Mamaroneck Village Board Reorganizes for 2011

A lifelong Mamaroneck resident, Sid Albert made history Monday when he took his seat on the village's only elected governing body.

Addressing a standing-room-only audience that included many of his family and friends—as well as his opponent in this fall's race for trustee—Albert, 73, pledged, "I will do the best job that I can possibly do." Then, with his bother Charles administering the oath, Albert took his place as the first elected African-American official in the village's 115-year history.

Later, as the board got down to business, Albert and his colleagues took a number of actions, including these.

Hotel tax. State legislation approved this year makes local municipalities eligible to receive tax receipts of up to 3 percent on hotel rooms if they adopt the bill. The village said yes.

Dog licenses. The board also voted to take over this current state function and pocket the fees, which it set at $15 for neutered and spayed pets and $20 for those that are not.

Police cars. The village will pre-order three of Ford Motor Co.'s final Crown Victorias, longtime fixtures on the police beat but destined to become history as Ford shuts down the venerable vehicle's manufacturing plant.

Snow and ice. The board took up Westchester County on its offer to pay $18,468.80 for keeping county-owned roads in the village clear of the worst winter can dish out.

Parking fines. Set Jan. 10 for a public hearing on proposed change to the law governing delinquent parking fines, which now double every two weeks that a ticket remains unpaid.

Earlier, at a lectern in the village board's first-floor chamber, Albert expressed his gratitude in a strong, resonant voice.  "I would like to thank all of the people in the Democratic Party who helped me get here," he said. "It's my first time," he noted, and added, to laughter, "Probably my last time." Directly addressing Marianne V. Ybarra, the incumbent he ousted, Albert thanked her for making possible the campaign they waged.

The board, including recently re-elected Democratic trustees Toni Pergola Ryan and John M. Hofstetter, rose as one in standing ovation for Albert, whose victory gives the Democrats a rare 3-2 majority. And before night's end, the nonpartisan bonhomie of Albert's historic welcome had already evaporated in a straight party-line vote that gives every indication of continuing as this board moves into the new year.

Monday was divided into two trustee meetings: the SRO organizational concave, at which vacancies are filled, and the sparsely attended regular meeting, at which the trustees dispatch the workaday minutiae of village business, like paying the bills.

In the organizational portion, for example, the board appointed, with no fuss, a new village attorney, naming law partners Steven M. Silverberg and Katherine Zalantis to replace Christie Derrico, who last month was elected village justice.

In the regular session, however, Derrico's bill for legal services, covering her final year as village attorney and amounting to $9,425 beyond her fixed retainer, wound up in a partisan scrum. Board Democrats led by Ryan, demanded an accounting of the specific services rendered while Mayor Norman S. Rosenblum, elected on the Republican line, suggested the majority was playing "penny-ante" politics.

A little background: As incoming mayor last year, Rosenblum fired village attorney Janet Insardi, replacing her with Derrico, a former village trustee and the wife of the local GOP chair. When Derrico announced her village justice candidacy, board Democrats demanded her resignation as village attorney but lost their case in a 3-2 vote party-line vote. Monday night, flexing majority muscle, they blocked payment of her bill, pending a more-detailed accounting. 

Most of the organizational meeting was far less contentious, with appointees filling vacancies in rapid-fire fashion.