by Cindy Goldstein -
In a letter dated November 18,th Westhab President & CEO Richard Nightingale wrote to the Mayor and Board of Trustees (both outgoing and incoming) requesting, at a minimum, a meeting with the Board of Trustees (BOT) after the Village’s Organizational Meeting on Monday, December 2nd. Three trustees did not run for re-election and their replacements will be sworn in that evening.
The BOT voted on November 12th to pause the negotiations with Westhab/WHA. See HERE.
The memo is on Washingtonville Housing Alliance (WHA) letterhead with Nightingale signing as “President and CEO of Westhab/Washingtonville Housing Alliance”. See memo HERE.
Editor’s Note: Westhab and WHA describe their relationship as a “strategic alliance” as each organization is a separate non-profit corporation. It is unclear if Nightingale has any formal role with WHA.
Nightingale strenuously objected to the email releases by Mayor Sharon Torres that showed significant contact with Westhab/WHA both before and after the Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued. These emails were the subject of an extensive investigation by Guidepost Solutions, Inc. paid for by the Village. See prior article HERE.
In his letter Nightingale defended Westhab’s actions which he describes as “advocacy” and lists the chronology of the project. He cited WHA’s long time role as the only local housing-focused non-profit and provided an email between Andrew Germansky (of Westhab) and the late Deputy Village Manager Dan Sarnoff. Sarnoff had opined that there wasn’t a conflict of interest with Westhab/WHA providing “technical review” of the RFP despite the fact that Westhab/WHA was committed to bidding on the project. The Guidepost Solutions report cited 13 notable changes made to the RFP primarily based on Westhab/WHA’s recommendations.
The Village is evaluating whether or not to expand the investigation. The cost of the Guidepost report was $63,000.
To date, the Village has not responded to Nightingale’s request.
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