Politics

Farewell To Rye Brook Mayor Paul Rosenberg

didn’t want to move to Rye Brook because it was too difficult to renovate, so I wanted to change that and make it easier for the residents. So we immediately put together a task force to simplify the zoning code.

There are things that go on in government behind the scenes that most people will never know about unless they go wrong or unless things break. One of those things was the construction of our new Public Works/Highway garage facility. It’s something that 99.9% of all the residents will never see, but if we didn’t have it roads would not get plowed, the parks wouldn’t be mowed, all the parks and the ball fields would not be groomed, all the things that make Rye Brook a nice place to live would never happen. The roof in the old facility was leaking all over our people and we rebuilt the building and that was a 17 million dollar project.”

What do you want your legacy as Rye Brook Trustee/Mayor to be?

“In addition to streamlining the zoning code, I would say the excellent relationships with our unions. We have three unions: fire, police and the teamsters that cover the highways, the public works guys. We have had tremendous, wonderful relationships with our unions. I want that to be a model for other boards in the future because when you’re honest with your staff, even when there’s news they may not like, but if you are just straight with them and treat them fairly, they will respect you and you may have to sometimes agree to disagree, but hopefully not very frequently.” Continued from page 1

What surprised you the most about the job?

“As a trustee we receive what we call our board packages from the village administrator every Friday and you read through any information that’s important, but when you are Mayor the volume of information that you have to retain is much larger than being a trustee. You have to know everything about everything, you have to be very familiar with all of the village staff, you have to be the one to disseminate information to the rest of the board and you have to be the one to share the good news as well as the bad news with the community, because you are the face of the community, and as a trustee yes you’re a leader in the community, but being the face of the community is a little bit different.”

What is the Village’s relationship with the Blind Brook School District?

“As you know, the school district has its own budget, they collect their own taxes, and there’s an unwritten kind of agreement that we stay out of their business and they stay out of ours. I think it works pretty well because we on the village board are not educators and I wouldn’t ever pretend to know how to educate people. Likewise school board members, they don’t really get involved in village board issues, when they have questions or comments they reach out, and when we have questions we will pick up the phone and ask them. Or village administrator has had a great working relationship with all of the superintendent’s over the last several years, and whether it’s doing some emergency plow-

Photo Courtesy of Paul Rosenberg

ing or something for them that they need, or giving them access to one of our fields that hadn’t been planned for, we always try to work closely with them, as their students are our residents.”

Do you have future plans for public service?

“I don’t think so, Rye Brook’s special in the sense that we are nonpartisan in terms of our village government, the members of the board can be Republicans, they can be Democrats, it does not come into play at the village government level, and it’s nice for the community. In other communities if the Republican council person or a village board member comes up with an idea, but if they don’t have the majority, then the Democrats will squash it, it’ll go nowhere just because it’s seen as a Republican vs. Democrat issue/idea. Working with my fellow trustees is a pleasure. When I look at any other type of elected office that I might want to seek, it’s all partisan politics and I just really don’t want to be involved in that type of party politics, it’s a hindrance to getting things done. going door-to-door when I rang someone’s doorbell, I said ‘Hi, I’m Paul Rosenberg,’ and the person said ‘Very nice to meet you, what’s your stance on abortion?’ and I said ‘We’re nonpartisan’. My stance on abortion or any other matter of national interest really doesn’t apply to Rye Brook. We don’t have to worry about the other board members stance on anything unless it’s directly related to the Village of Rye Brook, and those national conversations and disagreements that people have don’t make their way into the way we run the village, and it keeps us focused on doing what’s best for the village, not doing what our party would like us to do.”

Advice for future public servants?

“Raise your hand and get involved in as much as you can when you live in a small village like this. I’ve seen over the last 18 years that I’ve been on the board that it’s become much harder to get people to donate their time doing public service, remember that it’s volunteer work, we’re not paid for this, we all have other jobs, but, it gives you a sense of fulfillment that you’ll never get anywhere else.”

By Abby Zahl With a census every ten years comes potential new Congressional districts in each state; 2020 was the year of counting the U.S. population, as required by the U.S. Constitution. Redistricting a state carves out Congressional districts that need to have, roughly, an equal population. In theory, states would be divided into a grid-like formation for borders to be continuous, but the manipulation of boundaries of a district to favor a particular group--a practice known as gerrymandering--frequently occurs as political parties seek to consolidate electoral power and create solidly red or blue districts. “Cracking,” which is the breaking up of districts to make them weaker by separating voters, and “packing,” which is putting as many voters into a district to make them lose elsewhere, are two main tactics of gerrymandering. Gerrymandering is illegal if districts are divided up based on the race of the people who live in said state. Before the 2020 census, New York had 27 districts, but the census revealed that New York State’s population fell 89 people short of maintaining this number, thus districts had to be redrawn. New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul signed New York’s new Congressional map into law on February 3rd, it will go into effect with the November elections for the 118th Congress, to be seated in 2023. This map was designed to give Democrats a large advantage in Congress by getting rid of three Republican congressional seats. Yes, this is legal as it does not favor one race over another, but that does not mean it is logical--or that it is fair or good for the people who live in the district. The change from 27 to 26 districts will affect all towns in New York, as district boundaries shift, but it will affect Westchester County significantly. There are many towns in Westchester that have complained about this new drawing. “[Citizens] felt that the proposed dividing line…broke up communities of shared interests with neighboring sections…” said author of The Hudson Independent, Barrett Seaman. As towns are being separated and placed into new districts, they are losing the connection of other towns who have the same or similar needs. For example, officials representing communities in the far northeastern part of the County, including Bedford, South Salem, Lewisboro and Katonah, complained that the commission’s rendering of district lines in their corner of the County ignored not only the “shared interests” of people in a largely rural area, but also many of the shared services among municipalities that would be disrupted (Barrett Seaman). Separating towns that have similar needs among different Congressional representatives will ultimately make the job of these representatives harder. As Congresspeople do all they can to make their districts happy, it would be easier for a representative to act on behalf of constituents with shared interests, rather than have multiple representatives asked to do the same thing. Rye Brook was previously part of New York’s 17th Congressional District with Mondaire Jones as the Congressional representative. This district included Norwood, Riverdale, Wakefield, Williambridge, Woodlawn, all in the Bronx, Mount Vernon, parts of Yonkers, Port Chester and Rye Brook in Westchester, and Monsey, Nanuet, Pearl River, Orangetown, Sparkill, Spring Valley, Haverstraw, and Suffern in Rockland County. As a result of redistricting, however, Rye Brook is now in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, currently represented by Tom Suozzi. This newly created district expands from Suffolk County, around the Long Island Sound waterfront in Brooklyn and Queens, then all the way into southern Westchester County to where New York and Connecticut meet. A new Congressperson for the 3rd District will be elected in November. The proposed redistricting can be seen in the map below. I’m not saying that our needs are diametrically opposed… but it’s physically impossible…to be able to represent us fairly and have to represent people in a completely different County that is much more rural that we are [in] the South Shore community.”

Mayor Rosenberg, like many other town officials, has been worried about the new congressional districts. Dividing up towns to make a state lean towards one party over another to have political dominance in Congress, can hurt the people more than help.

Splitting the State

Photo Courtesy of Allison Bailey Murpho

Does it make sense that Rye Brook will now be placed in the same district as municipalities in Long Island, given that Rye Brook and other Westchester towns may have different needs specific to their location? In an interview, Paul Rosenberg, the Mayor of Rye Brook, was asked about his point of view on the new redistricting map. He responded:

“…How could [it] be expected to equally represent us in a way that we expect to be represented while representing people who have different needs, whether it’s socioeconomic, or healthcare, or medical or infrastructure? I mean, there’s so many different needs, and When redistricting occurs, it is very likely that towns that were previously together are separated. Luckily, Rye Brook was not separated from Port Chester or the Town of Rye. The majority of citizens want to feel that their concerns are being addressed by political leaders. It is challenging to make sure that all voices are being heard because of gerrymandering, when new district lines are changed greatly. The most desirable outcome of the new congressional map is for the citizens of New York to be content and to feel that their best interests are being represented. With the new redistricting, this feeling of satisfaction is in jeopardy.