“Our People Are The Town’s Greatest Asset”

Every Town Board meeting promises more of the same theatrical performances by children, special recognition awards to select residents for un-extraordinary acts performed in the Town, and the like. The delays to the start of the regular meetings (contradiction of terms) have become the routine of marked inefficiency. Welcome to Feinerville, where The Paul and his Stepford Board campaign for their next election with patronization, platitudes and shameless purchasing of future votes and favors. One major omission with all of this rah, rah nonsense, effectively used to thin the Town Board crowds, was the financial acquisition of $1.2 million to the Town by Robert Bernstein and Herbert Rosenberg. It was their intervention with Feiner’s illegally executed WestHelp agreement that should bring this substantial amount of money back to where it belonged – the Town. Many residents that spoke publicly thanked both of these residents. Rosenberg was in the audience this evening.

After a laborious presentation of the Budget Blueprint for the Town of Greenburgh’ upcoming budget, by committee Chairman and formerly convicted felon Alan Hochberg, the Board arbitrarily decided to take an ‘invitation only’ celebratory break in the rear of the building to celebrate this great event. Did we miss something? Was there a tax decrease we didn’t hear in the presentation? Were there new jobs created? Hardly. In fact, the report stated there would be little if any impact in services to the residents with the impending layoffs of just over half a dozen Town employees. Not only was this celebration a slap in the face to everyone at the Town Board meeting, it was antagonistic, insulting and an unconscionable act to all the residents, businesses and especially employees in the Town!

Shirking his financial responsibilities as the “Treasurer” for the Town, Feiner appointed his parasitic disciple to this unnecessary commission to draft a budget, enabling the future deflection with which he is so masterful. When he implements the budget this year, and people complain, his predictable response will be it wasn’t “his” budget, but the impartial budget commission – blame them. The “Hochberg Commission” recommended creating a position of some sort of ‘Treasury Oversight Officer’, appointed by the authority of the Supervisor. The Paul has announced he is appointing said felon Hochberg to this position, adding another layer of insulation from the public he espouses concern. Previously, the budget was created by professionals like former Comptroller Mike Kolesar, an honest employee that had come forward with improprieties he found, for which he was subsequently fired. Why? He exposed The Paul’s wrongdoings! By the way, the salary for this PART-TIME position is $45k + benefits. But there will be a $7k buyout that Hochberg will receive for the medical benefits he won’t take from the Town because he already has health insurance. Can anyone say, “Conflict of interest?”

During the budget party in the back room, we imagine a lot of backslapping took place with Councilman Morgan, saying to the Paul, “Well done your eminence, you did it again.” To which The Paul responded, “No, WE did it. Aha ha ha!” And shortly after their exchange, Councilpersons Jeuttner and Sheehan came over to kiss The Paul’s, uh, ring, yeah ring, and asked, “We did what you asked, sire. Can we still stay and get paid if we continue to go along with you?” But alas, in the outside world, the game was still afoot.

As the Board’s band played on inside, the crowd was getting restless – and thinner – the ultimate goal of The Paul at every meeting. Packed with CSEA workers hoping to save their colleagues positions, many had to leave to address child-care issues as it was now about 10PM. Former Town Supervisor candidate Patricia Weems took to the microphone. No stranger to the room, she exclaimed she is tired of being limited to three minutes to speak at these Town Board meetings and was about to get her five minutes. She said it was insulting to the residents and people in this room that the Board would have the audacity to adjourn to a private, ticket only, party in a back room during a regular board meeting. Someone shouted out, “There’s nothing regular about it!” She responded, “Amen to that.” She pointed out that the Town was suspending services that we pay for in our taxes and there was no reason for it. She also mentioned a few regular attendees of the Board meetings by name, thanking them and thanking those in the crowd for taking the interest in the Town’s operation and coming to this meeting.

You no doubt know the expression ‘good news travels fast, bad news faster?’ Word must have gotten back to The Paul at the party that the hall was becoming a Zucotti Park. “What shall you have me do m’lord?” a stiffly bowing Morgan would ask. “Get out there and get that damn microphone away from her! The people can’t find out she’s right or our gig is up!” “What should WE do, Paul?” one of the other two domestics would ask. “Just get out there, dammit! I’ll come bumbling in, in a minute, doing my act, and look clueless.”

Morgan hurled the side entrance door open and saw several people at the podium. Sitting in the front row allowed us to see his rage. Controlled, but obviously flustered, he could do nothing to stop the revolution. In his police days, he could call for backup; but here he was impotent. As he stood there, his two underlings squeezed by, taking their positions on the dais. Crisis averted? Not really, as Weems’ tirade had struck a chord with the already upset crowd. Feiner’s house of cards was wobbling.

A woman from the neighborhood was the first speaker, there to complain about smoke coming from the nearby Westchester Nursery. Armed with a slide show presentation, she artfully tracked the recurring smoke issue, claiming that her infant child often coughs quite a bit from the smoke. She had petitioned the Town for help months ago and had received none. No surprise there. ABG is reasonably sure the nursery donates to the campaign war chest of The Paul. Feigning interest and concern, The Paul “asked” Councilmen Morgan and Sheehan to follow-up with this. Sheehan said his calendar was pretty busy but he would try to get to it soon. Another resident learns the game.

A Town Board meeting favorite was a north Elmsford resident who criticized The Paul’s arbitrary decision to cancel recycling pickups so the still-employed Town workers could pick up leaves instead. “My neighborhood looks like hell now that the papers have blown all over the place. And sending a notice via email only gets to a small portion of people assuming they read their email often. Shame on you, Paul.” She continued to admonish the Supervisor for not recognizing the work performed on behalf of the Town by Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Rosenberg at the beginning of the evenings presentation ceremonies. She turned and made a point to thank Herb Rosenberg during her three minutes. She said she would also thank Bob Berstein when she saw him.

Another gentleman got up joked that rigor mortis was setting in, an obvious reference to how long it took for him to get his turn at the podium (at about 11PM). He too, was there to complain about the lack of recycling pickup as well but said the previous speaker covered his point. He stated that he was not there about the CSEA protests to save positions but agreed with their position, saying, “Our people are the Town’s greatest asset.” ABG agrees. In fact, why didn’t any of the Board members say something to that effect? ABG is sure they were instructed not to.

Continuing, he referenced the Budget Blueprint and questioned if it was fact or fiction? Someone in the audience shouted it was fiction. “We have a ‘A’ and a ‘B’ budget and now we have a blue Alice in Wonderland book added to the mix,” he said holding the book up. He claimed he randomly looked at the first few pages and under the heading ‘Closing Projected Budget Deficit’, there were two amounts that needn’t be there if Feiner hadn’t broken the law. “The $1.6 and $10.2 million amounts are almost equal to the money both Bernstein and Rosenberg brokered back to the Town from the illegal WestHelp payoff deal and the $8 million in fines for the guilty verdict in the Fortress Bible decision against Paul Feiner and the Board.” You’ll recall Feiner and his Board were found guilty on seven counts, including destroying evidence and discrimination. Reduce this deficit amount from the total deficit in this section alone, and we’d be down from $11.8 to $2.6 million deficit. It’s still significant money but it may be more manageable and save some jobs.

If we had a Town Board and a Supervisor interested in doing the right thing, we would not have some of the waste that the Town has. We don’t need an Art Director to receive a salary of $60k to hang pictures in the Town Hall and to teach art appreciation. We don’t need a Treasury Oversight position for any reason for $45k. We don’t need a Town Clerk who has decorates her office like her home – no matter how cocksure she may feel about her own job security. It’s an office and should be treated as such. What we need is a staff that keeps the Town running on all cylinders and not more patronage positions; nor a Supervisor who is involved with repurposing a bridge. We need a dedicated staff to deal with Town issues. While ABG is not endorsing the CSEA, fortunately for us, the CSEA members are already doing this.