Experience as Village Trustee, Deputy Mayor, Mayor

Accomplishments 2015-Present

• Worked diligently on the annual budget each year of my tenure and Voted for budgets that kept our tax rate at 0%.  

• Rebuilt, rewrote the policy, and rolled out the Village Ethics Committee. 

• Rebuilt and rolled out the Landlord-Tenant Relations Council.

• Actively participated in the interviewing, hiring, and approval of the Village Manager, Community Center Director, and other personnel to improve our community and its services, making sure that we maintain diversity in our interviewing and hiring practices.

• Worked with my colleagues to re-engineer the legal department and bring on new staff. 

• Headed a committee on communications to professionalize our communications platforms and make our communications more transparent to the public.  The new website rolled out successfully and is multilingual. 

• Helped to curb and rid the community of illegal massage parlors by connecting the dots between advocates, police, and our legal team. 

• Supported efforts to address vacant and zombie properties.

• Took a deep dive into our water plant and operations centers and worked with staff to improve those facilities via a capital improvement budget, and project timelines.

• Attended numerous conferences to learn and bring back better environmentally friendly and cost-reducing energy programs. 

• Passed the most legislation during my tenure as Mayor

• Added staff to code enforcement and communication department.

• Proposed and created first Youth Bureau in more than 30 years: it now serves over 400 young people and is one of the most successful in NYS. 

• Work with local groups, police and the schools to protect and improve the lives of our immigrant neighbors. 

Votes (Partial List)

• Voted to conduct the only legitimate recent empirical affordable housing study (conducted by Kevin Dwarka Consulting), for the Village regarding recommendations on fair, safe and affordable housing… for all.

• Voted for increased housing improvements – large and small.

• Voted to incubate a multi municipality e-bike program.

• Supported a three-year project to clarify and update all our zoning rules. 

• Voted for a ten year comprehensive plan.  

• Supported and voted in favor of the Veterans Tax Exemption.

• Voted and supported a downtown Economic Development task group that represented a wide range of constituents and stakeholders. This group did a herculean job and bringing to light a number of economic development solutions which is now incorporated into our day to day running of the Village. 

• Voted for a “One Day Cabaret” License, giving businesses and organizations the flexibility to be allowed to have live music, entertainment and dancing to leverage the explosion of downtown eateries.

• Voted in favor of the Broadway Bridge Rehabilitation to protect its structure, integrity, and appearance.

• Voted in favor of reconstructing and improving the basketball court and overall physical plant improvement needs of our Community Center. 

• Voted for the Sing Sing Kill walkway improvements.

• Voted for wetlands legislation

• Voted for numerous grants application regarding e technology, cars, village vehicles, stations, and e-bikes as they relate to greening our fleet. 

• Helped produce and create the largest grant in our history: Downtown Reinvestment Initiative (DRI) which was awarded to the Village in the amount of $10 million to roll out approximately 12 major infrastructure improvement initiatives.

• Invested in police and fire departments vehicles and infrastructure improvements

• Added 100 trees to support our goal to becoming the Greenest Village in the country  and received Tree City designation from the State.

• Approved the Police Reform Recommendation to the State.

• Recommended and Approved  a Covid-19 memorial garden for our residents to mark the pandemic and its affects on our Village.

• Liaison to the Downtown Economic Development Fund Council which we rebuilt and re-prioritized with successful projects. This team of citizens and I rolled out the new tree lighting and tree well program for the downtown.

• Liaison to the Environmental Advisory Council which we rebuilt. “This team of volunteer citizens have accomplished more in the past year than in the past decade”, Jeff Smith, chair.

• Liaison to the Parks & Rec Advisory board.

• Liaison to Sing Sing Prison Museum

• Exofficio  to all Village appointed committees.

• Served as liaison to the Police Reform Committee.

• Co-Chair of the Ossining 250 committee to celebrate the country’s 250 birthday.