Mount Vernon Elected Officials Adhere to the City Charter

We the undersigned residents, voters and taxpayers of Mount Vernon, NY, are submitting this petition to demand that the City Council use the powers it is accorded, under the City Charter, to restore the rule of law immediately as the governing principle of city affairs.

To our deep dismay, since his first week in office, Mayor Richard Thomas has engaged in a pattern of conduct which is totally at odds with his promise to usher in a new era of good government, making decisions, and appointing personnel, that appear to be both unethical and illegal. Listed below are some of the most questionable actions the Thomas administration has committed to date:

Unethical Actions

Appointing a key campaign financier, Joseph Spiezio, to the position of Deputy Police Commissioner while he simultaneously enforces rules and regulations directly affecting the garbage hauling business he operates in the city

Turning a blind eye to the fact that Spiezio and his business firms have been found guilty of union-busting and other white collar crimes by several legal tribunals, including the National Labor Relations Board

Allowing Spiezio to commit criminal acts—most notably, threatening to do bodily harm to a sitting councilman—while operating under color of law

Hiring the firm of Arthur “Jerry” Kremer, chairman of NYAREA, his former employer, and chairman of his mayoral transition team, to perform legal work at a cost of $375 per hour

Appointing another former NYAREA employee, Maria Donovan, to the position of Assistant Corporation Counsel, possibly as a political favor to Arthur Kremer, even though she lacked the requisite experience at the time

Allowing Bruce Jackson, a key member of his mayoral transition team, to bid on a city-owned property which was up for auction, possibly with insider knowledge

Illegal Actions

Attempting to terminate civil servants without granting them due process or a fair hearing

Razing “zombie” home without ensuring the contractor had the necessary permits, or properly notifying the owner before hand

Repeatedly shutting down local businesses without regard to the procedures set forth in the charter, and repeatedly violating a court order enjoining the city cease its activities

Granting city officials perquisites, they’re not contractually entitled to, including using police personnel and vehicles to chauffeur his wife as she attends to private business

Attempting to unilaterally revise the Charter without following the procedures required, under New York State municipal law, by combining the Fire and Police commissionerships into a single office

Refusing to answer a lawful subpoena that the City Council issued as part of its official investigation into executive malfeasance

Appointing non-residents to Commissionerships in contravention of the City Charter

Appointing several city officers to serve in two positions simultaneously—viz., Robert Kelley and Shawn Patterson-Howard—in contravention of the City Charter

Taken as a whole, the Mayor’s conduct falls far short of the high ethical standards enunciated in the City Charter: “The people are entitled to expect from their public servants a standard above that of the marketplace,” it declares, “for such public servants are entrusted with the welfare of the City” (Chapter 24, Article I, § 24-1).

Moreover, should Mayor Thomas continue this unethical and illegal pattern of conduct for another 3 ½ years, we fear his administration will end up doing irreparable harm to the public interest, in the ways specified below.

1. Financial Harm—damaging the economic stability of the city by allowing millions of dollars in salaries and wages to go into the pockets of people who live outside the city, wasting city funds by initiating frivolous lawsuits that expose us to costly countersuits, and permitting appointees like Joseph Spiezio to illegally siphon off city funds and buy up city property

2. Political Harm—undercutting the ability of residents to exercise the right of home rule and self-governance by appointing non-residents to serve as the chief policymakers of the city

3. Legal Harm—corroding the rule of law by permitting the Mayor and his Commissioners to enforce city and state laws in an arbitrary and capricious manner

4. Constitutional Harm—weakening the system of checks and balances in city government by allowing the executive branch to disregard the power and authority of the legislative branch

As you are well aware, the City Charter expressly prohibits you, as trustees of city property, from allowing such harms to occur under your watch—whether by intentionally violating city and state laws or by neglecting to perform the duties required of your office (Article IV, § 24).
For the past several months, individual Council members have attributed the body’s slow-footed response to the Mayor’s conduct to need to await the outcome of a legal dispute with the Mayor over the scope of the Council’s powers. Now that the New York State Supreme Court has issued its ruling, and made it clear that the Council has considerable power to safeguard the public’s interests, we urge the following steps be taken during the next legislative session of the Council, which is scheduled for August 10th.

1. Enact legislation authorizing the Council to undertake an investigation to ascertain the legal residency of the disputed Commissioners at the time of their appointments, to issue a public report of the findings, and to direct the Comptroller and the Board of Estimates to discontinue paying anyone who is not in compliance with the residency requirement
2. Enact legislation authorizing the Council to finish the investigation it began to conduct into the razing of the Park Avenue zombie home and to issue a public report of its findings, including a statement as to whether the Mayor’s Office complied with the Council subpoena for records and testimony from certain officials serving in the Executive branch
3. Enact legislation instructing The Board of Ethics to conduct a hearing into the possible ethics violations outlined above

It is our belief that the failure to take these steps will constitute a dereliction of the Council’s legal obligation to uphold the statutes of the City Charter and the ordinances of the city. Should the Council vote against the steps urged in our petition, or simply ignore it altogether,, we will be left to conclude that members are duplicitous in the Mayor’s unethical and illegal conduct.
Under such circumstances, we are prepared to take additional steps against both the Council and the Mayor—either by referring this matter to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman or by filing an Article 78 against both branches of government for violations of the City Charter and local ordinances.

MV Residents for the City Charter    Contact the author of the petition