In the first of two forums for Town Council, candidates Chris Rodier and Rich Dionisio addressed questions about Harrison’s expenses and its number of employees.
Rodier, a Democrat, and Dionisio, a Republican, met at the West Harrison Senior Center on Oct. 13 to confront voters’ questions less than one month before Election Day. Rodier, a nine-year resident of Harrison and a software engineer, attempted to paint himself as a technically savvy outsider with a knack for statistical analysis. “I’d like to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to Harrison,” he said.
Since September, Rodier has used Taxual.com—a website he created which compares Harrison’s taxes to those of other Westchester municipalities including Rye, New Castle and Yorktown—to showcase his data analyses and criticize the current town board. Using Taxual, Rodier has paid particular attention to the number of people employed by the town.
“I believe in using data and using facts to analyze problems because it’s very easy to say ‘I think it’s great that we have this many people,’ or ‘we should have fewer people,’” he said. “But if you look at data and you do an actual analysis, that speaks volumes more than any individual can say.”
But Rodier’s analysis was refuted by Dionisio, who said he had met with several department heads during his campaign to better understand the town budget. Dionisio, a lifelong Harrison resident, focused on geographic and demographic figures—including the mileage of town roads and the number of people that pass through the town in comparison to the residential population—to challenge Roider’s claims that budget and staffing should be reduced. “These are facts that I think you have to compare to budgets; and it’s hard to compare Harrison to other communities because I think our services are great,” Dionisio said, adding that he wanted to save the town from unnecessary taxes, but not at the expense of services.
Rodier also faced criticism from the crowd based on a claim made on Taxual that 160 employees was a “responsible” number, more than 100 less than the town’s current headcount of 264. That figure has since been taken off the website. In response, Rodier pledged not to remove employees to bring staffing down; instead, he said, he would try to stop the town from hiring while staffing reduced through natural attrition.
Rodier also faced criticism for suggesting that the Police Department may be overstaffed. He was asked to comment on the number of interconnected freeways in town and how that could impact the demand for police officers. He said he would need to conduct an analysis on the impact that business and thru-traffic have on the police force to come up with an answer, but added that he would not look to reduce the number of officers in town, but instead would call for a hiring freeze until his research was completed. “I want it to be based on data and not just people’s opinions whether we should have more [police]. How many more? What is the correct size?”
But Dionisio said he thought safety was paramount, adding that Harrison’s court is one of the busiest in the New York state. According to the state comptroller’s office, Harrison’s court generates the fifth highest revenue of any municipality in the state.
“I don’t think that we should be reducing police force at this point given all the problems, the terrorism,” Dionisio added. “This isn’t the time to relax ourselves; it’s the time to be more vigilant, especially when it comes to the safety of our children.”
Amid their disagreement over town staffing, both candidates agreed in their disdain for the Brightview Senior Living Center development, a five-story, 160-unit complex, which is awaiting site plan approval on the former property of the Lake Street quarry. To the applause of many in the crowd, including Rodier, Dionisio said that he was not against a senior living center in Harrison, but argued that the Lake Street property was not the best place for that development. Rodier agreed, adding that the development could have a negative impact on the value of surrounding homes, and therefore instill a tax burden on Harrison.
The two candidates are running to fulfill the unexpired term of Joe Canella, who was re-elected in 2013 and left the town board last year when he was elected town judge. Canella attended the forum, as did three Republican members of the current town board, Councilwoman Marlane Amelio, Councilman Fred Sciliano, and Mayor Ron Belmont.
Councilman Joe Stout, a Democrat who had been appointed by the town board to fill Canella’s seat on an interim basis lost the Democratic primary to Rodier, but won the Conservative Party nomination affording him the opportunity to run against Rodier and Dionisio in the general election. Stout, who has said he will not campaign as a third party candidate, was invited to participate in the forum, but did not attend.
