Christopher Johnson submitted a letter of resignation to vacate his seat representing the 16th district on the Westchester County Board of Legislators effective August 1st.
In May 2023, David McKay Wilson from Journal News/LoHud broke the story that Johnson had signed mortgage documents on a home outside of his legislative district. Furthermore, Johnson retained conflicting residency documents at a condo he purchased under an affordable housing program in 2010. With both his qualification for office and tax rebate eligibility in dispute, a call was made to the Yonkers Inspector General, Liam McLaughlin, to investigate. The following report from the IG confirmed Johnson was indeed living outside of his district and had sublet his condo.
The first punitive action taken against Johnson was the threat to vote him out of his Majority Leader position. On July 10th, Johnson stepped down from that position and the BOL elected neighboring Yonkers legislator José Alvarado as the new Majority Leader.
Sources within the Board of Legislators now confirm that Johnson also submitted his resignation letter on Monday July 24th. Per this letter sent to County Clerk Tim Idoni, he will serve to the end of this month.
His resignation alleviates a litany of potential legal headaches for the county. Per the charter, Johnson became ineligible to serve the moment he claimed primary residence outside of his district. His resignation eschews the otherwise undefined process of removing him.
The forthcoming process will be to appoint a temporary legislator to fill that vacancy. The appointee will be subject to a vote by the remaining 16 legislators. That appointee serves until the certification of November’s general election results. At that time, it will either be Republican Debbie Kozak or Democrat Shanae Williams.
Williams soundly defeated Johnson in June’s primary as he was entrenched in this scandal. While the law states she may assume this office after election certification, her current term on the Yonkers City Council runs until the end of the year. Her vacating that office would require Mayor Mike Spano to appoint a replacement. That replacement would almost certainly be her current aide and unchallenged candidate for that seat, Deana Norman-Robinson.
Sufficed to say, the events of the past two months have tipped the dominoes of two local governments. And who knows what the next half of this year holds for the BOL.
