Psst, Nobody Will Know...

Most Town Board meetings, as well as Work Session meetings, go unnoticed by the majority of resident taxpayers and business owners. In fact, this is one of the most emboldening elements in The Paul and his Board’s illegal, collusive and immoral actions. While the G10 continues it’s admirable defense of these same taxpayers from these actions, it’s getting harder and harder for them to keep up with all the bad decisions made by The Paul and ratified by his Board.

The latest unholy mess be perpetrated onto the Town has been with the property formerly known as WestHelp, located on the southwestern corner of the Westchester Community College campus. In a show of support for the Valhalla community, The Paul had used Unincorporated Town budget funds to erect an 8 foot tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire to keep the pesky low-income, single mothers and their young children contained and unable to roam the sleepy hamlet, devaluing their property. Others claim the fence was erected to keep single men out. County Legislator Michael Smith bemoans the fact that they have an overabundance of homeless people in their neighborhood. He openly states that there is a halfway facility across from his street and anyone who believes they should be there should ask to have them put in their own neighborhood. Valhalla has too much in one place.

Ned McCormack, formerly part of Valhalla School Board, and now right-hand man for County Executive Rob Astorino, along with Michael Smith, the then-president of the school board, agreed to a money laundering scheme proposed by The Paul years ago. Their brief meeting on that fall day would begin the ruination of the Town’s largest revenue/income stream that was essentially gifted to the Town by the County. Adding insult to injury, Smith, et al, decided to use the funds appropriated to the school board to take a party cruise with money originally intended for the Valhalla students’ benefit. When asked, Smith claimed at the time that county legislators and the county executive gave their approval with no indication that there would be any future repercussions. His moral compass misplaced, that was good enough for Smith and his crew as they hit the high seas. A lawsuit, subsequent loss and fines for repayment of the money proved that simply taking everyone at their word, with-a-wink-and-a-nod just doesn’t cut it!

The Paul was still determined to work with the Valhalla residents in hopes of nurturing votes in the next election, unsure if he’d be running for the supervisor’s position unopposed or if he’d have to mount a real campaign. He knows he can rely on Council member Kevin “Henchman” Morgan and his daughter to challenge opponent ballot signatures keeping The Paul out of the fray. So at the end of his last unopposed victory, he hatched a new scheme for votes. The Paul did not renew the lease with the County for the WestHelp property, told someone to make sure the facility was left open to slowly deteriorate and then did what he is so good at doing: deflection. He talked about Frank’s Nursery, dog parks, the Tappan Zee bridge, hydro-fracking upstate, closing Indian Point, ConEd’s dismal response during hurricane Irene and other things that have nothing to do with running the Town or which he has any authority or control. His deflection was working. “Mr. Open Government” knows what to say especially as he pens letters to the editors, community view op-eds, and interviews by the rotating reporters du jour who never get a chance to learn his modus operandi. It’s amazing that he has all the answers for every other issue but can’t run the Town efficiently.

The next step was to get someone to move in to the WestHelp facility if he couldn’t get it to deteriorate quickly enough to raze it. After all, what would please the Valhalla voters, Astorino, Smith, McCormack and the rest more than getting the homeless out of the facility? Tearing it down! So he needed a group to “play” and he found a neighbor right in his own back yard. The Ferncliff School located just over the Greenburgh boarder in Yonkers was looking to relocate. The added benefit for The Paul is that he could get another group moved farther away from his own gated community. He suggested renting the facility to them and they went after his plan like sharks chasing surfers. Their concerns were that they needed relatively flat land and while the WestHelp property might fit the bill, they would need to destroy about half of the existing facility and rebuild to meet their needs. Ferncliff and The Paul stated there was no other property anywhere that could suffice. Interestingly, The Paul never offered a similarly sized and appropriate property to them that could be ideal for the school – with some remediation. But The Paul already promised that property to Martin Hewitt, a principle for a start up venture/paper company known as GameOn 365 in a back room deal. The property? Frank’s Nursery.

The G10 pushed at every meeting to get The Paul and his Town Board to do the right thing. The NAACP, who intervened with the Valhalla property when then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced was looking to build the 108 units there, has consistently voiced their opinion that the housing should remain and continue to be used as affordable housing. Dave Wilson of the Journal News moderated two forums discussing the history of the facility, its usage, and future use. Legal opinions were tendered as well. The overwhelming majority of people, whether Greenburgh residents or not, tired of The Paul’s tactics of pitting the developmentally disabled children of Ferncliff against the affordable housing needs of residents. The Paul spoke at the first forum but said nothing and seemed to ramble on incoherently until a statement insulted the audience. The normally friendly crowd for The Paul got restless and the meeting was abruptly ended. Yet, at Town Board meeting after meeting, The Paul would continue have his foot soldiers march up to the podium and endorse the Ferncliff plan to take over WestHelp.

“R-F-P! R-F-P! R-F-P!” Okay, there were no protest chants for a Request For Proposals but it was the constant pushing by the G10, and others that forced The Paul’s hand and he asked for RFP’s for affordable housing prior to the state weighing in and saying nay to Ferncliff moving to the WestHelp property. Five companies that were affordable housing oriented companies submitted RFPs. The Paul claimed the Town Board would do it’s due diligence and investigate the offers. Apparently, one of the submissions was from a former school mate of The Paul. Can you say, “favored status”? Regardless, after a conversation with a resident, they withdrew their application. Another of the applications was from Ferncliff. They were in fact the highest bidder at $500k in rent per year. This wasn’t even half of what the Town had received from the County contract that had now run dry at $1.2 million per year. So, then there were three.

The G10 persisted for two long years and dictated the property be used as intended. They also met with County Legislators to try to get them to investigate The Paul and the Town’s failure to adhere to the contractual requirements for the WestHelp property. With a split vote in that legislature, things became a bit dicey for the democrats in charge. Could they go after one of their own (The Paul) and risk alienating themselves within the party? Some did, but enough didn’t. Smith, a Republican, had a veritable meltdown one evening at a County Board meeting over this issue. The Paul spoke at the County Board meeting, punishing them directly and then had Ferncliff supporters speak. The trick was to have the parents speak of the duress and uncertainty they live with if Ferncliff doesn’t get this property; which are all legitimate concerns. Fortunately, the state intervened and said said, “No.” They were against tearing down existing affordable housing in Westchester, nor would they supply the demolition funds and subsequent building funds Ferncliff would require if they received the property. All of their money has probably been allotted towards rebuilding the Tappan Zee Bridge.

There was one bid left in the RFP process that had all the right components, from a Richard Harris, not the famous actor, of the company called Group MRH, LLC. He submitted his “plan” along with a “resumé” and corroborating documentation stating he was working with well-known and respected affordable housing company, The Richman Group. The problems with the submissions from MRH are many and ABG believes were never intended to see the light of day. ABG believes that the RFP submission from MRH was designed to bolster the RFP submission of the Ferncliff School to the top of the pile with a $500K rental payment, besting the $100K up to $350K from the other applicants. By the way, we don’t believe the Ferncliff School was part of this ploy. The Ferncliff figure of $500K was an assumptive amount they hoped the state would pay for rent if Ferncliff’s proposal were to be accepted.

The resumé submitted by Harris was typed on plain paper as opposed to a letterhead of the company he represents and simply adorned with the word “Resume” at the top. It was more of a letter format than an actual resumé format typically seen in business. The text is eerily similar to that found from their “partners” literature. More importantly, after The Paul announced the partnership of Richman and Group MRH receiving the Town’s nod, the Town attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis received a Cease and Desist order from The Richman Group Affordable Housing Corporation Vice President stating there was no partnership. Harris claimed to have a 10-year track record in affordable housing and yet his company has only been in existence for two years! ABG believes Harris may have been encouraged to submit a proposal only to bolster the Ferncliff offering so The Paul could get the tenant he wanted. But when the accepted proposal could not stand up to scrutiny, The Paul forged on, stating the lack of partnership between these two (Group MRH/Richman) didn’t matter to the Town and the deal stands. Obviously, not on two legs.

While this was going on, Ferncliff was reworking their bid. We’re not sure why as their ability to secure funds from the state to proceed anywhere seems unlikely. Could their actions have been suggested by The Paul in hopes that once this deal with Group MRH fell apart they would swoop in and save the day? Perhaps. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

Because of all the incongruous and conflicting information, the G10 has once again asked that the deal with Group MRH be terminated. Once it is learned that any applicant has not been totally truthful or has apparently lied on their application, it should be dismissed and the next available bid be utilized. The Town Board is holding a work session meeting this morning, stated-time to begin to be guessed by all, to discuss this matter. We’re sure The Paul will remain obstinate and insist on discussing this in Executive Session. But, before they adjourn, they will award the sale of Frank’s Nursery to the lowest bidder, GameOn 365. Let’s hope no other countries send representatives to Greenburgh as the Russians did about two years ago to see how our government works. This is not how it should be and must change. We can only hope.