Honorable Chuck Lesnick
City of Yonkers
City Council President
Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick presides over the City Council of New York’s fourth largest City with 200,000 residents and a budget in excess of $800 million. As City Council President, Chuck is also a voting member of all standing committees of the City Council (chairing Rules and co-Chairing Real Estate and Education), the Board of Contract and Supply, the Empire Zone Advisory Board and the Community Development Agency (CDA). Chuck actively promotes economic development in the City.
For nearly 20 years, Chuck has served in government with former Governor Mario Cuomo, Congresswoman Nita Lowey, the City of Yonkers, the United States Department of Housing & Urban Development and in the private sector as an executive with several property management and affordable housing development corporations. As the Director of Economic Development for the City of Yonkers, Chuck fought to secure funds to begin the waterfront redevelopment and restoration of the historic downtown pier.
Chuck specializes in the Historic Façade Conservation Easement Deductions (www.historicfacades.org) and maintains a general practice in co-op and condo law, real estate transactions and commercial development. A highly qualified leader and planner, Chuck holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale, a Masters in Urban & Regional Plan¬ning from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton and a J.D. from the NYU School of Law.
Longtime Yonkers community activists, he and his wife, Dr. Beth Schorr-Lesnick, have two daughters, Emily and Ariel one in high school and one in college.
Ellen Lynch
President & CEO
Yonkers Industrial Development Agency
Ellen Lynch, an experienced private sector commercial real estate professional, is President & CEO of the Yonkers Industrial Development Agency. She was appointed by Philip A. Amicone, Mayor and Chairman of Yonkers IDA, in June 2006.
Ms. Lynch supervises a City agency that has directly or indirectly financed economic development in excess of $500 million during the past three years. The IDA seeks to attract and retain businesses to Yonkers by offering discretionary mortgage and sales tax exemptions, payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTs), and to issue bonds for the tax exempt financing of business development. Yonkers IDA induces companies to invest their capital in major economic development projects that create jobs and increase the city’s tax base, thereby improving the quality of life for all Yonkers residents.
Ms. Lynch most recently held the position of Senior Vice President with Albert B. Ashforth, Inc., of Stamford, CT, and Managing Director of EastRidge Properties, for whom she served as Owner’s Representative. There she oversaw a 1.6 million-square-foot portfolio of suburban office space in Harrison and White Plains owned by the GM Pension Fund
Ms. Lynch is the immediate past Chair of the Business Council of Westchester Board of Directors. She was elected Chair in 2005 after serving as Vice Chair, and as Chairperson of the Council’s governmental action council. Ms. Lynch also serves as Vice Chair of the Westchester/Fairfield Chapter of NFTE, and as a director on the board of the Westchester County Association and the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce. She is currently serving as a member of the Leadership Team of WIRED, a federally funded Westchester/Fairfield task force that is researching solutions to workforce training and development.
She holds a BA degree from Skidmore College and an MS degree from Manhattanville College.
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