need to be updated.
- Decide what new recommendations need to be added.
Planning for a more efficient town government
As a councilwoman, I’d continue to explore ways to more efficiently deliver tomorrow’s services. As technology changes, town systems need to change, like the changes made during my two years as supervisor.
- Established expenditure controls by instituting the Town’s first ever purchase order system and a Procurement Policy that required more competitive bidding.
- Increased revenue and reduced staffing costs with the introduction of “smart” water meters.
- Streamlined the development review process.
And in 2020, acting on my suggestion, the Town Board updated the commercial section of the Town’s Water Code in a move that, when fully implemented, will increase water revenue.
It takes knowledge and experience to get the job done.
Susan has that knowledge and experience.