WPCNR FOR THE RECORD. . April 9, 2008: At the Monday evening Common Council meeting, Council President Benjamin Boykin delivered a Democratic response to Mayor Joseph Delfino's State of the City message. Here are Mr. Boykin's remarks:

Common Council President Benjamin Boykin delivering the Democrat response to the State of the City Address Monday Evening. The text follows

Council President Ben Boykin

State of City Response – 2008

City of White Plains

The People’s Agenda

To our fellow residents.  I am pleased to provide Comments on the State of the City and discuss our People’s Agenda. White Plains is a great place to live, work and enjoy. We are committed to maintaining our suburban feel in our vibrant and growing city.

At our March 2008 Common Council meeting, we passed legislation to update our affordable housing policies to increase the set aside percentage and increase the developers’ contribution into the affordable housing fund for housing that is not included within the project.  This legislation provides flexibility to ensure that we meet the needs of those at lower incomes and those whose income exceed 100% of the County Median. One of the highest priorities of this Common Council is to increase the stock of new affordable housing. We will also ensure that commitments agreed to through legislation to build new affordable housing are adhered to in a timely manner.

We believe that open government and improved communications with our residents is important.  We recommend that all Common Council Meetings including work sessions be held in the Common Council Chamber. All voting meetings of the Common Council should be broadcast live or be taped and aired at a later date. The Common Council Chambers are in desperate need of upgrade with new technology such as flat screen tvs and interactive programming including webcasting of Council Meetings. The technology upgrades to our Common Council Chambers should be part of this year’s budget process.

An electronic message board should be installed at a strategic location in downtown to publicize special civic events or items of public safety and information. In addition, we should evaluate and, if feasible, implement a system similar to the 311 that has been highly successful in New York City. This non emergency system could be another way to increase communications with our residents. The city’s website must be constantly updated to provide our residents with timely and pertinent information.

We plan to continue to reinvest in our city. All development proposals must be consistent with the needs of our residents and reflect the vision of our city. We will carefully analyze all facets of development proposals including infrastructure needs, environmental issues, open space issues and impacts on our neighborhoods. We realize that the economic slowdown may have significant adverse impact on approved and new projects.  

We must maintain our fiscal integrity and strength. The reinvestment in our downtown has provided nearly $14.0 million in property taxes and PILOT payments. Of this amount, approximately 61% has gone to our school district, 18% to Westchester County and 22% is included in the city’s budget. We have seen a significant increase in sales tax collections over the last several years. Our property taxes are among the lowest in Westchester County.

Our city has an outstanding workforce and we thank them for their service to our residents and visitors to White Plains. Personnel costs is our largest budget item – approximately 75% of the general fund expenditures. The key to our city’s long term financial health will be the management of personnel costs including the ever increasing health insurance costs.

We are pleased that the Open Space Acquisition Committee has been restarted. We expect that this committee will identify properties for acquisition as well as city owned property that should be returned to the tax rolls. At this time we strongly recommend the Committee’s immediate consideration of a privately held parcel at Orchard, Chadwick, and Bernard streets. This unique location near our reservoir and watershed area is inconsistent with development. The Common Council needs to add to our open space inventory.

We believe that quality of life issues must highlight our People’s Agenda. Overcrowding and illegal housing are health and safety issues that must be constantly monitored and addressed to protect our neighborhoods. With the growth of our city, pedestrian safety, traffic and excessive noise have become issues that we must address even more vigorously than in the past. We recommend that these issues, which are inter-related, be given a high priority on the Administration’s agenda.      

There are several projects that have been discussed but do not appear to be moving forward.  We want Veterans Park to become a priority and completed. In addition, we need to move forward to redevelop the Lexington Avenue Corridor, one of our important gateways.

We have an aggressive agenda for the people of White Plains. We are willing to work with the Administration in a collaborative manner to enhance the quality of life for our residents.

Thank you.