POLITICS: The Race To Replace Fritz’s Mayoral Seat Could Take A Nasty Turn If Bart “The Bigot” Didden Once Again Starts Distributing Flyers In A New Effort To Be Mayor
IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT: This follows Port Chester village manager surprise decision to resign after eight years, causing many village homeowners to worry that there might be serious problem exposed at village hall in the near future.
Mayor Falanka, who served two easy terms. suddenly feels that its time to let someone else do the job.
Mayor Falanka began his career with the Village of Port Chester in May of 1977 when he was appointed Village Clerk. On four separate occasions,
Mr. Flanka was called on to serve as Interim Village Manager and was appointed Assistant Village Manager in June of 1999.
On April 6, 2004, he was appointed Village Manager and he served in this position until his retirement in May of 2006.
In March of 2017, Mr. Flanka was elected Mayor of the Village of Port Chester.
He was re-elected to a second term in March of 2019. His term runs through April 2021.
Recently there have been multiple rallies and marches for Black Lives Matter in the minority majority village, as well as, many public calls for Port Chester school board president Thomas Corbia to resign over racist Facebook post.
In its December 15, 2006 complaint the Justice Department stated that, “the current at-large system for electing members of the Port Chester Board of Trustees results in Hispanic citizens having less opportunity than white citizens to participate in the political process and to elect candidates of their choice to the Port Chester Board of Trustees.”
Although Latinos make up a significant portion of Port Chester’s population, at that time, no Latinos had ever been elected to their Board of Trustees or local school board.
On March 2, 2007, federal court judge Stephen C. Robinson ruled in favor of the Department of Justice and placed an injunction, to avoid the six neighborhood voting districts that would have improved Hispanic representation in the minority majority village local officials came up with an alternative plan to address the problem by using cumulative voting.
At the trial the court received extensive testimony about a racist flyer used as part of Bart Didden’s 2007 trustee campaign as a Republican candidate.
According to Bart Didden’s testimony in court, the racist flyer was created in collaboration with attorney Crane,, who was a trustee at the time, and then Port Chester School Board President Dominic Bencivenga. (United States v. Village of Port Chester 6 Civil 15173).