by Kathy Savolt -
At the work session on November 12, 2024, the Board of Trustees (BOT) voted 4-1 to pause negotiations on the Hunter Tier Project until the new Board is in place. Trustee Leilani Yizar-Reid, appearing remotely by Zoom, abstained from voting. The three incoming Trustees will be sworn in on Monday, December 2nd.
The vote came after many months of controversy about the project, especially recently when it was discovered that Village officials and representatives from Westhab/Washingtonville Housing Alliance (WHA), one of the developers, had been in close contact for many years before the project was announced. Westhab/WHA had significant input to the Village Request for Proposals (RFP) and was subsequently chosen as the “preferred developer” by a vote of 3-2, with Mayor Sharon Torres and Trustee Nora Lucas voting against. See previous articles HERE and HERE.
Email Audit
The discussion began with the review of the report by Guidepost, an independent firm hired by the Village to audit emails between Village officials and Westhab/WHA from 2018 to the present. See report HERE.
Almost immediately, Trustee Lou Young said that he had no objections to the recommendations in the report but stated some were “a distraction” referring specifically to the recommendation for a continued investigation in which he was named to be interviewed.
Mayor Torres pointed out she believed a conflict of interest existed and saw nothing that changed that. Young then challenged the process and scope of the investigation. Village Attorney Robert Spolzino, who headed the initiative, explained that the forensic review of the emails was just a first step to determine if further work was necessary. He outlined the process by which the consultants worked:
· All emails came directly from the Village server.
· An initial search of the server yielded so many results that it would take “hundreds of thousands” of hours to review individually.
· The consultants then employed artificial intelligence (AI) to narrow the search and “trained” the computer on what to look for by using the emails Torres found and an article in The Mamaroneck Observer. See article HERE. Narrowing the search allowed for manual review by humans that resulted in the final report and its recommendations.
Young raised objections, including accusing others of blaming Dan Sarnoff, the late Deputy Village Manager, when he “is not here to defend or explain himself.” Torres accused Young of bringing up Sarnoff as a distraction to the issues.
Question about Process
Young responded that the “only question was process - how government works.” He continued, “it’s how this government seems to work.” The process employed to bring the Hunter Tier Project to this point has been questioned multiple times from the very beginning of the project when Trustee Nora Lucas repeatedly voiced her concerns and was ignored and criticized by her fellow BOT members. This was even before the conflict of interest issues and the years-long working with Westhab came to light. See previous articles HERE and HERE.
Lucas, joined by Mayor Torres, has been a proponent of a larger project that encompasses the current Village Hall as well as the Hunter Tier lot. This project seems to have traction, especially after the presentation of Pelham’s mixed use development. See article HERE. The Village had been working on a complete renovation/reconstruction of Village Hall as a separate project. See article HERE.
Village Attorney’s Memo
The discussion turned to a memo written by Spolzino that recommended the BOT halt negotiations with Westhab. See memo HERE and previous article HERE
At the meeting, Spolzino disclosed that he had spoken with two Trustees, later said to be Young and Rawlings, about issues regarding Westhab. Subsequently, when Westhab contacted him about those concerns, he suspected a breach of confidentiality by the Trustees. This led to his call for negotiations to terminate. Young admitted speaking with Westhab while negotiations were ongoing, but said he only repeated his preferences. “I was lobbying on behalf of the citizens of this Village who are flood victims. All I did was my job,” Young insisted.
Torres replied, “I don’t think it was your job. We have somebody doing the negotiations.” Later in the meeting, the people working on the negotiations team were described as lawyers and others experienced with real estate from Spolzino’s law firm in addition to some Village personnel.
Negotiations with Westhab
Torres explained the negotiations thus far. She said the Village had asked for four things: more parking, consideration for flood victims, more money for the property and a reduction in the Area Median Income (AMI) requirements for future residents.
Torres reported that they got none of these things until last week when Westhab invited Village officials to a meeting with the New York State Office of Housing and Community Redevelopment (NYSHCR). Conducted on Zoom, officials from NYSHCR announced that fifty percent of the units could be directed to qualifying flood victims because of Hurricane Ida relief funds held by the State that could be applied to the project. The details are not clear at this time and questions arose regarding Federal approval and the possible renting of vacated flood prone housing by new residents. However, it was clear that the funds are guaranteed to be available and can be applied to other affordable housing projects in the Village.
Torres continued that the other asks were “lost because of the majority.” She continued that there were now only 125 parking spaces to be shared with residents and no plans for parking during construction nor a contingency if bedrock was found on the site. Currently the Hunter Tier Lot has approximately 200 parking spaces.
Torres said that the majority’s willingness to let go of critical asks from the Village showed “something was wrong with the process.” “We can do better,” she claimed.
Violations of Oaths of Office?
The Mayor strongly questioned whether one or more of the Trustees had violated their oath of office. She mentioned possible violations of the Open Meetings Law and Trustee Young’s effort to replace the Village Attorney with an attorney of his choice for the negotiations with Westhab. See article HERE.
Torres cited New York State Municipal Law as she outlined the responsibilities of elected officials. Board members have a fiduciary duty to act with care, loyalty, and obedience in the best interests of the Village.
The Mayor continued by citing the consequences of Trustees potentially facing personal liability if they failed to perform their duties or engaged in willful misconduct or intentional maliciousness.
NYS Law requires indemnification of officials only when they act on behalf of the Village if those individuals properly performed their public duties and did not follow a personal agenda. If the individual Board members are sued and certain Trustee(s) has (have) been found to have acted without regard to the best interests of the Village, the individual(s) would be responsible for all costs to defend themselves and any resulting judgment against them.
Torres continued, “I have seen enough; one or two Trustees should recuse and perhaps someone should resign.”
Explanations Follow
Trustee Rawlings admitted speaking with Spolzino after the memo was released and explained that he was only asking what he could do to help the new BOT. Spolzino confirmed that was the content of “the most recent conversation.” Rawlings said Young informed him that he had found a new attorney but denied he agreed to support him.
Trustee Yizar-Reid declined to speak until after Trustee Young spoke. Young started, “Listen - we lost the final offer from Westhab. This may have been a mistake.” He continued that his attorney, identified as prominent civil rights attorney Michael Sussman, “could wrap up negotiations next week.” Young suggested that Spolzino would have a conflict of interest because “he has to ask the new BOT for a job.” “The Village is going to get sued,” he warned.
Editor’s Note: The Village Attorney is hired annually by the Board of Trustees at the Organization Meeting in December.
Yizar-Reid indicated that she was pro-affordable housing and always wanted a lower AMI for the project. She said she was okay with the Westhab/WHA project as it is but is also ok with however the BOT wants to vote. Yizar-Reid eventually abstained.
Mayor Torres asked the three Trustees-elect to join the discussion. One by one, Maria DeRose, Ellen Silver and Dan Kushnick each stated they were in favor of affordable housing but preferred the larger project, especially given what we now know.
Young Backs Down
After all was said, Trustee Young had a parting shot against the landlords of Washingtonville but conceded, “If I’m an impediment, I’m not going to do that.” He suggested the project be paused until the new BOT was seated and let them “deal with it.”
Torres expressed her wishes to end this year on a positive note. She thanked the outgoing Trustees for their passion and service.
The Public Speaks
There were no public comments during the work session, but many had plenty to say at the regular meeting that followed.
Several spoke in favor of the Hunter Tier project, apparently unaware of what had just happened at the work session.
Others were pleased with the BOT’s decision to pause but were vocal about what and who got us to this point.
Resident Anna Bianco summed it up. She said the whole process has been hard to understand and there are other important issues like flooding. She suggested the BOT “scrap the project and start from the beginning. Get everybody together and come up with something that works for everyone.”
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