Elect Luis Marino for mayor of Port Chester on March 16

Three candidates are seeking the office of mayor of the Village of Port Chester on Tuesday, Mar. 16, giving voters a healthy choice at a time of flux in the municipality. The fact that one of them is running strictly on an independent rather than a major party line is also unusual. I only recall that transpiring once before in my three decades at the Westmore News when Goldie Solomon sought the position as a candidate on the Common Sense Party line.

Despite the choice, none of the three candidates stand out as exceptional and capable of building consensus as current Mayor Richard “Fritz” Falanka did four years ago. He did such a good job that he was cross-endorsed and no one ran against him two years ago. But in recent months it’s been hard for even Falanka, who gets along with everyone, to get the board together on some controversial matters. This challenge is likely one of the reasons he is stepping down at the end of his term.

Faced with a difficult financial picture, managing development, hiring a new village manager and a new director of planning and development, helping bolster struggling small businesses and keeping the pandemic in check, among myriad other issues, the Village of Port Chester needs a strong leader as mayor. And unfortunately no one of that caliber has stepped forward to do the job.

All three candidates have flaws. However, for all the humanitarian work he has done for the community, his many years as a Port Chester volunteer firefighter, his 11 years of experience on the village board as a trustee, and his efforts to educate the community and distribute masks during the pandemic, current Deputy Mayor Luis Marino, running on the Democratic and PC First lines, is the most deserving.

Marino was elected as the first Hispanic trustee 11 years ago, and in a community with a majority Hispanic population, it makes sense to advocate election of Port Chester’s first Hispanic mayor.

Marino is not brilliant—and he’s the first to admit it—but he knows how to do right by the people, is cautious about spending money except when it comes to public safety and has a genuine desire to work with his fellow board members to get things done.

“Work together as a team with respect for each other, that is the plan,” he said in speaking about leadership and building consensus during the Westmore News candidate debate via Zoom on Feb. 26.

Marino, assistant head custodian in the Scarsdale School District, is not a great communicator, at least in English, and has difficulty defending himself when attacked. The latter become clear during our debate. However, as deputy mayor, he has run board meetings here and there and did a fine job.

Republican/Conservative candidate Rocco Latella, who owns his own loss prevention and video surveillance company and is also a consultant and project manager at Westchester Fences and Iron Works, seems like a nice guy, but he doesn’t think well on his feet and didn’t present many concrete answers to questions about issues a mayor might have to deal with either during the Westmore News Zoom session or at the Port Chester-Rye-Rye Brook League of Women Voters candidate forum.

With his many police and court records, among them lots for domestic issues and some of which are sealed, Latella doesn’t come across as an upstanding citizen or role model, which the mayor of a community should be.

His sincere interest in serving the community is also questionable due to his previous lack of community involvement and civic engagement. He ran halfheartedly for Port Chester school board in 2016, wasn’t registered to vote in school elections at the time or for five years prior and didn’t vote in the last village election.

David Matthews was pretty much an unknown in Port Chester until he decided to seek the office of mayor, attending both the Democratic and Republican caucuses before choosing to gather signatures for a Dave Matthews Party line on the ballot.

For not having been involved in village issues or organizations for the 33 years he has lived in town, he has gotten up to speed in a short time, but although he acts like he knows what he is talking about, he is misinformed on some important topics.

For instance, the Port Chester School District and the Village of Port Chester are separate entities. There is no financial arrangement between the two as there is in city school districts. Matthews does not understand that the village cannot decide to give the school district less money, as he suggested at the Westmore News debate.

Matthews’ entire career has been spent in the human resources field, so he has vast experience in bringing people together. However, his arrogant demeanor casts doubt on his ability to work well with other board members.

He also has some good ideas, but I fear they wouldn’t go anywhere because of his all-knowing approach.

Matthews should remain involved, show some investment in the village where he lives and is seeking the office of mayor and then consider running next year for trustee to get some governmental experience under his belt.

Voting

Despite the lingering effects of COVID-19 and continued high although diminishing number of cases in densely populated locales such as Port Chester, there is no early voting for any village elections in New York State and COVID-19 concerns could not be used as an excuse for submitting an absentee ballot rather than voting in person. Unless you had a valid non-COVID excuse for voting by absentee ballot (requests for ballots were due by Mar. 9), you must vote in person at your regular polling place on Mar. 16. Call the village clerk at 939-5202 or visit the Port Chester website at portchesterny.gov and click on the “Village Election” tab if you have any questions. This lack of incentive will potentially bring about an even lower voter turnout than usual at the polls, except for the fact that three candidates instead of one or two should naturally increase the number of voters.