ELECTION 2017 – WHITE PLAINS COMMON COUNCIL
Justin C. Brasch
Party: Democratic, Independence
Justin Brasch is an attorney specializing in landlord-tenant law. He is an appointed member of the White Plains Planning Board; former member of White Plains School Board Budget Advisory Committee; Westchester County Legislature’s Citizens Budget Advisory Committee; White Plains Multimodal Transportation Center Stakeholder Task Force; former member of NYC Sierra Club Political Committee; life member and former Executive Committee member of Mid-Manhattan NAACP.
Brasch is running for Common Council as a continuation of over 30 years of public service to keep White Plains moving in the right direction. He has worked in the Democratic Party, serving on boards and commissions, and is particularly proud of the work that has been done in building affordable housing in White Plains. He wants to explore expanding the 10 percent mandate for multi-family affordable housing in downtown White Plains to the entire City and also promotes assisting existing non-profit organizations working to make affordable housing more accessible for people who need it.
It is of paramount importance to Brasch that White Plains remains a city where all feel welcome and safe, regardless of race, nationality, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. “We must stand up for our values and work to protect the most vulnerable of our community, despite the actions of the federal government and the national Republican Party,” he said.
During the candidates forum held by the League of Women Voters of White Plains Brasch was the single candidate to mention the vulnerability of residents in the Fisher Hill, Battle Hill and Winbrook neighborhoods.
While he promotes the continuing growth of the City, he is adamant that it must go hand in hand with protecting residents’ quality of life.
He has advocated for connecting the White Plains train station to Mamaroneck Avenue, as well as to the Battle Hill neighborhood.
Brasch believes that development should work for every community and neighborhood.
White Plains is a strong and diverse community with a rich history and a bright future. We are heading in the right direction, and I want to help continue that momentum, Brasch said.
Brasch has been endorsed by former Common Council candidate Saad Siddiqui. Siddiqui, who is abiding by the results of the Democratic Primary, stepped out of the Council race in September. Siddiqui, who ran for Common Council with Alan Goldman and Michael Kraver, is now also backing Brasch.
“I got to know Justin during the election and found that we had a lot in common and just like Alan and Michael, as a first time candidate, Justin will bring new ideas and a much needed fresh perspective to the Common Council,” Siddiqui said.
Cass V. Cibelli
Party: Republican, Reform
Cass V. Cibelli began the 2017 election season with a bid to run for mayor of White Plains on the Republican ticket. After the nomination was granted by the Republicans to Milagros Lecuona, Cibelli was nominated by the party to run for a seat on the Common Council.
Cibelli’s candidacy has been somewhat low key, with much of his issue statements released on social media including Twitter and Facebook as Cibelli noted at the recent Candidates Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of White Plains, the Woman’s Club of White Plains and the NAACP. He refers to himself as the most truly independent candidate.
Cibelli is an educator, currently working in education administration at a religious school. He moved his family to White Plains in 1999.
Cibelli refers to the state of White Plains as a “Tale of Two Cities, noting that the services offered by the city should be offered as far and as wide as possible. He is concerned with the application put forward by the French American School of New York (FASNY), commenting about the school’s plan having a negative impact on a pristine part of the city.
Andrew C. Custodio
Party: Republican, Reform
Andrew Custodio has been a Westchester resident for many years, moving to White Plains with his wife three years ago. He is employed as an engineer and active with the White Plains Council of Neighborhood Associations. He says his passion is for the people.
Custodio notes that he was attracted to the diversity of White Plains as well as the urban feel when he made the decision to make the city his home.
Believing that White Plains is at a crossroads, Custodio decided to enter the Common Council race because he was concerned about the city’s future, lack of adequate planning and lack of transparency. Keeping taxes low, reducing reliance on parking ticket revenue in the city budget and bringing small businesses back to the community are some of his key issues.
At the recent League of Women Voters of White Plains (LWVWP) forum Custodio said he was completely against the FASNY application, and particularly about the way the city was handling it.
Alan D. Goldman
Party: Republican, Conservative, Reform
Alan Goldman entered the race for White Plains Common Council, joining other candidates to force a Democratic primary. Unsuccessful in his bid to win a Democratic line in November’s election, he is now running on the Republican line. During the Democratic primary race, Goldman was upfront about his recent shift as a registered Republican to that as a registered Democrat. “I am the people’s candidate,” Goldman said. “Party affiliation should make no difference. People will vote for the person who you are.”
Goldman has been a White Plains resident since 1988, and a White Plains business owner since 1979, currently COO of Alloy Printing and Marketing, White Plains. He has served on the board of the White Plains Performing Arts Center, Woman’s Club of White Plains, White Plains Business Improvement District, Westchester Taxi & Limousine Commission, and Lifting Up Westchester (formerly Grace Community Services).
For almost 10 years we’ve seen a significant decline in merchant activity downtown. The Central Business District has largely been ignored by the current administration, while they focus on large building projects on the outskirts. The result is empty storefronts and restaurants that open and close. I want people who live here to come downtown, no matter what income level, and I want more people to live in the downtown, Goldman says.
Goldman also is concerned that the current city administration is not handling downtown events well, such as handing out tickets during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and closing the bars for two hours after the parade. “We have 24-hour parking in the municipal lots. Why?” he asks. Goldman is troubled about city budgets that show increased reliance on parking revenue, while sales tax revenue has gone down.
In the past five years White Plains has seen sales tax revenue go down. At the same time Westchester County and other cities have gone up. A thriving merchant community has for a long time allowed White Plains to maintain a lower property tax threshold than other towns. We need to bring back White Plains as a shopping destination. I am sure there are places where significant savings could be found as well that would not burden the taxpayers of the city further than they are, Goldman maintains.
Regarding FASNY, Goldman noted during the LWVWP candidates forum that while he had nothing against the school itself, he does not believe it belongs in the Gedney neighborhood.
Regarding future development in the city, Goldman thinks an update of the Comprehensive Plan – written in 1996 and revised 2006 – is long overdue. Upon election to the Common Council, he would push for a Comprehensive Plan Committee to take on this task as soon as possible.
He also would work with the White Plains Ethics Committee to make sure that “partisan politics does not rear its’ ugly head.”
John B. Kirkpatrick
Party: Democratic, Independence
John Kirkpatrick is a city planner and environmental lawyer. He has held a seat on the White Plains Common Council since 2012 and is currently president of the Council. He has over 45 years experience working for and with municipal governments on planning, environmental and land use issues, including writing Comprehensive Plans. He is a founding member of both the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Certified Planners, and has served as a member of local neighborhood associations and boards of environmental, land-use and conservation organizations.
Kirkpatrick and his wife moved to White Plains almost 45 years ago. They found the city to be a rare community where everything is close and convenient, with a diverse population, superior services, excellent schools (their three children all went to White Plains schools), reliable government, diverse housing stock and reasonable taxes.
“Working to preserve those features has been and will continue to be the main focus of my time on the Council,” Kirkpatrick says.
Kirkpatrick is proud of the AA1 bond rating White Plains has maintained, attributing it to smart budgeting and effective negotiations.
Hot button issues for Kirkpatrick include the Comprehensive plan. “I was heavily involved in the 1977 plan, the 1994 plan and the 2006 plan update. I’m a professional planner. In my 10 years as a planner before I became a lawyer, I worked for a regional planning agency, a city and a consulting firm. I’ve written comprehensive plans. I’ve studied what we have and I agree totally with Chris Gomez, our city’s Planning Commissioner, that it is by and large a very good Plan. But like every plan it needs a few adjustments. We’ve done that with the train station; now we need to do it with downtown, such as: increasing pedestrian protection; preserving and bringing back the beautiful old facades; instituting more traffic calming; incentivizing small retail redevelopment; and continuously making parking friendlier.”
Kirkpatrick is also eager to protect the neighborhoods. To do this he has researched, written and pushed to passage the recent legislation to prevent burning trash and the like in fireplaces – which produces terrible air pollution. At the suggestion of the Gedney Association, he researched, wrote and pushed to passage the recent zoning amendments that will force the local garden centers to scale back from their dusty, noisy soil manufacturing operations.
Kirkpatrick is concerned that about transparency in government and has vowed to do everything he can to involve anyone who is interested in all aspects of city government.
He supports development that creates public open space and will continue to work with neighborhoods to maintain and improve parks and other public areas.
Michael Kraver
Party: Working Families
Michael Kraver received the fourth highest number of votes for White Plains Common Council in September’s Democratic primary. Maintaining his status as a registered Democrat, Kraver is running on the Working Families Party line, a nomination he is proud of.
He is a board member of Friends of White Plains Public Schools, Co-Vice President since 2015 of the White Plains Council of Neighborhood Associations, a White Plains Democratic City Committee District Leader since 2010, and former Executive Committee member of White Plains City and School District Shared Services Committee.
Of all the local issues that are important to him, Kraver says two stand out: (1) the White Plains downtown has lost its momentum, and the economy has not recovered from the recession the way other local economies have, and (2) the city’s housing market is neither maximizing value for homeowners nor creating affordable opportunities for families who want to settle in White Plains.
Kraver describes White Plains as a unique suburban city, but he is concerned that the current track the city is on is more focused on the types of initiatives that cities generally focus on, and not focused enough on things that suburbs generally focus on. For example, adding density and increasing population with temporary (rental) residents, without giving enough attention to recruiting and retaining people who want to set roots in the community. He also is adamant that there needs to be more affordable housing in all neighborhoods of White Plains.
As he has reached out to voters beyond those registered with the Democratic Party, Kraver says he has learned that residents are concerned that the city is not doing a good job of prioritizing enforcement in areas such as speeding, harassment in the downtown, and building codes. Instead, a lot of effort seems to be going to enforcing the parking rules, Kraver claims.
He is concerned that residents are not spending their free time in White Plains and many are not sending their children to the public schools. Kraver would like to see communication between the city government and the school district, especially as both prepare their annual budgets.
Kraver sees the current Common Council as being too reactive and not proactive enough when it comes to addressing the fast pace of development in the city. He wants to see the Comprehensive Plan updated and more transparency in development and policy decisions.
Kraver began his campaign to run for Common Council before other candidates entered the field. It is a grassroots campaign, he said. Noting that most of the current Council seats are filled with older members of the community, Kraver, who is just 40, thinks a whole generation of people are being left out of the conversation about where the city should be going. I am the only candidate for Council who has children in the school system, he said.
John M. Martin
Party: Democratic, Independence
Campaigning to keep his seat on the White Plains Common Council, John Martin says that after the Democratic primary he was pleased with the support of his party voters and that speaking with voters across the board since Sept. 12, he is hearing that residents are happy with the way things are going in the city.
He also noted that while challengers have been quick to make negative claims, they have not presented any clear alternatives.
Serving on the Common Council since 2011, Martin is a 35-plus year White Plains resident, founder, All New York Title Agency, Inc., former chair Westchester County Bar Association Real Property Law Committee, lecturer for New York State Bar Association Real Property Law Section, and vice chair White Plains Urban Renewal Agency.
He has served in many roles over the years from neighborhood association president in Fisher Hill, prior Common Council service, chair of the 1997 Comprehensive Plan and the 2006 Comprehensive Plan update committee, long-time treasurer and then chair of the Business Improvement District, and chair of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee.
Martin says he is proud to have worked alongside Mayor Tom Roach to move White Plains forward. “While I have seen several mayoral administrations over the years I can confidently say that I have never seen a more open and progressive administration than that of Tom Roach. We have maintained, and, in fact, have improved city services while keeping our staffing levels at historic lows and staying within the state mandated ‘tax cap’ each and every year I have been on the Council,” he said.
Martin has worked to keep the costs of city pensions and tax appeal refunds out of the operating budget, improve the bonding agency rating, which has, in turn, reduced White Plains’ borrowing costs, and has worked to ensure that the city’s main unions (CSEA, PBA, PFFA and Teamsters) are under fair and reasonable contracts.
Martin maintains that going forward, there is still much to do. “We must continue to pursue development where it makes sense but at the same time we must continue to require developers to pay for the costs of new parkland and to provide the appropriate amount of new affordable housing within their residential sites. I will continue to assess each new proposal on its merits but also within our zoning ordinance, treating each proposal fairly and in accord with the laws of our city and state,” he said.
As well, Martin promotes strong support of White Plains downtown businesses where possible. He supports an expansion of the Business Improvement District to extend down to the important city gateway of the train station and also to extend to the White Plains Hospital area. He believes both of these areas deserve the attention and proven positive impact of the BID but hurdles remain. “Because current state tax cap law includes even the self-assessed BID fees, I will continue to seek ways to accomplish this important goal for our downtown,” Martin said.
