Ken Jenkins Plans Run for County Executive in 2017
Former Westchester Board of Legislators Chairman Ken Jenkins (D-Yonkers) formally announced Wednesday that he is seeking the Office of County Executive in 2017 citing deterioration in financial management and service quality throughout Westchester as the prime reasons for his running a second time.
“During my tenure as Chairman of the Board, we managed to cut taxes and provide high quality services without borrowing money and drastically diminishing our reserve funds. The county has not cut taxes since that point and the quality of Westchester County’s work on behalf of the taxpayers has gone down significantly,” Jenkins said in a press release.
Jenkins was Chairman of the Board of Legislators from 2010 to 2014.
“My family and every other family I know make decisions in their lives based on realistic and practical budgets with everything else flowing from our finances. We know we can’t spend more money than we have and if we do, there are real consequences for doing it. Westchester County government is no different; because the budget has been mismanaged, our roads and bridges aren’t repaired regularly. Because the budget has been mismanaged, we have to have a staring contest to fight for funding our public safety efforts properly, hoping that nobody is hurt before someone blinks. And because the budget has been mismanaged we can’t provide help for those who need mental health services, protection from more frequent flooding in coastal communities or basic park services.”
Westchester County is once again running a $23 million deficit for the current year’s operating budget that will have to be replenished by the County’s “savings” account and will certainly be a large factor as next year’s County budget is assembled.
“Under my administration, we’ll find operational efficiencies that exist everywhere in the County from collective purchasing, energy and electric enhancements to county property and public private partnerships with nonprofits and small businesses before accepting an inferior product on behalf of Westchester taxpayers. I believe this takes someone who has demonstrated management skills as I’ve shown running the Board of Legislators, a real estate practice and a Yonkers agency that has helped spur over $1 billion in economic development. With better financial management, we can plan for the future and as County Executive, I’d make sure that nobody is left behind as we go,” concluded Jenkins.
There was no comments from the Board of Legislators or Rob Astornio’s office, though the County Executive ‘s office did confirm that Astorino would run again in 2017. The term limit is three years.
