Irvington Trustee Candidates Meet in LWV Debate

Partisan differences have no place in local politics, three candidates for two seats on the Irvington Village Board agreed Thursday night.

And the three—Republican incumbents Walter Montgomery and Rocco (Rick) Rasulo and Democrat Mark Gilliland—agreed on most everything else as well in a two-hour debate characterized more by informed opinion than incendiary rhetoric.

The debate, sponsored by the League of Women Voters and moderated by Selma Thackeray of Dobbs Ferry, filled the Irvington Public Library’s Program Room. More than a dozen residents turned up at the microphone, some more than once, to question the candidates.

A pair of development issues—a proposed assisted-living facility on South Broadway and the Bridge Street Properties on the waterfront—found their way into multiple questions. Despite their potential for controversy, however, neither could disrupt the candidates’ apparent bonhomie.

All agreed, for example, that the planning board was the proper forum to address a proposed rezoning to allow the 121-unit senior-housing project on the 30 Main Street campus of the Foundation for Economic Education.

 “If you’re in support [of the senior housing],” asked Sycamore Lane resident Barry S. Graubart, “could you explain how the replacement of the current 15,000-square-foot property with a multi-structure, 105,000-square-foot property—which throws off 17,000 gallons of sewage—would enhance the quality of life for village residents?”

While Montgomery noted the key benefit—a taxpaying development at the site of a non-profit organization—the candidates largely professed confidence in the planners’ ability to sort through the multiple concerns inevitably raised by the issue.

Still, if the plan requires a rezoning of the property, which only the village board can accomplish, the issue some day would likely be squarely before two of the three men discussing it at a candidates’ forum.

The second thorny land-use proposal, a waterfront zoning plan, provoked threats of litigation at a hearing last year and prompted Joseph Mangiacotti to ask the candidates Thursday whether the village should proceed, potentially infringing the owners’ rights and incurring a lawsuit.

Gilliland called the need to protect public access “paramount” but saluted the work last year of his opponent, Republican Montgomery, who teamed with Democratic Trustee Constance Kehoe to defuse the waterfront standoff. Rasulo, for his part, said the needs of the village had to be balanced against the rights of the property owner.

Nevertheless, Rasulo added, he would not be cowed by the threat of Bill Thompson, Bridge Street Properties’ managing member, to sue if the village persisted in blocking his proposed parking structure. A lawsuit “is not something we want, not something we can afford,” Rasulo said. “However, we still need to do what is right for the people of Irvington.”

Earlier, he had harked back in his response to a previous question posed by Kevin Weber, who asked how the candidates would try to build consensus on the issues they faced. Rasulo had told Weber that building consensus was a routine part of his workaday world as a food-service designer.

Montgomery, who could have been speaking for the table, said, “The most important thing to do is listen to other people and try to reach compromise.

“Compromise,” he said, “is not a dirty word.”

Compromise could be required in establishing a proposed historic district for part of Main Street and its surrounding area. Answering Ann Acheson, who lives near Main on South Dutcher Street and who asked the candidates’ views on the district, Gilliland called it “a great idea. It’s been talked about and worked on by multiple committees for a number of years.” But he noted residents’ concern over “the level of regulation. You don’t want one nail and three colors of paint.” He called for a “guidebook of options” rather than “explicit regulations.”

Erin Malloy, a former Democratic mayor, introduced the night’s only overt talk of politics, asking Rasulo how he squared the essentially nonpartisan nature of local government with his service as the village’s GOP leader.

“I find it odd,” he answered, that because I was the Republican chairman that makes me divisive or ideological. The committee needed a person to chair the committee.”

When the next questioner, Maryon Noble, asked about the candidates’ environmental stance, Montgomery volunteered in jest that his personal contribution to greener living included removing Gilliland’s campaign sign from his front lawn.

Gilliland saw a need for better education. “Individually,” each of us could do something,” he said. “But a lot of people are not sure what all to do.”

Rasulo, whose food-design practice includes major kitchen projects, noted his work on SoHo’s Crosby Street Hotel, winner of an LEED gold certificate. “I was the one who had to do all the legwork from an environmental standpoint,” he said.

Irvington residents will go to the polls March 20.