Letters to the Editor: From Michael Otten and the Scarsdale Democrats

(This letter was written by Michael Otten)
While there may be state restrictions on what our village/town can do, there are undoubtedly improvements that are worth seeking out at whatever level change is necessary:

1. Minimum easy fix would be to send out the bills 2 months before due, rather than one month before due, with an option to have e-delivery of bills to supplement the hard-copy. Many of our residents are away for more than a month at a time, particularly in summer, when I believe the school bill has been delivered.

2. I am now able to pay most of my bills with an automatic electronic fund transfer, merely by providing authorization and my bank account information to the relevant government agency or expected payee. I pay ConEd bills that way, and Verizon via automatic credit card charge.

3. The penalty charge could be reduced, with possibility of a grace period of perhaps 1 week, given the unreliability of postal and even bank payment delivery delay vagaries. A reduced penalty rate for 1 month late versus multi-month lateness might also reduce anger levels.

Just some thoughts for a Saturday afternoon.... I've found in the past that government often works slowly, but it can work if our elected representatives do their jobs. My 50+ years in Scarsdale have made me very optimistic that our volunteer trustees do make a difference. The moratorium on new construction is a good example of responsive governance, assuming that it will lead to meaningful revisions in our codes. I believe the pot-holes filling are also making progress, but still might benefit from improved civil engineering input. My experience in France and Japan leads me to believe that their maintenance should have a longer--term design point.

Best,

Michael Otten
Former School Board President
and Retired Resident, still paying high taxes
for the privilege of living in Scarsdale....

(This letter was submitted by Myra Saul)

Dear Scarsdale10583:

March is petition time for those candidates running for office this year, except President. (Those were done earlier.) Petitioning is the legal process through which candidates, both Republicans and Democrats, obtain their respective party’s nomination.

All candidates who are running for elected office this year ( except for Senate) must collect signatures, regardless of whether they are incumbents or not, on ‘petitions’ in order to secure a place on the ballot. If two or more candidates from the same party submit a legally sufficient number of petition signatures for the same position, then those candidates will qualify for the June primary to determine which one will be the party’s nominee.

Scarsdale Democratic Town Committee District Leaders are now in the process of collecting petition signatures for our endorsed candidates for the following offices, among others:

George Latimer for Congress
Shelley Mayer for State Senate
Amy Paulin for Assembly
Susan Cacace for Westchester District Attorney

Scarsdale Democrats, please help our Committee in our petitioning efforts with your signatures on our petitions when our District Leaders knock on your door!

Thank you!

Myra Saul
Chair, Scarsdale Democratic Town Committee