Day Gets Performance Report

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions - Aristotle

The Journal News reports in its February 19 edition that Day has not been shaking up county government quite to its expectations given many of his appointments for leadership positions are holdovers from the previous administration that Day often criticized in his campaign as a failure.

Day's immediate staff are new appointees of excellent quality particularly his choice of U.S. Army Lt. Colonel J. Guillermo Rosa to serve as his Chief of Staff and as Deputy County Executive. What Day and Rosa have been discovering is that in the past administration the county government was working on a "spoke and wheel" basis with the department heads having no communication between themselves but only with the County Executive. Every morning at 8:30 am there is a now a 'stand-up' meeting between Rosa and a different set of five of the department heads to discuss the function of the county government and how they must begin to work across departments efficiently.

Those who have been reappointed are being asked to rebuild their operations and become team members. Should they not be capable of doing that they are not guaranteed to remain in their positions. Several other department heads remain on probation. 

While Day is making decisions as to who should be employed by the government, we the citizenry must concentrate on making decisions as to who should represent us in that government. All of the county legislators are coming up for election in November 2015 and there will be a special election in November 2014 to fill the seat that was vacated by Day when he was elected as County Executive. Day's former seat is presently being filled by Barry S. Kantrowitz, a partner in the Chestnut Ridge-based Kantrowitz, Goldhamer and Graifman law firm, who was appointed by the Democratic majority to fill the seat until a special election this November. The situation in the legislature is that Day does not now have a veto-proof minority in the legislature and so his program of change can be torpedoed by that body including even any member of his own party who would like to grandstand for their own personal aggrandizement. 

We must watch the voting records of all of the legislators between now and the November 2015 election and determine when Day brings programs and cuts to the legislature for approval that we get action and not speeches. As taxpayers we were told that the County of Rockland is carrying over 100 patronage positions and we expect to see those positions eliminated or those who vote to retain them be voted out of office. 

Day has the job of reorganizing his government to get the county's fiscal situation fixed. We the voters have the job to reorganize the legislature to insure he is able to get the fix approved.

This blog is authored by Michael N. Hull, a retired senior citizen. Hull contributes periodically to the Facebook page Clarkstown: What They Don't Want You To Know.