New Rochelle Mayor Expresses Confidence in City Manager After Flowers Park Fiasco

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (November 19, 2025) — In a prepared statement read at the end of a an usual 19-minute double-discussion item, New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos expresses confidence in City Manager Will Melendez.

Melendez began the double-discussion item session by defending the RFP and asserting that there was misinformation about the RFP.

Council member Al Tarantino limited his discussion item to asking for council members to state whether they would explicitly oppose any future consideration of a public-private partnership involving public parks.

Corporation Counsel Dawn Warren interrupted Tarantino to say that calling for a vote was inappropriate. Tarantino responded by noting he was not calling for a vote and questioned Warren interrupting him to make an irrelevant point. What followed was a long overdue challenge to Warren overstepping her role by engaging in council discussions when her role at the council table was to answer legal questions if asked not participate in council discussions as if she was an elected representative. Yadira Ramos sided with Dawn Warren in subsequent remarks.

Their purpose appeared to be shut down Tarantino, against not for the first time.

Tarantino got the floor back from Warren and reiterated his question as to whether council members would reject any future attempt to consider a public-private partnership involving public parks.

After a prolonged awkward silence, Ramos said she guessed council members wanted her to say something but she did not. Instead, Matt Stern, Martha Lopez, and David Peters spoke. The video clip below speaks for itself but their remarks were not emphatic either way.

Shane Osinloye, Sara Kaye, and Yadira Ramos each had prepared statements. In yet another series of violations of Open Meetings Law, none provided a copy to the City Clerk for inclusion in the Agenda Packet. Likewise, none of the departmental budget presentations at the last two council meetings were provided to the City Clerk for inclusion in the Agenda Packet.

NOTE: I have requested copies of the written statements from the Clerk and will publish them here upon receipt.

UPDATE: 11/19/2025

Prepared Statement Shane Osinloye

Hello Madam Clerk,

City Manager, thank you for calling this discussion item. I’m thankful to our City Manager for pulling this RFP. New Rochelle is under new management! Leadership is how we respond when faced with crises and correct mistakes. It’s never comfortable having to ask for patience but our leadership is required to follow a process, the law, and our charter. My heart dropped when one citizen said a New-Rochelle-ism, “It’s a done deal.” I never want to be at the other end of a table hearing that. But now, gone are the days when “Citizens to Be Heard” was deemed “Citizens to Be Ignored.” I’m glad you heard our residents and responded accordingly. Please make the following priorities: Make community engagement the leading step of any major projects. Our communities feel burned by our growing pains so let’s please focus on improving their experiences. Community education. If people have more exposure to our process, we can all get ahead of issues like last month. For everyone at home, please sign up on our website for RFPs and jobs so you get them when we get them. RFPs https://www.newrochelleny.gov/list.aspx?Mode=Subscribe#bids
Jobs https://www.newrochelleny.gov/list.aspx?Mode=Subscribe#cityJobs I save the text messages they send to a contact in my phone, and they get texted to me. Thank you to our city manager for pulling this RFP in response to hearing our community loud and clear.

Prepared Statement Sara Kaye

First, I want to acknowledge that Flowers Park is a deeply valued community resource, especially for nearby residents, families, and youth leagues, and I appreciate how important it is for people to have clarity when it comes to any discussion about the park’s future. Thank you to everyone who reached out, asked questions, and shared your perspective. Throughout this discussion, my focus has been on understanding what options might exist to improve the long-term condition of the park. I had concerns, but as a policymaker I also believe we have a responsibility to fully understand potential approaches, because doing nothing in the face of real infrastructure challenges is not a solution. I was willing to hear and evaluate concepts that could demonstrate substantial community benefits, and I do not think staff should feel discouraged from researching or gathering information. Exploring possibilities is appropriate and necessary as we consider how to invest in our aging infrastructure. At the same time, I would not support any proposal that does not clearly strengthen quality of life for residents, improve accessibility of our parks, and leave Flowers Park as a stronger public asset than it is today. From my perspective, any exploration should be rooted in preserving and enhancing this park, particularly given the increasing pressures from flooding affecting both the park and the surrounding neighborhood. Now that this avenue is no longer being pursued, it is important to recognize that the underlying issues have not gone away. Flooding remains a real and serious concern for nearby homes, apartments, and businesses. Preserving this neighborhood and improving the resiliency of this area will still require thoughtful planning, adequate resources, and transparent community engagement. I remain committed to that work.

Prepared Statement Yadira Ramos

Thank you to the city manager for listening to the residents. I do know that the spirit of the RFP was in response to the demonstrated flooding that affects not just the park but the homes and businesses in the area. The RFP was an effort to identify all of the pools of resources. I also recognize that the RFP caused pain. We heard it, the City Manager heard it, and he exercised his discretion to pull it. I thank you for trying and I hope it doesn’t discourage innovation around solving some of our big problems. At the end of the day, we are still going to be charged with ensuring that the park, the homes and the businesses are made resilient from what will be future flooding. I think this was a lesson to be learned. When we experiment, when we try things, we are going to learn lessons and I’m confident with our City Manager’s expertise that we’ll still find a solution. I do want to be clear; the City was not going to sell the park. The intent was to enhance, elevate and make it more resilient. It’s unfortunate that there was misinformation around the process as I know that the RFP was consistent with 1000s of others that the city has issued. Again, thank you for listening to the residents and I want to communicate my confidence in the City Manager’s ability to come up with lasting solutions for really serious problems that our residents are facing.

On a related note, Will Melendez has continued to withhold the RFP bid proposal documents despite two FOIL requests and multiple emails promising to release the proposal documents. There are legal arguments for or against releasing the bid proposal documents while the bid proposal is still under active consideration but there are none once the RFP is pulled, the documents are inarguably public records.