SOS Circulates Petition to Oppose the Community Center
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Over the past few weeks, the Village has witnessed the revival of the SCC's long time proposal to build a community center. The scope and cost of this project has changed drastically over the years to today's eye-popping $24 million, that is if you believe that it can be accomplished without any major cost overruns. Importantly, the economic environment has changed significantly during this time. While the SCC recommendation for a public/private joint venture with the SCC raising $8 million in private funds and the Village of Scarsdale floating the additional $16 million in bonds is noble, the fact remains that it would double our Village's debt for an enormous project that is well beyond the group's original stated goal of an indoor pool for Scarsdale. If this group wants to move forward with a project of this size, it should not involve any funding by the Village.
Our group is reaching out to the community to ensure that all of our citizens understand the current proposal, its potential economic impact and the risks it will pose to all Scarsdale Village taxpayers.
Below is a petition that we sent out today. We encourage you to sign it by clicking on the link today.
Scarsdale Cannot Afford to Double its Debt
The Petition
We, the undersigned voters and residents of Scarsdale, call on the Mayor and the Scarsdale Village Board of Trustees to act within its fiduciary responsibility and reject the current and any future SCC proposals to build a $24 million multi-purpose facility, funded with a $16 million Village of Scarsdale General Obligation Bond.
We believe that for the Village to embark on this project would be a fiscally irresponsible risk to all Scarsdale taxpayers. Doubling the Village's debt load for a project that should be funded entirely with private funds puts the entire Scarsdale taxpayer-base at risk for the benefit of a small minority of the Village's residents. It is time to focus on investing in our schools, maintaining our basic services and to stop looking to mortgage the future of our community's financial health for a $24 million multi-purpose luxury facility. It is time to say NO to the SCC.
To sign or see the petition, click here:
Save our Scarsdale (SOS)
Trustees Ponder Community Center and Historical Preservation
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Scarsdale Trustees invited residents to give their feedback on the proposal for an indoor pool and community center to be built on the grounds of the outdoor pool on Mamaroneck Avenue. The meeting was held on December 6 in the third floor meeting room of Village Hall which was packed, and some resorted to sitting on the floor or standing in the hallway. Supporters of the SCC had rallied the troops and were handing out SCC swim caps and bumper stickers, while Mayor Stevens passed around delicious homemade chocolate cookies. The cookies, were so good that several people asked for the recipe and Mayor Stevens obliged - find the recipe here .
Before hearing from the public, Mayor Stevens and Trustee Steves offered their thoughts on the project. Stevens briefly recapped the history of the proposal, calling it “long and rocky.” She believes that although the center would be multi-generational and foster community and connections, the Board needs to make sure it is financially viable. She said that the project would be evaluated on its ability to be self-sustaining and its potential to garner sufficient membership and support from the community. Trustee Steves reviewed the proposal, explaining that $8 million would need to be raised in contributions with the Village financing the balance of $16 million. Trustee Jonathan Mark emphasized the significance of the decision when he told the group that the Village contribution of $16 million would double the outstanding debt of the Village of Scarsdale. Once built, if the indoor pool failed to generate sufficient revenue, the Village will be left to fund it.
Then the focus turned to the audience, where, through a show of hands, a majority of the room revealed themselves to be supporters. One by one, people stood up to state their opinions and concerns. Advocates supported the project for the following reasons:
- The Center will bring the community together
- Scarsdale swim teams will no longer have to take long bus rides to different towns to use their pools
- The SCC will be a convenient and useful spot for senior citizens to gather
- The fitness room would be beneficial for everyone, especially high school students as the school’s fitness room needs to be renovated
- The Center’s recreation rooms could be used as party spaces, offering additional revenues to the center.
Although there were only a few opponents in attendance, they were quite vocal and opposed the center for the following reasons:
- The project is not self-sustaining since it will be financed by Village bonds
- There is a high financial risk involved at a time when the Village should not be taking risks
- Funding for many other projects is needed, such as road repair and repaving.
- A new center would require more parking spaces, especially during peak hours
As the meeting progressed, tension built in the room. A number of times, the Trustees had to stop the crowd from interrupting and engaging in shouting contests.
After two hours of debate the meeting was adjourned. The Board of Trustees agreed to hold another open meeting in the beginning of January and consider retaining a financial expert to examine the center’s financial projections and evaluate the viability of the plan.
Earlier in the evening the Trustees moved one step closer to enacting a new Historical Preservation Law in Scarsdale. Former Mayor Noreen Fisher who lead a committee to study the issue attended the December 6th meeting to recommend next steps.
The group seemed to favor the adoption of the NYS model preservation code with a few modifications. It was agreed that Scarsdale would need to formulate its own list of criteria against which buildings, structures, sites and objects would be evaluated and provide definitions of a landmark and an interior landmark.
Age alone would not define a property as historical as other factors such as important events that occurred at the site, or a design by a prominent architect of any era would also be considered. Districts, trees, rocks, monuments and landmarks might also be appropriate for the list.
The Village will need to hire an expert to inventory Village homes, buildings and sites to determine which ones might be given landmark status – pending the consent of the owners. A similar inventory had recently been completed in Greenburgh at a cost of $18,000.
After some discussion, the Trustees agreed to ask Village staff to draft a resolution to issue an RFP for an expert to conduct the Village inventory to determine which properties should be listed. The resolution will be considered at a Board of Trustees meeting in January, 2011.
Teens Food and Where Things Can Go Wrong
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Teenagers often eat with friends and spend more time out of the house than with parents. So it is not always easy for parents to tell if their teen is developing a problem with food. In this interactive presentation, Dr. Evelyn Attia, director of the Center for Eating Disorders at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Harriet Brown, whose 14-year-old daughter developed anorexia, talk frankly about how parents can recognize the warning signs of food-related issues and what they can do about them.
Their presentation entitled, It’s All in the Relationship, Teens, Food, and Where Things Can Go Wrong, will include readings from Brown’s recently published book, "Brave Girl Eating: A Family’s Struggle with Anorexia," and a discussion moderated by Attia, focusing on successful treatment approaches for disordered eating and eating disorders.
Dr. Attia is a Professor of Psychiatry and Eating Disorders and is a graduate of Scarsdale High School. Author Harriet Brown is a New York Times contributor. Together they will speak on Tuesday, December 7th at 6:30pm at New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Westchester Campus, 21 Bloomingdale Road, White Plains and the public is invited to attend.
Cohen Concedes to Oppenheimer
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Bob Cohen of Scarsdale called a press conference at Republican Headquarters in Mamaroneck on Monday December 6 to announce that he was conceding the race for the 37th district NYS Senate seat to incumbent Suzi Oppenheimer. Only 500 votes apart on a total tally of over 90,000 votes, Cohen came within a half of a percent of winning the election in this heavily Democratic district.
With his wife Barbara at his side, Cohen announced that he had just called Suzi Oppenheimer to congratulate her on her victory in a well-fought campaign. He said, “ I am proud of the race that we ran, though I wish the outcome was different.” He thanked the Westchester Board of Elections for their tireless work in counting 8,000 paper ballots and said that even though the election was extremely close he would not ask for a recount as it would be expensive and taxpayers would have to foot the bill. He thanked his supporters including The New York Times, The New York Post, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, County Executive Rob Astorino, the volunteers and his wife Barbara and their three children.
He urged legislators to work in a bipartisan fashion to solve the state’s problems and said the close election was a vote for change. Cohen added that the election was one of the “most amazing experiences” of his life and that he would not have traded it for anything.
The Cohen Oppenheimer race was hard fought and the stakes were high since it was one of the races that would determine which party would control the State Senate. Cohen ran as an agent of change and reform -- and tied his fate to the hope that the district’s voters would view Oppenheimer’s 26-year tenure in the State Senate as enough. Oppenheimer touted her newly assumed chairmanship of the Senate Education Committee and her role in the state’s win of $700 million in federal Race to the Top money for state education programs.
The Democrats had a 2:1 voter registration advantage over Republicans in the district – but the Oppenheimer camp clearly saw Cohen’s campaign gaining traction and went starkly and fiercely negative, sending out mailers and running television ads that smeared Cohen, falsely labeling him a "slumlord." The Westchester County Fair Campaign Practices Committee cited the Oppenheimer campaign for her false advertising, and some observers believed that this tactic backfired on Oppenheimer and enabled Cohen to surge towards the end of the campaign.
Yet even though Oppenheimer has won, she will give up her Education Committee chair as it appears that the other two close senate races have been won by the GOP, giving them a 32-30 seat advantage.
League Examines Establishment of a Foundation in Scarsdale
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Scarsdale has been grappling with the issue of the establishment of a foundation to supplement the school budget for years. Generally, an education foundation is a tax exempt, charitable organization that can solicit tax-deductible donations from individuals and businesses. These funds can be used for capital improvements to the schools, new programs or to supplement taxpayer dollars to fill in gaps in the school budget.
Since the establishment and governance of such a foundation is a complex issue, the League of Women Voters decided to study whether or not a foundation should be formed in 2004. Now, six years later, the League has completed their study and brought it to the community for review, and to their membership to form a consensus on the issue.
The goals of the study were as follows:
• To indentify and examine educational foundations that have been established in communities similar to Scarsdale that provide funding for their public schools; and
• To identify and describe existing sources of funding available to the Scarsdale schools outside the school budget, and what is funded by these sources.
The group studied educational foundations in Edgemont, Bronxville, Chappaqua, Rye Brook and Mamaroneck and found that:
- There is a strong positive relationship between the Boards of Education and the foundations
- There is no negative effect on school budget support following the establishment of a foundation
- There is no evidence of fundraising cannibalization with other community groups
- A foundation had a positive effect on community spirit
However, the committee also found that Scarsdale already has over 40 organizations that raise funds and donate monies to the school district, which may obviate the need for a separate foundation.
With their report ready for distribution, the League convened a panel of experts on November 10th to review the issues. The panel included:
- Dr. Michael McGill, Superintendent of Scarsdale Public Schools
- Mark Rosenblatt, Founding Member of the Edgemont Schools Foundation
- Howard Hirsch, Co-Chairman of the Edgemont Schools Foundation
- Nicholas Simonelli, Brewster Education Foundation President
On Monday November 15, the membership of the League met for a consensus meeting on the subject, lead by subcommittee member Susie Rush. She shared the following observations that were gathered from the report and panel discussion:
• Scarsdale is unique in that more than 40 organizations in the Village are already raising money for the benefit of the community and many citizens are actively engaged in volunteer activities that contribute to the schools. In some of the other towns that were studied, there were far fewer organizations supporting the schools and foundations were established to serve this purpose.
• Other towns reported that they had difficulty attracting volunteers to serve on their foundation boards and that there was not a formal process for deciding who would serve. In addition, there were no formal procedures on who could apply for grants from the foundation or for the use of foundation funds.
• Although the amount of money raised by the foundations in these towns is not a significant portion of the school budget, it does represent a meaningful portion of the school’s discretionary spending.
• It was determined that if a foundation in Scarsdale were formed and the foundation raised between $300,000- $500,000 it could operate with volunteers. However, if more than $500,000 was contributed, professional staff would be needed.
• Though the representatives from Edgemont and Brewster believed a foundation would benefit the community, in Scarsdale there were concerns that private funding could result in inequities between schools and that more proactive groups, parents or teachers could garner more funds. A larger concern was the role the Board of Education would play in funding decisions, as individuals who donated funds for a specific purpose might put undue pressure on the Board to fund the designated projects.
• In the other districts that were studied, the School Superintendant sat on the foundation board, making him or her the gatekeeper of the supplemental funds. In Scarsdale, where funding decisions are made by the school board, the role of the superintendant vis-à-vis the foundation would need to be defined.
• At the panel discussion, Scarsdale Superintendant McGill stated that in the last two years the Board has been able to fund what is needed. However given the economy and pressure from residents to hold the line on tax increases, the school could require extra funds in the future.
With these comments in mind, the membership of the League of Women Voters opened their consensus discussion to determine their position on the establishment of a foundation.
They examined a list of questions on the need for a foundation as a means to fund special initiatives or to supplement the school budget. They explored how this funding source would impact the current school budget decision-making process and how it would be governed.
Their agenda included a discussion of the impact of a foundation on other’s group’s ability to raise funds and attract volunteers and whether or not existing organizations already serve the purpose of a foundation in Scarsdale.
From my review of the report and the panel discussion, it is clear that the potential of collecting private funding for the public schools raises many issues at a time when the Scarsdale School District does not appear to be in distress. In the past, where a need was demonstrated, and a committed group of advocates emerged, supplementary funding was permitted by the Scarsdale Board of Education. This was demonstrated when the group “Fields for Kids” raised funds to build a turf field at Scarsdale High School. The League will have to decide whether outside initiatives require the establishment of a foundation or if one-time projects can be funded on an ad hoc basis.
As an outcome of their meeting, the League will formulate their consensus statement and issue it to the community for review. We will publish it here when it is available.
Thanks to the League subcommittee members: Kim Meyers, Nancy Michaels, Debbie Miller, Susie Rush, Amy Scharf and Janice Starr.
