Tim Idoni has an impressive record of over forty years of public service throughout Westchester County. Currently, Tim serves as the Westchester County Clerk, a position in which he not only manages and safeguards all of the County land records, but also serves as the Clerk of the Supreme and Westchester County Courts. Tim's other responsibilities as Westchester County Clerk include overseeing the facilitation of passport and personal ID Cards applications, the naturalization of new citizens and a variety of other licensing functions. In the County Clerk's Office, Tim is known for his hands-on management style, his willingness to work with his partners in government to improve constituent service, and his understanding of the benefits of innovative technological solutions.
Prior to being sworn in as the Westchester County Clerk in January 2006, Tim Idoni served as the fourteen year Mayor of the city of New Rochelle, a position he was elected to four times. When Tim took office in 1992, New Rochelle was on the brink of financial disaster and its downtown was a sea of vacant storefronts. Tim's dedication and energetic leadership resulted in the city making tremendous strides across the board, but most notably in the areas of finance and economic development. During Tim's tenure and because of his enthusiasm for what his city could become, over $2 billion in economic development projects were completed or planned and over 2,000 jobs were created. Tim built the foundation on which the revitalization of downtown New Rochelle is still taking place.
While Tim is most well-known as the current Westchester County Clerk and former Mayor of the city of New Rochelle, his public service spans another decade. Tim Idoni entered public service in 1980, serving as an assistant to the Village Administrator of Bronxville, as Director of Emergency Services and then Deputy City Manager of New Rochelle, and then as Village Manager of Ardsley. While working in Ardsley in the late 1980s, Tim was awarded the International City Management Association's highest award, one of only ten internationally, for his work in modernizing that village's operations and programs. In 1990, Tim returned to his hometown to take over the operation of the New Rochelle Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation as its Executive Vice-President. The agency, a local not-for-profit, specializes in affordable housing construction and rehabilitation. Tim was brought in to put an agency which had fallen on hard times, back on its feet. And, in twenty short months, the organization was not only solvent, but was moving forward with substantial and necessary projects such as the MacLeay Apartments renovation and conversion, the construction of the Lincoln Townhouses, and the rehabilitation of 400 North Avenue (over 230 housing units).
Tim is well-respected in the municipal planning and development community for not only his wealth of knowledge, but also for the results achieved due to his tenacious advocacy for his community. But Tim's achievements in the area of planning and development only tell part of the story of his professional achievements. After Tim left the New Rochelle Neighborhood Revitalization Corporation, he remained a leader in the field of affordable housing, often being invited to speak on the topic to municipal and professional colleagues. And Tim has been a consistent advocate for open space and our environment. During Tim's tenure as Mayor of New Rochelle, the city renovated all thirty-seven city parks and the City Council passed over thirty pieces of environmental legislation aimed at improving the quality of life of New Rochelle residents, with an emphasis on waterfront issues. Tim counts not only the revitalization of downtown New Rochelle, but also the creation of affordable housing and a commitment to environmental initiatives among his most satisfying professional achievements.
Tim has won three national awards and nine New York State awards for championing excellence in modern technological methodology in the County Clerk's office. His awards include the 2017 New York State Clerk of the Year Award and the 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award for the New York State Association of County Clerks. Tim's leadership led to New York State laws which have allowed legal and land records industries to submit cases and land records respectively in electronic format, saving massive amounts of time and dollars and safeguarding documents previously in paper form. The Clerk's office has saved over $36 million with these advancements.
Tim fit this all in while also chairing the New York State Association of County Clerk's Courts Committee, the New York State Office of Court Administration's statewide Steering Committee for Supreme Court E-Filing, charged with moving all counties' technology forward, as a member of the national Property Records Industries Association Committee on Predictable Fees and as a member of the Westchester County Association's blue ribbon panel on the future of housing in our county. Tim was recently appointed by the New York State Chief Judge to the prestigious Commission on Reimagining the Future of the New York State Courts.
Community activists in New Rochelle and beyond know that they can count on Tim to be an active and vocal supporter of community-minded projects and organizations. Tim has served on a number of boards including the Sound Shore Medical Center, the Foundation for Educational Excellence, Volunteer New York, the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation, and the Hudson Park Children's Greenhouse Committee among others. He has been honored by numerous local and countywide organizations for his leadership and philanthropic endeavors.
A life-long resident of the city of New Rochelle and a product of its public school system, Tim earned a double major bachelor's degree in American Studies and English from Iona College and his master's degree in Public Administration from New York University. He also received an honorary doctorate in 1997 from Iona College. Tim is proud of his four daughters and nine grandchildren.