 Port Chester - News February 28, 2011Inspectors Jeffery Bonds, left, and Dan Sussman, center, explain voting procedure to Luis Catalan of Port Chester in the trustees election June 15 at the Don Basco Center. Legal Scholar Speaks Out: No need to refight a lost battle (portchesterroundup.blogspot) On Monday, the Board of Trustees of the Village of Port Chester will consider a resolution to hire a Washington, D.C., law firm to represent the village in an appeal of the decision of United States District Court Judge Stephen Robinson that the village's at-large election system violated the federal Voting Rights Act. While the village has every right to pursue whatever legal avenues are available to it, I strongly urge the village to close this chapter in its history and move on. As the vote will be taken at a public hearing, it is critical that the voices of the community in Port Chester be heard before the board commits to a fool's errand. The chances of a successful appeal of Judge Robinson's opinion are slim to none — and slim left town a long time ago. As in most voting rights cases, the trial was contentious, divisive and exposed the underbelly of an ugly, racially tinged politics in the village. The district court found that in 10 trustee contests between 2001-05, the choice of the Hispanic community was defeated nine times. In fact, prior to the election of June 2010, only one Hispanic had been nominated to run for the position of village trustee by any political party in the history of Port Chester. The court found that during the 2007 mayoral election, a blatant racial appeal was made in an anonymous flier — subsequently learned to have been authored by Bart Didden, now a trustee and Republican candidate for mayor — distributed to more than 1,000 homes in the village. In the flier, former trustee and current Mayor Dennis Pilla was called a sellout because of his apparent support of issues of concern to the Hispanic community. In fact, the flier charged that "The Hispanics are running the show already." The court found that the political process leading to nomination was essentially a closed club that allowed limited access to outsiders or upstart candidates. At the time of the trial, no Hispanic had ever been elected to any public office in the village. The court also considered a videotape of two public hearings regarding a proposal by the Justice Department to establish districts. At one public hearing, attorney Aldo Vitigliano, who was later appointed to serve as special counsel to the newly formed Voting Rights Commission in the village, suggested that the village's congressional delegation should introduce legislation to exempt the village from the Voting Rights Act..... Rethink support for Bart Didden (LoHud) Rye Town Supervisor Joseph Carvin and Port Chester Trustee Joseph Kenner have both endorsed Republican candidate Bart Didden for mayor of Port Chester. |
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