THE MATH ADDS UP — MV SHOULD LEASE NEW GARBAGE TRUCKS
Dear Mount Vernonite:
I believe in a clean, smart, and beautiful Mount Vernon. The City Council and Comptroller simply don’t. They are showing their lack of love for City by their decision to NOT meet and resolve vital quality of life issues, particularly garbage pickup.
HOW THE PROCESS BETWEEN MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL & COMPTROLLER SHOULD WORK TOGETHER
Nothing can calculate the value of health as LIFE is priceless. My role as elected Mayor is to run the day to day operations and implement the vision of a bright future for the people. The elected City Council’s role is to allocate money to fund the operations of government to enable the vision. The elected Comptroller’s role is to facilitate the administrative process work on behalf of the City Council for the Mayor. None of these functions have harmoniously happened over the past four years. I was forced to obtain 5 Court orders to instruct them to do their jobs; however, they defy the Court orders. Yet, I keep the faith in the people.
WHY CAN’T WE USE SAVINGS IN THE $15 MILLION DPW BUDGET OR OTHER NEW REVENUE?
The Department of Public Works has a $15 million budget. I presented numerous cost-effective options for the City Council and Comptroller to embrace, yet they refuse to consider any options.
Since March, I presented them with the following math which shows that we can save $1,161,600, approximately 2 points on property taxes, if we simply “Leased to Own” new garbage trucks. We CAN avoid a major disaster if we can get access to $12,000 for a monthly lease or $36,000 for a monthly rental of new trucks. The numbers below speak for themselves.
TABLE 1: COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS ON GARBAGE TRUCK OPTIONS: FIX OLD, RENT, OR LEASE NEW
MAYOR THOMAS URGES CITY COUNCIL STOP WASTING TIME, MONEY AND PUTTING PUBLIC HEALTH AT RISK
The City Council is still REFUSING to discuss the matter. And they are hiding behind confusion on how the government works to gain short-sighted political points jeopardizing the long term physical and fiscal health of our beloved community.
CITY COUNCIL REJECTS PUBLIC SERVICE FOR POLITICAL SATISFACTION
We ought to purchase a new garbage truck at a monthly cost of $2,000 versus wasting on average $7,800 per month fixing old dilapidated trucks. We proposed to use savings from our repair line or new revenue from permit fees to pay for the new, safe, reliable equipment. Moreover, I have secured monies for your street to be repaved, revitalize our parks, and level sidewalks. We did our job and presented ways to serve you better without using your money. Yet those non-taxpayer monies, like garbage truck monies, are being held hostage by them.
KEEPING MOUNT VERNON CLEAN IS AN EMERGENCY
It is common sense that a threat to sanitation is an emergency due to the awful odors, rats, bugs, and the diseases they bring with them. Yet, 120 days have passed and still NO action from the City Council or Comptroller on fulfilling their obligations to the people under the Charter.
NO FUNDING FOR GARBAGE TRUCKS = NO GARBAGE PICK UP
Three trucks were repossessed for non-payment on Tuesday, June 11, 2019. The other three were taken back on Thursday, June 13, 2019. I arranged for the city to borrow garbage trucks from a neighboring municipality; however, this is not a done deal and will be a temporary fix until we can get the funding from the City Council to operate responsibly.
MAYOR CONVENED DIVERSE GROUPS TO GET COUNCIL & COMPTROLLER TO ACT
The back and forth is ridiculous! The deliberate sabotage serves old guard political agendas to try and get me out of office. Understand that over the past four years I have fought back in professional ways by convening thought leaders from major universities, clergy, businesses, and community stakeholders to assist in breaking unnecessary gridlock. No matter the policy resolution, Mount Vernon enemies only want political war on me because I serve YOU, the people!
IT’S TIME TO FIGHT FOR WHAT'S RIGHT — A CLEAN, SMART, BEAUTIFUL MOUNT VERNON!
No matter what happens, I will fight for every progressive inch and remain resilient in protecting the people!
Join us in urging the City Council to have some common sense and fund trash collection.
Join us in urging them to hold the Comptroller accountable as required by our City Charter.
Join us in calling Governor Andrew Cuomo at 518–474–8390 and get his help to end the obstruction and prevent another garbage nightmare on our streets.
Join us in fighting for a clean, smart, and beautiful Mount Vernon!
Your Warrior & Chief — Mayor Richard Thomas
