Mt. Pleasant Residents Tell Town Board to Oppose Changes to Elections

Sentiment among Mount Pleasant residents last week at a public hearing tilted toward fighting the state’s Voting Rights Act rather than change the town’s system of voting after a recent report found evidence of racially polarized elections.

The hearing’s second session on Nov. 20, held four days after the Town Board opened the hearing, featured some residents who argued that changes are unnecessary and decried the meddling because others have seen their candidates lose.

Last summer, five town residents informed Mount Pleasant officials it might sue the municipality under the 2022 New York State Voting Rights Act unless there were some remedies such as going to a ward system, changing the cycle of its elections to even-numbered years, instituting ranked choice voting or one of a list of other possibilities.

Mount Pleasant is the first municipality in the state to face a challenge since the law went into effect last year.

A Nov. 15 report from election experts Dr. Lisa Handley and Jeffrey Wice found that based on data from the past six town elections, candidates of choice for the Hispanic population, which make up nearly one in five residents in town and about half the Village of Sleepy Hollow, have little to no chance of winning.

A majority of speakers denounced the law and attempts by citizens looking to make changes.

“If we don’t like the outcome of an election, we’re talking about changing the results,” said Valhalla resident Anne Marie DePaolis. “I thought we were against election interference. Are we preventing minority candidates from coming forward? We had Democrat candidates, and I saw a lot of Republicans ringing bells. I didn’t see the Democrats. No one came to my door to campaign. I would have listened to them if they did.”

Hawthorne resident Carlo Valente was one of several residents urging the Town Board to challenge the law. Many laws have been overturned in the past, he said.

“So when we have people threatening us, saying that it’s a law, you guys got to bend the knee, you guys got to capitulate, challenge it,” Valente said. “It’s a threat.”

Another speaker, whose children attend the Sleepy Hollow School District and who only identified herself as Jennifer, said the town must take the threats seriously but should prepare to fight.

“I implore you, we need to think about this carefully, we need to hire unbiased experts and outside counsel to take this seriously, and if the consensus is to create wards, I’ll support that. But I think we need to do our due diligence and we need to be smart about it, and everyone in this community, everyone in this town deserves it,” she said.

Despite being outnumbered among those who spoke, there were those who appealed to the board to make a change that could help give the Hispanic community a voice in town government. Former Sleepy Hollow mayor Ken Wray said the village has been a proud immigrant community for more than a century and there has been no one on the Town Board to represent it.

“I’m not so much concerned at what the town can do for Sleepy Hollow, but what the town can do to Sleepy Hollow,” he said.

He recounted how the former GM property had been off the tax rolls for 30 years after the auto plant closed, and there was the opportunity to get it back on the tax rolls when the Edge-on-Hudson transit-oriented development project surfaced.

However, the town cut a deal that Wray claimed cost Sleepy Hollow $7 million to $10 million in taxes.

“If someone from Sleepy Hollow had been on this board, that never would have happened; something else would have been worked out because that person, Republican or Democrat, would have said ‘Whoa, that’s not good for my village,’” Wray said.

Upon the completion of his remarks, Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi disputed the ex-mayor’s account, stating that the town’s Industrial Development Agency (IDA) handled that matter, not the Town Board. The town does not take away tax money from Sleepy Hollow, he said.

While Fulgenzi chairs the IDA, there is representation from Sleepy Hollow on that body.

“He misspoke, and he knows very well how that process went,” Fulgenzi said of Wray’s comments. “We would never do anything, the IDA, to hurt the Village of Sleepy Hollow.”

Attorney Michael Pernick said town officials could potentially save prohibitive amounts of money if they avoid litigation and reach consensus on a remedy. Under the state law, if the plaintiffs prevail in any lawsuit, the municipality would have to pay their legal costs. Plus, courts will generally decide against the preference of the municipality when it is litigated, he said.

“You have an opportunity right now for you all to decide what that remedy looks like,” Pernick said. “If there’s litigation, a court will decide what that remedy looks like.”

Sleepy Hollow resident Ida Michael, one of the five residents who may sue if the town fails to phase in a remedy, said the town’s own consultants could not have been clearer.

“The town’s report clearly indicates the current barriers to achieving this,” Michael said. “Representation is a cornerstone of effective politics, yet our community has repeatedly faced challenges in securing meaningful representation within the town government. I strongly advocate for the Town Board to facilitate this vital change.”

During the hearing, councilman-elect Mark Saracino said it doesn’t make sense that residents of Sleepy Hollow, for instance, would care so much about representation on the Town Board because Mount Pleasant provides few services for the village. The village has its own government to represent its constituents.

Furthermore, village residents pay just a fraction of their property taxes to the town, he said.

“I think there are real issues in the world for minority folks,” Saracino said. “I think there are real communities that might have issues; this is not one of them.”

The Town Board closed the oral comment period at the completion of last Monday’s session, but is still taking written or e-mailed comments from the public. Fulgenzi said the board will soon discuss its next steps and what might be the best path forward.