ABG has posted before about the Finneran Law. It will prove detrimental to the Town if amended via the Albany Legislature. It is only being done because The Paul’s wants it. Naturally, he told his Stepford Board they want it too, so they comply. Anytime a change to a law is made, it’s affect may not be readily seen by those focused on the one or two elements they seek to remedy. In the case of altering the existing Finneran law, it’s sole purpose is to allow The Paul and the Stepford Board the ability to lease Town property to Sportime, a private, for profit, business for what many believe is an under-valued yearly rent with terms that last too long in the “real” world real estate market.
The proposal, which we acquired from the Town Hall, is glaringly fraught with issues that should not be in a proposal of this magnitude. Proposed under the guise of helping the Town, ABG believes this will ultimately do just the opposite. The beginning portion, starting at Line 1, titled Section 1, states, “The town of Greenburgh acting through its town board is hereby authorized and empowered to lease at fair market value and upon such other terms and conditions as determined by such board consistent with sections four and five of this act the lands and improvements described in section three of this act for up to 30 years for the operation of seasonal tennis facilities.”
ABG believes if you are going to amend this law, the State should not be giving the Town Board (Stepford or otherwise) such broad-brush sweeping authority. ABG believes making this decision should only be done through a referendum, allowing the residents, not the Board, to make any determination regarding Town properties. There should not be any time frame mentioned in this amendment to this law, leaving it to the municipality to decide. This is clearly a violation of “home rule” by having the State mandate contractual considerations for a locality!
Section 2 states that “...residents of the town of Greenburgh who reside outside of any incorporated village in such town continue to pay all costs and expenses for the town park and recreational facilities...” It is partially for this reason that all of the Mayors from the Villages within the Town have protested amending the current Finneran Law! Assuredly, The Paul is proving once again he is not concerned with the feelings or opinions of the Villages. We already know of his open contempt for the Unincorporated residents.
Section 4 mandates “... that if the lease for the facilities terminates then the leased park lands revert to the town of Greenburgh to be used as they are presently used.” At issue here is that the state law is compelling the Town to keep the usage as is some thirty years later. So, if it is determined by Sportime, that their business is no longer profitable or the Town decides to evict their tenant, we will be forced to keep the tennis courts, even if tennis is no longer a viable option at this location.
The justification of this proposed change is to give the Town the opportunity to raise revenue by leasing a portion of its under utilized recreational facilities. The Town is saddled with too many guilty verdicts from numerous lawsuits brought about and lost because of The Paul’s illegal actions (at least the illegal actions he got caught for). The Town needs real management skills, proving a Town Administrator looks more and more a viable necessity. If the Town did a revaluation, we could save even more and not need income-producing schemes such as this. As a note, the certiorari refunds proposed to be made at last Town Board meeting held on 6-13-2012 was $489,139! The certiorari refunds continue to creep upwards at every meeting. Just a year ago, the amounts were significantly lower at about $100k per meeting.
Amending the Finneran Law may be a good idea for a private business who stands to get a deflated rent, for an inordinate amount of rental time and no competition. But it’s not good for the Town. Imagine how much better of a deal the Town might be receiving if this deal wasn't geared toward benefitting just one company but was put out to bid, forcing the participants to offer more than just resurfacing the tennis courts? But this is the way The Paul wants it and so it will be. This behavior is criminal and must stop. We can only hope.
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Finneran is being amended (or so the Town hopes) not for Game-On, which is trying to rent the former Frank's Nursery property, but for Sportime, which wants to lease the tennis courts at Anthony Veteran Park. The Town is promising that if Finneran gets amended, it will conduct a new RFP to see if it can get even better offers from vendors other than Sportime. The problem with Finneran being amended, from the point of view of unincorporated Greenburgh, is that it gives the Town carte blanche to decide on whatever rental terms it wants, even if, at the end of the day, it screws unincorporated Greenburgh or saddles us with millions of dollars in debt. Feiner refused to consider having the terms and conditions approved for fairness by the state comptroller's office. That itself should be a red flag. The last lease Feiner tried to do for Sportime had to be declared illegal and unenforceable by a court because it saddled unincorporated Greenburgh with up to $3 million in debt.
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