Ex-North Castle Dem Co-chair to Take on Smith for County Board
Former North Castle Democratic Committee Co-chairman John Diaconis announced Monday that he intends to run against two-term incumbent County Legislator Michael Smith for the District 3 seat this fall.
Diaconis, 60, a litigation attorney, said he was motivated to run for the Board of Legislators in large part by the poor efforts on the part of the county and Smith to refurbish the Miller House on Virginia Road in North White Plains, which served as George Washington’s headquarters during the Battle of White Plains in 1777. The county is responsible for its upkeep.
The town’s position on properly rehabilitating the structure and maintaining it in its original location has been clearly and repeatedly communicated to the county executive’s office and to Smith, Diaconis said, but nothing has been done, leaving the deteriorating structure in “deplorable” condition.
While that is one issue, the unresponsiveness from the Board of Legislators has also surfaced in other matters, he said.
“Despite this unambiguous communication, the Town’s plea to save the structure has fallen on deaf ears,” said Diaconis who has served as treasurer of the Friends of Miller House for the past four years. “It has been brought to my attention that similar instances of inadequate representation and lack of action exist throughout District 3.”
Diaconis had served as co-chair of the town’s Democratic Committee until early this year when he stepped down to become co-chairman of the municipality’s Ethics Task Force. Before moving to North Castle in 2010, Diaconis had served from 2001 to 2005 on the New Castle Town Board.
He said he was unaware of any other Democrat who was prepared to run for the seat.
Contacted on Monday afternoon, Smith, 57, confirmed that he will be running for re-election and said he looks forward to having an opponent during this election cycle to debate the issues. He ran unopposed two years ago after ousting Democrat John Nonna from the seat in 2011.
Smith, currently senior vice president, finance and chief financial officer at Berkeley College, said he suspects there will be sharp differences between himself and Diaconis.
For example, he said he opposes spending significant taxpayer money to rehabilitate Miller House in its current location and supported the town’s previous administration to relocate the historic house to a more suitable site.
If Diaconis receives support from the Democratic Party, Smith said he will have to answer for the majority of his party’s positions on issues such as taxes and the response to the affordable housing settlement with the federal government.
“If he is going to be endorsed by the same party that supported Noam Bramson for county executive and Ken Jenkins, is he going to be another tax-and-spend liberal?” asked Smith, who previously served two terms on the Valhalla Board of Education.
Diaconis said in the coming weeks he will be making a more formal announcement but wanted to start the candidacy. He must submit his petition to the county Board of Elections by July 9.
District 3 covers the towns of North Castle and Mount Pleasant, the villages of Pleasantville, Briarcliff and Sleepy Hollow and a portion of the Town of Greenburgh.
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