Village Trustees Elected in Scarsdale
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A celebration was held at the Scarsdale Women's Club on Tuesday night March 18 to recognize Deb Pekarek and Marc Samwick who were elected to serve their first two-year terms as Village Trustee and David Lee who was elected to serve a second term. The candidates, all nominated by the Scarsdale Citizen's Party, ran unopposed and voting was light with just 207 votes cast on Tuesday March 18, 2014.
The two new trustees will replace Kay Eisenman and Jon Mark, both who completed four years of service on the Board of Trustees. The counts were 197 for Pekarek, 192 for Lee and 185 for Samwick. There were several write-in votes as well, with Robert Berg receiving 2 votes and John Bensche, Robert Harrison and William Silverman receiving one vote each.
Commenting on the election, Pekarek and Samwick said, "We are very excited and really looking forward to serving our community and working to uphold the very high standards of the existing board, the mayor and village staff. We are sorry that Kay and Jon are leaving the board. They set a high bar and we will miss their wise and valuable counsel."
David Lee added, "I'm looking forward to another term. And I'm so pleased that my fellow 
candidates who will be joining us. They bring a lot of experience and dedication that they have already shown toward community activities, so we're lucky to have them on the board."
Text and Photos by Sarah Schuman
Vote Today
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- Written by Joanne Wallenstein
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Two first-time candidates, Deb Pekarek and Marc Samwick, and current Trustee David Lee, have been nominated by the Citizens Nominating Committee for election to the Scarsdale Board of Trustees on Tuesday March 18. If elected, the two new nominees will fill the seats of Trustees, Kay Eisenman and Jon Mark, who will complete four years of service on the Board of Trustees this spring. David Lee, who is completing his first two years on the Board will serve an additional two year term.
We took this opportunity to learn more about the candidates so that we could introduce them to you and encourage you to vote at Scarsdale Village Hall on Tuesday March 18 from 6 – 9 am and noon -9 pm. There will be a reception for the newly elected Board members at the Scarsdale Woman's Club at 8 pm, following the vote.
David Lee:
Tell us about your professional career:
I practice trusts and estate's law, with a focus on tax planning. I began my legal career at two large law firms and then moved to my present, small firm in mid-town Manhattan. What I especially enjoy is the wide range of issues that arise in this family-oriented field of law. I attended Harvard College (B.A. degree), Columbia Law School (J.D. degree), New York University (L.L.M. degree in Taxation).
What were some of the highlights of your experience as a Village Trustee for the past two years?
What I find most interesting is the breadth and variety of issues faced by the Village – land development, storm water mitigation, infrastructure concerns regarding roads, sewers, and parks, the individual concerns of residents, and of course, our biggest challenge – the Village budget.
What enriches the experience is our terrific Village staff who provide us with materials and background information to help us become informed on the issues at hand. Being on the board has been a hands-on course in municipal government, watching its many moving parts, and addressing policy issues as they arise.
What ultimately makes the experience so positive, however, is working side-by-side with others on the board who bring experience and intelligence to the table, an interest in working together with one another in addressing the issues, and a shared love and appreciation of Scarsdale.
Working as a trustee, however, is a time-consuming proposition. Although there is the occasional week when we have no meetings, most weeks have anywhere from one to three evenings where we are either together as a board or attending the meeting of one of the several Village boards or councils to whom we each liaise. For example, I serve as the board liaison to the Advisory Councils of the PRC and the Scarsdale Seniors, the Youth Advisory Council, the Teen Center, Scarsdale Edgemont Family Counseling, and the Scarsdale Drug and Alcohol Task Force.
But it's like anything else – if you find the work interesting, as I do, you enjoy the time you put in and it's rewarding.
How long have you lived here? And what do you like about Scarsdale?
I have lived in Scarsdale for a total of 39 years. I grew up in Scarsdale, graduating from Scarsdale High School, as did my wife Cathy, and, in 1990, when our first child (Rachel) was on the way, we moved back to Scarsdale. Rachel is now one year out of college (Bates College) and our son Matthew is a junior at Brandeis University.
There's nothing very surprising about what we like about Scarsdale – the great schools, the beautiful open spaces, trees, and homes, and the terrific public facilities – ball fields, parks, the pool, and the library.
What do you see are some of the key issues facing the Village?
First, budgetary issues. How can we preserve what's special about Scarsdale -- the quality of our Village services and schools (although the schools of course are not a Village board issue) and tend to our town's infrastructure needs –- while minimizing property tax growth. In short, how do we keep it reasonably affordable to live in Scarsdale while maintaining its high quality?
Second, how can we avoid over-development in the Village – where houses take up so much of their lot or have so much bulk - that we lose the beauty and charm of open spaces between homes – without unduly limiting individual property rights. We need to be thinking about what we want Scarsdale to look like 30 years from now.
What issues did you work on during your first term?
This year's work for me, as Chair of the Board's Law Committee, has meant learning the intricacies of certain areas of the Village Code, as the Board works to improve our laws on historic preservation of homes, to preserve the look and character of our Village with adjustments to our land development rules and procedures, and to regulate the installation of DAS technology (distributed antenna systems) in our Village. The land development areas is one of the most challenging because any changes to be made to help maintain the beautiful open spaces and greenery of our Village have to fairly take into account our residents' individual property rights.
What are you looking forward to during your second term?
Completion of the some of the projects that are well underway, such as those involving historic preservation and adjustments to our land use regulations, as well as the implementation of some infrastructure plans, such as some storm water mitigation projects and renovations to some of the Village's buildings.
Anything else?
It's amazing, with term limits, how quickly you become one of the senior members of the board. I'm just now finishing my first two-year term, and, assuming I'm re-elected, I'll be third most senior board member, with Jon and Kay now finishing their time on the board. While that means we lose experienced hands pretty quickly, I think it's a good thing to share our Village's leadership among more of our residents. And, fortunately, the professional staff provides the continuity with their experience and institutional history in seeing that the Village runs smoothly.
Deb Pekarek:
Tell readers something about your background and your previous service to Scarsdale?
Jon, Jeff and I moved to Scarsdale from San Francisco in 1992 when Jeff entered the 3rd grade at Greenacres Elementary. I joined the PTA, continued my membership with the Junior League and enrolled in Manhattanville in the Master Program in Teaching. My undergraduate degree is in Business but I had been interested in education when we lived in Denville, New Jersey, Coral Gables, Florida and San Francisco, Ca., where I helped create and implement a peer tutoring program at an elementary school there.
I completed my masters in 1995 and then taught for almost 10 years in Westchester and the Bronx as an elementary education teacher, which I quite loved!
What is your professional training – and what were some of the volunteer projects you worked on that you most enjoyed?
I worked in Product management for Nabisco, CPC, and Savarin Coffee for about 12 years and then took some time to devote to family and community service. I was a member of the Junior League across the country, President of the Women's Auxiliary at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation where we introduced a very successful Golf tournament. When we moved to Coral Gables I was able to use that experience to create a successful golf tournament for the Miami Children's Hospital.
In Scarsdale, as President of the Greenacres Neighborhood Association (GNA), a sub-committee began to work on improving some of the nine traffic islands. In a great collaboration with the Village, GNA, Friends Of the Scarsdale Parks, Eti Katoni, a Landscaper who donated her expertise and interested neighbors, we designed and planted a beautiful, sustainable and drought tolerant garden that is attractive, provides a vibrant habitat for a host of critters, is dog friendly, and is a location for lemonade stands! There are a few of these refreshed islands in Greenacres and it is a small testament of a community working together to improve their environment.
I also enjoyed my service to the League of Women Voters as Chair of Planning & Zoning and was energized by studying the possible Roundabout, Fair and Affordable Housing, Distributed Antenna Systems Zoning Code Amendments. Organizing public meetings where the community was presented information about these issues and where they were able to clarify their understanding is important to me. And the League process of consensus and thoughtful study of many issues affecting the Village is quite extraordinary. I learned so much from my association with the League.
What do you see are some of the key issues facing the Village?
The issues that face the Village, some annual, some unique – the budget with the constraints of the tax cap, overwhelming increases in healthcare and pension costs and a variety of other "unfunded mandates", balancing individual and Village wide projects and needs, grappling with an aging infrastructure and issues like the Homestead tax option – is certainly a challenge.
What issues are you looking forward to working on?
Right now I am really focusing on the Budget, getting to understand the scope of the "job", understanding the Village structure in great detail, observing the Trustees and Mayor at work and getting to know the people I will be working with better. This is the first time I have attended all the Budget meetings which are all public meetings. The budget detail that the Village staff prepares and presents is quite extensive and to me, quite impressive.
Anything else?
I am a big proponent of the non-partisan system and served on the School Board Nominating Committee for many years. Of course as with any system there is always room for the consideration of improvements but I would not have decided to "volunteer" in a partisan system. In order for this system to continue to be robust we really need many Village residents to volunteer, either with time or contributions to keep the system working. And of course it is imperative that everyone exercise their right to vote on election day!
Marc Samwick:
How long have you lived in Scarsdale and what do you like about it?
My wife Cynthia and I moved to Scarsdale in 1997 and have discovered first-hand what a wonderful place Scarsdale is to raise our family of three boys, Jason, Oliver and George.
The Scarsdale community is a remarkably giving community - with waves of volunteers coming forward to serve and improve our community.
Tell us about your education and your professional background:
I graduated, with honors, from Union College with a BA in Economics. I received an MBA, with honors, from Columbia University Graduate School of Business. I am a real estate investor and developer focusing on properties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
I formerly worked for Capital Trust, Fleet Bank (now part of Bank of America) and Chemical Bank (now part of JP Morgan Chase). At Capital Trust, I originated mezzanine investments on properties throughout the United States. At Fleet Bank, I worked out problem real estate loans. I completed Chemical Bank's formal credit training program and originated commercial real estate financings.
Tell us about you community activities:
I am currently an Alternate on the Scarsdale Planning Board and recently completed service on the Board of Scarsdale Little League. One of the highlights of my time on the SLL Board was a program I originated to Coach the Coaches. This program is designed to give coaches a solid base of fundamental baseballs skills to provide the children with a higher level of baseball instruction throughout the entire baseball season. I have coached over 20 baseball teams in Scarsdale. I also serve on the Finance Committee of Westchester Reform Temple.
I enjoy teaching and co-authored and taught a case study on complex real estate ownership at Columbia Business School and interview potential candidates for admission at Columbia Business School.
What do you see as the most important issues facing the Village Board?
One of the most pressing issues facing our community is managing the budget with the pressures to maintain and enhance services while managing the tight revenue constraints coming from Albany, the loss of interest income as a revenue source and the realities of the current economic environment. Scarsdale is very fortunate to have a very talented and committed Mayor, Board and Village staff.
Reval Data Demonstrates Inequities in Village Assessments
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Some preliminary summary data on the village-wide tax revaluation is now available – and the results are a bit surprising. John Wolham from the NYS Department of Taxation and Finance appeared at a special meeting of the Town Board of Scarsdale on February 25 to review the numbers and put the revaluation into context.
He explained that residents will not receive notification of their individual assessments until late March, and that those notices will show what their taxes would have been in 2013 (based on the 2012 assessment) using the new assessments from the revaluation. Actual tax bills based on the new assessments will not go out until April, July and September of 2015. Beginning April 2, those who believe their assessment is incorrect will have the opportunity to make appointments to go to Village Hall to state their case.
Wohlman presented a series of charts analyzing the overall revaluation and below is a chart that summarized the data.
Basically the chart above shows that currently 43% of homeowners are paying more than their fair share and will see a reduction in their taxes. The chart shows that 682 homeowners (12.79%) paid $2,000 - $3,500 more than they should have, 538 (10.09%) paid $3,500 - $5,000 more than their fair share and 1,101 (20.65%) paid more than $5,000 per year above their newly assessed value.
On the other side of the chart approximately 24% of homeowners were being subsidized by those who were over-assessed. The chart shows that 348 (6.53%) of homeowners can expect their taxes to go up by $2,000 - $3,500, 239 (4.48%) will see an increase of $3,500 to $5,000 and 726 homeowners, (13.61%) will see their taxes go up by more than $5,000 per year.
In the middle of the chart, 1,699 homeowners (31.86%) will see their taxes vary from -$2,000 to +$2,000.
As it's a zero-sum game for the village and a redistribution of who pays what, the total amount of the decrease for the over-assessed has to equal the total amount of the increase for the under-assessed. The 1,313 owners on the right hand side of the chart who will pay more in the future are outnumbered by the 2,321 owners who are getting decreases, so the average increase should significantly exceed the average decrease.
This data assumes that the Village does not adopt the Homestead Tax Option. If the Village does adopt Homestead, a back-of-the-envelope estimate shows that owners of single family homes would see an average decrease of $142 per parcel, while the condo owners at Christie Place would each pay an estimated $12,700 more per unit per year.
Commenting on the data, Wohlman said, "It appears that more people were overtaxed to fund others who were under-taxed. For those questioning why the Village needed to do the reassessment, here is your evidence. There is a tremendous amount of shifting between classes, demonstrating why a reassessment needed to be done."
Additional charts analyzing shifting between classes of real estate, with and without the Homestead Tax Option are available on the Village website here.
Homestead Tax Option Struck Down After Much Deliberation
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Following months of briefings, meeting and hearings, the Mayor and Board of Trustees of Scarsdale voted unanimously 7-0, on March 4, 2014, against the adoption of the Homestead Tax Option. The measure was under consideration as part of the Village-wide tax revaluation process that will re-asses the way the tax burden is distributed across Scarsdale. If passed it would have changed the methodology for assessing condominiums, so that condominiums would be assessed on their market value rather than on their potential rental income, which is the current methodology for coops.
Sounding more like judges than trustees, several of the board members spoke eloquently on the reasoning behind their votes, each offering a unique perspective on this perplexing issue. Many cited the undue tax burden that would be placed on the condo owners of Christie Place in exchange for a minimal benefit to owners of Scarsdale single family homes. Since the intent of the Homestead Tax Option legislation is to rebalance the tax burden between commercial and residential properties following a revaluation, some felt it was wrong to apply this option to reclassify a small number of condominiums. Trustees also believed that these condo-owners had no previous knowledge that their taxes could be tripled just a few years after they purchased their units, making it a bait and switch situation. Plus Homestead would create a new disparity between the valuation of condos and coops, and there is a lack of sales history data to properly assess the condominiums at fair market value.
Here are excerpts from their statements:
Trustee Stacey Brodsky said, "As everyone who has followed this debate knows, the adoption of Homestead will not eliminate disparities since coops will continue to be taxed using the income based valuation method whether or not the Homestead provision is enacted. Because the Homestead law allows only the possibility of revaluing condos using market value, it creates a disparity in the real estate valuation method and consequent real estate tax treatment of condos versus coops." ..."With the Homestead Option, we would be proposing to increase property taxes on the condos some 100 to 200% based upon assumptions about market conditions that we have not previously had and have no experience with in Scarsdale. My concerns about the valuation process are underscored by the age restrictions limiting Christie Place condominium ownership, which affect the universe of buyers eligible to purchase a unit.... We, the village board, simply lack the power to treat all owners of property the same way; therefore, to my way of thinking, the analysis to support the Homestead option must go deeper than broad assertions of fairness."
Calling this one of the most difficult decisions she has had to make on four year on the Village Board, Trustee Kay 
Eisenman said, "Fairness in applying the law is not always equivalent to fairness to individual persons. In this case the law evenly applied to all would not impact all equally. Condo owners would share an unequal burden of economic change and endure a great financial burden when these rules are implemented." She then answered those who argued that diligent condo buys should have known that a tax increase was possible, saying, "These owners, unlike home owners, had no inkling that reval could so drastically change their lives. Frankly I don't know if anyone was aware of this, or saw it coming, because it was never part of the discussion about reval, which I recall was thorough and extensive. ... This seems to me inherently unfair and a game changer for those owners. ... My vote was cast because I could not in good conscience decide to do something that, while permissible under the law, feels morally corrupt and a poke in the eye to people who had every right to expect that they purchased their homes in an open and fair process."
Trustee Jon Mark discussed the shift in the burden that would be caused by the adoption of Homestead as well as the intent of the Homestead Tax Option, saying, "In my view making a fundamental change in the methodology used to assess condominiums that produces a significant tax dollar burden on 47 condominium units and an insignificant tax dollar benefit for approximately 5,300 residential properties is not a fair result. It is not comparable to the re-allocation of tax burden among residential properties that is expected to occur from the Village-wide revaluation where no change in methodology is involved.... Since we are not considering adopting the Homestead Tax Option for its primary purpose – to re-establish pre-revaluation property tax allocations among residential and other property classes, it would seem that adopting it solely to change the methodology for valuing condominiums has a punitive quality that also strikes me as unfair."
Trustee David Lee echoed some of the same concerns, saying, "We all understand that the whole point of the reval was to put all of the residences in Scarsdale on an equal footing....So it is quite troubling to consider that in the absence of our adopting the Homestead Tax Option condominium owners at Christie Place will benefit from a method of calculation that undercuts the equal footing concept.... Yet, what ultimately governs my vote is that I believe there is a principled reason for singling out the residents of Christie Place. In my view the residents of Christie Place had a reasonable expectation that their property taxes were correctly calculated and would not double or triple in size within a very short number of years. They could justifiably believe that the newly computed assessments on their property were reasonably accurate and not subject to huge swings in the near future....I distinguish their situation from that of a buyer of an old home with a low assessment who is now subject to a dramatic swing higher in taxes. That buyer either knew or with only a modest amount of discussion on the subject would have known he or she was simply enjoying the good fortune of an outdated assessment."
"I am not willing to say that the Christie Place residents should have done their homework better to discover the existence of the Homestead Tax Option...Nor am I willing to say that if they have a complaint it is with the developer to whom they overpaid for their apartment or it is with their real estate attorney who failed to advise them of this possibility. ... The adopted plan would be harshly inequitable.... An exception must be made in this case to prevent an injustice."
Trustee William Stern noted that while he did not agree that there would be a decrease in the value of the Christie Place condominiums, he grouped condominiums and coops as, "Fungible housing," which should not be treated differently by raising the tax rates on one and not the other.
Mayor Robert Steves had the final word before the vote, again citing the, "disproportionate impact," the taxes would have on a small part of the community. He went on to say that it is important that the Board of Trustees is, "Careful not to start setting different demographics against each other." He made clear that he in no way felt any tax laws were created illegally, or used to foster backdoor or illegal dealings. In his interpretation of the re-evaluation, Mayor Steves said, "The law recognized circumstances to re-evaluate and gave the village the power to do that," going on to describe the methodology used in previous evaluations as consistent with the one used across the state.
Advocates for Homestead continued to present arguments for its adoption. They touched upon the necessity for fairness in the tax code by citing the need to tax everyone at the same level. Robert Berg claimed that everyone deserved the, "Opportunity for equal protection under the law," Lambasting the tax option as, "Unfairly benefitting Christie Place residents since 2008," Mr. Berg also made a direct plea to the Board, not to let their sympathy for the plight of the Christie Place owners influence their decision.
Robert Selvaggio called for taxes to be "levied in an equitable way," saying, "we are all paying for the people who live in Christie Place. Selvaggio said, "I don't want to pay my friends taxes anymore than they want to pay my kids college tuitions." He continued saying, "We hate to see anyone's taxes rise," and called a vote against the Homestead Tax option as a, "Victory for crony capitalism."
Former Trustee Bob Harrison called for all condos past and present to be assessed at fair market value. With that said, he also noted that the yearly cost of a Christie Place condo should be taken into account when determining the increased tax rate, and that he thought, "the dollar value of condos will be maintained."
Linda Doucette-Ashman of the League of Women Voters f Scarsdale read sections of the consensus statement from the League which came out against Homestead. You can read the entire statement here:
Richard Gerwin, a Christie Place resident, cited the 116% tax increase and a potential decrease in retail value as compelling reasons to vote against the ballot measure. David Rosen, another Christie Place resident, explained his view that the arguments made in support of equal taxation had little to do with fairness, but were rather, "A cover for anti-development arguments," stemming from the fear that many condominiums would spring up due to lower tax rates.
As the lengthy debate came to a close, both the Mayor and Board of Trustee's acknowledged the gravity of the issue, and the time that was spent in order to reach their decision. With the motion voted down, the town avoided a, "Fundamental change for condo's," in the words of Trustee Jon Mark, and continued with the re-evaluation process.
State of Emergency Rescinded in Scarsdale
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(Updated Saturday 2-15) Schools were closed again on Friday giving families an early start to the vacation. Due to the state of the roads, the district did not feel it is safe for buses to travel.
Mayor Robert Steves rescinded the state of emergency that had been imposed on Thursday at noon on Friday but asks residents to refrain from parking on the street to allow the Village Sanitation Department to continue to plow. About 1" - 3"snow of new snow is expected today, Saturday.
Schools were closed again on Friday February 14, the 4th day in just two weeks, due to winter storm PAX and will remain closed for a week for the Presidents Day vacation.
