Recommended Reading, September 1, 2024

Robert Cox

Sep 1, 2024 — 5 min read

On our way to see Imelda May perform at the Abbey.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (September 1, 2024) — While it will not matter to almost every reader, a handful will understand why I write today thrilled to having had a delicious “Breakfast in College Station”. Due to the time difference, it is exhausting to try to watch my favorite sports teams (Notre Dame, Giants, Yankees) when they play night games. Happily the Notre Dame v Texas A&M at 7:30 pm ET was carried live here at 12:30 am on Sky Sports. This means, rather than stay up until 4 am fiddling with my VPN, I was able to DVR the game, then sit back this morning with a coffee and bagel (an Irish-version anyway) and watch #7 Notre Dame pull off the 23-13 upset on the road against #20 Texas A&M.

OK. Fun over.

I have been reporting on how New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert violated the City Charter by hiring a lawyer from Keane & Beane to represent her in negotiating a separation agreement with then City Manager Kathleen Gill. I filed an ethics complaint on May 21. On the afternoon of July 3, the start of a four-day 4th of July weekend, I received a letter (not an Advisory Opinion as should be) dated June 24, 2024 (not July 3), attached to an email from Benjamin W. Sonnenfeldt, an Associate at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP. He was hired as outside counsel for the New Rochelle Board of Ethics.

New Rochelle Mayor Violated City Charter by Hiring Special Counsel (5/21/2024)

New Rochelle Ethics Board Punts on Mayor’s Blatant Charter Violations (7/12/2024)

Moving right along, on July 17, the City Council absurdly voted 6-1 to pay Keane & Beane based on crackpot legal advice from Dum-Dum Dawn.

Has New Rochelle Devolved into a Strong Mayor Form of Government? (7/19/2024)

On July 23, I sent a FOIL for “Record of payment to Keane & Beane per last Wednesday’s council vote”.

On the afternoon of August 30, the start of a three-day Labor Day weekend, I received a copy of a City check dated August 9 for $5,460 payable to Keane & Beane.

Are we detecting a pattern here? City officials are holding records I requested under FOIL for weeks for no reason, then release them without explanation for the delay heading into a long holiday weekend. That is Dum-Dum doing her slow walk routine to curry favor with Yadira.

I immediately made a new FOIL.

Keane & Beane Internal Audit package for the below referenced payment.
I am not sure what term you use at City Hall, but I know an Internal Audit package to be all of the paperwork used to justify making a payment such as paperwork creating a new vendor, authorizations for that vendor being added to the system, generating a purchase order for that vendor, the purchase order, an invoice based on a purchase order, authorizations to cut a check, internal auditor forms and so on. If that is not clear let me know and I will rephrase.
I want all of those records for the below referenced payment to Keane & Beane.

My hope is that I will write an article like the one I wrote in 2015 about the New Rochelle Board of Education to explain to readers all the financial controls discarded to cover for Yadira’s screw-up in hiring her own lawyer without getting any approvals as required.

Sustainable Westchester

I am told that three elected officials were on hand for the Sustainable Westchester Q&A at New Rochelle Public Library Tuesday, August 27: New Rochelle Councilmembers Matt Stern and Martha Lopez and Westchester County Clerk Tim Idoni. No one sent me any video (🤨) so I cannot say too much about what took place. I was told 15-20 people were present, depending on whether you count people from Sustainable Westchester and the City government. I do not.

I took the time to watch the June 11 council meeting where Sustainable Westchester did a presentation and took questions. More on that this coming week but lot’s of interesting stuff there.

Videos

Definitely check out the video montage I made of Sara Kaye’s serial delusion that she does not have a conflict of interest involving Sustainable Westchester. Also, watch the Project Veritas video that indirectly triggered a federal investigation of the New Rochelle Development Commissioner Adam Salgado.

There are a bunch of other goodies linked below. I now have one ally on the Rye City Council — see below. There is a crime wave going in New Rochelle — stabbings, shootings, robbery, and murder.

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Content for All Paid Subscribers

New Rochelle Stonewall on Sustainable Westchester Presentation

New Rochelle’s Sara Kaye and her Non-Recusal Recusals for Sustainable Westchester

Project Veritas Report in 2023 First Exposed Plan to House 100s of Migrants at College of New Rochelle

Content for Everyone

Articles from Words in Edgewise, Talk of the Sound and Elsewhere on the Web.

Pelham Resident Charged with Child Exploitation Offense

Rye Councilmember Skeptical of Sustainable Westchester CCA Program

New Rochelle homicide victim arrested in May in Virginia knife attack

No criminal charges for driver in Mamaroneck school bus crash that killed 6-year-old, mother

New York Governor Extends City of New Rochelle Authorization to Impose Occupancy Tax

Elderly driver crashes into New Rochelle CVS, no injuries reported

Car rolls into New Rochelle apartment building, causing damage

Man Beaten, Stabbed, Robbed of $13 in New Rochelle

Videographer Robbed of $5,700 worth of AV Equipment at Knifepoint in New Rochelle

Youth Assaulted and Robbed in New Rochelle

Highrise Murder Suspect Arraigned in New Rochelle City Court

New Rochelle Police Identify Shooter in Highrise Homicide, Arrest Made in Queens

Car vs. Telephone Pole Shuts Down Post Road in Rye

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