His New Memoir and the Lost Art of Political Compromise

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. With us today is Andy Spano, served as Westchester County Executive forever, almost 12 years. And Andy Spano, we had dinner the other night and we had a great time and you told me you have a second book.

0:16 So tell us about the second book and what are you accomplishing? What are you doing?

0:23 Speaker 2 Well, you know, it’s one of those things I’ve wanted to do The first book, as you remember, was more about my family growing up in the 40s, 50s, 60s, because I wanted my family and people who were interested in that to see how it was, how we struggled, how it was normal to work a couple of jobs,

0:46 how it was normal to do things, et cetera, that we look at today and say, oh, how difficult it was. It really wasn’t that difficult. This is what you did. is the second book is more about the politics that I went through when I became county executive. It takes us through how I handled certain kinds of issues, you know,

1:13 like housings, like 9-11, you know, things like that. And I wanted to demonstrate you know, how it was in those times between Republicans and Democrats and let people make their own judgments in terms of what goes on today.

1:32 I understand.

1:34 Speaker 1 And do you think the world is better today or do you think it was better 20 years ago when you were running things?

1:41 Speaker 2 I think, you know, it’s not better or worse. It’s what it is. It’s how we deal with it that we have to look at. We dealt with, we dealt with, I’ll give you an example. So, you know, I got called one day by the press and asked me, they asked me, you know, we want to do XYZ. And

2:04 it was about the county executive at the time. And I was in a lower position. I was the county clerk. And I was a Democrat, the only Democrat in the government. So I said, I’ll call you back. I turned off the phone. I called the county executive. He was a Republican.

2:18 I said to him, look, I just got a call from the press. They want me to do X, Y, Z. I got to call them back and say something. But I wanted you to know at first, you know, I didn’t want you to be blindsided. He says, what are you going to say? I said, well, I was thinking

2:31 of saying this. And he said. All right, I’ll say, I said, what are you going to say? So he said, well, I’ll say this. I said, we got to look like we’re fighting with each other. So he said, he said, okay, but I won’t make it too bad. And then we did it. And then, you know, if we wanted to

2:51 offer a drink afterwards, after work, we would do that. And we would work things out. Not that we loved each other. Not that we were, we went to see each other every night.

3:04 Speaker 1 That was normal course of politics.

3:07 Speaker 2 That was right. And they tried to get me when I was running. I mean, they tried to beat me up. But when I won and we had things to do about the government, we worked together on it. You know, we compromised. I don’t see that today. So I wanted to, in the second book, I wanted to show, I just

3:27 wanted to show how it was. You know, 9-11, you know, the interesting things happened together. I mean, we all had to work together. I’m always dealing with Democrats, although there was one incident that I mentioned in the book where I thought politics got involved right in the middle of 9-11.

3:48 But other than that, you know, it just was a different time. And I think that’s the problem with today. Yeah. We, you know, you and I, you know, I know we differ on certain issues, right? Yep. But we’ve been friends, how long, John? 30 years?

4:08 Speaker 1 I think it’s closer to 40. Yeah. I remember that time we were in Fiji Islands and we were in a little boat and I was going to put my foot in the water to get a, you know, and And the woman yells out, there’s snakes in the water. Don’t come in the water.

4:28 Speaker 2 Yeah, I remember that. That was funny.

4:31 Speaker 1 So where do people buy this.

4:33 Speaker 2 Book, Andy? I think it’s on Amazon right now.

4:39 Speaker 1 And it’s Andy Spano, and the name of the book again?

4:42 Speaker 2 The name of the book is Don’t Listen to the Mouth. The first book is Watch the Hands. My grandfather used to say.

4:48 Speaker 1 And you’re the author, so they can type in Andy Spano, too.

4:53 Speaker 2 They can type in Andy Spano, but watch it. My son’s got the same name, and he’s a writer. And he writes these books you’ll never understand. Okay.

5:03 Speaker 1 And I heard you might have a third book coming.

5:08 Speaker 2 Yeah, that’s going to be the one just before I die where I can really tell you what happens.

5:13 Speaker 1 Well, if you write it after you die, then we really know what the other side is like.

5:20 Speaker 2 No, before I die, just before I die, I’m going to write that book.

5:24 Speaker 1 Andy Spano, I’m looking forward to reading the book this weekend, and I’ll talk to you again real soon.

5:30 Speaker 2 Okay, take care, John. Take care.