Supervisor Won’t Cease or Desist

The abandoned WestHelp affordable housing property on the Westchester Community College campus continues to degrade as Mr Feiner instructed the property be left exposed as part of his plan. Even though its gate is still padlocked, we’re told pipes have been removed as well as sinks, faucets and the like. Mr Feiner wanted to eliminate the facility in Valhalla to secure votes for himself and co-conspirators in the upcoming election. His plan began over two years ago. Ever the phony, yet scheming politician, he kept his plan mute. When the G10 residents realized what happened, they went public. Things have gotten so uncomfortable for Mr Feiner with this latest fiasco, that he and his Board have taken drastic steps to limit the public from speaking out at Town Board meetings.

After NYS ruled against Mr Feiner’s plan to tear down the facility and allow his choice of the Ferncliff School of Yonkers, for the developmentally disabled to build a new school at the location, Mr Feiner faked concern again and insisted an RFP for affordable housing be posted soliciting from developers a plan to renovate and use the site for affordable housing. An RFP should be good. There were a number of viable proposals promising renovation and rental of the units within a short period of time. Mr Feiner has learned from the GameOn 365 debacle that he can say anything but do what he pleases with little or no legal, moral or ethical repercussions. He learned to use the new “buzz” phrases of “due diligence” and “fiduciary responsibility to the Town”. And yet, he continues to argue about his flawed decisions with these proposals with wanton disregard for legalities.

After a new Request For Proposal (RFP) was requested by Mr Feiner and the Town Board, a number of affordable housing-oriented specialists submitted their proposal for the WestHelp property. One company called Group MRH, submitted the bid paperwork with falsified statements and documents to enhance their chance of being awarded the bid. The ruse almost worked. The problem was that this vendor, handpicked by Mr Feiner, not only falsified documents to get the bid, but his bid was too low when compared to the others. Undeterred, ABG believes Mr Feiner quietly worked with MRH until his bid was the highest one. No matter that their bid and its related information was lie. He asked for a new bid and amazingly, Group MRH had the high bid. ABG can imagine Mr Feiner saying, “I can’t tell you what the highest bid is but yours needs be more.” “How about now?” as MRH slipped a piece of paper toward Mr Feiner with a new, larger number. “Not yet.” Another piece of paper. “Now?” “Nope.” Again. “Now?” “Yes, write it up and resubmit it!”

In the submission for the last bid was a seemingly innocuous statement that claimed Group MRH had maintained a 10-year working relationship with the Richman Group. Richman is a well-known and respected affordable housing management company with a range of affordable housing involvement throughout the country. Everyone was impressed by the bid and the related stature of who would be involved.

Then people began to dig a bit and slowly uncovered more and more discrepancies with the Group MRH bid. Once statements provided couldn’t be corroborated and documents were falsified to gain the bid, Mr Bernstein and others challenged Mr Feiner and the Boards decision to continue with Group MRH. But Mr Feiner remained adamant to stay with his choice even after verifying that they lied to get the bid!

Robert Bernstein, a Town Supervisor primary candidate against Mr Feiner, successfully showed that Group MRH had lied to get the housing contract. He proved that the Richman Group had no involvement with Group MRH. That alone should have forfeited the entire process for Group MRH. But not in “Bizzaro Greenburgh”. Mr Feiner began the campaign blitz to announce the bid he awarded to Group MRH. He also mentioned the involvement with the Richman Group. He held press conferences, put out press releases announcing the same thing over and over. Suddenly, a letter was sent to Mr Feiner from the Richman Corporation’s legal representatives requesting Mr Feiner to Cease and Desist using their name and associating them with Group MRH. Mr Feiner didn’t stop. It was uncovered by Mr Bernstein and when presented to the Town Board at a Town Board meeting, most claimed they were unaware of the letter, insisting Mr Feiner didn’t share it with them. Ignorance is bliss.

In Mr Feiner’s June 10, 2013 newsletter/campaign document, Mr Feiner is happily violating the Cease and Desist order from the Richman Group. In his document under the information about WestHelp, he says, “MRH has asked the Richman Group Affordable Housing Corporation to provide property management and tenant compliance oversight for the affordable housing units at 1 West Help Drive.” Regardless of what Group MRH is doing, planning to do, has done or not done, Mr Feiner should not be writing about the Richman Group based on the Cease and Desist request. Secondarily, whenever a resident would ask him what the criteria he was looking for in a vendor was or what progress was being made searching for a vendor for this property, he or Town Attorney Tim Lewis would say they couldn’t speak about it because it is a private matter or they cannot divulge contractual information during negotiations. Mr Feiner continues to selectively release information, which ABG finds a reprehensible way to treat Town residents.

Mr Feiner should respect the Cease and Desist request from the Richman Group. But he didn’t. Mr Feiner should also respect all the residents in the Town, not just the ones who vote for him or agree with him. But he doesn’t. Mr Feiner should also provide a better example for his Board to follow. But he can’t. Unfortunately, they have all operated this way for so long, ABG is convinced we’ll need to “clean house” to begin leading by a better example.