Our First Challenge I want to begin by thanking everyone who made the effort to contribute their time and energy hoping to establishing our position on the ballot this September. A few weeks ago I asked everyone to get involved regardless of who you were supporting for office in our City of Yonkers – and you came through. You have my heartfelt thanks and gratitude. Now, our challenge gets more difficult and again, I need your support to make a positive difference. In September, voters have a remarkable opportunity to drive substantial changes in our city government. My campaign for City Council President is just one of several key roles that can put Yonkers on a better path towards a more successful, viable future. Most important, now is the time to start the process of defining what our future can look like, and I’d like to share some of the ideas I will expand on as we make our way to the vote in September. As the founder of the Alliance of Americans for America, I have passionately focused for years on job creation in America, and ensuring we support products and services made here in our country. As City Council President, this is one of the first issues I will focus on. I firmly believe this is a key factor for Yonkers -- creating a renewed interest and influx of energy into our local economy. Companies focused on emerging technologies, disruptive new products and other growing segments of industry have been flourishing in the greater New York City area, and we need to make sure a significant number of those companies (and jobs) make their way to our city. Through aggressive tax incentives, creative use of the talent pool and investments in the infrastructure these growing organizations need, we can make Yonkers a proud center of innovation. We also need to make sure there’s a solid base of jobs outside of technology – jobs that can provide a solid, stable and secure income for our citizens. This includes a revitalization of the retail, manufacturing and civil service segments of our job base. As City Council President, I will make sure we explore every opportunity to secure the resources available from the State of New York, the federal government and private investors to infuse Yonkers with sustainable projects that benefit our community, while respecting our natural resources and lifestyle. In addition to jobs, we need to perform the simple but effective task of optimizing the resources we already have. As City Council President, I will be a vocal advocate for reviewing our budget development process, the allocation of funds across the spectrum of city services, and the way our city manages long term debt and investments. This is not about finding fault in what has already been done through audits – it’s about bringing in fresh thinking and ideas about the possibilities for Yonkers. Finally, it’s important that we have the topic of education on our agenda. Much of our long-term success is dependent on educating our children, and that means we need to generate a new level of fresh ideas and people to lead our school system forward. Again, I will be a vocal advocate for aligning our economic agenda to critical co-investments in education. We are accountable for providing a strong future for our children – it is not something we should leave to the State or federal government to solve. Please stay tuned for more in the coming weeks as we dive deeper into these and other issues facing our city. Most important, I look forward to hearing from each of you in terms of ideas you have for helping our city, or areas of opportunity we can address together. Our future happens when we all get involved. Sincerely, Frank Spotorno
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 03:10:11 +0000
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