Author looks to the past to rethink modern politicians
November 13, 2024 at 11:26 p.m.
Though John Lipman grew up somewhat familiar with the career of Alfred B. DelBello, it wasn’t until later in life that he was able to grasp what the former Yonkers mayor and Westchester County executive had accomplished.
“My mother was always very politically involved. She worked as a scheduler for him, and when she was working on his campaign, I knew of him. But I wasn’t really thinking about it because I was a kid,” he said. “Now with the benefit of age, wisdom and hindsight, I look back on him and see what a visionary and incredible person he was.”
The Rye Brook area native knows more about DelBello, who died in 2015, than the average person—he’s written a book about the politician.
He was pushed to write the biography after DelBello’s wife, Dee, requested it at his mother’s funeral in 2019.
“It really kicked off for me then. It’s funny, I thought 2020 was going to be the year I missed everything in the world because writing the book was going to take over my life, but then the whole world shut down,” he laughed. “I spent a year doing research and then another 18 months actually writing.”
“Alfred B. DelBello: His Life and Times” hit shelves in 2022, but Lipman has been on a marketing kick in the current year because he feels the former county executive’s story is still relevant. On Nov. 23, the writer, who now lives in Cape Cod, Mass., will be returning to his hometown to visit the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library at 2 p.m. for an author talk followed by a book signing.
“It’s going to be a homecoming for me,” he said. “It’s the library I used when I was growing up.”
He hopes to use the opportunity, and others like it, to speak on the state of U.S. politics through the lens of his subject.
Lipman feels there’s been a shift in the Democratic Party—away from the style of leadership that DelBello embodied in his 20-year career as a politician.
What did Al DeBello do?
DelBello was first elected to public office when he won a seat on the Yonkers City Council in 1966 as a 31-year-old.
“He only served two terms as a councilperson and I really think it was a frustrating time for him,” Lipman said. “At the time, there was a lot of political patronage and insider deals inside city hall, which was fairly normal for that era of history. But the city was hurting, and things were degrading.”
He was particularly upset with how unprepared the city was for the blizzard that struck in 1969.
“DelBello recognized that the city had no plan for severe weather events like that and saw the damage that resulted for the city,” Lipman said. “And he thought something needed to be done.”
The cover for John Lipman’s book, “Alfred B. DelBello: His Life and Times.”Courtesy of John Lipman
His wife suggested he run for higher office, and he became the city’s youngest mayor in 1970 at the age of 35.
“People didn’t really think he could win because he was going up against a Republican incumbent (Francis O’Rourke), but he did,” he said.
During both of DelBello’s two-year terms as mayor, he worked towards making Yonkers fiscally prosperous and cleaning up the city—in both a figurative and literal sense.
Lipman said the mayor was able to cut $1 million in patronage jobs from city hall and began to search for financial assistance from the federal and state governments.
“He was able to take a step back and see what previous administrations had been missing out on,” he said. “There was money from the state for housing and development that had never been tapped.”
DelBello was also focused on corruption, particularly that which was tied to the sanitation industry.
“Nick Rattenni, who had ties to the mafia, had a stronghold on the garbage collection business. But DelBello introduced emergency legislation to take over the city’s disposal facilities and drove the mob out,” Lipman said. “It got the streets cleaned up and brought the books into the black. His work there is what brought him up into the county.”
During his second term as mayor, DelBello was given a tip that the county executive, Republican Edwin Michaelian, was leaving office at the end of his term in 1973.
“Al became the first Democratic County Executive since the position was created in 1939,” Lipman said. “But when he first stepped into office, he made it clear he wasn’t there to do a party job.”
That became clear when DelBello kept most of the Republican-appointed staff onboard when he took office.
“Instead of going in and cleaning house, Al kept a lot of people there,” Lipman said. “He knew it wasn’t right to kick them out just because they were appointed by the other party, and he knew they were experienced.”
Though DelBello was in power during the recession of the early 1970s, he managed to reduce the impact it had on the people of Westchester.
“He was able to do so many things during that recession that benefitted everyone,” the 64-year-old author said. “He made deals with unions who were having trouble finding work for their members to come into the county for a cheaper rate. They got jobs at slightly lower pay, but it meant people didn’t lose their houses. And the county was able to tackle the backlog of public works projects for cheaper. Everyone won.”
In addition, DelBello collaborated with then-Commissioner of Finances Vince Matrone to capitalize on the high interest rate seen nationally.
“By the end of the 1970s, he was governing a county that was thriving through a national recession,” Lipman said. “He managed to earn Westchester the highest possible credit rating in the state and refinance the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla to actually get it built. He turned the county into a goldmine of living, and people flocked to it.”
After nine years as County Executive, DelBello served two years as Mario Cuomo’s Lieutenant Governor, but resigned due to a tenuous relationship.
Lipman believes Cuomo saw DelBello as a political rival.
“Cuomo definitely saw Al as a threat,” he said. “I don’t think Cuomo hated him but would’ve been very happy to see him leave.”
It marked the end of DelBello’s political career, but Lipman affirmed that there is much to learn from his story.
“I think people like Al in government have become rare,” he said. “And hopefully people can start thinking like that again.”
Working together to get things done
While Lipman lauds DelBello for what he was able to accomplish in his various positions, he was quick to point out that he didn’t do it all himself.
“Al had the understanding and ability to work laterally with others,” he said. “He recognized there was more power in numbers than in being alone.”
To that end, DelBello gained a reputation for being a politician who was willing and able to work across party lines to accomplish his goals.
“And that’s because he thought government should be something that benefitted everyone, not just those in your party,” Lipman said.
Lipman said that based on his research, DelBello’s outlook drew more friends than adversaries—regardless of political affiliation.
“The subsequent Mayor of Yonkers, Angelo Martinelli, didn’t like Al all that much at first,” he said. “But Al thought he was a competent and decent man. They ended up becoming friends, having a close working relationship even though they were in different parties.”
The author is hopeful readers will ponder what they want in their elected officials and question how political divisions have hampered their lives.
“A lot of politicians these days want to deal with issues that are more emotional first and then handle the boring, more tangible things later,” he said. “But they’re really pushing aside the things that impact the everyday person most. Al wasn’t that kind of guy. He wanted to know what people wanted.”
According to Lipman, one of DelBello’s earliest projects embodied that idea.
“When he was working in Yonkers, Al used to do a radio show,” he explained. “Sometimes, for the show, he would go to people’s apartments or houses. He would dine with them, sleep with them and leave the next morning. Al would really get to know these people and find out what it is they needed. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a candidate at any level of government who cared like that?”
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