No Silver Bullets, City Manager Tells Bad Joke, Mad Libs and Mulligans – Rye City Council Minutes from April 16, 2008

MyRye.com is way behind in its summer reading of city council minutes penned by City Clerk Dawn Nodarse. We are not going to pull any all nighters (sorry readers) but are going to start chipping away at our “minute pile”.

In June, Nodarse pub’ed minutes from the regular April 16, 2008 meeting of the city council. Mayor Otis and all the council members were in attendance. Some of the gems from the 20 agenda items:

• New Fire Chief. The council approved the election of George Hogben as Chief of the Rye Fire Department; Peter Cotter as 1st Assistant Chief; and Anthony Scarfone as 2nd Assistant Chief at the meeting of the Board of Fire Wardens held April 3, 2008.
• Flood Update. According to the minutes the mayor reported “The process is slow but the City is making good progress….” Huh? Otis continues to try and shake money and cooperation out of the feds, the state and the county (not easy).  Otis serves on the County Flood Action Committee and can hopefully get Spano to steer some dollars over to Rye.
• Bad Joke. Nodarse reports in her notes a bad joke delivered by City Manager Paul Shew during the flood update: “He [Shew] said that Assistant City Manager Scott Pickup has been working with the “flood” of paperwork since last April and asked him to report on his efforts.” Someone needs to work with Paul on his stand-up.
• Staff Frustrated / Mad Libs. Pickup reported city staff is frustrated about how long it takes to coordinate projects through the Federal Highway System and the FEMA grant process [to help with flood issues and rebuilding]. If he was not so polite and if his comments were presented as a Mad Lib game, it might go like this: “Those __________ (noun) from the Feds. I’d like to __________ (verb) a ___________ (noun) under those people. No wonder ___________________ (city also known as The Big Easy) is still a total mess.”
• Coors Light. “The Mayor said that there is no “silver bullet” for flood mitigation but multiple projects can lower our risk and buy more protection in flooding events.”
• King Henry. Omnipresent Coolidge Avenue resident and Beaver Swamp Brook gadfly Henry King showed up to keep everyone honest and on their game on the non-football Rye – Harrison rivalry. Word is the state D.E.C. was leaning toward approving the work on the remediation plan previously done by the Town of Harrison for the brook. Rye is concerned it will exacerbate flooding.
• Half Ironman is Nuked. Richard Izzo of 63 S. Ridge Street, Rye Brook, spoke on behalf of the Westchester Toughman Half-Ironman Organization, requesting a permit to hold a half-ironman race in the City in September, two weeks after the Westchester Triathlon. The city staff, with the support of council, told all the “Toughmen” to go pound sand. (Hint: next time send a toughman that lives in Rye, not Rye Brook). It looks like Croton was second choice.
• No Mulligans for Rye Golf Club. Councilman Cunningham said, according to the minutes, that “there is a perception that there is not a transparency or real democracy at the Club relative to providing information to the membership pertinent to their interests”. The mayor recommended a council – RGC sit down.