Editorial: Mayor Ernie Davis should step down to shield Mt. Vernon's reputation

When Ernest Davis again ran for Mount Vernon mayor in 2011 he took up the mantle of a people's mayor, pledging to focus his energy on boosting civic pride. Just this month, when a Journal News article described Mount Vernon as "Westchester's toughest place," the mayor took offense. "We are a city that achieves," he wrote in an Oct. 9 letter to the editor, adding, "I am sick and tired of Mount Vernon being portrayed in such negative overtones."

On Tuesday, Davis pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor federal income tax charges. So much for championing civic pride. Davis, the tax scofflaw, can still uphold the reputation of his beloved city: He can resign.

Davis served as mayor from 1996 to 2008, when he lost re-election; he then won election again, and started his current term in 2012. Along the way, Mount Vernon has experienced some sad points in politics. Davis' first round as mayor saw an overbilling scandal involving garbage carting, and a federal probe began examining the city's Urban Renewal Agency. After Davis left office, his ally, former city planning commissioner Constance "Gerri" Post and her boyfriend were accused of steering more than $1 million in city contracts to the boyfriend's companies. Their 2009 corruption conviction was thrown out, and a new trial is scheduled to begin before the end of this year. Davis has been under a federal investigation since 2012, with his business dealings and charities under scrutiny; two of the mayor's former secretaries were subpoenaed.

Now, the mayor has pleaded guilty to two counts of willfully failing to file federal income taxes. The mayor entered his guilty plea on Tuesday, admitting that he never filed personal income tax returns in 2011, when he earned $106,743 in adjusted gross income. He also admitted failing, in 2003, to report proceeds from the sale of a property at 14-16 Sandford Blvd. that he owned from 1988 to 2003.

Each term carries a maximum term of one year in prison. So the mayor could, in theory, serve two years. But in the U.S. Department of Justice plea agreement, dated Sept. 22, an expected 0-to-6-month term is mentioned. Davis, though, needs to live up to his end of the bargain: He has to file the proper tax forms and make restitution on back taxes. And he has to "allocute" at his sentencing. Such a delineation of misdeeds would sound better coming from the mouth of an ex-mayor of Mount Vernon.

Also stated in the plea agreement: "The Defendant acknowledges that he has accepted this Agreement and decided to plead guilty because he is in fact guilty."

The 76-year-old's sentencing is slated for Jan. 26, at U.S. District Court in White Plains.

As word of Tuesday's actions spread through City Hall, many staffers and fellow elected officials were taken aback. Calling the news "very disturbing," Mount Vernon City Councilman Richard Thomas, a Democrat like Davis, told The Journal News, "The people of Mount Vernon deserve better."

Indeed, the more than 68,000 residents of Mount Vernon do deserve better. Under different circumstances, Mayor Davis might be the first person to say so.