Todd Ghiosay
NYSDEC
Division of Environmental Remediation
Spill Prevention and Response
100 Hillside Avenue - Suite 1W
White Plains, NY 10603-2860
Phone (914) 428-2505 ext. 361
Fax (914) 428-0323>>> 4/19/2013 4:15 PM >>>Dear Todd,
Thank you for meeting with us on Wednesday, April 17th.Do you have any information for us regarding the property we discussed?Sincerely,Dorrine Livson
REPLY:
Mrs LivsonVictor Carosi returned my call and informed me that his consultant did have an informal meeting with someone at DEC but he did have a name. He also said that the town is evaluating whether the property will be sold "as is", leaving it up to the buyer to do the remediation or whether the Town should do the cleanup.Victor did say the he believes that the town will be handling the oil spill cleanup to clear the spill number.
The last line of his letter is the real indicator of the Town’s intent. ABG is not sure whose decision it was for the Town to pay for the cleanup but doubt it was Mr. Carosi’s. ABG wants to know when this decision made? There’ve been no open discussions about this at any public meetings that ABG is aware of. Was it made during another one of the now-routine Executive Sessions the Board has become so desperate of utilizing? The Paul and his Stepfords have no difficulty shoving their hands down our pants to get at our hard-earned money every time they get more proverbial egg hurled onto their faces due to an impending financial penalty, fine or judgement headed their way. Hold onto your wallets.
If you’ve watched any Town Board meetings within the last six months, you’ve noticed anytime a difficult question is asked or an embarrassing judgement/decision by the Board may be exposed, the secret signal (think The Sting) is given. The designated Board member makes the motion to adjourn to Executive Session, the others stumble over themselves to offer a second to the motion and keep the public from knowing what The Paul (Mr. Open Government) and his Stepford Board will soon discuss behind closed doors.
There are several issues at play here for the Town residents (and several Attorney Generals) that our loyal followers already know. First, The Paul entered into secret negotiations with GameOn 365’s principals long before the Town acquired this property through foreclosure. Can you say collusion? Second, after the Town had acquired the property, a discussion ensued about how the library construction would impede the public’s use of the library facility and the former Frank’s Nursery was proposed as a temporary library site. That suggestion quickly screeched to a halt once it was learned that carcinogens, a fuel oil leak, and the earlier use of the property was uncovered as a dump for White Plains’ Urban Renewal waste. Ironically, the overhead high tensions wires bordering the property seemed to be of little concern.
Third, collusion with GameOn 365 began the illegal scenario but was by no means the only misplay by The Paul and his Stepfords. Once GameOn 365 finalized their Sports Bubble plan, they needed investors to pull this pyramid-like scheme off as their organization is made up of a bunch of stock brokers without the funds to proceed. GameOn 365 needed the lease to promote the offering to potential investors. They winked and explained to The Paul of their plan to erect a gigantic, 8-story (83ft tall) inflatable bubble on the site, make a few outdoor fields and pay the Town $5M. They had him hooked once The Paul heard he could make $5M dollars. The Paul had lost so much money with his screw up of the WestHelp deal, Fortress Bible guilty verdict (and others) that he began salivating like a vampire at a blood bank. GameOn 365 went in front of the Town Board as a formality and officially pitched the plan. The Paul told them to love it, so they did! Shrewdly, The Paul offered to lease the property to them for 15 years for a total of $5M. That breaks down to about $300k per year – an amount The Paul was unwilling to accept for the WestHelp property that the Town doesn’t even own.
The Paul has been pushing sports bubbles in the Town for years but could not proceed because of a restriction through the Finneran law. What to do? Wait a minute... The Paul asked his buddies Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti, now a NYS Assemblyman and NYS Senator Andrea “Platitudes” Stewart-Cousins to railroad an amendment to the Finneran Law allowing bubbles through their respective chambers during the “it’s getting late and we have to hit the road” final minutes of their respective legislatures. Done (deal)! The Paul could proceed with his promises to illegally offer the lease.
The Paul even had one of our Recreation Commissioners (there are two – just like our magic tax-cap number), Gerry Bryne, speak to Greenburgh’s need for more sports fields. Rather than remediate the property and develop it as a sports field if we truly need more sports fields, The Paul sought this illegal lease. Then The Paul decided to add insult to injury and hold a referendum for the illegal lease deal, trying to validate his illegal deal. Knowing the public is clueless, he knew if he worded the referendum “properly”, adding in yard signs and newspaper ads, voters would read it for the first time at the voting “booth” and it would pass – which it did. But illegal is still illegal even though he successfully duped the majority of voters into approving it.
ABG readers also know that anytime someone disagrees with what The Paul is doing, his classic response, “If you don’t like what I’m doing, you can sue me.” So they did – again. Another sports-oriented company with a different clientele and business model, House of Sports of Ardsley, NY, initiated a lawsuit along with several others, to block the illegal lease. The premise for their lawsuit was that NY State and Westchester County law mandates any property acquired by a municipality must be sold or utilized by that municipality. GameOn 365 littered the landscape with yard signs claiming this deal would bring $5M to the Town. How could this be bad for the Town?
The saga continues, but is now on hold as The Paul claims the Town is doing its “due diligence” regarding the two offerings. Read: stalling. The Town Board members have been instructed to say the same thing, so they do. As they parrot what The Paul tells them to say, the property sits unremediated and unused. The site is about the size and scope of the WestHelp property that The Paul insisted should be used for the Ferncliff School for the Developmentally Disabled. And mysteriously, he has never suggested using 715 Dobbs Ferry Road for the Ferncliff School. Why not? ABG continues to insist the Town do the right thing and ask for a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the site and see what else we might get?
ABG has previously predicted the Town’s decision will be to sell the property to GameOn 365 – even though House of Sports has offered double the amount of what GameOn 365 has for the site and promised to pay for the remediation. The Paul and the Stepfords will site all kinds of excuses but they will be irrelevant. GameOn 365 can’t “up the ante” because they have no “ante”. House of Sports has cash in hand. ABG continues to predict the Town will wind up paying for remediation of the property either directly or through credits of some sort once GameOn 365 gets the property. ABG doesn’t really care what is built on the property but acknowledges it is zoned for residential housing and should remain that way. We can only hope.
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