A House Divided Cannot Stand

Abraham Lincoln might as well have been speaking about the current state of Mount Vernon when he said, “A house divided cannot stand.”

The city has three branches of government. Political differences are healthy. But not to the point of paralyzing the city’s ability to deliver services — services residents struggle to pay for with their hard-earned tax dollars.

Services cost money. Paying for them should not be a political weapon. Who could possibly argue that a city does not have to pay its Planning Commissioner?

Answer: The Mount Vernon City Council and Comptroller. Their logic: The Mount Vernon Planning Commissioner is not an employee of the City of Mount Vernon.

If your head is spinning, this will make it explode.

The argument has been going on for months, wreaking a financial and human toll. It’s centered on the city’s practice of using federal funds to subsidize the salary and health benefits of Planning Commissioner. The Comptroller took the novel position that Planning Commissioner was not a city employee because she was not fully paid by the city.

To its credit, the City Council disagreed with the Comptroller and voted to pay the Planning Commissioner entirely out of city funds, thus ending the argument. Right? Wrong. The City Council refused to put the money in the budget to cover the cost.

Now weeks after a judge ruled that the city is obligated to pay its Planning Commissioner, the City Council has yet to act.

Here’s the human side to this. The City of Mount Vernon was extremely fortunate to hire Chantelle Okarter as Planning Commissioner last year. Raised in Mount Vernon, she went to the University of Pennsylvania and then to law school at Emory. A talented young woman with great career options, she chose to give back to her hometown.

Unconscionably, the payback from Comptroller and the City Council has been to not pay her salary or health care benefits — this to a wife and mother of an 18-month old child.

The message this sends to every current and prospective city employee is just horrendous. How can Mount Vernon expect to retain and hire the people it needs to move the city forward if elected officials treat them with such disrespect and disdain?

Commissioner Okarter’s situation is not isolated. Members the Mount Vernon Industrial Development Agency are being denied health care benefits by the Comptroller. City Engineer Curtis Woods is waiting for the City Council to fund his position. Without funding for the job, Mount Vernon will be a city without a city engineer.

There’s more. The Comptroller is sitting a $29,000 bill from HUD, which if not paid, will result in the federal agency cutting off $1 million in grants designated to help Mount Vernon’s homeless.

Commissioner Okarter remains a city employee through a series of emergency measures. But these financial band aids are only temporary. It’s time for the City Council and Comptroller to get serious about their responsibilities as elected officials. My request to the residents of Mount Vernon is to tell the Comptroller and the City Council to work with me to fund the posts, programs and people the city needs to deliver the services we all expect. Send them an email, or one to me and I will forward it. Better yet, sign up to speak at the June 27th City Council meeting by calling 914–665–2352.

It’s time to put the politics aside; to stop dividing and to start adding and multiplying on behalf of our city. As Lincoln said in his House Divided speech. “I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”

Email the Comptroller at dreynolds@cmvny.com

Email the City Council at LACopeland@cmvny.com

Or Email me at MayorThomas@cmvny.com