His first attempt was to offer GameOn 365 an illegal lease for fifteen years for the property. The community, Elm Street Sports, HelpBurstTheBubble.com, the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association and others initiated a lawsuit to stop the illegal lease based on County and State law. As the court date loomed closer, Mr Feiner finally withdrew the lease citing it would tie up the sale of the property in the courts for too long. He would know all about that as a non-practicing attorney who always seems to be in court as a defendant. County and NY State law mandate any property received through foreclosure must either be used by the Town for Town purposes or sold. The Town had earlier refused to use the property as a temporary library while the “ski jump’s” construction forced the library to remain closed. The reason? The property is contaminated!
Needing to initiate the “Feiner Deflection Tactic” and fast, Mr Feiner said the Board would consider selling the property, but only to GameOn 365! The G10 hammered the Town Board, citing a lack of ethics, transparency, open government, lying, back-room deals, secret emails and the like and insisted he do the right thing and hold an RFP, Request For Proposal. The Board remained silent. Mr Feiner has touted Greenburgh as having an open government and even trained his Board to dutifully repeat his mantra, “We’ll post it on the Town’s website, so everyone can see it.” ABG wonders when in Executive Session, if Mr Feiner will tell the Board, “Just tell them we’ll post it and then bury it somewhere. Wait. You know what, don’t post it, we’ll mess with them for a week or two and then post it and say it was there all the time. Francis, you just tell them it was your fault and mea culpa and, well, you know the routine.” “You got it boss.” G10 persistence usually pays off and eventually the information will get posted or “FOIL-ed” and the information will finally be had. It’s just a shame that Mr Feiner and his Board feel they must play these games. Still, no sale. Several Work Sessions earlier found the Board struggling to find ways to silent the persistent public from speaking.
By law, the Town has the right to hold a private sale for any acquired foreclosed property. Had Mr Feiner been truthful and not having secret meetings for the property with GameOn 365 prior to Town’s acquisition of the property, the sale probably would have gone through unquestioned. He was simply trying to stall the process so GameOn 365 could raise funds through a public offering. But that couldn’t happen until a lease was signed. Since Mr Feiner has been dishonest before the Town even owned the property and continued to lie about it, it begat more lies. And you know how that goes. Once you lie and then try to cover it up, things just get worst. Mr Feiner’s back-room, closed-door deals have become a Greenburgh standard within the developer community. Those seeking support before pitching their project to his Planning, Promotion and Promise Commissioner, Thomas Madden, are instructed as to what the “donation gift” must be before the Commissioner will check off all the ‘Yes’ boxes before hastily, if not giddily presenting it at a Town Board meeting in Mr Feiner sanctioned rapid-speak.
Mr Feiner plays the “donation gift” scheme often for said blessing. But it hasn’t always worked. In fact it backfired when he pulled this stunt on the Fortress Bible Church. They refused to play Mr Feiner’s games and said, “No!” to his demands. So Mr Feiner, aided by Councilwoman Diana Juettner (then and now a current Board member) said, “No!” to Fortress Bible Church and finally blocked their property development of a new church and school in then-County Legislator Tom Abinanti’s neighborhood. Was the goal all-along simply to help a crony? Abinanti has since moved to Tarrytown, possibly to distance himself from this debacle now that he’s moved up as a State Representative.
Since then, the Federal Courts have found Mr Feiner and his Board of that time, guilty of violating the rights of a church to the free exercise of religion and equal protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and liable for destroying documents. The federal judge who heard him testify found him “not credible.” If you read the transcripts of the case, Mr Feiner’s testimony sounds almost verbatim to Oliver North’s Iran Contra testimony, “I don’t remember.” How convenient and embarrassing at the same time. Mr Feiner and Ms Juettner appealed the decisions. The appeal was upheld by the Federal Appeals Court, saying in part, “In short, the Church has presented overwhelming evidence that its application was singled out by the Town for disparate treatment.” The previous courts verdict stands.
The would-be easily done sale of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road wasn’t done, and Mr Feiner tried to do an illegal lease and was stopped, he needed to regroup. Time to initiate the “Feiner Deflection Tactic” again and go after someone else to take the focus off of him. He chose to go after the G10 and the public at large as the problem. He simultaneously had another self-inflicted fiasco underway with the WestHelp project that he brought upon the Town to gain votes from the Valhalla residents yet cost us $1.2M per year.
Without a plan in place, Mr Feiner went public to test the waters saying the Town would sell 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to GameOn 365. He held a press conference which became a contentious shouting match between the public and Mr Feiner, who threatened police action against the same residents attending the press conference after he had unlocked the gates of the property and invited them in. At Town Board meetings, Mr Feiner began to concoct stories about how “certain members” of the public are doing everything they could to sabotage the Town’s sale of this property. The reality was the public was fed up with the illegal lease scheme and Mr Feiner’s insistence of the sale to the lower bidder. Game On 365 bid $1.7M for the property with yet-to-be-raised money compared to $3.5 in cash from House of Sports. The devil is in the details. The “Feiner Deflection Tactic” was wearing thin and not working like it should.
Time for a new “Feiner Deflection Tactic” so Mr Feiner began to say he couldn’t sell to either interested party or the other would sue the Town. “Push this as the argument” Mr Feiner might have said to the Board. But newly found guilty Attorney and Federal Felon Juettner and fellow candidate Councilman Francis Sheehan desperately needed to distance themselves from Mr Feiner so they remained silent. Newcomer Ken “Sit the F*** down!” Jones was coming under fire by fellow attorney and Supervisor Candidate Bob Bernstein, as an attorney who was setting himself up for his own legal problems withthe NYS Bar Association member.
The public continued to demand an RFP. Mr Feiner needed time to construct what would appear to be an RFP, but struggled, needing ensure the outcome would favor GameOn 365 over the Elm Street Sports’ significantly better offer. Thrown into the mix was another curve ball, a formidable opponent seeking the Democratic endorsement for Town Supervisor: community leader and activist Robert Bernstein (http://bobforsupervisor.com/). Mr Bernstein, the G10 and others have all offered this Town Board suggestions and ideas as to what could be done with the property. The Board and Mr Feiner ignored all offers.
Time again for a new “Feiner Deflection Tactic” so Mr Feiner began to say that this was a form of bid rigging. At each opportunity, he would cite that one developer who bid on the WestHelp property backed out because a resident convinced the company to back out. The resident presented the facts to the developer and they made a decision after learning all of the information that Mr Feiner had not shared. Mr Feiner sent out press releases and made public statements that the public was engaged in bid-rigging. The only bid rigging taking place was by Mr Feiner and his Board. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be laughable.
Now that an election is upon us, Mr Feiner is finally touting an RFP after insisting on his vision to turn the DobbsFerry Road corridor into a sports venue area. Adding insult to injury is GameOn 365’s announcement that they have entered into an “purchase option” with the Golf Driving Range next to the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property as their new partner. GameOn 365’s principal, Martin Hewitt, made this announcement at a recent Town Board meeting immediately after Mr Feiner said they would do an RFP for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Coincidence? Collusion? Hewitt also stated they would continue to be involved with bidding for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road as well. Again, more Feiner-like, if not Feiner-suggested, shenanigans to gain control of the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. How so?
ABG is suspect of any real “partnership” between the Golf Driving Range and GameOn 365 because of all of the history thus far between Mr Feiner and GameOn 365. As with most partnerships, they typically have a clause in their contract that will allow the other partner the right of first refusal or in this case, the right to purchase their partner’s share of the business before it can be offered for sale to anyone else. This agreement means little, if nothing, as it relates to the Golf Driving Range. What ABG thinks will happen is at some point GameOn 365 will bid for the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property against whomever else. Mr Feiner will award the bid to GameOn 365, who will then say that their partnership with the Golf Driving Range has terminated for some unforeseen reason and they will simply be working with the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Remember, Mr Feiner still needs to get his way. Not sure ABG is correct? Go back and read the referendum Mr Feiner and the Town Attorney wrote for the election.
In the end, this will just be another shakedown by Mr Feiner and his Board to get what he wanted all along: a done-deal to a favored developer for little or no real money for the residents of the Town. Sadly, this is the type of behavior that is not acceptable in any government and needs to end. Twenty-two years of this is enough. Please find out more and make an informed decision in this next election.
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