NEW ROCHELLE, NY — At a community meeting to discuss employment opportunities for minority residents of New Rochelle, attended by many prominent elected officials, questions were raised about a 2008 document filed by the City of New Rochelle with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that may violate both federal law and a federal court order or both.
The City of New Rochelle Analysis to Impediments to Fair Housing Choice was adopted by the City Council in June 2008.
The document describes the goal of what is today known as the Heritage Homes Project in terms that may violation the Fair Housing Act and violate a federal court order in a 2003 Voting Rights Act lawsuit brought the NAACP New Rochelle Branch against the City of New Rochelle.
In 1992, the NAACP New Rochelle Branch alleged that the City’s redistricting plan, based on the 1990 census, violated the Voting Rights Act. The case resulted in creating District 3 as a “Black Opportunity District”. In 1995, the late Rhoda Quash (D-District 3) was the first African-American elected to the newly created third district. Quash later drafted Resolution 205 which was adopted by the City Council in October 1996 as the City’s Non Discrimination and Equal Opportunity policy.
In 2003, the NAACP New Rochelle Branch brought another successful lawsuit maintaining District 3 as a “Black Opportunity District” which in turn impacted the recent redistricting effort following the 2010 census. In 2011, the City of New Rochelle hired Attorney Randolph McLaughlin to review two competing redistricting plans. The city also hired Andrew Beveridge, the demographer who testified on behalf of the in 2003.
“The ‘Impediments to Fair Housing Choice’ document is part of a routine certification that is required for “entitlement communities”, municipalities that receive federal assistance from HUD,” said Brian Sullivan, Public Affairs Supervisor for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Municipalities are required to file “Impediments” documents every three to five years as part of submitting a consolidated plan. New Rochelle is on a 5-year cycle so that a new “Impediments to Fair Housing Choice” is due to be filed with HUD soon.
In a section on “Displacement” in the 2008 filing, there is a paragraph on the Hartley House/Heritage Homes project:
The NRMHA is also involved in pre-development activities for the redevelopment of the Hartley House complex. The redevelopment is intended to reduce minority concentration by providing a choice in new location to current residents of two of the buildings to be demolished in preparation for construction of new affordable townhouses. Residents are able to use their relocation benefits to obtain housing in other communities or other parts of New Rochelle. The goal of the Hartley House redevelopment is to create a mixed-income development that would attract persons of other racial backgrounds to purchase affordable housing in the complex in an effort to reduce minority concentration
Most of the meeting focused on remarks from the elected officials.
On hand at The Gathering of Men meeting at the Remington Boys & Girls Club, were many prominent elected officials including State Senator George Latimer, State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, State Assemblyman Steve Otis, County Legislator Sheila Marcotte, City Council Member Louis Trangucci and Council Member Jared Rice. Also at the meeting was Mark Feng, the Chairman of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission, Christopher Johnson, Yonkers City Councilman and senior aide to State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Mark McLean, a member of the Westchester County Human Rights Commission and member of the Steering Committee of The Gathering of Men served as master of ceremonies for the meeting.
There was a heated exchange between McLean and Council Member Rice on the subject of Resolution 205, the City’s Non Discrimination and Equal Opportunity policy passed by the City Council in 1996.
While the issues are complex, Rice has focused on efforts to provide what he describes as “construction training” for youths in New Rochelle. McLean and many members of The Gathering of Men are focused on jobs for their members who are already qualified to work construction jobs.
McLean has sought to raise Resolution 205 the level of a City Council Discussion item to provide a full, public airing of the City’s failures to apply Resolution 205 to Heritage Homes and other City-supported projects since 1996.
Rice has sought to dismiss Resolution 205 as out-dated and toothless.
The issue has become a proxy war in the Westchester County Executive Race with McLean supporting Rob Astorino and Rice supporting Noam Bramson. County Board of Legislators Majority Leader Ken Jenkins has kept his distance from the issue.
Both McLean and Rice eventually agreed to support the commitment made by City Manager Charles Strome to more fully support Resolution 205 on future projects including Phase 2 of Heritage Homes, a major victory for The Gathering of Men.
Resolution 205, came back to life as an issue in New Rochelle after Ronald Payne, a member of the International Laborers Union, raised the subject at a December 2012 meeting of The Gathering of Men. Many New Rochelle residents, including African-Americans and Veterans, both groups considered “minorities” under the terms of Resolution 205, have expressed concerns that so few New Rochelle contractors or residents received work on what is estimated to be a $100 million project, financed in part with City funds and built on what was previously City property.
There was some question at that meeting as to whether Resolution 205 had the force of law and, if so, whether it applies to the Heritage Homes project.
Talk of the Sound eventually confirmed with City officials that Resolution 205 did have the force of law, that it was the opinion of the City’s top lawyer that it did apply to the Heritage Homes project and that City had, in fact, applied the law.
Talk of the Sound later determined that records provided by the City under a Freedom of Information request did not support the City’s claims that the City had applied Resolution 205 to Phase I of the Heritage Homes Project.
Documents provided yesterday as a final response to our request for records do not include any communications with prospective bidders or developers nor do they demonstrate that the winning bidder received any notification of City policy under Resolution 205.
The documents did not include certified payroll sheets listing employees bi-weekly payroll.
The only documents provided by the City of New Rochelle were Monthly Utilization Reports for Heritage Homes which appeared to have been prepared to be filed with the New York State Homes and Community Renewal Office of Fair Housing and Economic Development.
None of the documents purportedly filed with the City of New Rochelle in compliance with Resolution 205 is time-stamped or marked as “Received” by the City of New Rochelle. Documents filed to comply with legal requirements are typically time-stamped and marked “Received”.
The Monthly Utilization Reports do not appear to be City documents based on a City form but rather forms provided by New York State and filed with the Homes and Community Renewal Office of Fair Housing and Economic Development. They are documents that the developer would file with New York State regardless of New Rochelle policy.
The Monthly Utilization Reports do not indicate the percentages of minorities hired. There is no space in the form to indicate the percentages of minority workers. On some of the forms, an employee is indicated under the “total” column but not under a column for a particular minority.
The Monthly Utilization Reports do not have a racial/ethnic filed for white minorities which would include women, LGBT, age, national origin, disabled or Vietnam Veterans.
The records appear to be only recently obtained from the developer in order to create the appearance that Resolution 205 was applied to Heritage Homes during Phase I. The absence of time-stamps suggests otherwise. The failure to produce corresponding certified payroll sheets listing employees bi-weekly payroll adds to the impression that the City may not be fulsome in their response to our inquiry.
City of New Rochelle Analysis to Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (Adopted June 2008)
Interesting Article
That was an interesting article, perhaps with signficance, or possibly is just a distracting tempest in a teapot.
I’d like to know more, as I am unsure if this matter is truly meaningful or is partisan and political.
What blemishes the article is the following quote:
“The issue has become a proxy war in the Westchester County Executive Race with McLean supporting Rob Astorino and Rice supporting Noam Bramson. County Board of Legislators Majority Leader Ken Jenkins has kept his distance from the issue.”
In itself, that is informative, but implies the issue exists for partisan political purposes, as opposed to being polticially-neutral and socially-meaningful.
What implies it is partisan and political, is that County Executive Astorino recently appointed Mark Lee McLean to the county’s Human Rights Commission.
By implication, Mark McLean might feel he owes Astorino a political favor, or worse yet, he was appointed by County Executive Astorino with Astorino expecting that political favor.
In that politics is implied but not certain, in the relationship of McLean and Astorino, I think its important that readers at TOTS should be aware that McClean was very recently appointed by Astorino in the same year that Astorino wishes to be reelected.
Although I doubt this or other issues will actually cause Astorino to be reelected, it might have an effect on whether Bramson or Jenkins receives the Democratic nomination. However, it is likely that whichever Democratic does get nominated, will be elected County Executive in November 2013.
But as to the main information in the article, I await further context, but do find the facts stated as curious.
Westchester 2013
Sussman,
If the likely voter pool of the Westchester County 2013 elections mirrored the voter pool of the Presidential 2012 elections I would agree with your victory call. Unfortunately, those Democrat voters who don’t know the name of the current Westchester County Executive or the name of their representative on the Westchester County BOL (or who can’t spell sequester or know what it means) won’t be coming to the polls. If you need any indication of this; ask how the absence of BHO coattails worked out for the DEMS in Port Chester and Pelham…….not so much !!
Fascinating Meeting
Brian,
That any issue — whether it be abortion, gun-control, war, peace, etc. – is then discussed within a political context does not mean that the issue exists for some other reason, including partisan political purposes and certainly not that the issue is no longer “socially-meaningful”. Issues can be both, genuine issues that are also taken up within a partisan political context. In fact, the most meaningful political discussions are precisely this, real issues with no easy answer and thus genuine debate often informed by social or political beliefs. In other words, how one sees a serious social or community issue is determined by facts, logic but also personal experience and philosophy.
The issue of Resolution 205 or the stated goal of the Heritage Homes project as stated in the HUD “Fair Housing Impediments” document exist, like any other issue, in and of themselves.
It hard to get around the fact that the language in the HUD document is startling. When I read it to the HUD spokesperson he appeared to be taken aback as was I when I first read it.
Many of the people who are upset about about the Heritage Homes project — displacing people in the neighborhood, certain adults and their families being ineligible for crimes they may have committed as teenagers, the dearth of employment opportunities on the project (direct or as contractors) for New Rochelle residents and, in particular, black residents and especially those from District 3 — have been upset for years. They are not upset because Rob Astorino is County Executive or that Noam Bramson wants to be County Executive.
I speak from the experience of attending meetings, listening, talking to residents, in District 3 and within the broader New Rochelle African-American community in New Rochelle. From that I can assure you that these issues are of genuine concern, based on reality and not, as you imply, a manufactured issue designed to benefit a politician or political party.
When I report on an issue, I want my readers to understand (in cases where I do) any broader context if one exists. In this case, I feel it is worth noting that there was a sub-text to the “heated” nature of the exchange which took place — that Mark and Jared are each supporting opposing sides in a developing political race (I say developing because Noam has yet to be nominated by his party but Astorino is unopposed for his party’s nomination).
Your notion that my noting this is a “blemish” on the article is nonsensical. That you devoted almost your entire comment to my article which is reporting a rather significant piece of news — that there is a formal, written document, adopted by the City of New Rochelle that endorses the goal of reducing the black population within District 3 — suggests to me that you thought my reporting this broader context of a proxy battle is not only a blemish but the most important piece of information in the article. And so what, you would have had me leave that out so the article would be “unblemished”?
Having spoken to both of them at length on these issues, I believe that Mark and Jared would both like to see more employment opportunities for people covered under Resolution 205, especially people of color from New Rochelle, and even more especially from District 3. They come at the issue from two different points of view: Mark is focused on pressuring the developer to contract work out to local, preferably African-American, contractors and to hire qualified persons for high-wage jobs whereas Jared is focused on youth training to create entry-level opportunities. This is not surprising because Jared often mentioned his interest in youth issues in his two campaigns.
They have a different approach to the issue but both recognize the issue — that more needs to be done to secure employment opportunities within New Rochelle for New Rochelle minorities especially African-Americans and especially from District 3.
That said, the twin issues of Resolution 205 and the HUD “Fair Housing Impediments” document, are highly damaging to Noam Bramson.
Noam was well aware of Resolution 205, he voted for it in 1996, yet on his watch the City of New Rochelle failed to apply the policy to development in New Rochelle (and not just Heritage Homes but pretty much every development since 1996).
Noam was Mayor when the City Council adopted the HUD “Fair Housing Impediments” document in June 2008.
The net result is that Noam repeatedly failed to implement the City’s one minority employment opportunity policy and signed off on a Federal document which appears to violate the Fair Housing Act and the Federal Court Order to create a “black opportunity district” in District 3 with Hartley Houses/Heritage Homes at the center of that district with the single largest concentration of African-American residents in the entire City of New Rochelle.
This has obvious political implications both for the Democratic nomination for County Executive where Noam is running against an opponent, Ken Jenkins, who is seeking to become the first African-American County Executive in Westchester and for neutralizing an attack line Noam is sure to use if he wins the nomination with regard to the HUD Fair Housing settlement.
To fail to note this would be leaving out a rather significant element of the story. It also brings into context the rather startling number of senior government officials who attended the meeting or sent representatives.
In other words, Resolution 205, the HUD “Fair Housing Impediments” and the entire Heritage Homes project is more than just a battle over job training and job placement.
My take has been that for the African-American residents of New Rochelle who attended the meeting, most from District 3, in my conversations with them over the past several months and at the meeting earlier this week, it is clear that this broader context means little to them. They want jobs so they earn money to support their families and few of them were terribly interested in the inside-baseball aspect of the meeting.
You wrote “What implies it is partisan and political, is that County Executive Astorino recently appointed Mark Lee McLean to the county’s Human Rights Commission. By implication, Mark McLean might feel he owes Astorino a political favor, or worse yet, he was appointed by County Executive Astorino with Astorino expecting that political favor. I think its important that readers at TOTS should be aware that McClean was very recently appointed by Astorino in the same year that Astorino wishes to be reelected.”
I think it is important that my readers know that Mark was appointed by Rob as well which is why I reported this two months ago, had it on my home page for a week and referenced Mark’s position on the HRC in my article.
Why you are using the name “Mark Lee McLean” escapes me. By using three names or attempting to imply that Mark has some history as a lone gunman in some assassination plot? I guess that’s just Brian being Brian 🙂
In any case, you might credibly advance these notions further if there was something to them. The fact is that Mark, along with many others in the African-American community, have been pressing on the issues related to Heritage Homes for many years, pre-dating Astorino even being elected County Executive. That you are unaware of the reality affords you the luxury of baseless speculation.
Were you to have some actual knowledge (and I did write about this in December), the specific issue of Resolution 205 was brought to the attention of The Gathering of Men not by Mark McLean or other members of the Steering Committee but by Ronald Payne who, I am told, was not even a member of the organization but attended a TGOM meeting back in December hoping to learn more about getting a job. The resolution itself was adopted in 1996. So, any notion that Mark is raising this issue because Astorino appointed him to the Human Rights Commission or that there is any sort of favor or quid pro quo can only exist in the mind of someone who has no knowledge of the circumstances of how opposition to the developer of Heritage Homes has unfolded over many years and what has been transpiring at meetings of The Gathering of Men.
I believe it is also relevant that Jared Rice was one of the founders of The Gathering of Men and played a role in drafting their mission statement.
As for “politics”, you can equally argue that Jared Rice’s reaction to Resolution 205 — largely that he wants to “look forward” and that the policy has little value, has no real meaning, is out-dated, etc. — is partisan politics. I am not making that argument but Jared is a leading figure within the New Rochelle Democratic Party, he is supporting Noam for County Executive and is widely rumored to have a deal with Bramson that if Noam wins, Noam will finagle things so that Jared is appointed Mayor just as was done for Noam by Tim Idoni.
And so another angle in this proxy war is that you have two African-Americans from District 3 supporting two white candidates and neither supporting Ken Jenkins, the only black candidate who is hoping to become the first black County Executive in the history of the county.
I hardly see how my reporting on this or observing this somehow is a blemish on my reporting.
For me, this context is what has made these Gathering of Men meetings so fascinating. There is so much playing out at these meetings that residents do not see on TV at City Council meetings and they are happening in an arena that so few New Rochelle residents observe. I do not think it is a coincidence that you had members of the State Senate, City Council, State Assembly, County Board of Legislators and other political players in the room that night.
I have always felt that an important contribution made by Talk of the Sound is that we cover meetings and events that no one else covers and do so in a way that informs our readers to how New Rochelle really operates.
Your comment inspired a novel! This is a long one.
Let me just close and ask you to address what I think is the REAL news (not just analysis) in this story. When you read the paragraph on Hartley/Heritage in the HUD document, does that concern you? If so, why, if not, why not?