Remarks of 
 William O’Shaughnessy

A Birthday Celebration
for
Andy Spano
Westchester County Executive  
Rye Town Hilton  
April 4, 2001

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

     My name is Bill O’Shaughnessy.  And I’ve discovered I’m the only one who stands between you and our honoree – a predicament from which I intend to extricate myself expeditiously, if not deftly.  So I won’t intrude for very long on your evening.  But I do want to thank you for the generosity of your purse and the gift of your presence.

     You can actually blame my participation on that absolutely indispensable and remarkable woman Brenda Resnick Spano, who with her usual instinct for high drama, has selected an Irish … Rockefeller - Malcolm Wilson … Republican who endorsed the wrong guy three years ago!  Brenda – you are nothing if not tolerant, generous, and altogether forgiving.

 

You can absolutely be sure I won’t repeat my folly this fall.  Mario Cuomo said, “I assume you’ve seen the light, Brother Bill!  Forget the Governor’s importunings.  Nancy Curry O’Shaughnessy will make damn sure I do the right thing because she likes Andy Spano too!  And she’s crazy about Brenda.

     You, ladies and gentlemen, need no such encouragement.  You’ve been Andy’s friends for a long time and in every season of his life.

     I’ve been given just a very few minutes to introduce the feature of the evening, the only speaker and the reason we all came.  And if you look around the room and measure the people who came you get some idea as to whom Andy Spano is.  How special he is.  How valuable he is.  And how absolutely unique he is in this day and age.

     This is an extraordinary gathering.  A thousand people from every station and walk of life!  (All this, with the Yankees in town and Andy Pettitte on the mound for the first night game of the season!)

    We’re here not only to mark the anniversary of Andy Spano’s natal day.  And not even because we were summoned by Brenda.  We’ve come tonight for one evening in the springtime of the year to salute a public official in whose exemplary service we are all so well pleased.

  Being involved in today’s politics is not easy … especially when you’re an executive trying to run a big, sprawling, complex entity like Westchester.  To govern and manage requires all kinds of special skills, some almost exquisite.  But the best of those in the public arena have more than skill.  The best have something that’s not exquisite.  The best are possessed of all those plain things, those rare attributes that aren’t as ordinary as they ought to be:  civility … collegiality … a real abiding, genuine interest in people … common sense … decency … fairness … niceness … and an ability to listen … someone of patience and judgment and realness who knows how to handle all the tough issues, all the colorful egos … how to maneuver among all the competing factions among our villages, cities and towns … from Mount Vernon to Peekskill … and from Bedford to Bronxville.

    Actually the great Cuomo had the best line of all about Andy:  “How the hell can you beat a combination of Harry Truman and Francis of Assisi!”

     This is a celebration tonight, not a political rally.  And you already know Andy’s accomplishments.  They’re part of the public record.  We’ve read of them in the press, seen it on tv and heard it on the radio.  His work on the environment … the thousands of acres of open space preserved for our grandchildren … the things he’s done to protect the very water we drink … how he laid the groundwork for a state-of-the-art children’s hospital, soon to be a reality and unmatched anywhere in the country, in our own backyard. 

    He’s confronted the terrible societal issues of the day with wisdom and firmness:  the Westchester Gun Safety Act … a Tobacco Reduction campaign … Zero tolerance for domestic violence. 

    And with Bill Mulrow, for whom I also have tremendous regard, he’s been aggressive and creative – even relentless – on economic development.

     Andy even created a special Bureau for Senior Citizens (to help aging white-haired broadcasters!) 

    It’s all in the record.  And, as a result, in just three short years he’s become a statewide and national leader in county governance.

     And finally I should mention, he’s cut taxes … three years in a row!  His shy, modest, retiring chief of staff Larry Schwartz just wanted me to “mention” that … in passing, mind you.  In case my Republican friends are listening

     But all of these things, as I’ve suggested tonight, proceed ultimately and essentially, from those timeless virtues Andy possesses in great abundance … the ones in such short supply today.

    So please welcome the nice man … who does the people’s business in Westchester in such a unique, effective and really quite wonderful fashion – County Executive Andy Spano! 

Contact:

Cindy Hall Gallagher

914-235-3279

WVOX
1 Broadcast Forum
New Rochelle, NY 10801
Phone: 914-636-1460
Fax: 914-636-2900
e-mail: don@wvox.com