Uncontested Mayor, Trustees Look Ahead in Irvington

Published 9 years ago9y ago • Bookmarks: 77

October 1, 2015

| by Barrett Seaman |

Six months ago as he neared the end of his first term, Irvington Mayor Brian C. Smith asked himself, “Do I have the same kind of enthusiasm (for the job) I did when I ran the first time?” Despite some unforeseen thorny issues and frustrations with the slow pace of government in general, the answer was yes, and Smith announced that he was running for a second term.

It would not be as a Republican, however, as was the case in 2013. He chose instead to run on the Irvington First ticket, a party he confesses he made up on the spot. While Westchester County GOP leaders were disappointed, local Republican leaders were content enough with Smith’s record to date that they did not field a candidate themselves.

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Nor did Irvington Democrats, who put up two candidates for the remaining openings on the Irvington Board of Trustees, but not one for mayor. Local politics in Irvington have never been particularly partisan; Smith’s unchallenged candidacy is confirmation of that.

“I’ve always said party doesn’t matter,” said the incumbent, who admits that he doesn’t have much in common with the roster of GOP presidential hopefuls. “I’m in the middle on almost everything, but the middle is where you get things done.”

With the retirement last year of Trustee Walter Montgomery, the board is now dominated by nominal Democrats: trustees Mark Gilliland and Christina Giliberti and deputy mayor Connie Kehoe, who is running uncontested for re-election. Yet Smith shows no signs of concern, calling it “a strong board.”

Indeed, finding an issue that evinced more than minor contention among board members during recent years is more difficult than finding a parking space in the village on a weekday morning. Not that every problem (parking, for example) was resolved, but significant progress was made in creating the Historic District, launching the Streetscape Master Plan and reducing the annual budget and tax rate increases.

Over the next two years, it is Smith’s ambition to make real progress on the “Streetscape” Master Plan designed to improve the efficacy, attractiveness and safety of the Main Street business area. The critical first step is to build a “test block” that will feature many of the elements envisioned for final implementation: better defined crosswalks, extended curbing and redesigned parking configurations. Planners are looking at the block on Main Street between Dutcher and Ecker Streets. What works and what doesn’t work will help refine a larger village-wide project that will take several board terms to bring to fruition.

Smith would also like to see the recently launched Slow Down Irvington (see story page 1) initiative broadly accepted by the community.

Responsibly guiding two large building projects is also high on his list. The proposal by the Brightview Corporation to build a 150-unit assisted and senior living complex on North Broadway which has been in the approval pipeline since January still troubles the mayor because of its size.

“I need to be convinced that it’s not too big,” he said, adding: “I would like to see it work.” Not only would Brightview bring a needed service for seniors to Irvington, he noted, it would also add at least eight affordable housing units, as required by law. “It’s going to take a lot of our time,” he predicted.

The other project under village consideration is developer Joseph DeNardo’s plan to build a condominium cluster on the former FEE property at 30 South Broadway—once the site of the doomed Continuum assisted living project. The DeNardo plan, said Smith, “is much more straightforward” than Brightview and also benefits from the developer’s offer to include almost twice as many affordable units as the law requires. “Combined with Brightview,” noted the mayor, “that would double our stock of affordable housing.”

A board member since 2009, Smith has been around long enough to recognize that there are some “third rails” in Irvington politics. Among them is parking—specifically the debate over allowing any form of parking structure in town. In his first year on the board, Smith allowed that he was open to amending a 2003 statute that banned such structures in Irvington, igniting a firestorm of criticism from opponents. Now the idea is surfacing again with a proposal for the Trent Building on the south side of town. Smith is open to that as well as to the right kind of proposal in the Bridge Street complex west of the Metro North tracks. “It’s still a third rail for some people,” he admitted, “but maybe not high voltage.”

In the face of inexorably rising village and school budgets—and hence taxes, Smith recognizes that in the long term, the pressure to seek savings by combining government services and even school districts will only grow. He said village government will continue to seek savings but notes that mergers of police departments elsewhere in Westchester have not resulted in significant savings and that losing the autonomy of community schools runs against the grain of many who moved here because of the schools.

The mayor would love to see more diversity in the mix of businesses in Irvington but recognizes that restricted storefront space limits the kinds of businesses attracted to town. It would be nice to have a new stationery store, he says, or a high-end cheese shop. Currently a trader for Blue Ridge Capital, a hedge fund with some $9 billion under management, Smith confessed, “My retirement plan is to open a beer and cheese shop in town.”

As to whether he would seek a third term, he said he will apply the same test he did last spring, making that decision sometime early in 2017.

Guaranteed to win office along with Smith after the November election are two Democrats:

Connie Kehoe: Best known for her successful advocacy of the Irvington Historic District, Kehoe’s six years as a trustee have been marked by a commitment to preservation—a long term vision that often gets distracted by swarms of more immediate problems local governments have to face. “The short term issues get in the way of reaching your destination,” she said. “I’ve learned that it takes longer, because many things just get in the way.”

She has also learned that issues are seldom simple and that in order to achieve results, one has to get down deep in the weeds of public policy—learning how to apply for grants, utilizing the State’s Community Finding Application process, learning to listen to all sides and to abandon what she calls the “just do this” theory of governance.

First elected in 2009, the same year in which Mayor Smith was elected as a trustee, Kehoe was previously involved with the Business Improvement Committee and former Mayor Jon Siegal’s Mayor’s Advisory Task Force. As an offshoot of the Historic District, she sees the Irvington Streetscape Master Plan as a way to integrate economic, environmental, cultural and recreational interests to make downtown a more attractive place for residents and visitors alike.

A 37-year resident of the village, Kehoe is also deputy mayor.

Janice Silverberg: Though a newcomer to the Board of Trustees, Silverberg, a psychiatric social worker and an attorney by training, served three terms (including stints as vice president and president) on the Irvington Union Free School District Board, where the atmosphere is traditionally more contentious than in village politics. She also chaired the Irvington Housing Committee and brings to the board both knowledge of and a commitment to affordable housing in Irvington. “I was quite delighted to find that there is a real commitment on the part of the mayor and the board to affordable housing,” she said.

Like Kehoe, she is “very drawn to the Streetscape concept” and intends to throw her support behind efforts to spruce up Main Street, including clearer and more attractive demarcation of the Aqueduct Trail as it crosses Main Street.

She is also interested in exploring “the complexity of the approval process” with an eye towards finding ways to simplify the way the Architectural Review Board, the Planning Board, the Zoning Board of Appeals and the village Building Department interact with each other and both residents and business owners.

After receiving her J.D. degree from Fordham Law School in 2004, Silverberg served as assistant corporation counsel in the New York City Law Department and currently volunteers her legal services at the Pace Women’s Justice Center Family Court Legal Program.

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