A Deficit of Distrust

President Obama’s new buzz-phrase, A Deficit of Distrust, was driven home by several residents at Wednesday nights Town Board meeting, taking direct aim at the Town Board and specifically the Supervisor. Guilty eyes shifted downward by all on the dais as residents pummeled the recent and all-too-familiar incompetence and guilty verdicts rendered against The Paul and the Town Board. Newly elected Councilman Kenneth Jones sat next to The Paul, probably wondering how could things have deteriorated for him so quickly? After all, didn’t he just win an election? Technically, yes. But with no opposition, the Board and The Paul waltzed right in unchallenged. Incompetence breeds incompetence. Welcome aboard Mr. Jones, grab a life preserver.

In an unusual reversal of bad and habitual “rule”, last nights meeting started at 7:30 PM, even though residents began filling the outer room at 7 PM. The early time was to accommodate a “brief” meeting and explanation by Jonathan Raser, a Hazard Mitigation Program Manager from Tetra Tech, of possible future actions regarding flooding in Greenburgh. His was the company hired by the Town to study the flooding problem in the Town, draft a Hazard Mitigation plan with the police chief and now act on the Towns behalf to try to acquire flood relief funds. Conflict of interest? You decide. We’ve posted about this earlier. He made his presentation to the residents filling the room, mostly from the Fulton Park and Babbitt Court neighborhoods. Several people from both neighborhoods asked pertinent questions, generating bureaucratic non-answers, leading some to believe this would be nothing more than an exercise in futility.

Raser was asked about validating damage to qualify for funds and responded that it was between the homeowner and the insurance company. Yet, the homeowner or small business cannot be the party seeking the funds, only the Town can do that as an intermediary. The Town will seek the funds, not the homeowners. But if a buy-out is the goal, the resident will only be offered 75% of the value of their homes - not at market value before the flood. One example given, without using accurate numbers, was if a house was valued at $100k, they now start at $75k and there’s no guarantee that the homeowner will receive $75k. These same residents, with mortgages and the losses they’ve suffered, will lose much more than $25k. Stacked deck? You decide.

Several County legislators were in attendance. Newly elected Mt Pleasant Republican Michael Smith, Democrats MaryJane Shimsky and Alfreda Williams as well as several representatives from higher level politicians apparently too busy to waste their time with a few residents suffering from flooding in Greenburgh, were in attendance. Smith didn’t offer anything, but since he was just elected, ABG will give him a pass. Williams, in typical form, offered nothing. Shimsky was the shining star from the County last night. She touched on progress made with the cleaning of the Saw Mill River in Greenburgh and Elmsford (ABG previously posted this). Then she proceeded to describe her investigation of the Bronx River and how it is in a much worst condition than the Saw Mill River and needs a tremendous amount of attention. ABG hopes that Shimsky will continue her efforts to improve the conditions for the flow of water. It’s apparent to ABG that now that the TV cameras have disappeared, The Paul has stopped worrying about the Bronx River flooding, Fulton Park, etc. In fact, he’s back to dumping on Fulton Park with Westhab, as well as his deflecting tactics, with the Tappan Zee Bridge petting zoos, bungee jumping decks and the like, all to be financed either by the state or the Unincorporated residents of Greenburgh, who won’t have exclusivity or right of way usage.

Once the flooding presentation and follow-up questions and answers appeared over, Raser adjourned to the cafeteria per The Paul to discuss flooding issues with residents one-on-one. After that meeting, many left with few returning for what the uninitiated might refer to as the regular order of business. We understand its a stretch. The G8* were in attendance, along with a few other masochists, who shared the podium during the public comment. At some point, the Board decided to suspend the posted hearings, wasting residents, developers and employees time. See our previous post entitled The Process of Waste.

During the public comment session Bob Bernstein chastised the newest Board member, Councilman Jones for something we weren’t aware of and will not comment on. Yet his scorching barrage had Jones visibly uncomfortable. Then he brought up the guilty verdict for the Dromore Road case. This is another in a long list of guilty verdicts levied against the Town because The Paul feels he can do whatever he wants when it suits him. The Paul’s answer to all is if you don’t like what he’s doing, you can sue him. Since The Paul knows he cannot personally be held liable, he ignores doing the right thing and just does what he wants. Bernstein pointed out that The Paul’s arrogance and the Legal Department’s incompetence under Timothy Lewis is costing the Unincorporated residents a fortune in guilty verdict fines! When will it stop? Bernstein also lamented that he and others had offered information and help to challenge and even win the lawsuit but were shunned. He closed by saying he may wind up fixing their screw-ups by working on behalf of the Town as he and Herb Rosenberg did with the WestHelp case where The Paul illegally funneled money to the Valhalla School District. Admirably, Bernstein and Rosenberg were able to get a court decision to return $1.2 million back to Greenburgh. He closed by saying it is no wonder the residents of Greenburgh have such a deficit of distrust.

Editors Note: We wonder if the Town didn't have all these court cases against them and the guilty verdicts against them for the dozen or so illegal actions by The Paul, and we had that money to balance the 2012 budget, if Scott Uzzo might still be alive? See our post: Ex-Greenburgh Worker Jumps From Tappan Zee Bridge. 


Fulton Park Vice-President Tom Bock got up and berated The Paul for issuing a building permit to Westhab, and not notifying the neighborhood. He continued that it was The Paul who promised at numerous Town Meetings, on TV and in written articles and letters to the residents that he was going to prove to the neighborhood that they are wrong about how he feels about Fulton Park and he was going to turn their opinion of him around, proving he cares. “Is this how you show you care?” asked Bock who then told the Board and specifically The Paul that WestHelp closed. He repeated, WestHelp closed, because the need isn’t there any more! The need of low and no income subsidized housing isn’t necessary in Greenburgh. Plus, The Paul’s reason for putting it where they did was because there were two supermarkets nearby - which he helped to close - with which those residents could shop. So the reasons never mattered. It was all about giving back to a developer. Bock closed with the fact that The Paul mandated the Fulton Garden Apartments develop a flood mitigation plan for the Fulton Park neighborhood simply to increase the height of their buildings but made no such demands of Westhab who is increasing the amount of impervious space on the entire property. The Westhab building will have a negative impact to flooding, housing values, traffic congestion, crime, and a lower quality of life. This is how The Paul proves his concern for Fulton Park.

Fulton Park President Maria Gomez got up and chided The Paul for not only letting Westhab get a building permit, but not mandating them to do anything about flood mitigation when the Fulton Gardens and Deli Delicious were told they’d have to. Why the double standard? She also questioned if Westhab had filed all the necessary covenants prior to the building permit application? Again, nothing but silence.

Ella Preiser, criticized The Board for their actions on the Dromore Road guilty verdict and then mentioned the Caratozzolo victory verdict against The Paul, The Town Board and the fact that they still haven’t corrected the issue - even after being found guilty! She questioned whether or not everyone throughout the Town might be paying more than they should and what were they going to do about it? Again, silence. She finished by asking was it any wonder the residents don’t trust this Board?

It seemed throughout the night as others spoke, the theme of distrust, dishonesty and disbelief was the topic de jour. If and when the Board and The Paul thought they might not cause themselves any more trouble, they would occasionally speak to low-level questions raised. Otherwise, all that was received was silence. We had hopes for Ken Jones that he might do the right thing. But sitting in between the muscle and the moron, we doubt anything will change. We can only hope.

* The usual resident “assessors” at the Town Board meetings, aka the Greenburgh-8 (G8).