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January 20, 2010

Ernie Garcia
elgarcia@lohud.com

Federal prosecutors' accusations that former Yonkers Councilwoman Sandy Annabi took money from
developers have renewed discussion in Yonkers and Mount Vernon as to whether the cities should
track lobbyists.

Yonkers council members John Murtagh, R-5th District, and Joan Gronowski, D-3rd District, are
co-sponsoring an amendment to the city's ethics code to require lobbyists to register with the city if
they lobby city officials or employees.

The proposal was submitted in October, but on Jan. 11, Murtagh renewed a call to take action on it.

"It just seemed to me like it should be a common-sense thing, so citizens or community groups could
go to City Hall and see who is lobbying the city or Planning Department on a particular project,"
Murtagh said.

The legislation would have died in committee this month if no action was taken, but the Jan. 6
indictment of Annabi, former Republican Chairman Zehy Jereis and attorney Anthony Mangone in
connection with Annabi's votes on the Ridge Hill Village and Longfellow schools projects spurred
Murtagh's effort to bring up debate on it.

Murtagh said that if Yonkers had a local lobbyist registration ordinance like New York City does, Jereis
would have been required to register when he was approaching City Council members for support of
Ridge Hill Village.

"He was on the payroll of Forest City Ratner and I didn't know it at the time," Murtagh said.

The state already has a lobbyist registration database where the public can look up details such as the
names of lobbyists, what they were paid, who hired them, who they are lobbying and on what topic
they are lobbying.

Mayor Phil Amicone's spokesman David Simpson said Amicone supported the legislation in concept.
Simpson said the mayor, however, wants a complete law that considers its cost to the city and
addresses issues such as fees, who must register and what agency will oversee the registration
process.

Neither the American League of Lobbyists nor the Government Affairs Professionals of New York has
positions on cities' adopting their own lobbyist registries.

The idea of a local lobbyist registry also came up at Mount Vernon's City Council meeting last week.
Former council candidate Samuel Rivers said he presented copies of New York City's legislation and
Yonkers' proposed legislation.

"It just goes to the scope of total transparency," said Rivers, a blogger who on his Web site has raised
questions about the propriety of a local lobbyist's outreach to city officials.

That lobbyist, Kenneth Plummer of Kensworth Consulting, worked as a consultant in 2007 on Mayor

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Clinton Young's campaign and in the summer lobbied city officials on the Atlantic Development Group's
proposed 376-unit housing complex downtown. Plummer's lobbying of City Hall is documented in the
state's lobbyist registry, and payments to his company by Young's campaign are recorded in the state
elections finance database.

Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause, a government-accountability watchdog, said there
is no conflict of interest because Kensworth Consulting worked for the Young campaign, not for the
city.

"It happens all the time. There are significant numbers of consultants who also have lobbying arms to
their firms," Lerner said.

Mount Vernon City Council President J. Yuhanna Edwards said he was still learning about the work of
lobbyists. Edwards said he was not aware that Plummer was a lobbyist for Atlantic Development
Group at the time he helped organized a tour of the developer's projects in New York City for Mount
Vernon City Council members.

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