Can We Repeal Feiner Instead?

The one thing The Paul does well is generate press. His most recent regurgitated blather was his reasoning to amend the Finneran Law. To recap a bit, the Finneran Law was enacted by the New York State legislature to protect the Unincorporated residents of Greenburgh. Why does The Paul seek to amend it? It stops him from doing what he wants while protecting the best interests of the Town’s residents. No surprise here. Someone stated that Villages within the Town have their elected officials to protect and serve their residents while the Unincorporated residents of Greenburgh have no one protecting their interests as The Paul and his Board run rampant through Town! Can anyone say Boss Tweed?


In order to ensure a lack of opposition against his plan to amend the Finneran law, The Paul and his Stepford Board scheduled a hearing for April 17th, a Tuesday evening. For the last “umpteen years”, the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations has held their monthly meetings on the third Tuesday of the month. The Paul and his Board know that this meeting takes place religiously. This Tuesday night would prove no different. What was different was the people in attendance. Or, more importantly, not in attendance. It was a calculated risk that The Paul believed he could pull off. The Special Hearing for this amendment request found two stalwarts who were able to attend and wrangle 3 minutes each to speak against this travesty, mounting a valiant but futile attempt in the absence of other like minded and civic oriented residents.


At the last Town Board meeting, all of the Village Officials Committee members (mayors) signed a letter protesting this change by The Paul for this amendment. All but one of the leaders of the civic associations attending the CGCA meeting were against this change. The opposition is abundantly obvious and for obvious reasons. After everyone spoke, during the “regular” Town Board meeting, not the hearing, The Paul decided they would go ahead with petitioning the state legislators (Stewart-Cousins & Abinanti) to move forward with this. By the way, they also refused the suggestion for contracts the town enters into with private vendors be reviewed by the state comptroller's office for fairness. By ignoring this request, they’ve proved they are not interested in doing the right thing for the Town, the Unincorporated residents, or following the oath of office they swore to uphold!


The Paul has done as The Paul often does, and pulled dollar amounts out of his, ahem, hat, to make the argument for doing this shady deal. His claims that Sportime would pay $125k for the first year and could reap $270k in rent after ten years is only supposition and non-substantiative wishful thinking. Besides this minuscule amount of money to the Town, the overall returns for Sportime could prove to be huge if tennis ever sees a resurgence. But since the tennis playing public has been dwindling and nothing more than a minor sport, should we be entering this lengthy a contract and increasing our legal exposure? ABG thinks not.


During all of this, the operative buzzword and catchphrase of what Sportime will do for the Town has been infrastructure improvements to the Town’s neglected tennis courts. They promise to resurface five tennis courts, a basketball court and build two more tennis courts. We're waiting to hear why we need two more tennis courts when the existing ones are under-used and often sit empty? We’re waiting to hear why the Town hasn’t maintained the tennis courts even though monies are budgeted for them every year? We’re waiting to hear why the basketball courts have also been neglected? 


Finally, while The Paul and his Stepford’s insist on changing the Finneran law, entering into an inordinately long contractual agreement with a private company, accepting so little for prime real estate property in Westchester, and destroying the idea of moving our police station and courts to a new building at this location, we continue to wonder what the motivation is for The Paul? The tennis courts, et al, can easily and inexpensively be repaired. So the issue really can’t be about infrastructure. For all those employees and the smattering of residents who spoke at the Town Board meeting in favor of this under the guise of deplorable conditions, where have you been during all the other Town Board meetings and why weren't you equally vociferous about the sad state of the courts then?


The liabilities that The Paul and the Stepford’s are about to subject the Town’s Unincorporated residents to is staggering. The deal is just that, a deal - for Sportime. The Finneran law must stand. We should look to find a way to repeal The Paul from office. ABG urges everyone to reach out to The Paul and the Stepford Board and insist they stop! Stop with the Finneran Amendment and stop the deal with Sportime. It’s up to you. We can only hope.