Response to William Reynolds' Op-Ed

First of all Omar Herrera is not "job hopping" As Mr. William Reynolds asserts a recent Patch op-ed. When all is said and done the Mayorship is simply a continuation of the Trustee position he now holds. It may come as a surprise to many but under our form of government (weak mayor/ strong Village manager) the mayor holds the same vote as every other Trustee. The Mayor's only " power" is as chair of the board of trustees. He or she does not have any substantive executive powers other than to wield the gavel at meetings.

Regardless, I see Omar's assignment to Empire State Fellowship in Albany, as a great way to further his skills, knowledge and experience for the benefit of our community. A Trustee/ Mayor needs to know how State government works because as a Village almost everything substantive the village does is dependent upon approvals from State government. As for the claim of displacing another Hispanic on the Board it should be pointed out that this other gentleman and another Trustee were not supported by the Town of Ossining Democratic Committee for various reasons. One of these being that they strongly favored another mayoral candidate who did not earn their support .In 2014 he decided to run in a primary and in the following general election.

Second, I may have missed it but have never seen a single ad or posting where Omar has been " smearing the Mayor's character" as Mr. Reynolds charges and, speaking of smearing, how about Omar's supposed sin of being a " millennial" -- is that not in the smear category? As I see it, its one of those dog whistle ways of objecting to a candidate on account of age and supposed lack of experience. Voter should reject that approach. Omar is 28, and his governmental experience as a Trustee and in state and county governments exceed that of the current Mayor when she first ran and for sure that of Mr. Reynolds. Additionally Omar has extensive experience in running his own business and in helping others do the same. He stood shoulder to shoulder with the downtown business owners and the Chamber of Commerce in the battle to stop the disastrous business killing roundabout so favored by Mayor Gearity and Trustees Quezada and Levin. I do not question their sincerity and belief that this traffic circle was a good thing but it was a costly solution to a non-existent problem and ultimately they decided that the effort to quash the citizen petition against the roundabout would doom their chances for re-election. That said the Roundabout resolution has never been formally rescinded so that the Village can move on to traffic solutions that make sense for out Downtown and Route 9.

Finally I note that the Op-ed author, Mr. William Reynolds wants us to know that he is an "Ossining resident, Born and Raised.” That is fine but so is Omar Herrera. The difference is that Omar actually serving the people of Ossining, as he has been for many years and the writer, unfortunately, appears to be engaged in smearing a good man.

Miguel Hernandez