First-Time Candidate Picinich Challenges Cindrich in Mount Kisco

For the first time in recent memory, there is a competitive race for Mount Kisco mayor.

Gina Picinich, running on the independent 4MK line, is on a leave of absence as a co-executive director of the Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce. She is running against longtime incumbent Michael Cindrich in her first race for elected office.

Picinich, 53, said she has been active in her community, having been a member of the Bedford Central School District’s Budget Advisory Committee. The experience “had me start taking a closer look at Mount Kisco,” she said.

“Why am I doing this? Because it needs to be done,” Picinich said. “The current administration is not getting it done.”

She said she was frustrated with responses from village officials regarding her concerns about downtown commercial vacancies. While officials will listen, the current leadership has failed to take substantive steps to reverse course, such as creating an action plan, she said.

Picinich said there should be an open house bringing together landlords, the Building Department and those who may consider opening a business in the village.

Village zoning codes are also too restrictive, in some cases making little to no sense, she said. For example, the code states there cannot be a health club in a space larger than 2,500 square feet and a business cannot have unlimited membership. Those regulations effectively eliminate many operations from considering Mount Kisco without expensive and involved requests for variances.

With the assistance of experts, a revised Comprehensive Plan Committee should be a document that lays out a vision for the future, Picinich said.

Though she is willing to consider transit oriented development, she remains skeptical about creating zones that would allow for commercial use within a building’s first floor with apartments upstairs in an effort attract more people downtown.

“I don’t know that increasing the population of Mount Kisco (is a solution),” she said.

Picinich supports having the village encourage redevelopment of existing neighborhoods.

“Find some ways to motivate people who own homes or maybe are renting homes to reinvest,” she said.

Parking continues to present a problem. Providing free parking on Thursdays in one village-owned lot is inadequate, Picinich said. Visitors who do not know the Village Center lot’s location, where the free Thursday parking is provided, may be ticketed if they mistakenly believe they don’t need to pay on Thursdays, she said. A group of business owners and residents should study parking, she said.

Picinich said the village board “made a real mess” of the proposal to construct senior housing at 270 Kisco Ave. on Kisco Mountain. Earlier this year the board voted unanimously to give Mayor Michael Cindrich the ability to negotiate a contract to sell part of the mountain to the developer.

“The board put something on the agenda that would impact the whole community and voted on it that night without giving anyone in the community any notice that was even a subject coming up again,” Picinich said.

“We have to see true legal guidance to determine what our obligations are,” she added. “We need to determine what the real value of this asset is.”

There are other locations in the village, such as Radio Circle, where senior housing could be built, Picinich said.

“I think building on the mountain should be our last resort,” she said.

The challenger also called the village’s general fund balance of more than 40 percent of the operating budget excessive. Mount Kisco has additional money that should be used to reinvest in the community, she said.

The consolidation of the village’s police department with the Westchester County Department of Public Safety has apparently been successful with additional police officers and cost reductions, Picinich acknowledged. However, the village needs hard data to prove if consolidation is working.

She said the village should have made more efforts to inform the public about next week’s referendum to allow it to borrow up to $10.25 million for renovations and additions to the village’s three firehouses. Although it’s a lot of money, Picinich said the work is needed.

Picinich said three years ago she began working with village officials and residents by scheduling quarterly meetings regarding overcrowded, illegal dwellings because landlords are failing to follow housing regulations, she said.

A related problem that must be addressed is tenants subletting their apartment to others illegally, she said. She advocates working with the community to educate to landlords and tenants.