Mount Kisco Village Board Adopts 2024-25 Budget

MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - The Mount Kisco Village Board last week adopted a 2024-2025 budget of $26,527,796, which is $456,108 or 1.75 percent higher than the current $26,071,688 spending plan.

Mayor Michael Cindrich, while allowing that the overall increase was “slightly more” than he’d hoped, still thought that the budget was both “appropriate” and “responsible.”

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“I think the village manager did an excellent job with the tentative budget,” he said at the board’s special meeting on Monday, April 29.

If various adjustments and changes to the tentative budget hadn’t been made, the increase would have instead been 1.87 percent, according to Village Manager Ed Brancati.

The tax levy will increase by .92 or less than 1 percent, bringing it to $16,142,932 from the current $15,996,322. The tentative tax levy increase had been 1.29 percent.

The current tax rate of $109.64 per $1,000 of assessed valuation will increase by $2.27 or 2.07 percent to $111.91 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2024-2025. Before the plan was adjusted, that would have been 2.45 percent higher.

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This means that the owner of a single-family home with a market value of $457,500 – and an assessed value of $36,000 – can expect to pay $81.85 more in property taxes for an average total village tax bill of $4,028.94. Before the changes, that would have been $96.75 more, for a total property tax bill of $4,043.79.

The fiscal year starts on June 1.

Water and sewers rates will remain flat. The average annual water bill is $795, the average sewer bill, $249.

The budget includes increases for the library fund and the Mount Kisco Volunteer Fire Department.

In the latter case, each of the department’s four companies will be allocated an extra $15,000 for things such as equipment.

In order to get that money, they will have to provide the village/town with a detailed and justified list of their expenditures for the past three years, Brancati said.

The $60,000 expenditure will be partially offset by $27,078 in revenue from districts in New Castle and Bedford that the Mount Kisco Fire Department serves.

As was expected, the village cut expenditures by eliminating the Community Resource Officer (CRO) position.

To support the program, the village was paying $250,000 above its base $7 million public safety services contract with the county police. There was no separate contract for the CRO program itself, according to Brancati.

In giving the highlights of the budget at the Village Board’s special meeting Monday, April 29, he also noted that the plan cut $2,500 from the Economic Development Council line.

As far as general police protection goes, there’s enough money to cover the county police contract and, if the board chooses, to pay for the park ranger at Leonard Park that the Recreation Commission had requested, as well as special police details.

“It’s still at the level of resources we need in order to provide that level of security and safety,” Brancati said, without specifically mentioning the CRO program’s demise.

Before the vote to adopt was taken, Cindrich asked board members for comments.

Trustee Lisa Abzun was the only one who spoke up.

“I just wanted to clarify. Does the budget include any funding, either partial or full, for a CRO?” she asked.

“It does not,” Brancati responded.

“Does it include raises for the mayor or trustees?” Abzun asked.

(Trustee Karen Schleimer had, at a budget work session, broached the topic, saying trustees hadn’t gotten a pay hike in many years.)

“It does not,” Brancati told Abzun.

Abzun confirmed to The Mount Kisco – Bedford Times last week that she is not planning to run for re-election this year.

“I am taking time to care for my family,” she explained in an email, adding that “this is in no way an endorsement of either of the two Mount Kisco Democratic Party candidates that have filed their petitions for the November 2024 elections.”

She was referring to Schleimer, a seven-term trustee, and Mount Kisco Democratic Chair Tom Luzio, who Abzun bested in a 2023 Democratic primary only to be beaten by Cindrich who ran for mayor on an independent line. They were endorsed by the Democrats; Abzun was not.

Community Policing

The CRO program had a three-month trial run in the spring of 2022 and was adopted for FY 2022-2023 and renewed for FY 2023-2024.

During this go-round’s deliberations, the board decided to reduce the amount budgeted for police protection by $200,000, leaving $50,000 on the table to cover expenses such as a park ranger for Leonard Park and special police details to be deployed as needed.

That amount was further reduced to $35,000 in the final spending plan, Brancati said.

That meant that the CRO program was de-funded.

The proposal to eliminate had brought protests from numerous individuals and organizations throughout the community, including Neighbors Link and Northern Westchester Hospital.

During discussions, both Brancati and Cindrich had promised that community policing itself would not be going away because all officers should be engaged in community policing.

A desire to keep costs down was a huge factor behind the decision.

The $250,000 expense would have hiked the manager’s proposed budget by 1.6 percent, Cindrich said. That would have resulted in a tax increase of more than 4 percent and put the village over the tax cap.

He said the village would be asking county police to assign the current CRO, Eddie Ramirez, to Mount Kisco permanently so he could be assigned as a patrol officer and to special details.

The mayor had also suggested that the county’s Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) could take on more of a role.

Abzun initially had been against hiring a full-time CRO because, she explained, she didn’t feel “any more boots on the ground were needed.”

However, she later changed her mind and became a strong supporter of the program.

At recent budget work sessions, Abzun noted that CROs and regular patrol officers have “totally different roles.”

Furthermore, the MCRT does not have the “same mission and capabilities” as a CRO, she argued, explaining that the MCRT hosted by Mount Kisco handles a “catchment area” of 200 square miles – compared to the village’s 3.2 square miles.

Besides Mount Kisco, it serves Bedford, New Castle, North Castle, Lewisboro, North Salem, Somers, and Pound Ridge.

Its goal is to build rapport with individuals in crisis, provide on-the-spot counseling and follow-up support, and to take steps, if necessary, to have folks taken to an emergency room or psychiatric facility.

Anniversary Celebration

The village will mark the 150th anniversary of its incorporation at the end of May, 2025.

For the celebration to be a success, it’s going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach, said Cindrich, calling for more community volunteers.

He also thanked current volunteers on the Planning Board, Zoning Board, Architectural Review Board, Conservation Advisory Council, Historical Society, and others who “are committed to this village and who do a awful lot of work without any compensation.”

“My point is, without the volunteerism, this budget would be significantly higher,” he said.

Looking Ahead

In his closing remarks, Cindrich pointed to the “millions of dollars” the village’s spent to improve its business district over the past few years.

While that will continue, he hoped to focus more on quality of life issues in residential areas and public parks.

Cindrich specifically mentioned improvements to amenities in Leonard Park such as the Tea House and ball fields, and the sprucing up of Flewellyn Park, which is located at the corner of Grove Street and East Hyatt Avenue.

The security of Byram Lake Reservoir, which is the village’s chief drinking water source, is “a big item,” as is the “community policing initiative,” he said.

Also on the mayor’s agenda are reviewing requests from community organizations such as the Historical Society, continuing the conversation with the fire department about its “future needs,” and encouraging “responsible development to restore the $5 million lost in taxable property” over the past five years.

The last is something the village can’t afford not to address, he said, adding: “We can’t stay stagnant.”

“This board has much work to do,” Cindrich said.

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