Ulaj, Pierce Discuss Top Issues Facing Westchester County, Districts

Two seats for the Westchester County Board of Legislators with the potential for a spirited campaign have fizzled.

Democrat Emiljana Ulaj, a Croton-on-Hudson resident who is running for the District 9 seat that has been held by the term-limited Legislator Catherine Borgia, had been poised to take on Republican Laurie Abbate-Ryan of Cortlandt Manor. But in early September Abbate-Ryan announced she was suspending her campaign after the unexpected death of her husband in May.

In District 2, Democratic incumbent Erika Pierce (D-Katonah) is running for a second term and was prepared for a challenge by North Salem Republican William Monti, but the would-be challenger fell short of the minimum number of valid signatures on his petition, disqualifying him from being on the ballot. With no other Republican seeking the seat, Pierce is unopposed.

Abbate-Ryan, who remains on the ballot, apologized to supporters on her Facebook page on Sept. 5, and has no longer been actively campaigning.

“My name will appear on the (R)epublican line of the ballot even though I tried to have it removed and allow another person to run for this position,” Abbate-Ryan said. “My name will not appear on an (i)ndependent line as I was in the middle of collecting signatures when tragedy struck my family. I will not be campaigning nor interviewing nor giving any responses nor spending any money on this. I am sorry to all of my supporters as this was something I used to care deeply about.”

The last line of her post read “Please vote using common sense because my kids still have to grow up in this country. Thank you, Laurie.”

When Ulaj heard about Abbate-Ryan’s loss she said she was saddened for her and her family.

“This was an unexpected tragedy and it must be an unexpected and painful time in her life,” Ulaj said.

The District 9 seat includes portions of the Town and Village of Ossining and Cortlandt, the villages of Croton-on-Hudson and Buchanan as well as the Ossining portion of Briarcliff Manor. Borgia has held the seat for 12 years.

Ulaj, whose husband is Croton-on-Hudson Mayor Brian Pugh, is a graduate of John Jay High School in Cross River and Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. She formerly served as director of communications and strategic planning for state Sen. Shelley Mayer and was elected to the state Democratic Party State Committee for Assembly District 95.

Ulaj’s family fled Albania in 1997 in the midst of a civil war and spent a year as refugees, before being granted asylum in the U.S. She has supported Westchester County Executive George Latimer’s efforts to speed up the immigration asylum and application process.

“As a refugee myself, I understand that people are coming here as a last resort because their communities are no longer safe,” Ulaj said. “We have to help them by setting up new courts so they can have legal status and be authorized to work. There are so many businesses in our area and throughout the state that can use these workers.”

The lack of affordable housing in Westchester is alarming, Ulaj said, and although projects are ongoing in Croton-on-Hudson and elsewhere to build more units, there is still great need.

“We need affordability in this region for our first responders and those working in other service areas who are driving an hour or more and who can’t afford to live in the communities they serve,” Ulaj said. “Seniors can’t afford to downsize and for children who have left the nest, there’s not a lot of apartments in the community where they can build a life. Affordable housing is a huge issue for me and I will work to take action.”

Ulaj also pledged to address the lack of county management for the environmentally sensitive grassland at Croton Point Park.

“I will follow the county parks department and find out why things have fallen behind and how we can pick up speed on the removal of invasive plants,” she said.

Pierce’s district, geographically the largest in the county, includes the Village of Mount Kisco, the towns of Bedford, Lewisboro, North Salem and Pound Ridge and a portion of Somers.

Unfinished business and the need for her constituents to have a strong voice to compete with southern districts that have greater population density have motivated her to seek a second term.

“We are more independent up here, which makes us uniquely different,” said Pierce, chair of the board’s Public Works & Transportation Committee. “We have less ties with sewer systems, less bus service. We have to work doubly hard to make certain that our needs are recognized and understood.”

Flooding issues in Mount Kisco, and communities with wastewater issues that are beyond their capacity, must also be addressed, she said

Pierce acknowledged that the diversity in Mount Kisco is highly valued.

“Here is a thriving, multiethnic blend and we love the cultural community of Hispanics, Italians, Americans and many others coming together,” Pierce said. “We have always had a history of immigration in this county. The more quickly we process immigrants the better. The federal government has been dysfunctional on moving quickly to allow people to become important parts of our economy.”

Pierce worked on equipping school buses with stop arm cameras, devices that would capture motorists on video who illegally pass stopped buses that are discharging or picking up students. The county would cover any costs and be authorized to enter into agreements with school districts for the installation, maintenance and use of the photo violation monitoring systems.

“We crafted this critical legislation but the process is complicated,” Pierce explained. “We were required to go through (a Request for Proposal) process to get bids from vendors, and we have gotten multiple bids. Now we have to go to contract with each municipality. Since the county is not the ticketing authority, municipalities will issue tickets. I feel sad about how long the process is taking.”

More affordable housing is a difficult issue, but home rule needs to be respected, she said.

“We want to find a way to work together with our communities,” Pierce said. “The county can be a helper and make funds and expertise available to municipalities to help them move projects forward in a way that the county isn’t imposing a project on a municipality.”

An approach the county could take is buying property and transferring it to another entity to build more affordable housing.

High on Pierce’s list is supporting nonprofits such as food pantries and the Boys & Girls Club, which the county has helped to hire mental health practitioners.