2019 Candidate Profile: Greenburgh's Lucas J. Cioffi

GREENBURGH, NY — Greenburgh has one contested race in this fall's election, that of town supervisor. Rivertowns Patch asked candidates in the contested race to answer questions about their campaigns. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Lucas J. Cioffi, 39, is running for supervisor of the Town of Greenburgh on the Independent line. His opponent is incumbent Supervisor Paul Feiner.

Cioffi is married with two children. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was an Army officer for five years and has been an entrepreneur and business owner and a software engineer. He has held no previous elected or appointed office.

The single most pressing issue facing our community, and what I intend to do about it.

By working in the open — in partnership with Greenburgh residents — our town government will make better decisions, avoid costly mistakes, and earn your trust.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

Both Mr. Feiner and I want to help residents, but we have different approaches.

Mr. Feiner wants to be in the middle of your communication to the town. He wants residents to call and email him. He is responsive, but the problem with this approach is that all the info about the status of critical projects is stuck inside Mr. Feiner's email inbox, and the only way to get an update is by sending another email and waiting for him to respond.

I will definitely answer the phone when people call, however I also believe that we can deliver town services more efficiently if we track service requests in the open. This way, we can ensure that everyone gets treated fairly.

There should be an online page for each open problem that the town is working on so that we can see progress happening and we can hold our elected officials accountable. To reduce duplication and to save residents time, everyone should be able to search for current problems to see if someone else has already reported it.

The process should be easy, similar to tracking the status of a package from FedEx. Updates would get sent out automatically via text message or by email. People who are not comfortable using computers can call the phone hotline.

Tracking all service requests in this manner will help us collect data about how our town fulfills service requests, such as the average number of days to take care of a dangerous pothole. This data will let residents know how well departments are performing and it will be very useful during the annual budgeting process.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community?

I've met over three thousand voters in Greenburgh and by far their top concern is their rising property taxes.

Current town Supervisor Paul Feiner has raised the town's property tax levies an average of 4% per year for the past twenty years. That's twice the rate of inflation.

If you elect me as your next town supervisor on November 5th, I will freeze the town's tax levies for two years. I will do it carefully, and I will do it effectively.

People ask, "How we can freeze the tax levies without cutting services?" The answer is easy:

Freezing both town tax levies last year would have cost us $1.6 million. We can definitely cover that cost, because in 2020 we will have $2.2 million in new taxes coming in from Westchester County's massive (and unfortunate) 33% sales tax increase.

My opponent must have forgotten what he claimed in August when he welcomed this sales tax increase. Here is his direct quote back then: "Westchester has had the distinction of having the highest property taxes in the country. I think this legislation is an important action step that will help us get rid of this unwanted distinction."

Well, the time to act is now. As recently as last Friday Mr. Feiner stated that he would not freeze the property tax levy. We have $13 million in the bank from surplus taxes collected in previous years, and now we have more than enough money coming in from the sales tax increase.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Reducing Village Taxes:

Recent changes to federal tax laws put new pressure on our homeowners. If village residents want to explore ways to share services with the town of Greenburgh we will be open to this conversation. Lucas has lived in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson and knows firsthand that people love the village feel and having separate services. To respect the villages, village residents and leaders will drive this conversation, not the town.

Over the past 10 years, politicians have been hesitant to have this conversation, but on the campaign trail, village residents bring this topic up frequently.

The last shared services study is a decade old. It indicated that residents in one village with a $500,000 home could save $940/year through just a partial (not full) consolidation of police services. We are not saying this or any other specific change should happen; as mentioned before, this conversation must be driven by village residents and leaders.

We must remember that consolidating saves taxpayer dollars, however it also reduces jobs for people who work in village government. This conversation – if it is to be had at all — must be had respectfully and with compassion. The time to address this would be before the next recession so that we can avoid drastic cuts and offer employees attractive buyouts that honor their years of service.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I am a combat veteran, open government advocate, husband, and father of two. I was born and raised in Greenburgh and returned to Greenburgh to raise my family. I graduated West Point and the US Army Ranger School.

I am a full-time software engineer, and I approach problems with an engineer's mindset.

Through a series of conferences at NASA, the US Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, Treasury, Department of Agriculture, and General Services Administration, I mobilized 1,500 non-profit professionals, researchers, and government leaders in support of President Obama's Open Government Initiative from 2009-2011.

I served three years on the board of the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation, collaborating with highly talented dialogue facilitators working to bridge political and racial divides.

In 2017 my family and I lived on Market Street in Charlottesville when our block erupted in large-scale race-based violence and made national and international headlines. I then served on the Charlottesville Community Leadership Council which worked to build bridges in the community in the wake of that violence.

I have served in leadership roles in civic organizations and technology companies and look forward to helping Greenburgh catch up and surpass other municipalities in how we listen to our residents, upgrade our technological infrastructure, and deliver exceptional services.

The best advice ever shared with me was …

"You can observe a lot just by watching."— Yogi Bera.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I'm a software engineer, entrepreneur, and business owner. I have served in leadership roles in civic organizations and technology companies and I look forward to helping Greenburgh catch up and surpass other municipalities in how we listen to our residents, upgrade our technological infrastructure, and deliver exceptional services.