Recommended Reading, September 7, 2025

Robert Cox

08 Sep 2025 — 4 min read

Yadira and Louise

DUBLIN, IRELAND (September 7, 2025) — So, now you know what I have known but could not say. New Rochelle is close to broke.

Perhaps now skeptics will begin to understand why I have been reporting on wasteful spending under the Ramos/Melendez administration, why there is an ongoing, multiagency criminal investigation led by the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, why Melendez and Corporation Counsel Dawn Warren have been stonewalling my public records request for more than a year, why Melendez recommended council approve funding an unlimited budget to investigate me and sue me on entirely bogus defamation claims and why Warren and Salgado recently filed a frivolous federal lawsuit against me.

The article is the culmination of 18 months of reporting on Yadira & Co., a term I coined to reflect the various alliances that run New Rochelle these days. There are many different issues so many different alliances but they all have one thing in common — Yadira Ramos controls all of them. She has absolute control of the Democrats on council and, with a 6-1 majority, absolute control of the council. No motion or council discussion can occur unless she allows it. Not surprisingly, staff afraid of losing their jobs kowtow to her and, by extension, the other Democrats on council. By removing Kathleen Gill as City Manager, Yadira accomplished three things at once: she terrified every other employee in City Hall (if she can take out the City Manager, what will she do to me if I speak out?), she turned some C-Level staff into sniveling sycophants (e.g., Adam Salgado, Dawn Warren) and replaced Gill with an impotent sock puppet as City Manager (Wilfredo Melendez). New Rochelle has become a cautionary tale around New York State.

It took many hours to research and write this article. I had a lot of help. It was a team effort. So, thanks to all. You know who you are.

I would most strongly urge readers to watch the upcoming New Rochelle Committee of the Whole Meeting on Tuesday September 9 at 3:45 pm. You will not have to wait long as the 2024 auditors report is first on the agenda. It would be great if 15-20 readers went. The meeting is in a small room so 15-20 extra people will fill up the meeting.

You can prepare here by reading Butcher’s Bill Comes Due for New Rochelle Democrats

The article comes at a perfect time. I am riding the wave of my biggest surge in traffic ever.