By Robin S. Nash

We sat down with Mr. Gidron at his home in Scarsdale, New York. He wanted to set the record straight.
Gidron is free on parole after serving a year in jail for failure to pay taxes. Though he pled guilty to the charge – the taxes were not paid – he says that if General Motors had lived up to the promises that were made to him in writing, he would not have been in such a circumstance.

According to Mr. Gidron it all started in 2000 when a fire in the service department of his Cadillac/Oldsmobile dealership on Central Park Avenue in Yonkers destroyed 16 customer cars along with parts and equipment valued at over $400,000. Though his company had occupied the premises since 1998, leasing it from General Motors, two weeks after the fire GM informed him that they had no insurance on the building and did not have the money to repair it. GM then asked Gidron Cadillac to renovate the building, and offered to sell Gidron Cadillac the building at the negotiated price of $2.2 million. He was even given a letter of commitment.

An appraisal by the firm of Cushman and Wakefield indicated that the building was worth twice the $2.2 million asking price and could be mortgaged for 80% of value. Purchase would be a good business move.

Gidron says he spent hundreds of thousands in rent on another facility to house the service department and ran the parts operation out of the Cadillac showroom while the building was being renovated at his expense. The closing date came and went. Numerous attempts to find out from GM what was happening proved futile, he said. Automobile sales were down. Profits dwindled. Cash flow suffered. Taxes went unpaid. But was that the real reason Gidron was sentenced to five years probation under house arrest?

He suspects that his refusal to testify against his friend, Republican New York State Senator Guy Vellella of the Bronx probably superceded any of his own tax problems in the mind of the district attorney. Nevertheless, things went down hill and in June 2005, Gidron was arrested and the dealership seized and closed.

The man we are talking about, Richard D. Gidron Sr. is a self-made man who, beginning as a car hop, rose quickly through the ranks at General Motors in Chicago and became the first African American Cadillac dealer in New York in 1972 with a dealership at 646 East Fordham Road in the Bronx. The dealership consistently ranked in the top 10 on the Black Enterprise 100 Black Businesses list.

Gidron says that until 2003 he never had even a speeding ticket. “My record was 100 percent clean.” And Gidron has been a model of entrepreneurship, doing well and doing good. He served an unprecedented 19 years as president of the Bronx Chamber of Commerce. He speaks with pride of how he worked with New York City Mayor Ed Koch to restore its image and attract investment and businesses to the Borough of the Bronx. He was chairman of the Bronx Democratic Party. Helping to elect the first African American District Attorney in New York State, Robert Johnson, stands out as a seminal accomplishment.

Gidron was always a go-to guy when it came to raising funds for community organizations. A Catholic, he was ecumenical in his largess giving generously to Catholic charities and schools and whatever other causes he believed in no matter what the denomination, or ethnicity. Along with then Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola, Gidron started, heavily funded and ran Cheaper to Educate Than Incarcerate, a program that provided former inmates with skills helping them to become employable. He himself employed several of the program’s graduates. He received numerous awards for his generosity and caring. The walls of his dealership were lined with plaques and photos of Gidron with the rich and famous, celebrities, athletes, politicians, clergy, business owners, and executives who gravitated to his dealership and enjoyed his unique personality and style.

He is humbled by his experience, and the friendship of the many, many people who have been with him through the good times and in times of adversity. He wanted to publicly thank former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins, Attorney Ed Meyers of Meyers Smith and Granady, the Naclerio family, Congressman Charles Rangel, businessman and former Manhattan Borough President Percy E. Sutton, Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, Judge Louis Fusco, Judges Gerry Crispino, Dominic Massaro and Stanley Friedman, Rev. Al Sharpton, Min. Louis Farrakhan and Min. Kevin Muhammad.

Richard Gidron continues to fight for what he believes is right. His suit against General Motors has been filed in Federal Court in White Plains, New York.