{"id":346948,"date":"2026-09-15T01:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346948\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T01:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:52:31","slug":"neighborhood-party-candidates-describe-village-of-pelhams-current-path-as-unsustainable-announce-platform-for-getting-back-on-track-pelham-exami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/346948\/","title":{"rendered":"Neighborhood Party candidates describe Village of Pelham\u2019s current path as \u2018unsustainable,\u2019 announce platform for getting \u2018back on track\u2019 \u2013 Pelham Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"From<\/a> <\/p>\n

From left: Paul Anzilotti, Rhett Speros and Arthur Long<\/p>\n

Our Village is in trouble, the result of years of uncontested elections and a Village Board that rubber-stamps dubious decision after dubious decision.\u00a0 The result:<\/p>\n

Increasing and unsustainable Village debt \u2013 from $4.3 million in 2021 to almost $18 million now, with more, perhaps significantly more, to come
\nLack of planning for infrastructure\u00a0
\nUndisciplined spending (millions on consultants and lawyers; a $3.655 million authorization for Municipal Center \u201cimprovements,\u201d including $800,000 for furniture and $150,000 for window treatments)\u00a0
\nBrushing off the concerns of constituents:<\/p>\n

For example, the avoidable Picture House controversy, where eminent domain was threatened against longstanding Village businesses, and the Board spent almost $150,000 on lawyers plus a phony \u201cblight study\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lack of transparency:\u00a0<\/p>\n

No Trustee spoke to these Village businesses before undertaking a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) process that included the possibility of eminent domain
\nA $786,195 \u201cspecial item\u201d in this year\u2019s budget for \u201ccontingency\u201d<\/p>\n

Continued pursuit of large-scale developments without considering the effects of existing developments on the community, such as a lack of parking<\/p>\n

Lack of forthrightness about Board decisions:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, Board members have claimed that \u2013\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

this year\u2019s tax increase \u2013 characterized as \u201cmedium sized\u201d \u2013 partially reflected an increase in assessed property values.\u00a0 The reality was that it came from significantly increased spending.
\nthe majority of the increase in Village spending was beyond the Trustees\u2019 control.\u00a0 The reality was that much of it stemmed from the Trustees\u2019 own decisions.
\nthere was no intention to exercise eminent domain as part of the Picture House RFQ.\u00a0 The reality is that the threat of eminent domain alone can be enough to make businesses sell.<\/p>\n

Unless this year\u2019s election brings a change, this unsustainable course will accelerate.\u00a0 We already know of families who have moved out of the Village because of what is occurring here, and others who are considering moving.\u00a0 This is extremely sad, and we need to stop it.<\/p>\n

We pledge to:<\/p>\n

Focus on getting the Village\u2019s finances under control\u00a0\u00a0
\nServe without pay and encourage our Mayor and fellow Trustees to do the same
\nVote not to exceed the tax cap during our time in office
\nCreate an overall plan for needed infrastructure improvements, such as flood mitigation, not just borrow and spend, willy-nilly, year after year
\nBring openness to Village decisions\u00a0
\nEncourage participation and a free exchange of ideas \u2013 if you come to a Board meeting because of a bad decision like the Picture House RFQ, we won\u2019t ask you to limit comments to \u201ctwo or three minutes\u201d; we\u2019d rather hear you speak than us
\nRequire that any new development serve a public purpose, be in scale, and not worsen issues with our infrastructure and our schools
\nFind a way to restore appropriate parking to those who have lost it<\/p>\n

We are registered Republicans and are not seeking to hide that fact.\u00a0 The challenges facing the Village are not partisan.\u00a0 They affect Democrats and Independents in the same way.\u00a0 The solutions are non-partisan too.\u00a0 We hope many Democrats and Independents will agree.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Finally, local campaigns should be run as local campaigns, without the ugliness of the current national scene.\u00a0 We strongly disagree with the current Board members about their decisions, but their decisions are all that is relevant here.\u00a0 We intend to speak about the issues alone.\u00a0 Recent elections have not shown our community at its best and have not taught our children the right lessons about democracy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

We bring a diversity of experience from law, business, engineering, and the U.S. military. We hope to meet many of you before November 3rd and are eager to hear your concerns.<\/p>\n

Paul Anzilotti<\/p>\n

Arthur Long<\/p>\n

Rhett Speros<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From left: Paul Anzilotti, Rhett Speros and Arthur Long Our Village is in trouble, the result of years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-346948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}