The Silence of Free Thought, Free Actions and Free Will

It’s no secret The Paul lies to his constituents and ABG has frequently illustrated examples of it. It’s also no secret that his Stepford Town Board goes along with whatever he demands of them. And, on occasion, he’ll let one of his charges “sound off” and appear to go against the flow – but we all know better. Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan did this a few months ago, claiming at a Board meeting that the members acted independently and didn’t just blindly follow The Paul. Then he voted in the affirmative along with The Paul. Recently, we witnessed Diana “Sleepy” Juettner take a stab at a faux protest where her one vote didn’t matter. ABG believes they must first get permission from The Paul to be able to openly protest, giving the appearance of being a independent thinker, and then can cast an opposing vote especially if its a minority one. After watching the machinations of this Board, even with Ken “Newbie” Jones, it’s apparent that free thought, free actions and free will do not exist in The Paul’s Town Hall. To ensure compliance, The Paul keeps much information close to the vest and only shares information with his Board when it is convenient for his agenda, shielding them from what could be helpful in the “free thinking” decision making.

The Fairview residents of Fulton Park found out by accident that The Paul had volunteered the former Kings Inn Motel property to Westhab to build a 7-story apartment building on .7 acres of land. If this was such a good idea, why not invite the residents into the fold, including their participation and input? Instead, he kept the deal secret for as long as he could, intentionally not forging a cooperative effort and ultimately screwing this neighborhood for another developer friend. The old saying, “Kiss me first,” comes to mind. 

After making the proverbial “done deal” with Westhab, he met with neighborhood leaders. There he openly and unabashedly lied to them saying they might be able to move the project to another location. This was just as he had lied to them 25 years earlier when County-placed homeless were living in the former Kings Inn. The Paul promised the neighborhood during that time if the county were ever to remove the homeless from this location that he would support a senior living facility at that location. When push came to the proverbial shove, he continued to lie, claiming he never said that. Numerous long-time residents challenged The Paul claiming he was lying so he demanded they show him in writing when he ever said that. And, Westhab wouldn’t budge from the location since the property was purchased at an inflated price and turned over to them with county and state funds. Why would The Paul do this to another Fairview neighborhood and leave others such as Boulder Ridge alone? Is it that he doesn’t respect the neighborhoods or their residents? Is he looking for more awards and proclamations from these not-for-profit and very handsomely funded organizations? Is it that they contribute to his campaigns, college and retirement funds? And why would his Stepford Board go along with his wholesale allocation and distribution of neighborhood properties? ABG is sure you can deduce the answer. 

Moving on, ABG can only wonder if the residents of the Mayfair-Knollwood area knew about the arrangement The Paul had with several “major players” from that neighborhood? NIMBY’s all, the goresome foursome* decided to let the WestHelp lease lapse to hasten the degradation of the apartment facility. The Paul instructed his minions to leave the windows and doors of the facility open to encourage looting, animal destruction, mold , mildew and more. Perhaps he turned to his proven “Henchman” and suggested he take care of it? Unguarded and cloaked from traffic and watchful eyes, the apartments began their decline two years ago. Pretending to care about others, The Paul asked for RFP’s to refurbish the facility to be used for housing any number of deserving people: veterans, seniors, abuse victims, etc. Six agencies submitted legitimate proposals to this illegitimate request, including the Ferncliff School whose disabled clientele were the intended recipients of the property all along. But The Paul misjudged (again). He underestimated everyone involved and while he believed this would be a done deal for Ferncliff, there were unintended results: the agencies all came back with good plans and a willingness to refurbish the facility at their cost which was estimated at about $3M. This is almost the amount of money The Paul has cost us by not renewing the lease with the County. But again, nobody knew The Paul was doing all of this until the damage had literally been done. Why the secrecy and what are The Paul’s hidden agendas?

Why wasn’t the public made aware of the secret back-room deal The Paul struck with GameOn 365 years ago when Frank’s Nursery was approaching foreclosure and not yet acquired by the Town? Under the guise of another great deal brokered by The Paul, he secretly met with the owners of GameOn 365 and offered them the sweetheart of sweetheart deals that would be theirs once the Town acquired the former Frank’s Nursery through foreclosure. It was just a matter of time for them and they would need to be patient. What The Paul never advertised was why Frank’s Nursery went into foreclosure and why they were so eager to let the Town have the property? A number of years ago during the library construction, there was talk about temporarily housing the library at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the old Frank’s Nursery. Once talks to relocate began, Frank’s got nervous because they knew the location was not a safe one.

After the illegal lease deal The Paul and his complicit Town Board attempted to execute with GameOn 365, a lawsuit was initiated from the public. The Town was once again on the wrong end of another losing lawsuit battle caused by The Paul. After way too much time, someone had finally gotten through to The Paul and he withdrew the illegal lease deal with the excuse that the lawsuit would tie the Town up in court for a long time and cost the Town unnecessary money. The Paul knew from experience this was correct. But he or someone else recognized they were simply in violation of County and State law as it relates to foreclosed property. Legally, the Town Board can sell the foreclosed land to whomever they want because it was a piece of foreclosed property**. 

Regrettably, nobody knew the foreclosed property was up for sale or even available except for GameOn 365. Why? The Paul and the Board kept it well under wraps and from the public because the fix was in. Inconveniently for The Paul, a better offer to purchase the land was tendered by the owners of The House of Sports for almost double what The Paul was trying to gift to GameOn 365. This was quite the conundrum for The Paul! Continue to pursue the sale to the preferred customer who doesn’t have the money needed to purchase the property or sell to an “outsider”, who not only has a successfully similar facility operating in Ardsley but has the cash to not only purchase the property at double the amount but pay for the site’s contamination remediation. We’re written extensively that the Franks’s Nursery site was used as a debris dump for the remnants of downtown White Plains’ urban renewal projects. Add the years of chemicals from three nurseries (D’Agostino, Flower Time and Frank’s) and a heating oil tank leak, and god knows what else (paging Jimmy Hoffa), and it’s no wonder The Paul kept the deal a secret! We imagine his whispering to the Board when they finally got wind that the public knew this, “Shhh, nobody has to know...”

Only a few short months ago and one week shy of the opposition filing date, the Parkway Homes neighborhood got the shock of their lives when The Paul announced, “Oops, I forgot to tell you, the state is purchasing property at 88 North Road to build a three-story, ADA compliant group home on a small residential plot of land.” Paperwork foiled from the Town shows The Paul received the notification of intent to purchase and build communication from the State in December of 2012! ABG believes The Paul must have then promised to spot-zone and approve whatever the group home needed through the entire process. He’s done this repeatedly throughout the Town. One would believe all the Board members knew about this. 

The Paul is no stranger to low/no income, Section 8, and other types of housing facilities in only one section of Town but his own and willing to trample the rights of any neighborhood in Fairview to build it. County Legislator Alfreda Williams said it best when she accused The Paul of “ghetto-izing Fairview”. The sad part is one week before the objection period was about to expire and the residents found out about it, they packed the Town Hall with standing room only to object! The Paul was being proven wrong again. The Parkway Homes officer and representative who should have told his neighborhood about this, didn’t. Why wouldn’t Town Councilman Ken Jones, blessed for the office by The Paul, remain silent against his own friends and neighbors going along with his fellow Board members? Again, we think you know why.

Jones screwed up by withholding the group home information from his neighbors and needed to save face. The Board members postured at a Tuesday work session about the facility being built where it was proposed, the neighborhood’s complaints about saturations of group homes, the arrogance of the states representative’s position that the state never loses and so on. Jones was on the hot seat as we’re sure the Parkway Homes neighbors let him know how displeased they were with his lack of representation. We imagine his response as, “B-but you don’t understand. The Paul told me not to say anything. There was nothing I could do.” Wrong! Jones is a representative of the people of Greenburgh, and should act as such. It’s his primary responsibility as an elected councilman. He failed them. So, at the end of the discussion, he made a motion to submit a letter of opposition to the group home on the grounds that it violated the Towns 2,000 foot encroachment law. Having allies to jump on the bandwagon with, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan practically groveled on how he was in favor of group homes but it violated the encroachment law residents had pointed out. Undaunted by this Greenburgh encroachment law, The Paul stated he was in favor a group homes and he used to live across the street from one. Of course what he didn’t mention is how he’s insulated against group homes in his gated Boulder Ridge community. Jones explained he’s making the motion to object to the state building the home based on existing Greenburgh law, not because he’s against group homes. Unfazed, The Paul rambled on for a few more minutes as to why he was in favor of group homes continuing to miss the point of the objection motion. Simply, the objection is being issued based on this group home’s violation of a well established Town law. In a true act of defiance (preordained?), the Board voted against The Paul’s one vote authorizing a letter be submitted to the state opposing the group home. We’re still waiting to see how this plays out, but since Mr. Open Government rarely tells anyone when controversial projects are happening, our guess is we’ll be told as the Town Board members are on their way with The Paul for the ribbon cutting ceremony opening the new group home at 88 North Road. Maybe the state will see the error of their ways and build in the gated Boulder Ridge. We can only hope.

*The Paul, Rob Astorino, Michael Smith, Ned McCormack
** ABG believes GameOn 365 will be awarded the sale by The Paul & his Board, stating they believe this is the only fair thing to do as GameOn 365 was the only interested party from the beginning. A bogus argument, but then again The Paul has rarely made good ones.