Letter: Curran Says Write-In Mack Cunningham for Rye Mayor
Letter from resident Deirdre Curran who says Mack Cunningham should get your write-in vote for Rye Mayor:
As I’ve walked through Rye and talked to people over the
last few months and especially recent weeks, the growing discontent with the
"choices" for Rye Mayor in this year's election is amazing. We have a
choice between two Republicans who are essentially always at each others'
throats; and both have been sitting on the City Council through one of the most
scandal ridden periods in Rye history.
One (Joe Sack’s “Rye United” ticket) has recently taken in
an awful lot of donations from contributors in the Development industry: https://www.elections.ny.gov:8080/reports/rwservlet?cmdkey=efs_sch_report+p_filer_id=C01041+p_e_year=2013+p_freport_id=E+p_transaction_code=B). Interesting that this particular surge in
donations happened right around the same time zoning issues regarding the size
of buildings were coming before the City Council. Interesting also, that Joe
will not disavow the ridiculously large structure developers want to put down
at Playland. Not looking so good.
The other Mayoral Candidate Peter Jovanovich is suddenly
professing to us that he will engage in a law suit with Westchester County to
stop the building of the Sustainable Playland Sports Monstrosity and protect
Rye’s interests while simultaneously continuing to support the SPI plan – the
center piece of which is this 95,000 square foot Field House. Part of his spiel is touting the effectiveness
of our City Planning Commissioner Nick Everett in helping with this fight –
while never mentioning that Nick Everett is an Advisor to Sustainable Playland
and has been on board with them since their inception and helped develop the
whole plan, and potentially stands to make money off of the construction of the
Field House. Can you say “conflict of
interest”? How about the phrase, “recuse
oneself”? See a stunning
connect-the-dots here at www.lausdeo10580.com
for detailed explanation. It will make your head spin.
I have listened to both Joe Sack and Peter Jovanovich. And
am I sold on neither. Of biggest concern for me personally, among the plethora
of controversial issues that have been going on in this town for the last few
years is Playland. Sustainable Playland
is now at the forefront of that issue because of their proposed plan for this
"Field Zone" which will occupy Playland's parking lot with outdoor
astro-turf soccer fields and a 95,000 square foot, year round use, indoor
sports values and quality of life –year round!
BOTH of these men knew about this mess while sitting on the
City Council the whole time that SPI has been trying to get their hands on that
public land for private development, use and profit. They have sat back,
endorsed it at every opportunity they’ve gotten and said nothing. NOTHING. They
never asked a hard question of SPI, neither one ever stood up to their social
connections and political cronies and told them “Hey, maybe not such a good
idea for the local residents and the community at large, can’t go along with
this.” Neither one of them was looking out for Rye on that one.
Until the City Council meeting of 10/23/13, both Joe and Peter have
unequivocally supported SPI since its inception, all the way, straight across
the board, with no questions asked. In October of 2012 they unanimously voted
with other Council members to endorse the plan, which at the time included the
Field Zone. Mack Cunningham and Steve Vasko both spoke out against it that
night, the Council didn't listen. I got up at the March 20th Council meeting,
and then the following meeting again on April 3rd and spoke out against the SPI
plan – which did indeed contain plans for this Field House at that juncture – neither
Sack nor Jovanovich looked into it. Then I got up and railed on them at the
October 9th Council meeting where Catherine Parker cake-walked SPI through a
“presentation” that made no mention of the Field House and its size. Still
nothing. No response from any sitting council member at all. Not a one of them
would look into the matter – including
Joe and Peter. It took until October 23rd, when there was finally a packed room
of angry citizens for each of them to start their own version of back peddling
and damage control on this very serious issue facing Rye residents. And boy
have they been back peddling in a scramble leading up to Election Day.
What I say to both Peter Jovanovich and Joe Sack is: Not good enough. Too
little, too late. Right in keeping with each of their tenures on City Council
to date, it's an analogy for their approach to all the serious issues facing
Rye, line by line, pretty much without exception.
The voice that has been speaking out against this SPI Field House the longest,
with the most rationale, making the most sense? Mack Cunningham.
You DO have another choice next week, Rye. It's called a 'Write In" vote.
If, like myself, you were reluctantly planning to vote for one of what you
consider to be the "lesser of two evils" or are so disgusted that you
weren't planning to vote for Mayor at all, exercise your right to use this
option. It’s very simple: at the bottom
of the ballot sheet, each column has a small box area where you can write in
the name of an alternate candidate not on the list for that position.
Click on this link to see a sample ballot so that you can
have a visual before you go to the polls (taken from Orange County sample
ballots):
https://www.orangecountygov.com/filestorage/124/126/1210/554/BLOOMING_GROVE_3%2C5%2C_10-12%2C_14.pdf
I'm going to write in a vote for a well respected non-candidate, who's not even
running, but who clearly has the common sense this City badly needs: former
Councilman Mack Cunningham.
You can click on this link to show support for this burgeoning
write in movement:
Please join me. It may seem like a long shot, but stranger things have
happened.
Deirdre Curran
Rye, NY
