Letters

Mirchandani’s Agenda, Yorktown Board’s Woes Makes Choice Obvious

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I am writing as a concerned Yorktown resident to urge Republicans to look beyond party affiliation when voting in our upcoming special election for town supervisor on Apr. 16 and consider voting for Jann Mirchandani.
While you may agree with the national Republican Party on its platform, the reality is that these topics have little relevance to the core responsibilities of town governance. Our local leaders are tasked with ensuring reliable public services, maintaining infrastructure and promoting sustainable development. They should not be legislating on partisan flashpoints.
The current Town Board has fallen woefully short on its basic duties to Yorktown residents. They awarded a crucial garbage contract to an ill-equipped political ally, leaving us with unacceptable lapses in service. Our aging infrastructure continues to crumble with no coherent plan to address it beyond patchwork quick fixes. And rampant overdevelopment is degrading our community’s character and quality of life – often greased by tax breaks, fee waivers and other incentives for their developer donors at the expense of Yorktown’s residents.
In short, ideology has trumped competence. Political favors have superseded responsible governance. And the needs of Yorktown citizens have taken a back seat to personal ties and ambitions.
Yorktown cannot afford to let national party allegiances blind us any longer. Because no matter how fervently you may back Republican values, if we keep electing local Republicans who neglect their fundamental duties to our town, we are only hurting ourselves as taxpayers.
This month we have a choice for real change in the form of Jann Mirchandani, who has outlined a substantive agenda to strengthen ethics laws, rein in excessive development, protect our town’s character and invest in long-overdue infrastructure improvements using Yorktown’s ample fund balance.
For far too long, blind party loyalty has enabled the current leadership’s glaring shortcomings and misplaced priorities. It’s time we look beyond the Rs and Ds and elect the most qualified, ethical public servants who will finally make Yorktown’s interests – not personal interests – the top priority.
Our community deserves better than cronyism and incompetence. This election, I urge all voters, Republicans, Democrats and independents, to put Yorktown first and vote for the candidate who will serve all of us best.

Peter Cleary
Yorktown

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