Candidate for
Legislator; Westchester County; Legislative District 2

Pete Harckham has been a lifelong resident of the Hudson Valley and a leader in our community since he and his wife, Janet, moved to Katonah in the early '90 s. Pete has experience in building bipartisan consensus to address the challenges of creating affordable housing, protecting our fragile water supplies, preserving vital open space and historic structures, and creating sorely needed ball fields for our children.

As a business owner and a not-for-profit executive, Pete is fiscally conservative and experienced in drafting balanced budgets that stay within organizational means. As a community leader he has worked to create public-private partnerships to leverage additional money to address our challenges at a reduced cost to towns and local taxpayers. As a father, husband and homeowner, Pete knows the crushing burden property taxes can be to our families and seniors. As a communications professional, Pete understands the importance of early, open and inclusive communications to build community consensus.

Few things are as important as preserving the rural, historic character of northern Westchester and protecting our fragile environment. Pete was a leader in the movement to preserve an historic home needlessly slated for demolition. Along with his neighbors, their efforts, in part, helped lead to the Historic Structure Ordinance in Bedford. While much of our open space is being lost to over-development, Pete and Janet worked with the Westchester Land Trust to place much of their farm into conservation easements, to preserve the land as open space in perpetuity. And while many people discuss what to do about global warming, Pete and his wife are currently converting their house and barn to solar power, to reduce reliance on fossil fuel to generate power. The surplus energy their system produces will be sold back to the grid to further reduce dependence on fossil fuel-based electrical generation.

While many people discuss the need for affordable housing in northern Westchester, Pete has been part of the solution. As President of A-HOME (2004 + April 2007), a not-for-profit housing corporation that builds and manages affordable housing for seniors, emergency first responders and single parent families, Pete worked with others in a bipartisan manner to help create new units in Croton Falls, Bedford Hills and Chappaqua, and most recently, twelve units of senior housing are currently being developed for Pound Ridge. He also helped to secure a donation of land to create emergency first responder housing in Lewisboro. Additionally he has reached across party lines to work with local, county, state and federal officials to secure funding for housing, as well as building community based support for affordable housing in northern Westchester.

As a volunteer with the Katonah-Lewisboro School System and the Lewisboro Soccer Club, Pete understands how the acute shortage of athletic fields affects families and shortchanges the competitiveness of our children. Pete helped demonstrate to the Town of Lewisboro that by adding senior housing to their proposal for new fields, they could capitalize on new funding streams to help offset the cost of the project.

Professionally, Pete has been a communications professional since 1983 when he started his career in New York City and worked for 10 years for major advertising agencies. Today he is president of Harckham Media Group, LLC, a strategic partnership of advertising, communications and production professionals. With his wife, Janet, he owns and manages K&E Farms, a small horse farm in Katonah. From 1992 to 2005, Pete served as vice chair of the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation, a San Francisco-based private foundation that supports the sustainable management of natural resources, the reduction of harmful toxins from the environment, and promotes arts and environmental education. He also volunteers his time for several area not-for-profit organizations.

He and Janet have two daughters, Emma, 12, and Kate, 8, who attend the Katonah-Lewisboro School System. As a family, they are active in animal rescue and enjoy horses, hiking and skiing.