Appeal Denied!

Unable to attend the Town Board’s work session, we watched it online. To say the Board’s guard appeared down would be an understatement. The agenda for the regular Board had numerous issues we’ve posted about before and some we haven’t. One we have posted about is Leafing Neighborhoods Alone: http://abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2012/01/ignoring-neighborhoods-and-picking-up.html

The meeting opened with a discussion about ceasing residential leaf pickup by the Town’s vacuum trucks and forcing residents to bag their leaves for removal in bags. The Paul slipped, again opening his mouth and gave away how he intends to vote on the mulching issue, regardless of the public’s input. He said, “Once the local law is approved, uh, if the local law is approved, I want to reach out to landscapers about…” So, to all those residents who don’t feel appreciated, you may not want to waste your time by coming to Wednesday nights Town Board meeting as this is a done-deal! It’s what The Paul hopes for anyway.

He also mentioned that the Edgemont Association had posted on their website that they are against any vote being taken during the vacation period as many families may be away as their children are out of school this week and also celebrating Passover. The Paul felt that they should just vote on this as it’s been discussed since December. He offered numerous suggestions to be able to bring this vote to fruition, including special meetings – one of his typical tactics. With his obvious faux pas (we’re being generous), will it really matter what happens? It matters very much to us. But for The Paul and the Stepford Board this is just another nuisance vote they’d like to get off their plates.

Following the Town’s agenda brought us to the section we so look forward to at each meeting. Under the heading of Attorney, we get to see the certiorari challenges to the Town that the Town cannot refuse because The Paul and his Stepford Board choose to not execute a revaluation throughout the Town. It’s the one thing they can do to stop the monthly certiorari payments. The total amount we expect to see averages about $100k in unchallengeable refunds in each session. Scarily, this meeting’s certiorari payments will total $450, 571!

Also under the heading of Attorney, are the Town’s resolutions seeking legal representation for the Town as well as financial judgments against the Town. That total amounts to $33,871.76. Combined with the certiorari total for Wednesday evening expenditures, we will be spending $484,442.76. Wow! You can relax a bit, the same meeting has the Board asking Police Chief DeCarlo and Steffi Cabrias for a schedule for new amounts of parking and related violations fines to be implemented throughout the Town. Councilman Jones stated that these fines haven’t been increased in ten years. Well that’ll certainly help the Town keep above water.

Speaking of water, there is nothing on the Town agenda addressing anything being done with flooding. Each day as we drive to our office, we see more and more demolition work being done at 22 Tarrytown Road, the former Kings Inn/Westhab Inn. When the Fulton Gardens apartments asked the Town for preliminary approval to expand in height, The Paul and the Stepford Board insisted that they help address the neighborhood flooding, of which they too are victims. They agreed. Ironically, The Paul and the Stepford’s never required Westhab to do this. Why not? The Board instituted LEEDS compliance for all new buildings in the Town. Westhab didn’t need to comply. You see, this is a special project that The Paul wants, negating any requirements that others might have to comply with.

Ken Jones brought into the discussion fees, permits and licensing costs and how prohibitive they can be for people, in particular, homeowners. In the Interesting Comments Department, Thomas Madden stated that the fees are used to pay for the staff time to process the paperwork. Really? Isn’t that why we pay them a salary, to process the paperwork for the Town? The residents are apparently getting screwed twice. Once with yearly double-digit tax increases and second with permit/licensing fees. It’s great to live in Greenburgh.

One other great issue of the day is the HVAC system in the library, which already needs to be replaced! Usually you can expect an HVAC system to last about twenty or so years. At hand is a thirteen-page HVAC System Draft Report by OLA Consulting Engineers, PC. Evidently, a resident requested this 13-page report but was only given two pages of the document through a FOIL request. Dave Freed stated that the resident appealed this decision. He believes after checking with the state that a consultant is an extension of the Town department it is working with, making it an intra-agency document and not required to disclosure under FOIL. It seemed that Freed was straining to validate his decision. Town Clerk Belville chimed in to say the resident requesting this document was doing so on behalf of a civic association. So? Are there different standards for each? As usual, we find Belville’s comments unnecessary and intrusive. No one asked for her opinion or clarification on this. When the discussion became uncomfortable silence, The Paul rendered his decision. The result: appeal denied!

It’s getting harder and harder to live in the Town. Our under-imaginative Board and Supervisor are running out of hat tricks, shell games and finger-pointing. Even Jones seems stunned with the explanations being fed to him. Greenburgh desperately needs to change. We can only hope!