NEW ROCHELLE, NY (April 24, 2022) — In a highly unusual meeting two months ago, City Manager Charles B. Strome sat down for lunch at Spadaros on East Main Street with Marc Jerome, Monroe College President and Chairman of the Board of the Downtown Business Improvement District.
Joining Strome and Jerome on February 16 was an unusual guest, Mayor Noam Bramson.
The Mayor had sought a meeting with Jerome in Jerome’s capacity as BID Board President.
The meeting covered various topics, according to Strome and Jerome, but Bramson, who has shown little interest in the BID Board since the New Rochelle BID was created in 2000, had a surprise for Jerome — he was unhappy with the current membership of the 13-member board and wanted Jerome to do something about it: replace three members.
Jerome says Bramson did not identify who he wanted to be removed or suggest any names to be added, but Talk of the Sound has learned that Bramson has a short list of three candidates. One is a new property owner and business owner, one is a business owner and one is a downtown resident. We reached out to all three. Two failed to respond, and the third had no idea of being on any short list.
In the days immediately after the BID meeting, Strome amped up his effort to undercut Bramson’s push to be hired as Development Commissioner by seeking a legal opinion and an ethics opinion which became the centerpiece of a memorandum from Strome to Bramson which is now at the heart of an ongoing ethics investigation into allegations that Bramson sought to use his elected office to obtain something of value for himself – a job that pays over $210,000 a year for which is unqualified based on the requirements in the New Rochelle City Charter.
Talk of the Sound expects to report soon that all witnesses have testified and the New Rochelle Ethics Committee has moved on to the final report writing phase of their investigation into alleged violations of the New Rochelle City Charter.
Bramson’s Plan A is said to be to get Strome to appoint him Development Commissioner with Plan B to replace Strome with his former campaign manager, Alisa H. Kesten who would then appoint Bramson as Development Commissioner, where a Plan C is for Kesten to serve briefly as City Manager then step down to make way for Bramson to ascend to City Manager.
Bramson’s proposal that Jerome remove BID Board members by fiat is problematic in several ways, and reflects a lack of awareness on Bramson’s part as to what a Business Improvement District is and how a BID Board operates. The most significant challenge is that seats on the BID Board are elected positions. Jerome cannot simply remove elected board members except for cause.
Business improvement districts are private sector initiatives to improve the environment of a business district by enhancing existing city services governed by a board of directors that are composed of a certain percentage of property owners, business owners, and residents that are in the district, as well as public officials
A BID in New York State is created under General Municipal Law Article 19-A with the management of the association governed by §980-m:
The Board is divided into classes that include: commercial property owners, commercial tenants, residents and public officials including the chief executive of the municipality, the top financial official and a member of the City Council. BID members vote for directors in their respective classes. The majority of directors must be property owners.
The New Rochelle BID is an association of over 800 business and property owners, formed in 2000 as a State of New York chartered 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization which receives its revenue from an annual assessment on all real property located within the boundaries of the business improvement district, and through a combination of grants and sponsorships.
The New Rochelle BID is governed by a 13-member Board of Directors that includes Property Owners, Local Business Owners, City Representatives, and Residents.
Board of Directors:
Sebastian Aliberti, Modern Restaurant
Joseph V. Apicella, Cappelli Enterprises
Ciro Chechile, 393 Huguenot Street
Joseph Graziose, RXR Development Services
Joel Gendels, Cornell Pace, Inc.
Edward J. Hart, Kaufman Realty Corporation
Marc M. Jerome, Chairman, Monroe College
Robert D. Kahn, 553 Main St. Corp/Stamford Enterprises
James O’Toole, Resident Representative
Louis Panico, Al Rovins Locksmith Inc.
Charles B. Strome III, Vice Chairman, City Manager, City of New Rochelle
Albert Tarantino, Secretary, New Rochelle City Council Representative
Ed Ritter, Treasurer, Commissioner of Finance, City of New Rochelle
The BID Executive Director is Karel Littman.
By hand-picking three board members to replace three current board members — a Resident Representative to replace James O’Toole, a business owner to replace either Sebastian Aliberti or Louis Panico and a property owner to replace either Ciro Chechile, Edward J. Hart, Joel Gendels or Robert D. Kahn, Bramson would be in a position to completely reshape the BID Board to place it under his effective control with the pending retirement of City Manager Charles B. Strome. Bramson could replace Albert Tarantino as the New Rochelle City Council Representative with a Democratic loyalist on Council and would control two more seats — the New Rochelle Commissioner of Finance and City Manager — through his plan to replace Strome with Kesten. Bramson might believe he could get support from Joseph Apicella or Joseph Graziose, who sat on a recent Bisnow panel with Bramson.
With 7 votes on the BID Board, Bramson would have a back-up plan if he did not get the Development Commissioner job: to land a $150,000 part-time job as Executive Director of the Downtown Business Improvement District, a Plan D.
The outlook dimmed considerably for Bramson’s Plan A, to be hired as Development Commissioner, soon after the lunch at Spadaros when Strome sent Bramson a memo articulating the many reasons why he would not give in to pressure from the Mayor. Plans B and C may be facing considerable difficulty and Plan D was not warmly received by the BID Board members who talked to Talk of the Sound.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Talk of the Sound filed a Freedom of Information request with the City of New Rochelle for emails involving Mayor Noam Bramson, City Manager Charles B. Strome, and Monroe College President Marc Jerome pertaining to the BID. At the request of City Spokesperson Kathy Gilwit, we significantly reduced the scope of our request with the understanding that in exchange our request would be expedited, to be received on April 12. On April 11, sources at City Hall claimed Bramson pressured Gilwit to slow-walk the production of his emails which would be a violation of state law. After weeks of subsequent stonewalling, we informed Gilwit on Friday that we would no longer wait and proceed to publish without them. The email exchange follows.
From: “Gilwit, Kathy” <kgilwit@newrochelleny.com>
Date: April 22, 2022 at 11:06:05 AM EDT
To: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>, Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Subject:FOIL updateBob- will have records re BID emails by Tues. VNY will follow shortly afterwards. Are you ok w/partial sends in batches or do you want as a whole.
From: Robert Cox <robertcox@talkofthesound.com>
Date: April 22, 2022 at 11:50:36 AM EDT
To: “Gilwit, Kathy” <kgilwit@newrochelleny.com>
Cc: “Gill, Kathleen” <kgill@newrochelleny.com>
Subject: Re: FOIL request: communications w/VNY! and BIDKathy,
I am not OK with any of this.
I am not going to continue a back and forth on this while delaying my story on Noam and the BID. You do what you will and I will do likewise.
If I do not have the BID emails covered under my modified records request by the end of day today I will run a story when it suits me that states that City Hall sources told me two weeks ago that Noam was actively and illegally interfering in my lawful FOIL request by asking you to delay record production and that you did delay record production.
Readers can draw their own conclusion.
RELATED:
Ethics Investigation into New Rochelle Mayor Gets Underway with City Manager Called as First Witness
New Rochelle Mayor Angling to Elevate Former Bramson Campaign Manager to Bramson City Manager
New Rochelle Board of Ethics Complaint – Noam Bramson, et al.
Amendment to Ethics Complaint – Noam Bramson, et al.
To the best of my knowledge New Rochelle Mayor Noam has held only one real job outside of politics. He worked as a store clerk in downtown New Rochelle at the defunct Lafayette Electronics store, most likely pushing the sale of walkie-talkies, 8-track audio tape players, and hand-held transistor radios. Noam does not run or own a business in New Rochelle, nor has he lived anywhere near the downtown area. Noam does not appear to check any of the boxes that would qualify him to serve as Executive Director of the New Rochelle BID. By the way, I see that Noam has reached the #14 position in the Westchester Power 100 list for 2021, he can display that accolade next to the Lafayette clerk-of-the-month award certificate that’s proudly taped to the wall in his basement bar.