White Plains CitizeNetReporter - King Announces Abdication to Select Media

WPCNR WHITE PLAINS CONFIDENTIAL By John F. Bailey. March 5, 2003: Councilman William King announced his abdication of his Council Seat yesterday in an e-mail to Susan Elan of The Journal News and Susan Archerian Chang of The White Plains Watch. WPCNR has obtained a copy of that statement, and here are Mr. King's reasons for leaving the council in his own words:

I wanted to give you a heads up that I have decided not to run for re-election with the other Democratic incumbents. I feel that I have held up my promise of "Doing the Right Thing" for White Plains. I believe I have pushed issues out there like downtown revitalization and open space preservation that the mayor has embraced in his initiatives.

I feel I have gotten the mayor to implement most of my proposals and the proposals of residents that I have passed along that he is going to implement while he is mayor. For me to really push him on other initiatives, I would need more like-minded people on the Council.

Obviously, I am very disappointed by mayor-led council votes, mostly on New York Hospital. I am also extremely against the mayor's style of "closed government" which has limited getting information from the city's commissioners or having intelligent discussions with them.

There are many things I wish White Plains residents could have in our community soon and before my 9-year-old daughter goes off to college.

There are many initiatives I would still like to pursue but they take a less political atmosphere and I need more progressive, open-minded people voting with me on initiatives. I will continue to work hard until the end of my current term and continue to pass along the good ideas, big and small, that residents continue to give me.

But, like I said, I believe the mayor has accepted most of what he is going to accept and I have lost faith in the rest of the current council to help steer the city in the direction I think it should be going and get it to where it should be in the near future. White Plains is getting better, but it could be a lot better and without spending so much on parking garages and by downtown commercial interests paying as much in property taxes, proportionally, as they used to.

Note: Mr. King intends to serve out his full term which expires December 31, 2003.


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