Schleimer Resigns From Mt. Kisco Dems Citing Split on Focus

More turbulence hit the Mount Kisco Democratic Committee last week as longtime village Trustee Karen Schleimer resigned from the committee after her appeal to members to focus more on local issues was not addressed.

Schleimer said before she accepted the party’s nomination in February to run for an eighth consecutive two-year term for Village Board, she informed fellow committee members that there was too much emphasis on county and state issues when there were so many local matters to concentrate on.

“Obviously, since I’m never going to aspire to a higher elected position, the village is critical to me, and that’s what I was looking for,” said Schleimer, who remains a registered Democrat.

“I guess I accepted the nomination in February and there has been absolutely no support and no nothing, about nothing having to do with the village and a total concentration on races elsewhere,” she added. “And so, I just felt that what they were focusing on was not what I was focusing on or what I cared about, and so there was no coming to terms with it.”

Schleimer said she was assured by committee members that local issues would be addressed, but in the seven months since it was discussed nothing has changed.

“It was just sad,” Schleimer said. “I was attacked with respect to a position (on an issue) that I took. I didn’t feel they were supporting me, unfortunately.”

Issues that Schleimer believes the committee needs to pay greater attention to are village finances, development, the battery energy storage system debate and the condition of the trails and parks. She said only a few of the committee members are involved on village volunteer boards or serve the community in another capacity, so their focus may be elsewhere.

Schleimer is running on the party’s ticket to retain her seat on the Village Board with current Committee Chair Tom Luzio. They are facing two candidates from the independent Village Inclusive Party, Braille Diaz and John Mullen, in November. The Village Inclusive Party, led by current Mayor Michael Cindrich, swept last year’s election over the Democratic slate.

When reached, Luzio thanked Schleimer for her service to the committee and to the village for the past 14 years. He said Schleimer has a valid point that the committee should be spotlighting attention on village issues, but it also needs to pursue a dual track that includes county and state concerns.

However, the committee works with the Westchester County Democratic Committee and the village’s representatives at higher levels of government, he explained.

“Karen is right to the extent that every Democratic Committee should be focusing on local issues, but not to the complete exclusion of county and state issues,” Luzio said. “First and foremost, because sometimes focusing on these issues gets you a seat at the table, so Mount Kisco can benefit in the future, or at least be served in the future by our elected Democratic officials in White Plains and Albany.”

But he refuted Schleimer’s assertions that it has ignored local matters. The Mount Kisco Democratic Committee does spend much of its time on local issues, Luzio said. When the committee tried to get her support on continuation of the Community Resource Officer program and the trail team, a group of volunteers who tended to the community’s trails in the woods, Luzio said she “stood idly by” as both efforts fell by the wayside, he said.

“The majority of the MKDC thought both programs were part of the solution to some of [our] local issues, in some form or fashion, and asked for Trustee Schleimer’s support,” Luzio said. “She obviously felt otherwise, as she stood idly by as both were disbanded.”

Schleimer said she expects that she and Luzio will continue to campaign separately in the weeks until Election Day. She said whether they campaign together or separately won’t make a difference in the outcome.

“People will elect me if they want to elect me, and if they don’t, that’s perfectly fine,” she said.

Luzio said there are now three vacancies on the 14-seat committee. In all likelihood, those seats will be filled after the election.

During last year’s election season, the committee was divided, eventually leading to several resignations, after a majority of its members nominated Luzio for mayor. But current Trustee Lisa Abzun defeated him in the Democratic primary. Abzun lost to Cindrich in the general election.

Then last September, former Democratic chair William Serratore was indicted on charges related to falsifying signatures on some of Luzio’s nominating petitions. Serratore pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of third-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument. Luzio was never implicated in any wrongdoing.