The 2027 Democratic primary for Yonkers mayor is nine months from now, but the two likely successors have begun an undeclared war, launched with a back-and-forth exchange of anonymous opposition research and the leaking of embarrassing stories to reporters.
It is an open secret in Yonkers political circles that City Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy and Council Majority Leader John Rubbo are eyeing runs for mayor next year. Neither has formally declared.
The new round of allegations, accusations, and countermeasures are designed for media consumption. The first skirmish was a leak of incriminating information about Rubbo’s failure to scrupulously adhere to local regulations, first with a vacation home in New Jersey and then with his brew pub in Yonkers. In the newspaper business, leaks of usually unexamined paperwork most often come from sources seeking to embarrass their opponents.
A faction apparently aligned with Rubbo has counterattacked with a shock and awe campaign, alleging that Collins-Bellamy may have been improperly paid for hours not worked in her municipal job, with a simultaneous second attack via a new city law that would put Collins-Bellamy out of one of her two jobs.
After Spano, the deluge
Welcome to the gladiatorial prelude to the race to succeed Mayor Mike Spano. Spano is now in his fourth term, and it’s widely assumed that he has decided not to run for a fifth. Stepping down would free him from the obligation of going to the council to request a third legislative suspension of the city’s term limits law.
Collins-Bellamy and Rubbo are the two highest-ranking Democrats on the City Council and have both been strong Spano supporters. Collins-Bellamy also occupies a particularly powerful position in city government. Unlike the six district council members, the council president is elected citywide, presides over the council, chairs its rules committee, and is a voting member of every standing committee.
Rubbo fined for licensing violations
Rubbo’s regulatory troubles have been reported by investigative journalist David Mckay Wilson. Now in his third council term, Rubbo is co-owner and managing partner of Yonkers Brewing Company; Wilson’s second Substack report documents a series of violations and fines levied against the bar.
Since Rubbo joined the City Council in 2018, Yonkers Brewing has paid $6,950 in fines and penalties for 17 violations of city licensing requirements, according to city records obtained by Wilson and published on his Substack, Hudson Valley Digger. Wilson’s first story disclosed that Rubbo had been cited for zoning violations at a Jersey Shore family-investment property. Those fines have also been paid.
In an interview with The Ledger, Rubbo didn’t deny that he’s been cited, and he didn’t apologize. “It fell through the cracks,” he confirmed regarding the Yonkers violations. His district includes many restaurants and bars along McLean Avenue, and he sympathizes with the small-business owners who must “deal with the bureaucracy and red tape that chokes them.”
Collins-Bellamy’s dual roles under fire
Collins-Bellamy is under attack because of alleged overpayments she may have received from her job as an attorney for the city’s Municipal Housing Authority. An anonymous complaint to the New York State Comptroller and Attorney General asks for an investigation to determine if Collins-Bellamy was often a no-show at the housing authority job — getting salary and pension benefits while she was performing council duties. The Ledger could not confirm the source of the complaint in any on-the-record conversation. Collins-Bellamy said she received it from a fictitious sender, “Jake Espinoza.”
The complaint includes a detailed analysis of the time Collins-Bellamy spent at council hearings and ceremonial duties, as well as a lawyerly list of allegedly similar cases where charges were filed. The Ledger could not confirm that the letter has been officially received by the comptroller or attorney general or that any investigation of the charges has or will be launched.
According to Collins-Bellamy, she cleared having the two jobs with state and federal officials. “It was not a conflict of interest for me to be a candidate for office, nor to hold dual, compatible roles when I took the oath to become Council President,” she said. “Now my very own colleagues are taking it upon themselves to create a conflict where there never was one.”
But why stop there?
The second line of attack on Collins-Bellamy, the new law that would cost her a job, came from an unlikely source: Mike Breen, the council’s only Republican member. The proposed law would bar an employee of the Municipal Housing Authority and other city government offices from running for or holding elective office.
In an interview with The Ledger, Breen said that he introduced the proposed law as “good government legislation” — not politically motivated or related to the upcoming mayoral election. The idea had been “kicking around” since 2021, when Collins-Bellamy was first elected. He specifically noted that Collins-Bellamy regularly recuses herself from votes concerning the housing authority. His bill would prevent council members from holding two city positions that prevent them from voting on certain matters because of a conflict of interest.
Collins-Bellamy condemned Breen’s legislation. “This is a false issue created by politicians who are afraid I might run for mayor and win,” she said. “These are my colleagues’ actions and a Trump-like attempt to rig the election, and the voters won’t stand for it.”
Breen said he submitted the proposed local law to the city clerk Friday, meaning that it could be considered at a meeting of the council’s Legislation and Codes Committee Tuesday at 6 p.m. The meeting is being held in the Saunders High auditorium. The law has not yet been published in the meeting agenda.
As one anonymous political observer noted, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Wait, that was Aristotle. And he hasn’t requested anonymity for this story.
(Corrections: The story was originally published under an incorrect byline. Phil Zisman wrote it. In addition, the name of the apparently fictitious sender of the email received by Collins-Bellamy is Jake Espinoza, not Jake Spinzoa as previously reported.)
