Bombshell Before Primary September 12!

WPCNR CITY HALL TICKER. By John F. Bailey. September 7, 2007: Councilpersons Rita Malmud, Tom Roach, Benjamin Boykin and Dennis Power published a letter in the Thursday edition of the White Plains Times stating “unequivocally our opposition to this (RFQ) process (for the city owned land around the Metro North Station). We serve notice that we do not support the RFQ recently released by the mayor’s office through the commissioner of planning and will avail ourselves of all measures at our disposal to bring this ill-considered proposal to a quick end.”

Paul Wood, the Executive Officer of the City of White Plains, said the 4 councilpersons had not informed the Mayor of their opposition, or shared the letter with him,  even though the RFQ has been out in circulation to a reported 22 potential Designated Redevelopers. Wood said he thought the Councilmembers wanted competition for the station land, and that was what the RFQ was attempting to do. Wood said he would release a more detailed statement.  Wood said he found this a complete surprise because he and Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel had spent one meeting talking about the station development possibilities two weeks prior to the August 23 meeting when the RFQ was introduced.

The four councilpersons  made the letter public without informing fellow councilpersons Glen Hockley and Arnold Bernstein of their intentions to publish the letter. Hockley told WPCNR he had not seen the letter, and had not been told by his colleagues of the letter. Mr. Bernstein said he had not seen it either and also not been informed. Both said they would review the letter before making a comment.

Previously at the August 23 meeting, Councilperson Malmud had said she had some questions about the RFQ process she needed answering, however no councilperson objected to the Commissioner of Planning's dessemination of the RFQ to developer prospects at that time. The letter is the first appearance of any council objection to the process which has been out there for 15 days.

 Thursday's publication of the letter in the White Plains Times comes 11 days before the September 18 primary in which Mr. Boykin and Mr. Power are in contention for the official Democratic Party line on the November citywide council election.