When Ken Jenkins lost the Democratic nomination for Westchester County executive in 2013, it taught him a lot, he says. Three years later, Jenkins will try to use that experience to propel himself to the top office in the county.
Jenkins, a Democrat from Yonkers who currently serves on the county Board of Legislators, formally announced his candidacy for county executive on Aug. 17, well in advance of the 2017 campaign. He wanted to get out early to avoid a situation similar to last time when, he said, some people realized he was running too late in the process. “We’re not going to have that scenario this time around,” he told the Review.
Noam Bramson, the mayor of New Rochelle, went on to clinch the 2013 nomination besting Jenkins, but lost the general election to County Executive Rob Astorino, the Republican incumbent.
At the convention, Jenkins, 55, made a commitment to party leaders not to challenge Bramson’s nomination by way of a primary, a decision he’s proud he stuck to.
During this campaign, however, he is willing to fight to the end.
“I’m committed to making the case to the people of Westchester both in a primary, if that’s necessary [this time], and certainly in a general election,” he said.
Primaries aren’t bad, Jenkins says. “It gets more people involved, more engaged, and the net result is a better product overall. Your person might not win, but you’re able to influence platform and policy,” he said, adding that the Democratic presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders helped reinforce that philosophy.
Throughout the upcoming campaign, Jenkins says he plans to expose the financial missteps of the Astorino administration, as well as the “flat-out lies” to protect the county executive’s no tax increase mantra he’s touted since taking office in 2010.
He criticized his political rival for using gimmicks, such as overestimating sales tax income to make the budget numbers work, and then borrowing to compensate for shortfalls in revenue. This year alone, Jenkins says, the county is $26 million over its budget projections.
“Borrowing to pay for daily operating expenses is something we wouldn’t do as individuals. You’re shopping with your credit card to put food on your table [and] you’re paying interest on your basic daily needs,” he said. “You can’t talk of a zero percent tax levy and continue to borrow money.”
Jenkins says he has delivered tax cuts, maintained programs, and balanced budgets as chairman of the legislative chamber; he chaired the county Board of Legislators from 2010 to 2014.
If elected, Jenkins says he would do away with patronage jobs, invest in ailing infrastructure, work to restore the county’s damaged relationship with the federal government and advocate for a countywide revaluation.
To get out from under the stigma of being the highest-taxed county in the country, the lawmaker says Westchester has to first provide property tax fairness before it can offer property tax relief.
One of his platforms is to call for a full-scale revaluation proposal. Jenkins contends that the county currently refunds approximately $10 million a year in tax certiorari claims, or assessment reviews filed in court by property owners. “We don’t get that money back,” he said. “If you are underpaying you’ve been getting over, and if you have been overpaying you’re taking on too much.”
In 2011, the Westchester Collaborative Assessment Commission recommended reforming the property tax assessment system with a loose goal of later conducting a full revaluation. However, that plan never gained any traction with the Astorino administration, likely because any reassessment of properties would increase taxes for at least a portion of property owners, causing reassessments to develop the moniker of the political third rail.
“Real leaders don’t tell you what you want to hear,” Jenkins said of Astorino, “they tell you what you need to hear.”
He has also been critical of the way the county executive has handled the county-owned amusement park, Rye Playland, and the implementation of a federally mandated affordable housing settlement, which dates back to 2009.
The deal Astorino struck with the private management company, Standard Amusements, to operate the amusement park for the next 30 years was a mistake, Jenkins says, once the county had to commit $30 million of taxpayers’ money toward capital investments into the park. He says he would have scrapped the deal and gone back out into the market place to seek additional operators. “Right now, all the power is in the vendor’s hands,” he said. “The fact is, this deal is a bad deal.”
Astorino’s handling of the affordable housing settlement, which has pitted the county executive against the federal government, has also drawn Jenkins’ criticism. The agreement stipulates that Westchester build 750 units of housing in designated communities by the end of 2016. Astorino has been outspoken against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, claiming the agency has sought to extend the parameters of the agreement and attempted to strong arm the county into enforcing, by even litigation, zoning regulations on its own municipalities.
Due to the standoff, HUD has denied grant funding to the county retroactive to 2013. “The federal government’s position is we’re giving [the grant money] to someone else,” Jenkins said. “Because of the recalcitrance of this administration we have lost at least $25 million in federal funds.
“Penny-wise and pound-foolish is a short synopsis of this administration. I think it’s beyond being shortsighted, the decisions being made. There is no look at the future,” he added.
Jenkins was the former chairman of the Yonkers Democratic Party and a past president of the Yonkers chapter of the NAACP. If he wins, Jenkins would be the first African-American county executive elected in New York state.
