AT LAST !!
HASTINGS WISES UP
to the character of their Mayor
and how he conducts business
and how he conducts business
Hastings' Gene Calamari
Rumor of Mayor Swiderski's plans to share a parks & recreation superintendent with neighboring Dobbs Ferry had been circulating throughout Hastings since last December. The result of which was standing room only at the March 19th Board of Trustees meeting, where Hastings residents showed up en masse to confront Mayor Peter Swiderski over his private agenda.
True to form, Swiderski began his presentation by downplaying his actions. He told residents that this sort of "sharing" has been going on for several years, offering as examples, a joint repaving program with Dobbs, and piggybacking a Dobbs contract for the installation of street light l.e.d. bulbs. Needless to say, both short term maintenance agreements had little or nothing to do with Swiderski's current agenda.
Narrating a brief slide show, the Hastings Mayor introduced his "pilot program" (Swiderski loves a good pilot program, make that any pilot program), as an "experiment," which would be evaluated after the period of one year. Swiderski told residents the core reason for the program was "the chance to build trust with Dobbs, that these sort of things can work and won't hurt us." Swiderski assured residents there would be no compromise in service, describing certain rec programs as "running themselves." The Mayor stressing that his plan would not result in the merging of any programs, adding that "mixing it up" (Hastings residents traveling to Dobbs and vice versa) would be a good change for the village, "especially for teens." Most importantly, Swiderski told residents his "pilot program" would mean an annual savings of 65,000 thousand dollars for the village. A cost cutting necessity do to rising pension & health care costs and limitations placed on village revenues by the state's 2 % tax cap.
Upon opening the floor to public comment Swiderki's proposal was promptly dismantled from a variety of angles, as with courteous distrust, residents undressed the "transparent" Mayor of Hastings for the manner in which he'd kept his plans from tax payers.
Valerie Harmon, widow of the late Jim Harmon, a legendary figure in the history of recreation department/ youth center, proposed the Mayor hire acting superintendent Kendra Garrison and eliminate her former position of supervisor. The result would be an even greater savings, while allowing Hastings to retain it's own superintendent. Ms. Harmon sited that the village has been operating well without a recreation superintendent for the last eight months, following the retirement of former supt. Ray Gomes.
Ann Marie Roth challenged the Mayor on two fronts. Ms. Roth pointed out that the Dobbs Ferry superintendent's purpose long term would be to decide what programs could be combined between the villages. "To try and suggest that this doesn't represent merging more so than what has been discussed is inaccurate." Roth further instructed the Mayor, that the new superintendent would need a year just to acclimate himself to his new position and programs and the village would not be able to access the success or failure of the program as Swiderski stated.
Hastings Chief of police, David Bloomer, chided Swiderski for describing certain programs as running themselves. "Programs don't run themselves," Bloomer said, "people run them." The Chief added that the Mayor might think twice about 'mixing up' teenagers from Hastings and Dobbs, a warning as to the potential for violence. Mayor Swiderski apparently oblivious as to the long history of rivalry and brawling between teenagers of the two villages.
Jodie Meyer urged the Mayor to be more open and transparent, feeling the issue was aggravated by the Mayor's lack of communication, the rumors from which forced the Mayor to put out a lot of fires. This was the only resident comment with which we must take issue. Those fires Mayor Swiderski was putting out were not the result of poor communication, they were the result of no communication. Mayor Swiderski chose not to communicate. Those fires, he set himself.
what a genuine voice sounds like.
what inspiring a village feels like.
The watershed moment of the evening came however when Gene Calamari shared what he felt Swiderski and his plan would mean for the future of Hastings. Calamari, the president of the Hastings Little League and himself a member of the rec commission, physically turned from the Mayor and Trustees and spoke directly to fellow residents. Calamari said he first heard of Swiderski's plan after receiving a phone call from Matt Arone, Dobbs Ferry's superintendent, in December of 2012. Calamari told residents.
"Nobody from my own village had told me about that... Right away my feeling was that some level of trust had been breached, and I became concerned that a monumental moment was progressing without the public's involvement," After contacting the Mayor, who confirmed the plan was in negotiations, a closed meeting of the rec commission was held at which the Mayor spoke of sharing not only the Dobbs rec superintendent, but merging Hastings' and Dobbs Ferry's DPW as well. Calamari told residents he came away from that meeting feeling that Swiderski's agenda was to slowly combine the municipal services of the villages. He warned residents that Swiderski's presentation may appear "very benign," but is "no small item," as it represents a change in course.
"The bigger picture is, a slow, but steady erosion of what it means to live in Hastings... We're embarking on a road that is going to remove our identity as a village." Calamari dismissed Swiderski's answer to the fiscal crisis facing Hastings, telling residents.
"What we need here is not to focus on the expense side of the equation, we need to focus on the revenue side of the equation. That's where the genius is! Anybody can do the expense side of the equation, cutting jobs, cutting costs, anybody can do that. Try to bring in money, I don't know that we've had enough creative thinking in that regard." Calamari called for residents to demand a referendum. "The road we're going down is big. That is not the road that's going to preserve the specialness of Hastings. And we should fight that battle to the end. To me, this road is a assisted suicide if we go down it. And I don't think we should go down that road." Amidst enthusiastic applause Calamari returned to his seat, without once looking at the Hastings Mayor.
Mayor Swiderski felt the need to respond to Calamari's honesty. A mistake, as his calculating demeanor left much to be desired when compared to the genuine voice residents had just witnessed. Swiderski dismissed Calamari's feelings with regard to the village's special identity, telling residents, "we can talk about village sovereignty all we want, and what we gain in not sharing this or other expenses with neighboring communities," returning once again to the bottom line of the 2 % cap placed on village revenue, versus rising village costs.
For you see, the merging of services is just business to Swiderski, in the Mayor's mind there will be no loss of sovereignty. For Swiderski nothing will change, because he truly doesn't understand what is at stake. He heard the words of residents like Jim Metzger, who told the Mayor, "Part of the joy of living in this village is meeting people who are fist, second, third, fourth generation Hastings families. They talk about what it was like playing sports in the village, twenty, thirty, forty years ago. That's what makes me want to live here." Swiderski can hear the words, but sadly, they are but words. They are but concepts. He is constitutionally incapable of feeling the love that fills sentiments like Mr. Metzger's.
For Swiderski, the merging of municipalities will change nothing. He will continue waxing on about what a unique and special village Hastings is, but the Mayor's words are empty. For Peter Swiderski has never truly experienced their meaning. If he had, he would never think of proposing such a thing, let alone run off to implement it.
If the Mayor were capable of truly feeling what it means to live in Hastings, he would know better than to risk destroying the morale of the recreation department's employees and volunteers with such a proposal. In a downtown riddled with empty store fronts, the recreation department and community center are the very heart of the village. Compromise the rec department and the Community Center, and there will be no question, nail saloons will definitely be all that can survive in the downtown. The reason there's not a chance in hell for Swiderski to turn around the downtown, is because Swiderski is incapable of bringing people together and inspiring community. Sure he'll create committees, implementation committees of committees, and issue Mayoral messages till the cows come home. The guy loves the sound of his own voice, but it is a voice which does not inspire. For all his verbiage, the Mayor simply doesn't get it. For if he did, if he truly understood where he was and whom he represents, he wouldn't be spending his time promoting Hastings as artistic, (a ridiculous notion to begin with, and one any real artist would shudder at) and he would instead protect and cherish what is the village's genuine resource and identity, it's people.
It should be noted that Swiderski's conduct is not without precedent, he's set out on his own just like this before. Mayor Swiderski sought and received the first permit issued in the history of N.Y. state for the cruel and barbaric net & bolt slaughter of deer. He attempted to recruit Dobbs and Irvington to join him, telling Irvington's Mayor and trustees that Hastings residents, "had rolled over on the issue," and that Hastings "would be doing this (net & bolt) no matter what." The statement was a complete and utter misrepresentation of Hastings, as only 38 hands were raised in favor of a cull, not a net & bolt cull. Here too Swiderski downplayed the horrific nature of his agenda, never presenting his plans to the village prior to his personal pursuit. Naturally, neither Dobbs nor Irvington joined him in his insanity.
Why won't Swiderski share his agendas, take the temperature of village residents on issues, before going off lone wolf? Why misinterpret and or misrepresent where the village stands, or for that matter, where he stands, wasting residents time and energy? One word. Arrogance. Foolishly, Swiderski fashions himself the smartest person in the room, his repeated cluster__cks notwithstanding. He wants desperately to be seen as the stand alone political architect of something, anything, it matters not what. His handling of the deer issue serves as evidence. Surreally, Swiderski who beamed over being a pilot program for net & bolt slaughter of deer, is today the very same Mayor beaming over the prospects of being a pilot program for the immunocontraception of deer.
In closing, Hastings is faced with a fiscal dilemma, it's a cold hard financial truth. Sadly for Hastings, there is also another truth. Recent Hastings Mayor's, Wagner, McAndrews, Macheron, Chemka, Kinnally, all served the village as residents and nothing more. Peter Swiderski is the first Mayor in the history of Hastings on Hudson who is first and foremost, a wanna be politician, a very flawed wanna be politician at that.
We are in full agreement with Gene Calamari, this is not a road we wish to go down any further. We need to change course. Enough calculating self centered arrogance. For the sake of the village we all love. We urge Hastings residents to please, please, change the arrogant, duplicitous driver, before it's too late.
