WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. January 6, 2006: Monday evening, Arnold Bernstein was robbed of the Common Council President Office by a behind-the-scenes consensus engineered by forces unidentified at this time who persuaded four other council members to vote Rita Malmud in as Council President over Councilman Arnold Bernstein who had never served as Council President and was the only returning councilmember who had not served as Council President.

The motives behind the Malmud power play, as noble as Benjamin Boykin and Thomas Roach tried to explain them on television, leave a lot in question. Ms. Malmud has served as Council President twice in the past, and within the last five years. Bernstein thought it was his turn. Thomas Roach with just two years on the council was elected Council President in 2004, the same "lack of experience" Mr. Berstein had going into Monday night's Common Council grandstanding. It was another highlight reel performance by The Common Council and deserves your seeing the bumbling and rationalizing for yourself. Does White Plains need this pettiness? Is this what White Plains wants in its leaders?

It's your government, Mr. and Mrs. WP. Should the Common Council set Council President election guidelines determining a line of succession to the Council Presidency  by amending the City Charter, or should the procedure be left to backroom politicking as it was this year? Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains, the choice is yours...vote in the poll at the right.