Fire Department Budget Cuts

To the Editor;

It is with grave concern for the safety of our village residents, local business owners, their employees, and that of our firefighters here in Garden City, that I feel compelled to write this letter.

Due to the current financial crisis, the Village Board has been working diligently to provide the residents and businesses of Garden City with a fair and comprehensive budget for the upcoming fiscal year. And for that we should all be most grateful.

However, the tentative budget includes cuts that will severely impact the Fire Department and the vital services we provide. As a direct result of these cuts, there is a substantial risk that Fire Department emergency response will be reduced and delayed. As you know, the sufficient and timely response of this emergency service is vital to the safety and well being of us all. As one can imagine and statistics prove, the incidence of crime and arson increase during times of economic difficulty. As such, maintaining firefighting capabilities now is especially important.

The original proposed 2009-10 budget (prior to these cuts) as submitted by Captain Frank, Department Head of the Fire Department, and endorsed by the Village Administrator was already 7.75% less than last year's budget. During budget study sessions this proposed budget was slashed even further to a level of 12.14% lower than last year. This further reduction will result in the reduction of on duty fire personnel thereby reducing and delaying fire apparatus response. To a typical household, these additional cuts translate to an annual savings of only $27 or the equivalent of 7 cents per day.

When it was learned that the Village Board was considering a charge for use of the athletic fields, as a way to increase revenue, a great number of people showed up at the very next budget meeting to express their concerns and outrage at this new fee. The Village Board heard them and as such the "athletic field user fee" was not included in the budget. However, very few were present for the discussions at this and various other meetings regarding Fire Department cuts. One can only assume that most residents are unaware of these cuts and the impact they will have.

One of the major benefits of owning a home or operating a business in Garden City is the level of professional services that are provided here. While there is no doubt that some cuts are prudent and necessary, it is imperative that we restore the cuts that will most assuredly impact fire safety.

If you are a resident, business owner or an employee of a business here in Garden City, and this is of concern to you, I respectfully and fervently ask that you contact current Mayor Peter Bee and Mayor-Elect Robert Rothschild and ask that the Village Board restore the funds necessary for the Fire Department to maintain the level of emergency service you deserve. You may also wish to attend the upcoming public hearing on the tentative budget scheduled for Monday, April 6 at 8:00 PM in the Village Board Room.

Letters to Mayor Bee & Mayor-Elect Rothschild may be mailed to:

Village of Garden City

351 Stewart Ave

Garden City, NY 11530

Should one wish to contact me for additional information, please email me at lmira@optonline.net

Lou Mira,

Lieutenant

IAFF Local 1588

Garden City Fire Department

Response To PTA Budget Query

To the Editor:

The Garden City PTA recently issued a query based on parent input about the District's proposed 2009-2010 school budget. It included, among other things, a call for "any concessions - financial or otherwise - that the teachers could make to ease the economic pressures of this budget".

In response to this, the Garden City Teachers' Association sent the following response to the PTA leadership:

In reference to the PTA's recent public statement on next year's school budget, we respectfully encourage you to consider the following points:

1. Teachers are already making (and have been over the past 3 years under the current contract), and will continue next year to make, a direct contribution to the district's fiscal health in the form of increased health care contributions. In fact, our increased contribution next year outstrips the rise in cost of our health care coverage, thus resulting in a financial gain for the district.

2. Unlike business, the fruits of teaching are difficult to quantify. For example, how much athletic scholarship money have Garden City students received, due, to a significant degree, to the coaching efforts and college contacts of our coaching staff? How much money in academic scholarships? How much in music scholarships? How much money have parents saved due to college credits earned from success on AP exams? While the students themselves, as well as their parents, deserve tremendous credit for these accomplishments, Garden City teachers have also contributed significantly. What is this worth in dollars?

3. Furthermore, as I recently argued in my monthly message to GCTA members, calls for cuts in teacher pay today represent a betrayal of an implicit bargain that many teachers make when they choose this profession. For in becoming teachers we accept the unfortunate reality that we will never become wealthy. This realization, however, is offset by the knowledge that we will enjoy a stable career, protected somewhat from the vicissitudes of the economy. We pass up sizable year-end bonuses and handsome raises during boom times, in exchange for protection from the downsizing and pay cuts of the bust times. Those who call for "sacrifices" today conveniently forget that we did not share in the remarkable gains made by many over the last decade. Their message translates into "sacrifice now, sacrifice always". If this is the expectation, how does the public expect to attract qualified people to teacher their children? If we want good teachers, the least that we have to offer people is stability. Recent calls move us in the opposite direction.

4. The myth of the overpaid teacher perpetuated in Newsday is just that, a myth. The figures Newsday cites as examples of teacher pay are for people who have post-graduate degrees and PhDs, and who have worked for 30 years in the field. The average teacher's salary is well below what is reported in the media, and this is in a high-cost-of-living region. The reality for most teachers is that most of us must have a working spouse AND take on additional side jobs just to make ends meet.

5. Teachers do not exist in isolation from the broader economy. We too are part of it. Many teachers are married to people who work in the private sector and are being laid off or fired. We too are seeing the value of our homes and retirement accounts plummet, while our property taxes and other expenses continue to rise. The teacher v public dichotomy is a false one. We are all in this together.

6. Cuts have consequences. As the PTA alluded to in its statement, the education, health and safety of our students is an important priority for all parties involved. At some point, however, budget cuts will have real consequences. For example, what will the effect of reduced overtime be on the cleanliness of our schools? What is a healthy and safe classroom environment worth to parents? What will the reduction in staffing (as represented by the elimination of 6th periods at the high school and middle school) mean for our students' educational experience? Which class will they have to forego? Which athletes will not be able to play high school athletics because a JV-B team has been eliminated? As a district that already has one of the lowest rates of per pupil expenditure in the area, the budget is already lean. In seeking to cut fat, when do we start to cut muscle?

These are just some thoughts you might want to consider and share as the budget debate proceeds.

Scott McAuley

President,

Garden City Teachers'

Association

Budget Reserves

To the Editor:

Trustee Mauk blames this year's budget problems on the Citizens' Budget Review Committee's recommendation two years ago "to take money out of reserves to keep the tax rate low." He is wrong. These were Board decisions. Last year the Board was well aware that there was a $1,700,000 reserve for the maintenance of St Paul. At the time the Village was pursuing private development to save the building.

I proposed to give this money back to the taxpayers as there was no reason to keep it. The Board was not going to give this money to private developers. Trustee Mauk was well aware of that and he voted to accept my recommendation along with the rest of the Board. To now blame his decisions on the Citizens' Budget Review Committee is shameful.

What he is proposing is that the Board should keep reserves, raised for a purpose that no longer exists, to use for tax reduction whenever the Board chooses. This flies in the face of good governance and is an insult to the taxpayers of this Village.

Thomas M Lamberti

Why Bother Renovating?

To the Editor:

In 1993 I bought a grand old historic home in Garden City for about $2 million. I also bought a big backyard next to the house. I let kids play in my backyard. The yard cost me $5 million. The house was built in the 1870's and is a local registered landmark. When I bought it I knew it needed to be renovated. I told the bank that lent me money that I would restore the home and live there. The bank gave me a loan based on that promise.

As soon as I purchased the home, I changed my mind. Instead, I tried to convert the house into a business property where I could make money renting it out. My bank said I lied to them and I got sued. I spent millions of dollars fighting the bank. I lost. Every court I went to said I had broken my promise to the bank. The lawsuit ended eight years after I purchased the house.

Shortly after I lost my court battle with the bank, I was told by some of the best architects in the country that the house was so structurally sound and of such historical significance that I should renovate it and live there. (I originally told the bank the same things when I bought the house.) They pointed out all of the irreplaceable architectural details and the historic importance of the house to the Village. Even though I paid lots of money for their opinions I ignored them. Instead, last year I tried to give the house to another business even though I had previously lost a battle in court trying to do the same thing. I spent almost a million dollars trying to convince everyone that this was a good idea. This time my neighbors took a vote. Less than 20% of them thought I should be allowed to have a business operate inside my house.

Just a few weeks ago I had another group of notable architects, contractors and engineers look inside my house. They told me that even with my complete neglect of the house for 16 years it was still structurally very strong. One even said: "just turn the lights on!" I don't understand why all of these people keep saying the same nice things about my house.

I am annoyed. After spending millions of dollars to buy this house and millions more to turn it into a business enterprise, I decided last week to let it rot. I have turned the heat off. My neighbors are angry, but I don't care. Many of them think I am a fool. Some even say I am a fraud.

Since I can't convert my house into a commercial property, I am going to have it demolished. Last week I hired experts to tell me how to do this. The experts will charge me about $300,000 to show me how to bring a wrecking ball to my house. It is going to cost me about $7 million to knock it down even though I only paid $2 million to buy it. Even after I spend all this money, I will only have a big hole in the ground. I figure I will have spent about $12 million over the past 16 years. I am very proud of the fact that I never spent a dime renovating the house as I originally promised and as all those "experts" suggested. If I can't get my way, it sounds perfectly reasonable to knock it down now. Besides, if I knock it down maybe I won't be reminded of all the things I said and did since 1993.

I recently heard that there is a group organizing to oppose me again. One of them said that last year's battle over my house will look like a game of Saturday morning T-Ball when they are finished with me this time.

I still think it was a good idea to knock down Penn Station in 1963 and replace it with the new Penn Station. People always start whining whenever they look at pictures of the old Penn Station. We should have knocked down Grand Central Station too. What a waste of money to preserve that building. Recently, the Cathedral wasted millions of dollars renovating their church. They should have knocked it down instead. After I knock my house down, these same people will look at old pictures of my house. They are the same shortsighted troublemakers who haven't stopped whining about the old Penn Station, and who think Grand Central Station and the Cathedral were worth saving. You should ignore them. I do.

I don't know why I decided to live in Garden City anyway. When I finally knock the eyesore down I am moving to Florida where everything is new.

David J. Sutton

St. Paul's Hole?

To the Editor:

Hearing about the plans to demolish St. Paul's without a viable replacement reminded me of Forte's Hole. A blight on the Village when the developer, Forte, ran short of funds after demolishing the old G. C. Hotel.

I recommend we replace St. Paul's with a recreational community center containing an indoor/outdoor pool, theatre, gymnasium, fitness center, dance studio, meeting rooms and food service.

My son, Robert, competes with the St. Anne's CYO swim team. We currently use the Freeport Recreational Center to hold our meets. Freeport, where 10% of the population is on Food Stamps, has a recreational center, but Garden City does not. I recently learned the GC High swim team has to practice at 5:30 A.M. at Great Neck, while Adelphi's facility is under construction. Meanwhile, Hempstead High has a first class pool with which to train and compete.

To fund this development, we should sell the G. C. Pool, possibly to Adelphi, and the Senior Center to commercial interests. We could auction off the naming rights, or hold a raffle with the winner selecting the name. Operating expenses would be defrayed by usage fees, space rentals and charging anyone interested for swimming lessons. This facility would run 12 months rather than two and one-half months and be shared by the entire community.

What I really would like to see is anything, but another hole serving as a testament to our Village's inability to agree on anything!

Thomas Brosnan

Bonuses Not The Problem

To the Editor:

The political activists' banner reads: "You can help defeat Senator Chris Dodd"

Yes - Senator Dodd needs to go; but so do the entire US Congress (both houses, the Republicans and Democrats) and the Obama administration.

As others have attempted to comment before - can it be believed??!! The entire US Congress - House and Senate - and Obama are lashing out wildly and rushing to pass unprecedented confiscatory tax legislation because bonus money was paid to some seventy - (70!!!) - or so, investment managers. We now have national legislation being enacted in Congress because of 70 people - our national population is 300 million. The AIG bonus pool represents less than .002% of the stimulus payout budget. This is insane, or maybe just a paranoid mentality, by any rational adult measure.

And the US government is now mobilized to tax these guys to death and to pass the legislation needed to do so within the time frame of less than a single week - when nothing else in Washington can ever get done or be passed in less than a year or never. And because of their moronic outcry behavior in Washington, a mob mentality is creeping its way into the populous' conscience - mobs of agitators already are protesting outside the homes of many of the bonus recipients whose lives have been threatened.

Where's the outcry coming from Congress and with Obama? There's none, of course.

It's become a very convenient and welcomed issue-distraction for the benefit of Congress and Obama - but AIG, the bank CEO's and the bonus recipients are NOT the enemy. Be reminded that Hitler did the same by stirring up the national population, sending his Brown Shirts into the streets and demonizing a certain small-in-numbers segment of the German population as being the national "enemy" and responsible for causing equivalent devastating economic times in the 1930s.

Beside, why the outcry about the bonus money? Even under our current tax laws, 50% of the bonuses will be paid back to the government as taxes. That taken-off-the-top 50% amount will be returned the US Treasury to be made available for further use as stimulus funds.

With the remaining 50% of the bonuses, one of two things will happen, or maybe both.

The bonus recipients will spend most or all of that remaining 50% to purchase "things," and thus help to re-strengthen the consumer retail sector of the national economy and/or will put some or all of the remaining 50% into bank and investment savings accounts, and thus increase the cash deposit reserves desperately needed by the banks to help the consumer and commercial credit markets get back up and running.

Very little or none one of the paid out AIG bonus $$$ is going to be "wasted" at the expenses of the taxpayers and the US economy.

John T. Harris

An Opportunity To Succeed

To The Editor:

The residents of the Village of Garden City have a special opportunity to unite behind a movement to restore sanity to Municipal Budgetary Controls.

Never before have so many been affected in so many ways by so few. Each year we open our tax statements and duly write out the required checks and meekly submit them to the appropriate Municipal offices. Each year we see the amount of the check increase from the prior year and take no action.

2009 is different from many of the preceding years in so many ways:

Job losses in the financial industry at an all time record high.

Unemployment generally is at record level.

Tuition costs continue to increase at all institutions.

Insurance costs reflect recent experience with higher rates.

Food costs increase every week. Check the posted prices on goods.

Transportation/commuting costs are about to explode.

Retirement savings accounts have been decimated by the markets.

Savings bank accounts hardly draw any interest at all.

Home values have been savagely attacked by the financial market.

Home sales take twice as long to complete if at all.

Credit card interest costs continue to rise indiscriminately.

There are hardly any offsets to the above resulting in many of our residents having to adjust their lifestyle to reflect the new harsh reality.

Businesses are tightening their belts and cutting back salaries, staff and expenses to survive. How have the Municipal authorities responded?

1. Reducing the rate of increase in their budgets.

2. Threatening to reduce necessary services.

3. Planning to add fees for currently free use of facilities. How should Municipal authorities respond?

1. Roll back of compensation (renegotiate with applicable unions)

2. Reduce headcount, no new hires.

3. Ask employees to work extra unpaid hours during the crisis.

4. Investigate savings through outsourcing certain services. {Gardening);

5. Encourage volunteer services from the residents where possible.

6. Eliminate all non-critical expenses in all departments.

7. Sell and lease back Municipal properties.

8. Investigate the sale and lease back of the Village Water System.

I recognize that the Municipal Authorities have given serious thought to the problems and have proposed what they consider a responsible operating budget for the coming years. But can Garden City survive with higher taxes and declining real estate values? Already, real estate taxes are the largest barrier to attracting young families in the Village. Our record and reputation for higher taxes every year are a real concern to all residents and future residents.

We must work intelligently and cooperatively with Municipal Authorities at all levels to arrest the ever increasing taxes for the duration of the crisis and find workable solutions to hold the line.

I invite residents to contact their respective POA's and Village managers and voice their concerns and demand that the movement to increase. Village and School taxes be stopped and in fact that the actual Budgets approved reflect a REDUCTION from the prior year and maintain that level for the following year through efficiencies in operations, administration and job performance.

Frank Alfieri

Thank You

To the Editor:

On behalf of The Andy Foundation, I'd like to express a big thank you to all who joined the fun at the recent Bingo Day and Diaper Drive at Cluett Hall. Dozens of youth volunteers worked to help make the afternoon so special. I'd also like to send our appreciation to Garden City Pizza, who provided a delicious lunch for all Bingo attendees and whose continued generosity helps make The Andy Foundation events so successful.

Proceeds from the event purchased additional diapers and supplies for Our Lady of Loretto Parish Social Ministry, which provides food, clothing and other necessities to needy in the local area. Because disposable diapers are considered a "luxury", they cannot be purchased with food stamps, so the more than 4,000 diapers purchased and collected will help countless of needy children!

Amy McGoldrick