Letter to the Editor: Another Perspective on the Sleepy Hollow Administration and Finance Committee

To the Editor:

As a former member of the now defunct Village of Sleepy Hollow Administration and Finance Committee (“AFC”), of which Trustee Karin Wompa was chair, I would like to bring another perspective to this story.

At the time Ms. Wompa, Trustee Evelyn Stupel and I were appointed to the AFC, I was working in Stamford, CT. Ms. Wompa exclusively held her meetings during work days when I could not attend, often not informing me that a meeting was scheduled. Further, she regularly used her position on this committee as an excuse to spend hours a day at Village Hall, monopolizing staff time, disrespecting Department Heads’ authority, and micromanaging staff on matters that she had no business being involved in, or involving them in.

By the time the lien sale became a matter of significance in early 2013, I was on maternity leave and could, therefore, participate in the meetings on a regular basis. Every week, I took my newborn to Village Hall so that I could participate in the lien sale planning meetings. It is true that Ms. Wompa, Ms. Stupel and I, as the AFC, sorted records, set the policy to tier the properties, scheduled the notices according to tiers and followed up with the Village Treasurer to ensure the work continued as planned. There should be no misconceptions about the following -- the people who truly deserve the credit for this work are the Treasurer, the Village Administrator, the Village Assessor and the Finance Department. Ms. Wompa, Ms. Stupel and I simply facilitated and deserve no more credit than that.

As with all other projects Ms. Wompa started (such as the Employee Handbook and the fines and fees schedules), this project lost momentum and was eventually forgotten. I went back to work, and upon inquiring, was repeatedly informed by Ms. Wompa that we could not proceed with the sale for reasons that I found to be ridiculous and easily overcome. It was not until early 2014, when Trustee Glenn Rosenbloom intervened, that the lien sale initiative was revived and, ultimately, successfully executed. Trustee Rosenbloom had also found Ms. Wompa’s excuses to be weak and, fortunately, did what I did not, which was push forward anyway. Without his direct intervention, the Village would not have recouped that (approximately) $500,000.

As for the overall decline in the Village’s fund balance, I would like to inform these readers, and remind Ms. Wompa, that the entire Board of Trustees (all 7 of us including the Mayor) votes on the budget every year after extensive deliberations. If there is a decline in the fund balance, it is directly attributable to Ms. Wompa as well as anyone else on the Board.

For full disclosure, I would like to note that I am supporting the entire Unite Sleepy Hollow party during this election: Ken Wray for Mayor, Trustee Glenn Rosenbloom, John Leavy and Denise Scaglione. I think that Karin Wompa’s original Letter to the Editor and this response adequately explains why.

Jennifer Lobato-Church
Deputy Mayor of the Village of Sleepy Hollow