Candidates in most contested elections for mayor, supervisor and trustee in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties are invited to discuss the issues and their campaigns in endorsement interviews with Editorial Board. As in the past, these discussions will form the basis of news articles and serve as fodder for the Editorial Board’s recommendations. Because of the vast number of races — and the impossibility of crafting a schedule that meets everyone’s family, work and campaign needs — we appreciate efforts by candidates to make their scheduled interview hour. Look here for additional interview times for races in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties.
The following interviews will be held at our White Plains office, 1 Gannett Drive (off of Westchester Avenue, between Corporate Park Drive and Bryant Avenue). Please advise Interactivity Editor Tracey Princiotta, at tprinciot@lohud.com, if you will attend a Westchester or Putnam session.
Wednesday, Oct. 7
1 p.m. — Westchester County Board of Legislators (Districts 1, 4 & 9)
2:30 p.m. — Westchester County Board of Legislators (Districts 5, 8, 13 & 17)

Thursday, Oct. 8
2 p.m. — Ossining Town
3:15 p.m. — Mamaroneck Village
4:30 p.m. — Pound Ridge

Monday, Oct. 12
2 p.m. — Eastchester

Tuesday, Oct. 13
2 p.m. — Cortlandt
3:15 p.m. — North Salem
4:30 p.m. — Bedford

Thursday, Oct. 15
2 p.m. — White Plains
3:15 p.m. — Harrison

Monday, Oct. 19
2 p.m. — North Castle
3:15 p.m. — Somers

Tuesday, Oct. 20
2 p.m. — Yonkers
3:15 p.m. — Yorktown

Wednesday, Oct. 21
2 p.m. — Rye City

Thursday, Oct. 22
2 p.m. — Peekskill
3:15 p.m. — Lewisboro

Readers are praising a 14-year-old Armonk girl who protected her younger sister and helped police catch a burglar Monday after the suspect allegedly broke into the family’s home. Katherine Weiss called authorities after locking herself and her 9-year-old sister Caroline in a bedroom during the break-in. Police apprehended a man who they say may be involved in a string of burglaries in the area. Read report Shawn Cohen’s account of what happened and then tell us what you think.
Here’s what one person had to say:

Great job at remaining calm and doing what needed to be done!! One less burglar on the streets due to her actions. Her parents should be very proud.

Another wrote:

What a wonderful outcome! … Congratulations to Katherine for her ability to function so well when she must have felt such fear, and being able to ease her community’s safety concern issues.

One reader took issue with part of the coverage, writing:

Great job by these girls, but I’m annoyed and disturbed by the photo. Did it dawn on anyone that, by putting a photo of these girls out there for the young burglar/his family/his friends to see, that you may be putting these girls in harm’s way?

A few readers were suggesting alternate methods of home protection, such as this person, who wrote:

I really don’t understand why people don’t get an alarm, especially if you are going to leave your kids at home alone. It’s so affordable. I pay $30 a month and it’s well worth it. Keep yourself and your family safe.

Another said:

Get a dog; best alarm system out there.

There’s an interesting discussion going on in Spring Valley, following a Sunday article about municipal salaries. As it turns out, 48 of the 50 highest-paid village employees are police officers. Topping the list is Police Chief Paul J. Modica, at $191,617. Mayor George Darden, the highest-paid mayor in Rockland, brought up the rear in the top-50 list. He took in $102,391. Here’s a link to the article by Suzan Clarke and Cathey O’Donnell. The discussion—see the comments at the end of the article—will be familiar to taxpayers living in Spring Valley . . . and pretty much everywhere else in the Lower Hudson Valley.

Here’s some deserved kudos to Bill Ryan, the chairman of the Westchester Board of Legislators. The False Claims Act / affordable-housing settlement that won final board approval last week had the potential to be a bigger and more expensive mess than it was—for the board and for taxpayers. It wasn’t, partly due to Ryan’s efforts. He gave his board colleagues plenty of time to ruminate, vacillate, commiserate, and otherwise explain themselves to their constituents, before doing what absolutely was the right thing to do—they OK’d the settlement, in a 12-5 vote last week.

The Editorial Board favored the agreement for pragmatic, fairness and dollars-and-good sense reasons. A judge already ruled that the county had failed to discharge it duty to foster fair housing opportunities; the only question left for trial was whether the county knew it was telling tales when it made certain representations to Washington in applying for federal Housing and Urban Development funds. A boatload of lawyers and others agreed that the county stood to lose far more — in money as well as prestige — if it continued the legal fight. Besides, under the settlement, the county will essentially do what it does anyway — that is, help build affordable housing. The difference under the settlement: more communities will get to share in that housing, and the county will have to ensure that racial minorities get a fair shot at the housing, along with everyone else.

That said, legislators are getting it from all sides — for voting for the settlement, for voting against it, for voting for it and then apologizing as if they had just OK’d a new smelting plant.  (We’re printing more letters on the topic this week.)

It’s another case where legislators, since they are going to take some lumps anyway, ought to do what they think is right . . . and stick with it.

There’s lots of concern about H1N1 (swine) flu, and lots of confusion, too. Last week, a woman who volunteers at a local hospital wrote a letter claiming that “thanks to our president,” she had to leave a position that she loved, because she didn’t want to get the flu shot.

New York is the first state (and only, so far) state to require health-care workers to get both the seasonal flu vaccine and the swine flu vaccine. So, she’s right that it’s a government mandate making her uncomfortable, but the wrong layer of government.

Her complaint, though, is not unusual. Nurses unions have been protesting New York’s move, and I’ve met friends in the health care field who are upset they have no choice.

In other places, some individual hospitals are demanding their workers get either seasonal or H1N1, or in some cases, both vaccines. Some hospitals have been making workers sign forms stating they are aware they are putting themselves and their patients at risk if they opt out ofa flu shot (not mandatory, just guilt?) And health care workers are always encouraged to get the flu shot. Compliance is anywhere from 40 percent to 60 percent, depending on the what’s predicted for the virus that year (some years, it’s expected to be a mild flu season, and then fewer people tend to be interested in getting vaccinated.)

BTW, my understanding is New York health care workers can only opt out for medical reasons.

“The rationale begins with the health-care ethic, which is: The patient’s well-being comes ahead of the personal preferences of health-care workers,” New York State Health Commissioner Richard F. Daines told the Washington Post.

Do you think health workers should have a choice? Is a mandate the right way to go? A reward system? If you are a medical provider or a patient, it would be interesting to hear your perspective.

This is the first weekend run for Michael Moore’s new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, his long-anticipated send up on Wall Street, the financial meltdown, the economy, and the not-so-free enterprise system. If you see it, feel free to share your view.

I  saw it Wednesday in the city. It was vintage MM—  lots of ironic humor, great cameos, the usual performance art stalkings of corporate bosses. (As you doubtless know by now, these scenes always end at corporate America’s revolving doors, at the unyielding stiff arm of security personnel, who are wiser these days, having seen this act in every other MM film.) Capitalism drew applause when the credits rolled, but I think it was Moore’s laziest work, especially given the target-rich environment.

In compelling fashion, MM strings together lots of disparate vignettes from history (especially from that unheralded “socialist” FDR—who knew?) and our modern-day troubles, to skewer an easy and flawed target—capitalism. That, however, is child’s play in the waning days of the Great Recession; who couldn’t do the same with one arm tied behind her back and a camcorder in the other?

Where Moore falls short is, in getting at the causes of our latest meltdown and how to prevent the next. Really, he doesn’t even try—at least not in a way that might advance anyone’s understanding of the problem. Instead, Moore pretty much goes with the mob mentality—the same one that almost doomed the bailout of the financial system (medicine without which the rest of the economy would have gone the way of Lehman Brothers); the same one that surely would have killed off the last of the auto workers for whom Moore has such uncritical affection and allegiance; the same one that might well doom health-care reform, the subject of another Moore treatment.

How lazy was Moore? He lets more than one member of Congress go on about secret and mysterious doings in Washington aimed at stealing our collective bacon, while ignoring a good bit of the public policy mistakes—committed IN THE OPEN—that most thoughtful analysts point to as catalysts for our misery. This work has already been done for Moore, but he opts for the vague conspiracy. The trouble with that: we can target and fix public policy mistakes—and we have a responsibility to do so—but when the focus is on mysterious conspiracies and unseen forces, well, that’s just an invitation to chase our tails. That lets us—and the policy-makers—off the hook.

If you really want to learn something about the economic mess, there’s a better alternative this weekend. Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life has a follow-up piece on last year’s The Giant Pool of Money, perhaps the best explanatory journalism on what went wrong. Here’s the link to Return to the Giant Pool of Money.

It might make you want to join the mob and go shopping for pitchforks.

Readers had plenty of thoughts on why housing sales and prices are down in the region, and were happy to share them on LoHud.com. The reaction came after the state’s Association of Realtors released a report that said sales decreased more dramatically in the Lower Hudson Valley than in the state or nation. Read reporter Diana Costello’s story and then tell us what you think.
Here’s what one reader had to say about the local real estate picture:

There are 5 houses for sale on my block. Two have been abandoned by their owners. Three other houses are rentals with short term tenants. Is this what Westchester is destined to look like in the future? White Plains used to be the most stable housing market you could find. Rising state and local taxes have killed the goose that laid the golden egg. … What a shame for a once great city like ours.

Another wrote:

Do these numbers included foreclosed homes? I would think so which also explains the substantial drop in home sales price.

Several readers laid the blame for the poor market on the taxes:

School taxes are what are killing everyone! We need to start getting involved with finding out what the schools are doing with our money. … Start holding the schools feet to the fire and stop the runaway freight train of spending!

Another wrote:

Lets face it, who wants to shell out $10,000 to $15,000, or more, in school taxes in Putnam County?

Several also pointed to the municipal salary databases on LoHud.com as an indication why property taxes are so high, which could be affecting the local market. One noted:

I know many people are against The Journal News posting the salaries of public employees. But if you browse the databases, you can see where your tax monies are going. There is a link to the Mount Vernon school district in today’s JN. Check it out. See how many employees are pulling in more than $100K. Gym teachers. Art teachers. Librarians. And best, on the first page, a high school principal that is assigned to ‘NO LOC’ pulling in close to $150K. I guess if you are not in the $100K club, you really can’t afford a home in Westchester or Putnam.

At least one reader decided to look for some good news in the findings, writing:

Behind every dark cloud is a silver lining! Your property is not worth what your assessor thinks it is! Call them up and find out when the deadline is for appealing your assessment. Then get your property appraised and fill out the paperwork. It’s easy! … Now is the time to straighten out this whole obscene property tax situation!

Now, Moshe Lefkowitz can’t figure out the fuss over debris, etc., at the site where he has been coordinating kapparot ceremonies for ultra-Orthodox Jews. The ceremony, performed during the

period between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, involves passing a chicken over one’s head three times while a prayer is recited, a symbolic transfer of sins. The chicken is later slaughtered, and its meat given to charity.

Lefkowitz, a butcher by trade, and others who perform kapparot, have said it is hard for those who do not ascribe to kapparot to understand the deeply moving ceremony’s importance. That may be so. But it is easy to understand the Rockland County Health Code, and those rules have to be met within the county’s boundaries. Given, it may be very hard to meet the guidelines with so many live chickens in such a small area, as Lefkowitz has pointed out, but they still must be followed, or violations—and fines—will ensue. And those fines should be paid.

Lefkowitz told staff writer Hema Easley the Rockland Health Department fines (in the thousands of dollars, similar to what he was fined last year and the year before) were “ridiculous.” He says he won’t pay. (He ’s only paid a portion of past fines.) But, last year, in a letter to the editor, he called the health department’s decision to fine him “fair,” and apologized for incurring the violations. He pointed out the health department’s hard job in dealing with the “unique requirements” of the “burgeoning” Orthodox community.

Here’s a letter to the editor from Lefkowitz published Feb. 6, 2008:

Apology for violations at kapparot site

I apologize to everyone: the county, the community, my friends and others who were discomfited and dismayed by the violations I received for the Kaporoth (kapparot) program several months ago. I am especially distressed that I was the cause of much discussion of the issue that had nothing to do with me and my failings, but with others who had nothing to do with my program.
The county government officials were fair in fining me. I respect them for their professionalism and what they did was correct. I am sad that anyone can be mistaken about that.
In the lengthy exile of the Jewish people few governments have been as kind as the Rockland County government. It is not easy for them to deal with the unique requirements of our burgeoning population. But they try. For this we must thank them and bless them.
I conclude by saying that no violations were found regarding cruelty to the chickens. The cleanliness issues were caused because of failed deliveries of certain items and because of other issues. But there was no violation because of cruelty to the chickens.
I thank you for allowing me to apologize.
Moshe Lefkowitz
Monsey
The writer organized a kapparot ceremony at the Rockland Drive-In. The Rockland County Board of Health fined him $3,000 for poor conditions left at the site.

It is surprising to find out  that the New York State Comptroller has audited New Rochelle’s school lunch.  Shouldn’t the office that is responsible for managing the state’s ever-shrinking pension fund, and overseeing the spending and purchasing practices of schools, municipalities and state agencies, have more important things to look after? But as staff writer Hannan Adley reported today, the state comptroller’s office  has advised New Rochelle to ban unhealthy foods.

The audit report issued by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli  notes that the State Education Department does not give specific guidelines on what snacks should be sold, so the comptroller’s office decided to fill the information vaccuum. Officials from the comptroller’s office  met with officials from the health sector, including the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and decided to compare the school district’s offerings to guidelines issued by the Institute of Medicine.  The report even contains a chart comparing 10 snack items available in New Rochelle school vending machines—from popcorn to ranch flavored chips—to see if they meet district and IOM standards—now that’s  a departure from the more arcane sets of charts usually found in Comptroller’s reports. 

New Rochelle’s selections didn’t always measure up. The state ordered New Rochelle schools to take corrective action on six recommendations. The recommendations call for the district to create a wellness policy and ensure that all of the foods and drinks served in school buildings comply with the policy’s goals. The audit points out that the less-healthy snacks and drinks the district sells are “compete” with the nutritionally-balanced federally subsized lunch program offered and recommends that the district consider limiting the “competitive” foods that are available in the district’s 11 schools.  

New York is a state where officials make names for themselves by crossing jurisdictional lines (remember when then-Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was dubbed the “Sheriff of Wall Street” for enforcing what the federal government wouldn’t?) But other than the fact that New Rochelle’s vending machine and snack offerings might under cut the goals of the subsidized lunch program, it’s hard to see why the Comptroller’s office is  nosing around in the school cafeteria.

Would you make a pact with a spouse to kill him or her if either one of you was terminally ill? That’s one of the questions being debated among readers after 77-year-old Paul Weinstein of New Rochelle was arrested by police Wednesday for killing his ill wife. Police said the two had an agreement wherein he promised not to put her in a nursing home. Read the story and then tell us what you think.

Many readers sympathized with the man. Here’s what one had to say:

No greather display of love, I can only hope that the gentleman is at peace with himself. Going to be interesting to see what our great liberal justice system does to this man.

Another said:

It’s sad that they felt this was their only option. Now he gets to stand trial and go to jail while greiving his loss. Sad!

More than a few readers talked about having had similar discussions with their spouses. One person wrote:

I would want my husband to do that for me if the time came. If anyone had the opportunity to see patients in a nursing home just vegetating, poor care and no family visitors is not living. If I were the judge trying your case I would be very lenient. … My prayers are with you and your family.

Another wrote:

How many other elderly people make this choice because they don’t want to die in a nursing home? They just may be less obvious about it. I keep saying that if I ever come down with a serious illness and can’t work … I’d prefer to commit suicide rather than be a burden.

Others were opposed to the killing. One reader countered:

That was selfish to murder someone because he couldn’t handle seeing her suffer.

Another wrote:

I do not believe anyone should kill anyone. … Jack Kevorkian went to prison for this same type of crime at almost 70 years old. A human is not a dog that you euthanize because it’s ill or a horse you shoot because it has a bum leg. I have been to many nursing homes through the years and have had family members with dimentia, but I would not think about killing them like old shep.

At least one reader saw this as a commentary on nursing homes:

A terrible tragedy—and it points out the fact that nursing homes are worse than cemetaries!

And one person predicted this type of situation will become more common, writing:

Unfortunately I think we will see more and more of this as the boomer generation moves into its golden years, people don’t want to be shelved away in a nursing home and the costs are very high. In addition, many nursing homes require you to give up your estate to cover their expenses, even if you are inclined to do so, it wouldn’t change the quality of the care you receive.