Yorktown DPW Plan Riles Town Board
The committee of Yorktown citizens pushing for a Department of Public Works suffered a setback Tuesday night after the Yorktown Town Board told them their plan wasn’t financially viable or fully thought-through.
The board also refused to set dates for a public hearing or an information session on the proposed initiative. The committee is pushing for a November referendum that would allow Yorktown voters to decide to retain an elected highway superintendent or switch to an appointed head of a newly formed DPW.
The deadline for putting a referendum on the November ballot is September 1.
Yorktown Supervisor Michael Grace said a DPW would be a major reorganization for the town, and he wants to ensure voters are fully informed of what’s at stake before being given the opportunity to weigh in.
“I think this is a major, major step to take on a philosophical basis. Like it or not, this has been the tradition in this town for 200 years of whatever. You have to respect history,” Grace said. “You’re taking away from the public the choice to select another elected official, and that’s a major impact.”
Jane Daniels, the research librarian who was speaking on behalf of the DPW committee, said she had hoped to avoid discussing the merits of the proposals and instead focus on a timeline for a public hearing at Tuesday’s meeting.
“I didn’t want to have a debate on this versus this,” she said.
“But that’s what we need,” Grace countered.
Current Highway Superintendent Eric DiBartolo, who has announced his plans to not seek reelection, told Daniels and her committee he disagreed with the information they’ve been circulating about the proposal’s anticipated financial savings.
“It seems like you have all these thoughts, but it doesn’t seem like it’s coming together,” he said. “To come out with a committee to state that you’re going to save $200-$300,000 is false, and I will sit with your committee and show you the numbers.”
DiBartolo said he estimated it would take seven to nine years before savings of $100,000 were realized.
Councilman Dave Paganelli called the DPW committee “very flashy” and said the role of a centralized DPW can be filled by a proactive, in-the-know town board.
“It’s a bit flamboyant and a bit irresponsible,” he said of the DPW referendum plan. “The only way consolidation works is long-term, through attrition.”
Former Town Supervisor Susan Siegel told the board they could set the meeting schedule before all of the information was fully disseminated, in the hopes that the public would become fully informed and the committee’s would be concrete and fleshed-out by the time the public hearing occurred.
“There is a real deadline,” Siegel said.
But Grace said he didn’t support that way of thinking.
“I will not do it based on semi-information,” he said. “The bottom line is that the issue has to be thoroughly vetted.”
Former Town Board member Tony Grasso, addressing the board after Daniels and her group had finished their presentation, said he’d rather retain his right to elect a highway superintendent than the chance to vote for a new DPW in a referendum.
“I don’t want to lose my power to vote — for anyone,” he said.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
