Yorktown Democrats Nominate Full Slate for November Elections

Editor’s Note: We ran this post earlier in the week and brought it back in case you missed it.

The Yorktown Democratic Town Committee nominated a full slate of candidates for the November election.

They will run Councilman Vishnu Patel for the Town Supervisor’s position. For town Town Board, they nominated Ilan (Lanny) Gilbert and incumbent Councilwoman Susan Siegel.

The slate also includes Richard Abbate for Town Justice.

Deputy Town Clerk Diana Quast will run for Town Clerk. The longtime incumbent, Alice Roker, announced last week that she will not seek re-election.

The Committee also gave its support to County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz in his re-election bid to represent District 4.

“It’s a strong slate that brings together Yorktown residents with a long history of distinguished service to our community and experience in town government,” said Ron Stokes, co-chair of the Yorktown Democratic Committee. “It’s a winning team that will be able to make a real difference for Yorktown residents begining January 1, 2016.”

In a statement, the committee explained its choices:

In his five years as councilman, Mr. Patel has consistently supported initiatives designed to safeguard the health and wellbeing of Yorktown residents, protect the environment, and encourage sound economic development such as Costco that will lessen the tax burden on homeowners.

In addition to his work on the Town Board, Mr. Patel, a retired IBM scientist, devotes countless hours to lecturing in science classes in both school districts and volunteer work for many other community projects.

“The current supervisor is not doing the job he was elected to do,” Patel said. “We elected, and pay for, a full time supervisor but we’re not getting what we paid for. There are too many things that simply aren’t getting done because no one is minding the store.”

As an example, Patel cited the failed bridges on Lexington Avenue, Croton Heights Road and Baptist Church Road.

All three failed within one year because they weren’t being attended to, Patel said. “Mr. Grace knew about the problems for well more than a year. The money to repair the bridges was available. But the supervisor did nothing until the three bridges collapsed and had to be dealt with on a more expensive emergency basis.”

Other important town projects have been started but not completed, Patel added. “It’s been three years since the Town Board approved installing an emergency generator in the YCCC. The generator still isn’t hooked up. It’s been two years since the supervisor talked about increasing efficiency and reducing costs by digitizing town records. That project is at a standstill.”

Patel has also accused Supervisor Grace of mishandling the demolition project at the Holland Sporting Club dating back to 2012 and which has ended up costing taxpayers more money than if the town had contracted out the job as originally proposed back in 2011 before Grace took office.

A 23 year resident of Yorktown, Ilan (Lanny) Gilbert is a court attorney referee in Bronx Supreme Court. He served as Yorktown Town Justice for five years and before that was a member of the Conservation Board for 12 years, including acting as the advisory group’s chairman. Looking ahead to the campaign, Gilbert said: “I’m honored to have been given the opportunity to bring forward a new attitude of bipartisan cooperation for the betterment of the town.”

Siegel said she was honored to have been nominated for the second time in two years. Elected as a councilwoman in 2014, she is currently filling out the remaining year of former Councilman Paganelli’s four year term.

“I believe residents have already begun to see changes, and for the better, since I joined the board in December,” Siegel said. “There’s more openness, and frankly more questioning of what the supervisor is doing. We don’t just automatically vote for what he wants.”

If elected, Siegel wants to focus on setting priorities for addressing the town’s crumbling infrastructure. She also wants to present honest budgets and not play word games with taxpayers, like calling tax increases tax cuts.

Richard Abbate, a 14-year resident of Yorktown, has been practicing law for 22 years and currently has a private general practice with an office in White Plains. “I’m looking forward to serving the community that has been my home for so many years,” Abbate said.

Diana Quast, a long time Yorktown resident, has been Yorktown Deputy Town Clerk for the past 12 years. Before that, she served for three years as Deputy Town Clerk in the Town of New Castle.

“I feel honored and privileged to be able to move the Town Clerk’s Office forward into the future and I thank everyone for the opportunity to do so,” Quast said.