RyeCity REVIEW THE
November 18, 2016 | Vol. 4, Number 47 | www.ryecityreview.com
Zuckerman: No backup plan for Seaside Johnnies’ exit By FRANCO FINO Staff Writer
Thank You On Friday, Nov. 11, residents and elected officials recognized veterans of the armed forces on the Village Green outside of Rye City Hall for the city’s annual Veterans Day ceremony. For coverage, see page 6. Photo/Franco Fino
City manager’s budget proposes 6.73% property tax hike By JAMES PERO Staff Writer Even with no frills, Rye property owners are looking at more than a 6 percent tax increase in 2017, if the city manager’s tentative budget is approved next month. Spurred by tepid revenue
growth and costly city salaries, City Manager Marcus Serrano is asking the Rye City Council to override the tax cap limit in order to adopt his $36M budget, which projects a 6.73 percent tax rate increase. While the tax levy rate for the city of Rye, which is calculated combining factors such as
the amount of taxes levied and a calculated growth factor, was set at 0.68 percent, that rate, which would have only allowed for the city to raise expenses by an additional $500,000 over the 2016 budget, fell well below the city’s needs. “I feel it is impossible to stay below the tax cap,” said Serrano,
who presented his budget to City Council on Nov. 9. According to the city manager, increases in state-mandated workers compensation contributions and retirement funds alone would have sent city expenditures over the 0.68 percent BUDGET continued on page 11
With a vacant beachfront restaurant more than likely next summer, the Rye Town Park Commission does not have an alternative to the park’s exiting tenant, Seaside Johnnies, the commission president said. According to Rye Town Supervisor Gary Zuckerman, a Democrat and president of the park commission, while commissioners have floated the idea of hiring concessioners to operate the park’s snack and beverage stands, or filling the park with food trucks, the commission currently does not have a solution to fill the hole left by Seaside Johnnies’ departure, which was finalized on Wednesday, Nov. 16, when John Ambrose, co-owner of the restaurant, rejected the latest, and final, offer from the commission. “We will obviously do our due diligence and see what alternatives are available, but [at the moment], we have no backup plan,” Zuckerman told the Review on Wednesday. During a park commission meeting on Nov. 15, commissioners again offered to extend Seaside Johnnies’ current deal, which expires at the end of 2016, for one year with a new option to re-sign the restaurant for a second year. As part of that deal, if the park commission
could not formally agree to extend the license agreement for a second year, Ambrose and Sam Chernin, also a co-owner of Seaside Johnnies, would be refunded 25 percent of the fees in rent charged by the commission for the second year; approximately $25,000. The new deal came on the heels of Ambrose’s displeasure with the commission’s previous one-year extension offer. Ambrose, who has operated the restaurant since 2000, told the Review that he plans on rejecting any offer by the park commission unless it assures him two years in the location. “I would never in a million years take a one-year deal with an option,” he said. “The grey area that comes along with the option is something we don’t want to touch because it’s not guaranteed.” According to Rye Brook Mayor Paul Rosenberg, a Democrat and member of the park commission who drafted the new proposal with the option year, the split between commissioners about offering either a one- or two-year deal ultimately led to the new offer. “My thought is that it would have turned into a two-year deal,” he said. “The commission did not intend on insulting Ambrose’s pride.” Rosenberg said he is hopeful SEASIDE continued on page 7