NEW ROCHELLE, NY (March 26, 2024) — New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert has fired City Manager Kathleen Gill. The decision will be formalized at a Special Meeting later this week, according to multiple sources inside City Hall.
Ramos-Herbert did not respond to a request for comment.
Early Monday, Ramos-Herbert called Council Member Matt Stern to her office. They were joined by Council Member Shane Osinloye. Stern had been a holdout on removing Gill. Our article appears to have convinced Stern to be the necessary fourth vote to oust Gill, along with Council Member Sara Kaye and Osinloye.
Ramos-Herbert acted just hours after we published a damning article on the tawdry machinations last summer by Noam Bramson, Ramos-Herbert and Kaye to twist unfounded allegations made in an anonymous letter to oust Gill and Deputy City Manager & Development Commossioner Adam Salgado.
Anonymous Letter Rocks New Rochelle City Hall
The City Manager firing appears to be part of an effort by Ramos-Herbert to interfere with a final report by the New Rochelle Board of Ethics on their investigation of the Sustainable Westchester ethics complaint filed by Robert Cox on February 23, 2024. That complaint is essentially identical to previous Sustainable Westchester ethics complaints against Noam Bramson and Sara Kaye which were sustained. The ethics complaint against Ramos-Herbert is expected to be sustained as well.
Yadira Ramos-Herbert participated as a voting member of the Sustainable Westchester Annual Members Meeting on February 14, 2024. Six days later, a new Sustainable Westchester contract was put on the council meeting agenda to replace the one made null and void by the illegal votes cast by Bramson and Kaye.
Ramos-Herbert failed to disclose her prohibited interest, did not recuse herself, presided over a discussion about the contract, then voted on the contract rendering that contract null, void, and unenforceable.
New Rochelle Mayor Facing Ethics Charges for Illegal Vote on Sustainable Westchester Contract
New Rochelle Mayor Explains Why She Voted on Sustainable Westchester Contract
A complainant in an ethics case receives the decision concurrent with the City Manager. As the complainant, Robert Cox was notified that the ethics board decision was due to be signed and released on Monday, then notified the decision has been delayed.
Before Ramos-Herbert had even secured Stern’s support, ethics board member David Blumenthal went out of town then demanded changes to the report. If this sounds familiar, it is because it is the exact same stalling tactic, based on backchannel ex-parte communications by Blumenthal with Noam Bramson, through an intermediary, that occurred in the 2022 ethics investigation of Bramson. It was the basis of an ethics complaint filed by Robert Cox but never taken up due to a lack of a quorum.
Ethics Complaint Filed Against David Blumenthal of the New Rochelle Board of Ethics
The timing suggests Blumenthal, directly or through an intermediary, has been in communication with Ramos-Herbert, raising questions of ethics violations and even criminal violations under Federal and New York State law.
The City Manager appoints members to the ethics board. Chuck Strome asked Blumenthal to resign in late 2022 but Blumenthal refused.
