Latest / This Week in Westchester: The Podcast / Westchester, Explained 20: What It Means To Be a Local Municipal Leader with Mayor Rika Levin

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Westchester, Explained 20: What It Means To Be a Local Municipal Leader with Mayor Rika Levin · This Week in Westchester: The Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: Hi Westchester.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Westchester County Government Communications Director Katherine Chaffee.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: And as an extension of This Week in Westchester, the podcast, we welcome you to Westchester Explained.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: In this episode, we sit down with Village of Muslim Mayor Rika Levin for a candid conversation about what it really means to serve as a local elected leader in Westchester County.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: From responding to residents' concerns and leading through major challenges to balancing the demands of public service with the full-time career and family, Mayor Levin offers an inside look at the responsibilities, rewards, and realities of municipal leadership.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: We also explore how local government works, the role of a mayor, and why decisions made at the village level have such a meaningful impact on everyday life.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Join us for an inside look at local leadership, public service, and community, and why it matters to Westchester residents.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because this is Westchester explained.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: So let's begin.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: So in the podcast studio today, we have one of our favorite mayors.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Can I call you one of our favorite mayors?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, why not?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'll take it.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: The mayor of the village of Osnang, Rika Levin.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for being with us today.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: This is great.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: This is going to be fun.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: So the topic today is an interesting one.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's one that is, I don't think it's ever been discussed, actually.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: We'll say this is the first time ever.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's all about what a mayor does.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: What does a mayor do?
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're not the mayor of New York City, right?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: You're not the mayor of White Plains.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: You're the mayor of this really terrific village that sits on the Hudson River that isn't in the limelight a whole lot, but you've got a hugely important job.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: So what do you do first thing in the morning when you wake up?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this is great.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for asking me uh these questions.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, let me start with it's a very large village.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's about 30,000 people.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's also a town of Austin, which is run by We should make the distinction.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm making it.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the supervisor, when she listens to this, will call me and remind me that I need to distinguish.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and Austin is a village, it's one of the largest in the state of New York.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's so one of two of the largest in the county.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a big deal because many villages run by weak mayors, which I'll explain in a minute, um, are really smallish.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: 7,500 people, 5,000 people, Bronxville, I don't know, 2,800 people.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Mayor Mary has been there for, I don't know, two decades.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're different.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So every municipality is different.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So Austining is large and has been diverse for many, many, many years.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I know you had my village of historian here that I appoint every year happily.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And she'll remind people.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's been around a long time, included in the mid-1800s, but it is uh it was a cute, quaint little town, but always had working class people, always had diversity with Irish and Italians and African Americans and Jewish community uh for many, many years.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And now many Ecuadorians, not just Hispanics, but specific to Ecuadorians.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: It matters because we're very good at dealing with diversity.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not just me as a mayor, but every mayor before me.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um we've had um straight mayors, gay mayors, African American mayors, um, Hispanic deputy mayors.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: We've had lots of women in Austin have been in power for for quite a while.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just so just so everybody understands, different age groups from the people in their 20s to people in their 70s.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of diversity before me and will be after me.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about austening when I get up in the morning is normally I look at all my emails to get complaints and ideas from residents.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Today it's mostly about potholes.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hot topic.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a hot topic.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I used to laugh a little bit and say, seriously, it used to be about taxes when I first started.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it then went, you know, the tax rate is very high.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I get lots of issues about the schools where I have to explain, oh, I'm not the mayor of New York City.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: The mayor of New York City has a school system reporting to it in villages, they report directly to a different board, which is the, and and that board has to deal with the state education system.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: They do not have anything to do with the municipality, actually.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So potholes are important.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is an example of why infrastructure is one of my daily um dealings that is dealt with with the village manager.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, I respond within 24 hours to every single letter I get, no matter how big or small.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So potholes cost my residents a lot of money.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a working class environment.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's got a lot of seniors.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's a huge population of um people who are aging in place, and the cost of tires being blown out from potholes, muffler systems is not nothing.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my saddest story is somebody during a big storm, you know, had to get to a senior home to help an elderly person and was very upset because the person passed away the day that she was because she was two hours late because a tire blew out on a pothole.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: It made me very sad.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's very sad.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it's real.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: These are theoretical.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So these are just examples dealing with emergencies and then dealing with large strategic issues involving housing, discrimination, um, strategic plans based on our 10-year comp plan about how we want the village to look 30 to 50 years from now.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So from potholes to housing to life issues that affect our residents.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I want to talk a little bit about uh something that I don't think people realize because I hear it quite a bit.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, this is not your full-time job being a mayor.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is I wish it were actually.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Something you do on the side.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Something we do on the side, all of us, yeah.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the board is, I am the first full-employed mayor, um, have been since I started.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I started as a trustee and in 2015 because somebody had resigned uh for a bigger job, and there was an opening.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I interviewed with 12 other people.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was fortunate enough to be appointed, and then ran a month later and have been either a trustee and now a mayor.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I was a deputy mayor for a while.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's been great, but um I found out that I'm the first fully employed um mayor in the village of Osing.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Some people had been semi-retired or whatever.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And as it turns out, except for one person, my entire board is fully employed.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not a meaning that you have a full-time job.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_02: We all have full-time jobs.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And you do this also.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: We do this between everything.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And does it affect our jobs?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases it has.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we really are very um, we concentrate very strongly.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I actually moved to a part-time job, mostly because of this mayor gig, as I call it, because it's really difficult to do a mayor job and a full-time job.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the mayors and other municipalities, you know, are self-employed, so they're able to work around it.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, most are.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: But when you work for companies or organizations, I've been working for nonprofits for a while.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: For me, um, it's been in Westchester, it has worked.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: My employers have always been very kind, but that is, I think, a detriment to uh working people who want to go into politics, who want to become trustees, mayors, whatever.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's hard to do if you're a full-time employee having to work, let's say, nine to five or whatever hours you work, because the staff all work nine to five.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: So what made you get into politics?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: What made you run for mayor?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I I I'd like to have a really great story for this, but I really I don't have a great story.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I commuted into the city for two decades.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Same train.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I had my, as they call it, commuter family.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And every time we'd sit together, I'd complain about how the financials and how our taxes are being mismanaged by village government.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And all I did was complain every time I saw something.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: There was an opening in 2015, October of, and one of my buddies looked at me and said, There's an opening in the village board.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't apply for it, you are forbidden to ever talk to us about politics ever again.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: You want to do something?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: You go do it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually spoke to my husband because I knew that it takes a lot of effort and time.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was working downtown.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's, you know, I took a 6:36 a.m.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: train and came back home on the 6.35 p.m.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a long day, and I have young kids.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: So decisions have to be made.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard when you have kids.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I jumped in and I thought it was gonna be short term, and I'm just loving it.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just think being part of your community and getting to know people, I would otherwise, I don't think I would know you if I didn't, um, if I weren't in this gig, as I like to call it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a profession.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've just every day I learned something.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, that keeps me really, my mind really active.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And were you heavily involved in politics prior?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh a volunteer in Austening, and I did volunteer to be in one of those boards of the EAC.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you get a flavor, but no, I wasn't involved at all in politics.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even involved, like I'm a dem a lifelong Democrat, but I wasn't that involved in the party.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: My husband actually was.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we had a rule that one of us always had to be at home with the kids.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of these things happen at night.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to find two or three things.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm also very involved in my synagogue, which is located also in uh Briarcliffe Awesoming.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you have to juggle this.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, you've got kids, I've got kids.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we did.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: I I I love, I guess I'm being partial here.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you're a woman.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you work full-time.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you have children and you took on this calling because you wanted to make things better.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think more women need to hear stories like this and be inspired to do it themselves.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: You feel like an inspiration?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do when people tell me that.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: I I actually am the type of person that honestly, I just find that it keeps me just mentally and emotionally very centered.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: More so in the last four years than before.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the re by the way, the mayor before me also a woman with children.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we should just be.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Tori Gary, we love you too.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she didn't work full-time per se, uh, but um, you know, she full-time with uh children and and you know, um, just to make sure we we give credit where it's due.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, um, and the supervisor at that time also, Sue, um, had grown children, obviously, but still, you know, there was Dana.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Dana Levenberg, um, Liz Feldman has two sons.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, you know, uh, I just want to make sure everybody gets that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a pioneer in that field, but I have to say, in the last four years, it's been really interesting because the problems were big.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So COVID came upon.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: And during COVID, Austin did great.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: We were one of the only municipalities to give out free shots to first responders and workers in the delis and restaurants in the in the back that people didn't realize were getting shots because they were still going to work, some of them.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: You could change that rule, but the truth is you have to deal with reality.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: We have a great EMT group.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You do.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: COVEC is amazing.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: COVAC, amazing group.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We sponsor them, we support them.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: The police were great.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, the fire department's the largest in the state of New York, the largest volunteer fire department, 450 people.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's a great community, but exhausting.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not the community, but COVID set us all.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And being a mayor in that really did make me feel like I made an actual difference.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was told that we saved lives.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that is inspirational, you know, and has nothing to do with being a woman or a man.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's just everybody pulled together.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: Before that, we dealt with police reform.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: I came into being a mayor with uh, you know, the volatility of that, the PBA, the police officers themselves, the community at large, um, a lot of issues.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Those are big issues you don't expect.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: They sort of come to your front door and you're there to be part of the solution.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm I like I don't know if it's inspirational.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just think we made a huge difference.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's I think it's inspirational and and you and you made a huge difference, did both.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so we talked a little bit about you wake up in the morning, check your emails, but the normal day-to-day, right?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're sitting here in White Plains right now.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: But what what does your day-to-day look like as the mayor?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just cutting ribbons.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, I wish it were actually.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: That is a lot of fun.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh street naming and cutting ribbons, lots of fun.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's in a good mood.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's really like pleasant.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's responding to issues.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: When you get lots of those issues in the email, you now say, okay, that's not a one person.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So now I have to bring it to the COO, the village manager, Karen Diattori, her staff, because now we have a problem.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they're and they range in in big and small issues.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: We then um I then sort of look at everything that's due for the legislative session or the work session, because those tend to be big infrastructure issues.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And another part of my day, probably 10% of every day, and I think it's more like six days a week, is outside agency.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: What I mean by that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um I have a group, you know, a chat group with other women mayors in the county.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: I have with other mayors, like it's a separate chat.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we compare notes, we talk.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Other municipalities, uh become friends with other Rivertown mayors, including the newest one, which is uh Mayor Shu.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's larger house.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Terrific, yeah.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: We had coffee together, or she wanted to ask what are my issues, what are hers?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, every municipality is different, actually.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You'd think there's so many similarities.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, they're not so many.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: The river towns are interesting.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: They sort of end at sleepy.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Those are one group of river towns, sleepy and south, and then Austin and North is a whole other group of um, you know, of river towns, very different demographics.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: The supervisor in the town on the phone, probably once a day, we work well together.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Not all supervisors and mayors have a good relationship.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's combative, sometimes it's super friendly.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ours is the latter.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like a regular day.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: So while I was waiting for you, I spoke to the village manager about the new parking facility that we have and artwork that we decided.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's fun, but it's also gonna be controversial because everybody's gonna look and have different opinions about what we chose.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it matters to people.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's sort of a spray paint decor.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is a big banner, actually.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So because it's not graffiti right on we build the multimodal parking garage for the first time in Austening.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big deal.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Very big deal.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's going up very fast, and it's on the state aqueduct, so the state has a say.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So dealing with outside agencies, what happens here?
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: The state, the vendors that the village manager has to deal with.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: If there are issues, I get called in.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, people were involved in it, artists that were involved.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are just these different agencies, other mayors, supervisors.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Pete Harcombe was around last Thursday because of some grants we got, a lot of grant discussions.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: The previous mayors to me did not believe in doing grants.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of strings and a lot of work involved in grants.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I made a strategic decision right when I started that we will be going for grants.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Once that decision is made, we now have lots of grants, but they have to be managed.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I spent a lot of my time on grants.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Grants.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Not managing them, but sitting there saying, are they worth is the squeeze, you know, worth the juice?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: So And what would you say?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you just went through a lot of things that you do on a day-to-day basis, but what would you say is the biggest responsibility that you don't think your constituents or just people in general realize that falls to the mayor?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um You know, it changes.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: COVID changed a lot because we had to make decisions.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you the most fun part of COVID for me, and it's not fun.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: We I had to have I used to have to sign everything.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Made me crazy.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: I always said, why can't we use a digital signature and just approve them?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: So now I don't sign it because they have my digital signature.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a fun thing.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: And using um technology more and investing it.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing that I think um is important about the mayors is number one, um that the mayor, more unlike anybody else on the board, actually has to bring the board together.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Many boards, if you watch YouTube, about if you're interested in how boards function, um, you know, people throw shoes at one another, they walk out, they yell at each other.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: There can be drama, yes.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of drama, and some are very local to hear.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not unusual.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I really have this philosophy that no individual can ever produce more than the team.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: I did a lot of sports as a kid.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Very important for girls to do sports, just saying, because you learn that the team's always more productive than any single individual.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, ask Michael Jordan, he did a whole book on this.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I really am proud of the fact that we manage a lot of the board is something I do a lot of.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so we come to consensus.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can't come to consensus, I actually won't put the item on an agenda.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of conversation.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Some people think our meetings are very boring because they don't see us debating and arguing.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: I do say publicly, we we discuss things one-on-one as well.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like we only see each other at that moment in time.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean we are just rubber stamping.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: It means that we have serious discussions about serious items, fiscal management, budgets, what we spend money on drives our strategy and our decisions all year long.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe for the next 30 years if it comes to housing.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So they're big decisions.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can't come to an agreement, we can vote on it.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I believe in actually hashing things out.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think people realize how much the mayor does.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think they think it's an executive role.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've had people come in and say, You're the mayor, fire this person.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many people have said to me, You're the police commissioner, fire the chief.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like them.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is that actually is not what we do, and we couldn't.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not private industry where I am the CEO.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And even if it were private industry, most CEOs can't just fire, and they can, they usually don't.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that I think is a misnomer.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the other one is that many people move here from Brooklyn and Queens, especially from Brooklyn, now tossing.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: They think I'm the mayor of New York City.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where things report, a lot of things report, and he appoints a lot.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually not how this works.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: The board does things, the mayor on her own does not.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Those would be the two things.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_02: You mentioned the school district, and I know I hear that quite a bit where people think that you know you're just in charge of everything.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Although the superintendent and I are on a, you know, given Another female we should mention.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's right.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: With a child.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't actually know that.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: But um, she and I, because of the issue of ice in our communities, uh, we have been for two or three years.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, as long as she's been here on real, if I could use the term speed dial, it's not really speed dial, um, seven days a week.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: I've never texted her where I did not get a response in a few minutes, even when she was on vacation.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's important for me.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Agreed.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's important for her.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, it's she is the boss, as is her board.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Once in a while, a board member may call me, or the library also is not a village entity.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a part of the school system budget.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the people compare us to New York City a lot.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that and Yonkers, right?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yonkers is also a big city, third largest city in New York.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: We don't run that way in the city.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: They're different as well.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: So you were talking a little bit about this in the beginning about ha being a strong mayor versus a weak mayor.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Can you, and it's a big in government, you hear people talking about this, but as we said, nobody knows what that means outside of government.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: So can you explain that?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: So strong mayor, like White Plains, is a full-time job, generally speaking, and they have staff, and they actually um are like a CEO of a company.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: They have executive roles and they have an office and they have a staff and they have all that.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: But mostly it's an executive role, even though they're elected officials.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to get elected and vote in it.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: They have veto rights in some cases, depending on the charter.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yonkers is an even bigger city.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in villages, mostly are weak mayor, and weak mayors mean that the boards select things, and we have we're the senior elected official, we are not the senior executive.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: The village managers, sometimes it's a supervisor versus a mayor.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the, and I it's called weak because you don't get to have a veto in most cases.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's called weak because you are not making final decisions.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: You manage a lot of them.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Some mayors will take on more responsibility than others.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's, you know, depends on the charter.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Every municipality is different.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does that explain it?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I never really understand that.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: That was a great explanation.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I Think it's also to explain the charter, because that's another thing that we talk about a lot.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: The charter, the charter for the county, the charter for the village of Ausning.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Explain what the charter is.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's for you in particular.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: What is the Ausning Village Charter?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: What is it?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: What does it say?
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think of it like the it's the Constitution.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: We rarely change anything in a charter.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Every municipality, so there are approximately 45 municipalities in Westchester County.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I like to describe that we have 45 municipalities and the county government.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: People think we're like a corporation where each municipality must report to the county and it reports to the state.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, let's let's make that clear.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: That we get, I will just say, as the communications director for the county, I get a lot of phone calls where they want me to tell this municipality to do X, Y, and Z, and then I have to explain it doesn't work that way.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: You can't, I also we cannot do anything about state roads either.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: That, you know, we can't, yeah.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: And and so you, the county managers, it's county parks.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't manage all the parks in the county.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And municipalities, I like to say there's 45 plus the 46th municipality is the county.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't report to the county executive.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't hire and fire me, and I don't have a say in his career or anything like that, and and his staff.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he has no say in how we run things.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: You just work together.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: We try to work together.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some municipalities do it more than others.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Some mayors have no desire to work with the county.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Other mayors, I think, have only the desire.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: They try to coordinate and consolidate.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure there's a right and wrong in everything.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us try to coordinate many things, and other things we feel like maybe we do it better and we want to do it because municipalities are different from one another.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: So there is when you're in private industry, most people go, that's very inefficient.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is, you know, this is a McDonald's.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: We're not from some central headquarters governing things.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody explained to me when I asked, because I come from private industry, which I think is actually very important to be a mayor, um, is a prerequisite.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: I actually asked, I think it's highly inefficient.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody said to me, it's highly democratic.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: New York State has home rule, not all states do.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: Municipalities have access, and people have access to their local electeds all day long.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: The farther you are physically from your constituents, the less you understand what their everyday life is.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what your intentions are.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: True democracy is when the mayor goes to the supermarket and their neighbor comes up to them and says, I have a question, I have an answer.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: It really is the closest you are to the constituents and that you feel them.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I have said that somebody was taunting me about COVID.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: I said my father was in a nursing home and died from COVID when he was 93 in Osaning.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: He was in a place in Osaning.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he was buried in Asining.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I totally understand what you're going through and exactly when you're going through it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a theory for me, and I know exactly what the issues are here.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I want to find solutions to help people.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a sad example, but you just have to multiply with my first comment, which was about potholes, and about taxes.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: I pay taxes like everybody else.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you had potholes like everybody else.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, both my cars, believe me.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I really like understand and the environmental issues because we're a river town.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: We all have similar issues.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's where it would be nice to work together regionally, the e-bike project to work regionally, but much of it from a point of view of reporting and all that, each municipality is really supposed to have governance that understands the municipality, its makeup, its people, its problems, its solutions.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think local government's very strong.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I like home rule personally.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: Other people think it's inefficient.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think you could make arguments for both.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: For either side.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: The county is somewhere in the middle, because the county then has state.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, oh, so the county must report to the state.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And again, no.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nope.
• 26:12
  unknown: Nope.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, we do not.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: So um, you know, I really thank you for sharing all this information with us and really shedding light on what your day-to-day is like and what it's like being a mayor and a mom and working and not being, you know, someone who's involved in politics for 40 years and then decides to run for mayor.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say if you had to pick one day that was the best day of being mayor so far?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Go to B.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh wow.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is a, I mean, there's so many great days.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, look, the most recent one was when Pete Harcombe came in.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: So this speaks to mayors working with the state level.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we received uh two grants.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one helped the infrastructure in the police department, which we're very proud of.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um that gets kudos, I think, on many levels.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: The other is uh vans for our youth bureau.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're the first community in Westchester in 30 years to build a youth bureau.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's now over 400 kids in that youth bureau.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're amazing.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we learned that transportation is a barrier.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Pete Harcomb and Village added money in its budget, but now has two vans.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the kids could go to T Town, they can go to other places.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: And um, when the alumni come back, there happen to be two alumni, they weren't there for the photo op.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was just a coincidence.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And they just came back from college and they're just chatting.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they said this is a barrier, and it's expensive to have vans, and then maintain them and all of that.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was just Thursday.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's only clear in my mind because I'm thinking police infrastructure, I'm thinking with really high-tech equipment that we bought for them.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'm thinking youth, I'm thinking our community center, which is being redone, and the youth were actually involved in the designing elements of the youth.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that comes to my mind, but honestly, you could ask me this next week.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: There will probably be something.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's a great part of our community and our job.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know how other mayors feel.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming they feel similarly because almost all of us get we don't get a salary because it's not even minimum wage.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it's called a stipend if you get anything.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: They have to feel that way because I don't think you would be mayor if you didn't.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: On the flip side, is I wish there was a better structure so that more people in their 30s and 40s who have kids and can't just give up a job, whatever, right, would enter the political fray at the local level, not have to wait until their kids are grown up and have more input at a younger age.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: But that may it's very difficult.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's difficult.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: It is difficult.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: And and I I want to highlight that because that's something that, again, I hear people people ask me that.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know why, but they ask me that quite a bit.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: How much does the mayor make?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like do mayors make a ton of money and from zero to about 15,000 is the average.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: 15,000 a year.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: A year.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: A year.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: A year, and you work all the time.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say that the 15,000 after taxes for me does not even pay for the lawn signs and anything I have to do to run for office.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or the count that I have to hire to figure out how to do this stuff.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there are no budgets in weak mayors.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So when I go out for a cup of coffee, I pay with my own money, I cannot use tax dollars to do anything, really, except maybe go to a conference here or there.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I go to the conference, I have to take vacation days where I work.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it actually costs all the stuff costs me money, and you multiply that of 45 municipalities.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is a bit of a barrier.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's a barrier.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's certainly a barrier, and that's a larger issue and a larger conversation.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it also points to the fact that you have to love what you do to do this.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_02: You have to love it every day.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I have to say that the mayors last year, I think about four or five mayors did not run.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: They would I think they would have all won.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: But one because of other issues related to medical or whatever.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he made it very public.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not speaking out of school, but the other four just said to me when I called and said, Why are you not running again?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: All said the same thing.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're tired, we're not happy anymore.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're not happy doing what they're doing.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's the line.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And understandable.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: You have to like it.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: You have to like it.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to know to your point that you're putting in a whole lot every day, all the time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I like it though.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, and and I think this level of happiness, if you speak to other mayors, for the most part, there are days, depending on when you catch them, I think most of them do like it.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not for the power play.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't really get power in these kind of positions at all.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, you do it because you love it.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I think, you know, to a to a large degree, that's true of anybody in government because you are 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whatever happens, your phone's ringing and you have to deal with it because this is the business we chose and we like it.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: And we do it.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: So well, thank you so much for joining us today.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: Anything else you want to share with us?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, I think like these are great questions.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have to go back to my favorite day.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta like, I have to think about that.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I think that um it's great that you're doing these podcasts because you're covering some items, stories, narratives, different people that, you know, I think people do not understand government at all.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: And different states are different.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Connecticut next door to us, totally different.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when people move, and let's assume that every year, maybe 15 to 20 percent in Austin, like there's movement.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: From other countries, from other states, from other municipalities, from New York City, they're totally confused.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't understand.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they learn civics in public schools anymore, just don't know what it is.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's not there's we have new neighbors, and um, and and I live in a weird section of a town that were different address and schools and different municipalities.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: And the neighbors, they moved from um, they moved from the city and they were asking questions like, well, what does the county executive do?
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: And like, but who what is the who's our mayor?
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_02: Do we have a mayor?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: And and and I think they just it we we all take lessons in school, but you learn it on a very broad scale.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then Westchester is a little confusing.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: It just is.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: And but I think it's important to point out that anybody who works in government, like me and like you, we will answer these questions.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_02: We will answer all questions of who is your mayor and what do they do.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or the money that you just live in where you live.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy answering um the questions, so I think this kind of podcast instead of one on one, maybe it's one and then maybe you know 10,000.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I think it's great to do it this way.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, and we're happy to have you, and we hope you come back soon.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.