Village of Larchmont – Justin Datino – Under Review

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Justin Datino And Mayor Anne McAndrews

1. Freedom Of Information Compliance And Knowledge Ratings:

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Under Review: The new Village of Larchmont Clerk Justin Datino screwed up the responses to our freedom of Information requests, so we are going to give him a second chance.

Here is The Email Where We Asked Him To Try Again….

Date: Mon, Jul 11, 2016 at 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: VOL Harrod FOIL #2 response letter 7-7-16
To: villageclerk@villageoflarchmont.org
Cc: administrator@villageoflarchmont.org, Steven Wrabel <SWrabel@mgslawyers.com>, ssomshekar@lohud.com, jfusco@lohud.com, dwilson3@lohud.com, mspillane@lohud.com, Fscandale@lohud.com, jfitzgib@lohud.com

Dear Justin Datino,

For the village of Larchmont’s new  $126,000 Administrator / Clerk Wiz Kid you sure are sloppy in replying to Freedom of Information requests for public documents.

Two of my FOILS you have not acknolwged and two other Foils dating as far back as June haven responded to with a boiler plate .pdf saying…..

You may expect a response detailing the extent to which your request will be granted or denied or notified if additional time is needed on or about {DATE}.

Justin where it says “{DATE}” you are supposed to mannually insert a date on this boiler plate response.

Could you please send me these boiler plate FOI forms again with the date included or better yet simply provide us with the public documents that most Westchester’s other town and village clerks have already supplied to the public interest FOIL Westchester project.

Normally we would be perturbed if a very highly compensated clerk responded in this manner, but I know that you are a little wet behind the ears so we will provide you with a little extra time to time to try again.

Also please respond to the other two FOIL requests that are just gathering dust on your desk, especially the one that seeks public documents on how much the single family homeowners of Larchmont are paying for your benefit and pension costs.l

hoping you get it right this time,

Brian Harrod

NY FOI – Website
https://nyfoi.org/

2. Email Address For Filing FOI Requests

villageclerk@villageoflarchmont.org

3, Mailing Address For Filing FOI Requests

Town Clerk
120 Larchmont Avenue
Larchmont, New York 10538

4. Experience:

From The Internet we learned that Justin Datino previously was Scarsdale’s deputy superintendent of public works.

Mr. Datino, who holds a master’s degree in public administration from SUNY Albany.

The village of Larchmont originally pursued the idea of hiring a village administrator in November 2014, when it hired Donald Marra, a former Dobbs Ferry mayor turned municipal consultant, for $15,000.

In the past, Mr. Marra helped the villages of Bronxville and Tuckahoe find village administrators, the latter of which recently created the administrator position for the first time as well.

Mr.Datino was initially paid a yearly salary of $126,500.

Mr. Datino currently resides in Elmsford

5. From The Village Website:

Image = Village Larchmont Website Banner With Seal 74

Welcome to the Village Clerk’s website pages!  We serve the residents and businesses of the Village of Larchmont as well as the Village Board and various other volunteer Committees and Boards.

This office is the general information office for the Village.  We maintain the official records of meetings.  The Village Clerk is the Records Management Officer and Records Access Officer for public FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests.

Our office also handles the issuance of parking permits, handicapped parking permits and various otherlicenses/permits for the Village.

The Village Clerk’s Office is your link to the operations of Village government.  Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

6. Media Reports / Related Pages

Image = News = Village of Larchmont - Justin Datino 74

Ideas for Re-Energizing Larchmont’s Downtown

Many building owners are listed as LLCs & the address is in care of a managing agent in NYC

Mamaroneck Avenue is bustling, in strong contrast to downtown Larchmont. Storefronts remain boarded up for months, even years.

The Larchmont-Mamaroneck Local Summit heard from four panelists last week who are concerned about this:  the Village of Larchmont Mayor Anne McAndrews, Village of Larchmont Administrator Justin Datino; Carolyn Fugere, Manager of the Larchmont office of Julia B Fee, Sotheby’s and Head of the Larchmont Chamber of Commerce; and Tiffany Smith, Co-founder of the Facebook group Love Larchmont 10538.….

Please Read More Here:

http://theloopny.com/ideas-for-re-energizing-larchmonts-downtown/ 

JOURNAL NEWS: Larchmont upholds teardown moratorium

…Before the board of trustees made its decision, KOSL challenged the legality of Larchmont’s moratorium in New York State Supreme Court. That ruling is still pending. McAndrews said the village has not yet been served with a court appeal.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s not coming,” she said.

Chiocchio and the developer did not return calls seeking comment.

What’s happening at 40 Ocean Ave. has become a village-wide trend that officials said needs to slow down. The village board approved a six-month moratorium in January that temporarily banned all pending and future applications for demolitions on and subdivisions of residential properties. During that time, village planning consultant Richard Preiss will review Larchmont’s zoning code.

Village Manager Justin Datino said there are two other pending projects, at 5 Thompson Place and 78 Shore Drive, that are impacted by the moratorium….

Please Read More Here:

http://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/mamaroneck/2016/03/08/larchmont-upholds-moratorium/81485260/

LARCHMONT LEDGER: Rotary Club Features Anne McAndrews

Rotary Club Features Anne McAndrews

The Larchmont Rotary Club recently hosted Anne McAndrews, former Mayor of Larchmont, at their April 15th weekly luncheon at the Larchmont Yacht Club. McAndrews spoke of 3 initiatives that she was most proud of….

….The appointment of a Village Administrator was McAndrews third point.  Justin Datino, presently overseeing the computerization of several  Village functions, supervises the day to day operations of the village and also prepares the capital plans to assure the future needs of the Village are identified and adequately funded.

During the Q and A period which followed, the former Mayor smiled several times and pointed out that the question would require another full program to address properly…..

Please Read More Here:

http://larchmontledger.com/town1.html

WCBS – TV: Façade Collapses At Popular Larchmont Restaurant Tequila Sunrise

…As CBS2’s Matt Kozar reported, firefighters said the building had a fire several years ago and it damaged the roof. But they were also looking at whether the terra cotta roof was too heavy.

“In terms of ongoing random inspections, the buildings are inspected by the fire department for fire safety inspections annually, and I don’t have the record right now when that was last performed for the building,” said Larchmont Village Administrator Justin Datino.

Datino said more thorough building inspections do not happen unless work is being done that requires a permit.

Please Read More Here:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/08/28/larchmont-facade-collapse/

7. Notes:

This Ratings Page Has Been Updated With Additional Information

About Larchmont, New York

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Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately 18 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census.

In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Larchmont 11th on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.

Originally inhabited by the Siwanoy (an Algonquian tribe), Larchmont was discovered by the Dutch in 1614. In 1661, John Richbell, a merchant from Hampshire, England, traded a minimal amount of goods and trinkets with the Siwanoy in exchange for land that is today known as the Town of Mamaroneck. The purchase included three peninsulas of land that lay between the Mamaroneck River to the east, and Pelham Manor to the west. The east neck is now known as Orienta while the middle neck is what is now known as Larchmont Manor. The third neck was later sold and is now known as Davenport Neck in New Rochelle. The purchase was contested by Thomas Revell who, one month following Richbell’s purchase, bought the land from the Siwanoy at a higher price. Richbell petitioned Governor Stuyvesant, Director General of the Colonies of the New Netherland, and Richbell was issued the land patent in 1662. In 1664 Great Britain took control of the colonies and Richbell received an English title for his lands in 1668 whereupon he began to encourage settlement. In 1675 Richbell leased his “Middle Neck” to his brother however when he died in 1684 none of his original property remained in his name. In 1700, Samuel Palmer, who had been elected the Town’s first supervisor in 1697, obtained the original leases on the “Middle Neck”, and in 1722 the Palmer family obtained full title to the land which included what is now the Incorporated Village of Larchmont.

Larchmont’s oldest and most historic home, the “Manor House” on Elm Avenue, was built in 1797 by Peter Jay Munro. Munro was the nephew of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was later adopted by Jay. At the beginning of the 19th Century, Munro was active in the abolitionist movement, helping to found the New York State Manumission Society, along with his uncle and Alexander Hamilton. In 1795 Munro had purchased much of the land owned by Samuel Palmer and by 1828 he owned all of the “Middle Neck” south of the Post Road and much of the land north of the Post Road as well. Munro later became a lawyer with Aaron Burr‘s law firm and built a home in Larchmont Manor known as the Manor House. Munro’s house faced towards the Boston Post Road (the back is now used as the front), which tended to generate a lot of dust in summer months. To combat this, his gardener imported a Scottish species of larch trees that were known to be fast growing. These were planted along the front of the property, eventually giving the village its name.

When Munro died in 1833, his son Henry inherited the property however he soon lost the property and it was sold at auction in 1845 to Edward knight Collins, owner of a steamship line. By the end of the Civil War in 1865, Collins had gone bankrupt and his estate was put up for auction and purchased by Thompson J.S. Flint. Flint divided the estate into building lots and called his development company the Larchmont Manor Company. Flint converted the Munro Mansion into an inn for prospective buyers and reserved some waterfront land for use as a park for the future residents of the Manor. After 1872 the area became a popular summer resort for wealthy New Yorkers. The arrival of the New York & New Haven Railroad replaced the stagecoach and steamboat as the main mode of transportation to and from New York City, making it much easier to commute and thus, modernizing travel which ultimately helped develop much of Westchester from farmland into suburbs by the 1900.

The New York legislature created Mamaroneck as a town in 1788, which includes a part of the Village of Mamaroneck, The Village of Larchmont, and the unincorporated area in the Town of Mamaroneck. This three part division occurred in the 1890s to meet the growing demand for municipal services which the town could not provide. At the time, a town was defined as only being able to provide basic government functions leaving residents of Larchmont in need of adequate water supply, sewage disposal, garbage collection, and police and fire protection. In 1891 the residents of Larchmont Manor obtained a charter from the legislature in which they incorporated that section of Town into a village. In order to comply with a law requiring incorporated villages to have at least 300 inhabitants per square mile, the boundaries of the newly incorporated Larchmont village were expanded beyond the Manor’s 288 acres (1.17 km2) to include land to its north and south of the railroad, and east to Weaver Street.

After the advent of the automobile, Larchmont quickly transitioned from a resort community into one of the earliest suburbs in the United States, catering to wealthy individuals commuting to and from New York City for work on a daily basis. Many of the Victorian “cottages” and a grand hotels (such as the Bevan House and Manor Inn) remain to this day, though these have been converted to other uses such as private residences. The Larchmont Yacht Club hosts an annual Race Week competition (2007 marked the 110th running of this event). It is adjacent to Manor Park, which was designed by Jeremiah Towle, an early summer resident of Larchmont Manor and an engineer. The Larchmont Shore Club (near the Larchmont Yacht Club) hosts an annual Swim Across America challenge, across Long Island Sound.

Larchmont and neighboring Mamaroneck and New Rochelle are noted for their significant French American populace…..

Please Read More Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larchmont,_New_York

Zip code: 10538

 

Population: 5,951 (2013)

Village/Town of Mount Kisco – Edward W. Brancati – 5 Stars

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Edward W. Brancati Being Sworn In With Mayor Michael Cindrich

1. Freedom Of Information Compliance And Knowledge Ratings:

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Mount Kisco Village Manager / Clerk Edward W. Brancati runs a very efficient public records management office. All Freedom of information request we sent in were instantly acknowledged and filled with a couple of days.

All communications were professional and  courteous. Mr. Brancati even followed up on our Freedom of information request and asked questions in the beginning of the process to make sure we got exactly the public records we requested.

This clerk’s office clearly sets the gold standard in Westchester.Mr. Brancati has experience in dealing with constituency services and his other professional roles in New York and Washington DC is one of the reason that the Mount Kisco Village Clerk’s Office is so responsive and customer service focused

Mr. Brancati is very sensitive and understanding to those with disabilities who need public records from his office.

The level of service was so high in Mt. Kisco we hound ourselves get annoyed at clerks in other communities who were slow or unresponsive.

Mr. Brancati is a former Lewisboro Town Supervisor and it is no surprise that his work is still bearing fruit today.

Lewisboro Town Clerk Janet Donohue Also Earned A 5 Stars Rating

https://nyfoi.org/index.php/2016/06/23/janet-donohue-lewisboro-town-clerk/

2. Email Address For Filing FOI Requests

EBrancati@mountkisco.org

3, Mailing Address For Filing FOI Requests

Village/Town of Mount Kisco
Village Hall (2nd floor)
104 Main Street
Mount Kisco, NY 10549

4. Experience:

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Mr. Brancati is a former Lewisboro town supervisor, having served from 2008-09. Prior to that, from 2006-07, he served as a town councilman after having been elected to fill an unexpired term.

Mr. Brancati has experience in dealing with constituency services. his other professional roles included serving as a staff assistant for Vice President Al Gore during the last two years of the Clinton administration, working for Congresswoman Nita Lowey for five and a half years at her White Plains office, and working for Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney for almost two years at his Newburgh office.

Village Board members paved the way for Mr. Brancati’s appointment when they voted to remove a requirement from the village code requiring a Village Manager to become a Mount Kisco resident within 90 days of taking office.

Mr. Brancati currently lives in Somers, although he still owns his home in Goldens Bridge, a hamlet where he grew up and where his parents live. His father, also named Edward Brancati, is chairman of the Golden’s Bridge Board of Fire Commissioners.

He is also a member of the Mount Kisco Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Brancati holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and a master’s degree from New York University.

Mr. Brancati is Mount Kisco’s first permanent Village Manager since James Palmer left more than a year ago to take a similar post in Bronxville. Gennaro Faiella, a retired New Castle Town Administrator, served as Interim Village Manager in the meantime.

Village Manager
Town/ Village of Mount Kisco
– Present (1 year 1 month)
Mount Kisco, NY

District Director
Office of U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney
(1 year 9 months)
Newburgh, N.Y.

Media Consultant
SuperMedia LLC
(1 year 7 months)
Purchase, N.Y.

Supervisor
Town of Lewisboro
(2 years)
South Salem, N.Y.

Councilman
Town of Lewisboro
(1 year 2 months)
South Salem, N.Y.

Deputy District Director
Office of U.S. Representative Nita M. Lowey
(1 year 2 months)
White Plains, N.Y.

District Scheduler
Office of U.S. Representative Nita M. Lowey
(3 years 9 months)
White Plains, N.Y.

Correspondent
Office of Vice President Al Gore
(1 year 3 months)
Washington, D.C.

Staff Assistant
Office of Vice President Al Gore
(9 months)
Washington, D.C.

5. From The Town/ Village Website:

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Village Manager / Clerk 914-864-0001

Secretary to Village Manager/Deputy Town Clerk, 914- 864-0033

General duties of the Village Manager

The Village Manager shall be the administrative head of the Village government.

He shall see that within the Village, the laws of the state and ordinances, rules and bylaws of the Board of Trustees are faithfully executed.

He shall attend all meeting of the Board of Trustees and recommend for adoption such measures as he shall deem expedient.

He shall make reports to the Board of Trustees, from time to time, upon the affairs of the Village and keep the Board of Trustees fully advised of the financial condition of the Village and its future financial needs.

He shall prepare and submit to the Board of Trustees a tentative budget for the next fiscal year. He shall be the purchasing agent for the Village and its separate boards and commissions.

He shall supervise and control all expenditures, encumbrances and disbursements to ensure that budget appropriations are not exceeded and shall audit all claims against the Village.

He shall perform such other duties as may be required of him by the Board of Trustees, by ordinance, resolution or local law.

Additional Links:

6. Media Reports

Image = News = Village of Mount Kisco - Edward W. Brancati 74button

THE EXAMINER: Former Lewisboro Super Takes Over as Mt. Kisco Village Manager

The importance of volunteering and public service was instilled in Ed Brancati from childhood.

His parents, Ed and Sue, were active at their house of worship, the Mount Kisco Presbyterian Church, and his father worked in the Westchester County Human Resources Department for 38 years.

Brancati, who was raised in Bedford and North Salem, said he has the same philosophy as his mother and father: to help improve the lives of others.

Brancati has brought his passion to serve others to his new job as Mount Kisco’s village manager. Brancati, 39, a former Lewisboro supervisor who now lives in Somers, started his $125,000-a-year position on July 13. He said his goal is to provide services to residents as efficiently and effectively as possible…..

Please Read More Here:

http://www.theexaminernews.com/former-lewisboro-super-takes-over-as-mt-kisco-village-manager/

7. Notes

This Ratings Page Has Been Updated With Additional Information

About Mount Kisco, New York

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Mount Kisco is a village and a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Town of Mount Kisco is coterminous with the village. The population was 10,877 at the 2010 census.

The name Kisco may be connected to the Munsee word asiiskuw (“mud”), and the name of the settlement “first appeared in colonial records as Cisqua, the name of a meadow and river mentioned in the September 6, 1700 Indian deed to land in the area.” The spelling Mount Kisko was used by the local postmaster when a post office was opened in the village sometime after 1850. The current spelling of the name was adopted in 1875, with the settlement’s incorporation as a village. The town shares its name with the Kisco River, which traverses the town and goes into the Croton Reservoir.

As a village, Mount Kisco actually was half in the Town of Bedford and half in the Town of New Castle.[ Mount Kisco became a town in its own right in 1978.[

The Mount Kisco Municipal Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. Merestead, St. Mark’s Cemetery, and the United Methodist Church and Parsonage are also listed…..

Please Read More Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kisco,_New_York

Zip code: 10549

 

Population: 11,067 (2013)

 

Area code 914