Truth, Lies, and the Greenburgh Way

A press conference on location will make an impact. Openly lying during the press conference will also make an impact. Promising to divulge information and at a press conference and then not doing so will make an impact. Inviting the press and neighbors to the press conference and not allowing questions will make an impact. Every aspect of today’s press conference was another part of the insider deal conceived and initiated in 2007 by Mr Feiner to help his “friends” from GameOn 365. One can only wonder what would motivate him to craft and participate in a sweetheart deal with an outside developer over the wishes of so many residents in the area and would not provide the best financial outcome for the Town?

Mr Feiner claimed that two-thirds of Greenburgh wanted the 8-story sports bubble through a biased and slanted referendum of November 6, 2012. A lie? Actually, yes. Only two-thirds of the voters out of about eight thousand who actually voted, out of ninety-two thousand residents in total, wanted the 83 foot tall sports bubble in a neighborhood other than their own. Shouldn’t the neighborhood being affected have the say and not everyone else? Of course. Mr Feiner rebuffed the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association’s repeated requests to meet with him and the Town Board to discuss the proposal before any decision was made. The wording in the referendum ensured a “yes” vote while omitting important and pertinent data. Had the public had been properly informed of the “real deal”, they invariably would have voted against Mr Feiner’s bogus referendum. Those in the know, know that Mr Feiner doesn’t like to lose. That’s not a lie.

Today’s press conference was read by Mr Feiner from a prepared three page document that not only had omissions, but out and out lies. This was another extension of the old adage that Mr  Feiner subscribes to, that if you say something over and over, eventually it will be considered the truth. ABG believes Mr Feiner is incapable of the truth! He claims the Town extracted many concessions from GameOn 365. Yet he mentioned none! He claimed the Town would receive $3M for the sale, $1.7 “immediately” and the balance of $1.3M after the closing. Here’s the semantics and word-play we are so used to from Mr Feiner. In reviewing the contract, the balance of $1.3M is to be paid over the balance of the contract period of 15 years with an interest rate of 2.2%. It is roughly the same deal Mr Feiner and the Board tried to give GameOn 365 all along! Although back then, we were being told we would receive $5M after the 15 years. So we lost $2M in the interim. An omission or a lie? You decide.  Is it any wonder that incumbent and current re-election candidates Francis Sheehan and Diana Juettner didn’t show up to this counterfeit proposal? Please, don’t be too fast to let them off the hook as they are complicit with this since the inception of this deal. But since they are seeking re-election and still need Mr Feiner, they decided they needed to lay low.

Mr Feiner insisted that the Town actively solicited bids for this property after acquiring it. Simply, its another lie. After having his feet held to the fire, the Supervisor had a meager sign put up on the overgrown property advertising it. That’s it. The G10 asked at many meetings what was actively being done to advertise the land. If and when Mr Feiner would respond, he would say “they” put up flyers or he posted it on his blog, which apparently must be an active real estate sales location. What they never did was contact commercial real estate companies to market it. At the last Town Board meeting Mr Feiner accused residents of bid-rigging. This project is a blatant example of just that – not by residents, but by their elected officials! Could the reality be that Mr Feiner has made it so difficult to see the truth and requires so much in “pay to play” fees, that any legitimate developer interested in the property simply decided to pass on it?

The press conference got ugly when Mr Feiner made disparaging comments about the House of Sports, and their parent company Elm Street Sports, along with HelpBurstTheBubble.com and its owner Simon Cohen. Representatives from Elm Street Sports were present and challenged Mr Feiner’s allegations against them. Mr Feiner said he had court papers proving what he said. When pushed to read from them or produce them, Mr Feiner would not. Then he went after one of the principals of Elm Street Sports for comments he made over a year ago at a Town Board meeting. Elm Street Sports has offered $3.5M for the property and promised any and all remediation required before building. Their only condition was the Town provide the requirements to remediate the sight. Mr Feiner never returned or responded to their letters, phone calls or emails. There was no reason to – he never intended for anyone else to get the property than GameOn 365!

Mr Feiner is certainly not the paragon of truth or honesty. Time has proven this and two courts have validated this with guilty verdicts against him for destroying evidence, lying under oath and discriminating against an African American Church (with four additional counts). We found it incredulous when he had the audacity to say, “Finally, I’m troubled by House of Sports relationship with Burst The Bubble, which claimed to be a legitimate not for profit community organization opposing development for environmental reasons.” He’s troubled by a relationship of a private citizen and a private company? Greenburgh residents are all troubled by a relationship between Mr Feiner and GameOn 365’s Martin Hewitt as well as GameOn 365! The residents are troubled by Mr Feiner’s biased challenge of HelpBurstTheBubble.com’s environmental concerns. Had it not been for the residents and in particular HelpBurstTheBubble.com, Mr Feiner would have pushed an illegal lease deal through without regard to the contamination on the site. Now you can see why Mr Feiner is manipulating the press conference against Elm Street Sports and HelpBurstTheBubble.com and not talking about the sweetheart deal he has blessed onto GameOn 365 for practically no serious money and less money overall than originally promised! Mr Feiner had engaged into deflection mode but the residents in attendance weren’t accepting any of it.

Elm Street Sports has promised more litigation for this spurious and frankly, insulting, deal being perpetrated against the Town from within. As we study the contract, the Town plans to vote on this tomorrow night. We pray residents from Greenburgh come to speak out against this sham. GameOn 365 has previously brought in non-residents from outside the area to speak on their behalf, “supporting” this proposal. This is another example of government run amok because we lack term limits and checks and balances with single party control. After Mr Jones shouts down another resident lets see if Mr Feiner will shout out, “You can’t handle the truth!”

With the Democratic Nominating Convention taking place at Town Hall Tuesday night, which we “trust” they will be paying for, we hope the Democratic district leaders will use their better judgement to not nominate Mr Feiner as their top representative for the Town and hopes they’ll be doing the right thing. There’s an opportunity for real change to take place in Greenburgh tonight. Let’s hope they don’t blow it.