Closing the Gender Gap in Mount Vernon

**The following are remarks as prepared for delivery by Mayor Richard Thomas, Declaration of Rights and Sentiments Signing, Mount Vernon, July 20, 2018”

Good morning.

What historic event happened on this day 170 years ago?

The Seneca Falls Convention, which marked the start of the women’s rights movement in the United States. On that day, women and men put forth a revolutionary idea. Women should have the right to vote. And, they didn’t stop there. The group also advocated for economic justice for woman as well.

Since 1848, our nation has made progress in securing equal rights for women. But more work needs to be done. Mount Vernon is a microcosm for the progress women have made and the challenges they still face.

I could not be prouder than to be flanked by the women with me. Each is a senior member of the administration, role model and someone to be admired. Planning Commissioner Chantelle Okarter, Director of Veteran’s Services Kristyn Reed, Director of Civil Defense Fraida Hickson, Executive Director of the IDA Eileen Mildenberger, Deputy Police Commissioner Carrie Mobley-Johnson, and Assessor Stephanie Vanderpool.

Our city is extremely fortunate to have the talents of these women working so hard on behalf of our residents. I would like to thank them, as well as all the women who do so much every day to move Mount Vernon forward.

Of course, Mount Vernon still has a lot more to do to remove inequities, inequalities and indignities from the workplace.

In Yonkers, the director of Veterans Services makes $112,000.

In Mount Vernon, the pay is $58,500.

In Yonkers, the director of Civil Defense makes $99,000

In Mount Vernon, the pay is $48,300.

In Yonkers, the Planning Commissioner makes $152,500.

In Mount Vernon, the pay is supposed to be $108,000.

Pick a place; White Plains, New Rochelle, you name it. Mount Vernon lags behind. We must make sure that the same jobs get the same pay, whether men or women are performing the tasks.

There is one egregious case that continues to defy any sense of fairness, common sense or simple decency. I refer to the fiasco created by the Comptroller and City Council by refusing to pay the salary and health benefits of our Planning Commissioner Chantelle Okarter.

What other city hires a talented lawyer, Ivy League graduate and hometown daughter to be the Planning Commissioner — at a salary that is supposed to be $108,000, far less than what she could make in the private sector — and then tells her after three months that she can’t have healthcare benefits and knocks her pay to zero. All while she is doing a terrific job.

Even after a judge’s ruling, the City Council and Comptroller still have yet to fund her job as Planning Commissioner. Why is Chantelle she still here. Because she loves Mount Vernon.

She resigned, but I wouldn’t accept it. We have been able to keep her, because we are paying her through a budget line in the Police Department.

But this is no way to run city government, especially our Planning Department at a time when Chantelle’s expertise is desperately needed to help us navigate through the federal lawsuit charging our sewers are in violation of EPA standards.

So my plea to the Council and Comptroller continues, please fund this job.

There is no reason not to. We have the money in the budget. We have saved enough in the first six months of the year, to pay her salary the right way.

Let me end on a note of continuous improvement.

The Declaration of Rights and Sentiments that came out of the Seneca Falls convention proclaimed the need for economic justice for women.

In solidarity, we have modeled a Mount Vernon Declaration of Rights and Sentiments on the original. The sentiment is simply this, the City of Mount Vernon supports all women in the fight for justice, rights and “the equal station to which they are entitled.”

There is never an excuse to not treat people fairly.