Get to Know your Officials: Josh Mandell

When Larchmont Trustee Josh Mandell was in 9th grade, he had already gone to seven different schools. His father was a Navy surgeon during part of his childhood and the family had lived in several southern U.S. states.  

"I developed an appreciation for stability and knowledge of one's community, something which I necessarily lacked," Mandell said during a recent interview at Village Hall. 

Mandell, his wife Ravit and their children now live in Larchmont, a place they have gotten to know well and which is not likely to see them leave anytime soon. 

Mandell, who is running for mayor in Larchmont this March, was appointed Village trustee in June of last year after former trustee Jim Millstein stepped down. Running on the Democratic side against no one, Mandell thought about joining the race when Mayor Liz Feld first announced that she was running for the U.S. Senate.

"It seemed to me there would be a possibility that we might lose her as a valuable asset to our village and someone would have to step in and fill the void," he said. 

Born in Gainsville, Fla., Mandell has a B.S. in finance with High Honors from the University of Florida. Upon graduation, he received several job offers from regional banks, but his eyes were set on Wall Street. Mandell packed his bags, took $3,500 in savings and moved to New York City. Living in an apartment on Queens Boulevard, Mandell would travel to Manhattan every day, resumes in hand, trying to get his foot in the door. And he did. 

In 1990, Mandell landed a job at the investment bank Salomon Brothers, working his way up and eventually starting his own hedge fund with other partners. He met his wife while they were both working at Salomon Brothers, which eventually became part of Citigroup. Mandell is now an independent financial advisor focused mainly on emerging markets and foreign exchange and Ravit retired from Citigroup about one year ago.

In line with his desire to get to know his community, Mandell works from his Larchmont home and is a volunteer and commissioner at the Larchmont Fire Department, which he joined in 2007 as several volunteers were quitting over the installation of a paid chief. 

Prior to arriving in Larchmont, the Mandell family, which now includes three children ages 11, 8 and 6, toured New York quite a bit. The first child was born in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Since the Big Apple was not on their list of places to raise a child, the Mandells moved to Westchester in 1998, living in Scarsdale, Bronxville and, most recently, Mamaroneck. They first discovered Larchmont while trick or treating in the village and finally moved there a few years ago.

With an emerging political career and a history of success, Mandell is very close to becoming Larchmont's next Mayor. But while having no one to compete against could be every politician's dream, Mandell rues the fact that he won't be able to debate the issues that he cares so much about.  

"The one advantage of having an uncontested election is that I have the opportunity to devote all my time to prepare for a potential transition," he said. "This will allow me to hit the ground running, if and when I'm elected mayor."

Some of the issues that Mandell is preparing to tackle are improvement of the business district, union contract negotiations, flood mitigation and affordable housing.  

The Business District

The Village has an upcoming plan to improve the sidewalks and add pedestrian lighting on Palmer Avenue, which will be funded by a grant of approximately $680,000, said Mandell. The "Palmer Avenue Streetscape" is set to begin this year. "That will go a long way toward sprucing up the appearance of Palmer Avenue," he said. 

The Chamber of Commerce has recently expressed frustration regarding the Village's lack of communication with the chamber. In response to that, Mandell sees the need to establish a direct point of contact between the chamber, potential new merchants and local government. "This would allow those businesses to more easily understand the necessary steps to opening a new business in Larchmont," he said.

One of the ideas Mandell has talked about to Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Rosenberg is to create a Larchmont gift card that would be given out by the chamber so people who buy it can use it in member businesses in Larchmont. This would encourage people to shop locally and more businesses to join the chamber.

Regarding all the empty storefronts on Palmer Avenue, Mandell's plan is to examine the building codes to determine to what extent the Village can make empty storefronts look better. "If we can do so through code enforcement, that's our obligation," he said. A carrot approach would be ideal, showing the landlords that there's more chance they'll rent their space if storefronts look nice throughout the Village. 

The chamber and local art galleries have been trying to get art into the empty storefronts to make them look more attractive, but they've faced numerous obstacles when dealing with absentee landlords. "We have the art and just need to get the permission and the keys and put the art in the windows," he said. "The chamber is making every effort to find landlords who are amenable to such a thing."

Unions

Mandell explained that a significant majority of the budget is controlled by payroll and personnel expenses, many of which are stipulated in multi-year contracts so that the raises outlined in those contracts are "baked into the cake" for a few years. The one contract negotiations that are approaching are those of the Fire Department, which expire this year. Contract negotiations are something local officials are not allowed to discuss with the public, however, so we'll have to wait and see what the outcome of those negotiations is. 

Flood Mitigation

Tackling the flood mitigation issue in the Village is a big, multi-million dollar project, Mandell said, and the Village will need funding assistance from a number of outside agencies.

"The process of acquiring necessary funds may take quite a while," he said. Once those funds arrive, the Village will need to begin engineering and contractual work, which would probably take more than a year. "This is therefore likely something that needs to be carried out over more than one term and must be handed off from administration to administration," he said.

So far, the Village has done some engineering work to determine the cost of the project and is still in the process of applying for grants and seeking the money necessary. "The county has been very helpful in securing a portion of these funds," he said. 

Affordable Housing

In 2007, the Village received $2.5 million from Westchester County in connection to the work done by the administration at Flint Park, all this with the condition that the Village would build 35 units of affordable workforce housing. The Village has yet to fulfill its promise. 

"One of the great advantages that we as a community could offer to the employees that work for the village is to give them a place where they can live affordably within their boundaries," Mandell said. This would be an incentive to come work and live here, with the added benefit that employees will be able to report to emergency duty "very quickly."

The action plan is something Mandell will need to come up with if he becomes mayor.  "The affordable workforce housing is a commitment made by the current administration to Westchester County and something we'll have to live up to," he said. 

Since he became involved in politics, people have come up to Mandell and said, "I am surprised you decided to go into politics. I always thought you were such a nice guy," he recalls. For him, perspective is everything, and it takes people committed individually to make a community work.