WPCNR Campaign 2003 Chronicles. By John F. Bailey. October 20, 2003: Dan Hickey, Republican candidate for Common Council laid out the reasons he is running for Council to WPCNR in an interview in his home last week. Mr. Hickey revealed a lot about what’s different in his campaign. He takes stands, goes out on a limb and says what he'd do, something he’s been doing for White Plains for 38 years as a patrolman, commander, and finally Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety before his retirement last year.

Dan Hickey Takes on City Hall. Photo by WPCNR News

Cornerstones of his grassroots campaign are: Redevelopment of Mamaroneck Avenue, Fiscal Irresponsibility by the Council, and the council's ignoring the city infrastructure preparedness for development.

Hickey denied the charge he is just running for revenge against the present Administration for not getting the Commissioner of Public Safety job. Hickey dismisses that, saying he was planning on retiring anyway within a year at the time, and therefore this did not bother him. He said people had talked to him about running for the council, but he rejected it.

His wife, though, encouraged him to run. He thought very hard about it, and realized that given the problems he saw the city facing over the next two years, he had the knowledge to help.

Hickey Knows City Hall

He told me that  no one running for council knew as much about the inner workings of the city and the problems they were creating and are about to face as he does. He feels compelled to run as an independent voice who can ask the hard questions from a basis of experience in the city government.  

He says he is taking no money from the Republican Party because in return, he would have to pledge loyalty to Mayor Joseph Delfino. Frank Cantatore denied this to WPCNR last week.

Cappelli Projects will Not Solve the Mamaroneck Avenue Problem. “Village Within a City" Will.

Hickey tackled the Mamaroneck Avenue situation as a flaw in the Renaissance revival the city is envisioning:

“The Galleria took business off Mamaroneck Avenue twenty years ago, and it has taken twenty years to bring business back,” he explained. “No one’s coming up with anything to revive Mamaroneck Avenue. Every administration is putting the cart before the horse. People live downtown already on Martine Avenue, East Post Road, North Broadway. You already have the people there. There is nothing on the Avenue to draw them.

The caberets draw people from out of town. Very few of the patrons are local people. We need something to get people shopping at our stores (on Mamaroneck again).”

What will draw the locals back downtown?

Hickey suggests how: he would create “The Village Within a City” to give Mamaroneck Avenue its own identity.  

He takes the idea from created “villages” that string stores together along created plazas such as Clinton Crossing and Woodbury Commons that have become “destinations” in Connecticut and Rockland Counties. His plan would repackage Mamaroneck Avenue with wrought-iron arches over the  Avenue  at Maple Avenue and Mamaroneck and Main Street and Mamaroneck, compatible with the new cityscape design.

Arches would proclaim Mamaroneck  Avenue “The Village of White Plains”

“The best thing about this approach,” Hickey said enthusiastically, “is you don’t have to build anything, we already have the buildings.” He suggests attracting individual specialty stores such as Pier I (furniture), Country Curtains, The Wine Enthusiast, or gourmet stores, such as a cheese or coffee specialist, antique and collectors’ outlets to compliment the specialty stores now on the Avenue, that include, in this reporter’s opinion, The Gourmandise, Carroll-Condit Gallery, and Thompson’s Art Store.

He sees these kind of niche merchants offering a different selection of goods than found in the giant discount stores at the City Center, the Galleria, and The Westchester. He feels this can be done by the city offering incentives to landlords along Mamaroneck Avenue in a cooperative effort to lure both maverick, mainstream and upscale destinations with personality and uniqueness to create a shopping attraction different than the malls.

“They (the specialty stores) won’t come unless you ask them,” Hickey notes. “The landlords have to play a part in this, offer incentives to open a store, and the city should give investment credits, also.”

Encourage Free Parking on Weekends.

“It’s not going to connect with one just one store,” Hickey said. He feels you need to make it easier to shop the Avenue. One way to do that he says is to have free parking on weekends, or charge $1 for all day parking.

“Another thing you could do is close off  Mamaroneck Avenue weekends, creating a walking mall each weekend,” Hickey suggested.

Traffic Not Being Planned Well. Calls for Independent Studies with Teeth.

Mr. Hickey was just warming up over coffee, as he eased into another major issue: traffic.

“Even though parking revenue will go away, redirecting of parking has to be done,” Hickey said, based on his long experience with traffic patterns with the police department, says changing traffic patterns is inevitable.

“You have to take parking off Mamaroneck Avenue and Main Street and create more one-way streets,” Hickey said. “It’s a political decision to do that, and it will probably be postponed until the Mayor runs again. We have to do independent studies of traffic patterns, and not accept developer predictions. It has been my experience that people will find their own way around White Plains, (going against the predictions of the experts).”

New Revenues have to be all New Dollars. He Says.

Hickey said “I’m not against smart development, I’m against desperate development. Desperate Development is building before we have a plan. Two towers have grown into four towers. They (the council) all want to have their legacy. But, no one will take the blame if something goes wrong.”

Hickey is troubled that the $50 Million revenues predicted for the City Center are being heavily counted on to keep the city solvent over the coming years. White Plains only collects 2% of that which works out to only $1 million more a year. He says that the $50 Million handle also has to be totally new dollars, and does not take into effect how much revenue the City Center stores will draw from other malls and retailers in town. He notes that there is no sales tax on theatre tickets, but notes the city will get sales tax on concessions.

City has run out of  margin, Hickey says.

Mr. Hickey is fiscally conservative. He blames the council for allowing gimmick financing to feed development that has raided the city’s financial reserves to handle fiscal setbacks.

Hickey criticizes the city for borrowing the $23 Million for the new parking garage. He sees a property tax increase: “Unless they start watching, property taxes are going up.”

City Must Cut from Within.

Hickey said his long experience in the police department taught him the necessity of managing departments efficiently.  He points out the police department is 40% of the city budget. He said he and Commissioner John Dolce worked very hard to keep budgets within line: “Each manager was responsible to cut costs without cutting services. You created a synergy between departments.”

He pointed out that when he left the Department of Public Safety was at $33 Million for 2001-02  and the 2003-04  Public Safety Budget is now at $40.8 Million. Hickey said this was not a criticism of the new management of the department, noting the changes to the department to be prepared for terrorism and the growing city.

He blamed the badge drain, now officially declared ended, on the department being the lowest paid in the county at the time. He said he corrected this by working out a workweek restructuring that gave White Plains police more vacation time, by varying their workweek, equalizing their pay structure with the rest of the county.

He did say though that all city departments had to view budgets with a watchful eye: “The first thing a bad manager does is say I need more money and more manpower. A manager’s job is to give the best service for the least amount of money.  I’m not going to rubber stamp every budget that’s put it, if I’m on the Council.”

Hickey Studies Efficiencies for a Living.

Hickey is uniquely qualified to eyeball budgets, of all the candidates with the exception of Robert Greer, who has been on the city budget committee for over ten years, Hickey analyzes budget management on a free lance basis for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, specializing in management studies.

“The city has to start combining departments, such as bringing the Planning Department and Building Department together, combining Traffic and Public Works. You would have to look at the departments. A city should be run like a company,” he stressed.

He said he fully expected a property tax increase for next year, and said that if there is not one, it would be because Mayor Delfino is up for election in 2005, with higher fees charged for city services.

“Like a Kid in a Candy Store”

Hickey criticized the city’s drawing down of the city’s fund balance to pay for union settlements, and the calling in rainy day funds such as a parking authority debt and community development funds to aid in the construction and operation of the Renaissance Plaza and the city’s new community theatre, and to pay for the city’s street facelift.

He says this is a seductive practice,   that has left the city with out financial backup. “They depleted them all. They’re like a kid in a candy store.”

Other Concerns.

Mr. Hickey touched on a number of issues, pointing out that he felt the city has made a mistake in not fighting the St. Agnes Hospital closing. His reasoning was  that St.Agnes had always been the emergency backup for White Plains Hospital Medical Center, Port Chester and New Rochelle when they are overcrowded. “Now you do not have that option,” Hickey said.

On illegal and unsafe housing, a hot button of late, Hickey said that these cases are very hard to prove against landlords, saying that in many cases he was involved in, he had solid evidence based on bills and records that the landlords were guilty, but the judges were very reluctant to convict. “Courts just don’t want to do it. They delay for years. It is not as easy, as it is being made to sound (to get tough with landlords),” Hickey said.

Hickey concluded with a definitive statement about what voters could expect from him on the council, “I don’t like what’s going on. Taxes are going up. They’re just giving the city away. Just give me a try.”