Endorsed Candidates 2024
Federal & State Candidates
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Elect
Vanessa Pairis
Ossining Town Justice
Vanessa Pairis has been an attorney for over 15 years, almost all of which have been in public service and predominantly in the Court system. She worked for the Appellate Division for over ten years, where her role was to review the facts of each case, research the law, and make a recommendation to the Judges of what the best, most correct legal resolution should be. In 2020, she left the Appellate Division to become a Principal Law Clerk to Hon. Gina C. Capone, a Justice of the Supreme Court in Putnam County. There, her responsibilities are to draft and edit decisions and orders and ensure Justice Capone is prepared for every matter that comes before her, including trials. The skills she has developed in these positions make her extremely well-qualified to sit as a Town Justice.
Vanessa has lived in Ossining for over 10 years with her husband and two children. She and her husband were attracted to Ossining as a diverse, inclusive, engaged and energized community. She has been a member of the board of the Ossining Children’s Center for the last eight years, serving as President of the Board for the last two. Vanessa hopes to deepen her service to the community through the role of Town Justice. She knows that an appearance before the Town Justice may be a person’s first experience with the justice system, and she believes everyone who comes before the court deserves to be heard and respected. Vanessa has the temperament, patience, empathy and background to be a great judge, one who will apply the law fairly and impartially and reflect the community the court serves more fully.
Re-Elect
Rika Levin
Ossining Village Mayor
Rika Levin’s family immigrated to the USA when she was seven years old. She was raised mostly in New York State. She is a graduate of Brandeis University and earned her MBA from the Stern School of Business at NYU. She spent more than 25 years in management, new product development, diversity management, and eventually Chief Marketing Officer in Fortune 100 companies in New York. She is currently in management at a large Westchester not for profit organization.
Rika and her husband Mark have resided in Ossining for more than 28 years and have raised their two daughters here. After serving in numerous community organizations, her interest grew to public service in Ossining. In 2015, she was appointed Village Trustee. She is currently happily serving as Mayor, and is seeking re-election for a third term. Mayor Levin is proud of the work she has done to re-engineer the 13 volunteer committees that support the work of the Board and represent the public. This year the commitment to building bridges in our community between staff, elected officials at all levels of government and the public has given the Village the team strength that won the most grants to improve the Village in its history, the $10 million DRI grant being just one of them. Her inclusive successful bridge building mandate have her laser focused on improving technology and communications for the public at large, fair and safe housing for all in the community, environmental improvements to make Ossining “the greenest village in the country,“ ethics policies, parks and recreation, and right-sized post pandemic redevelopment for the 21st century.
Going forward she is building on past successes and focusing on keeping a balanced fiscal policy, code enforcement, business improvements for upper Croton Avenue, enhancements to the community center, and advancing the youth bureau.
Re-Elect
Dana White
Ossining Village Trustee
Dana White is now in the second year of her first two-year term as Ossining Village Trustee. In the past year she has worked as liaison to several village commissions, including the Environmental Advisory Council and the Ossining Arts Project. She sits on the Technical Advisory Committee for the Route 9 Road Diet, and was part of the team that produced the winning video for the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Grant.
Prior to this, Dana was Ossining VIllage Historian for five and a half years. In addition to Trustee, she works as a freelance writer. Dana moved to Ossining in the spring of 1991 with her husband David; they have two sons, both of whom went through Ossining schools.
“As a journalist I am trained to look at both sides of a situation and explore the gray areas, to think independently and objectively, and I apply this approach to every issue in front of me.”
Elect
Patrick Yost
Ossining Village Trustee
Pat Yost is a lifelong Democrat and long-term resident of Ossining. He and his wife chose to live in Ossining for its diversity, history, proximity to New York City and the Hudson River, affordability, outdoor spaces, and wonderful people. He is more excited about the future of the area than when he first arrived, and is committed to making sure Ossining remains a great place to live, work, and enjoy leisure time.
Pat is seeking the role of Village Trustee to help steer Ossining through a complex set of opportunities and challenges. Navigating these issues successfully requires a fresh, informed, and balanced perspective, which he has a demonstrated ability to provide. Pat has professional experience as a business consultant in addition to years of experience volunteering in local institutions. He was chosen to co-lead the Village of Ossining Comprehensive Plan Committee and to chair the Recreation Advisory Board, in addition to his service as a board member at the Ossining Children’s Center and a volunteer for our local youth baseball and soccer leagues. Pat has also advocated for the sustainability and resiliency of Ossining’s waterfront and drinking water. Working with local, state and federal officials, Pat spearheaded the work to obtain and execute a $1.2 million Federal Boating Infrastructure Grant project on the Ossining waterfront. He also participated in the Cornell Climate-adaptive Design Studio, and is a member of the Drinking Water Source Protection Program team.
As Trustee, Pat will support successful investment, work to further improve affordability and appropriate development across the VIllage, continue to advance work recommended in the Village’s Comprehensive Plan, support local arts and businesses, and proactively address the resiliency of the waterfront and our parks. Most of all, he will continue listening to, learning from, and understanding Ossining residents and stakeholders.