Candidate Debates For Supervisor

There have been two debates (links below) this past week between 28-year Democrat Town Supervisor Paul Feiner and Independent challenger Lucas Cioffi. The first debate, while cordial, was held at the Greenburgh Library in the large conference room. There were about 50 or so people in attendance for the League of Women Voters (LOWV) led evening. As an aside, this is not the first event run by the LOWV but it sure seemed like it. While their moderators claim to not live in the Town, they still allowed Mr Feiner more time to speak than Mr Cioffi, a clear bias that has be seen at other events in our Town run by the LOWV.

All questions were forced to be censored by having attendees write their questions on 3" x 5" index cards. This control of questions, limits the information flow to voters and is counter-productive, ensuring a safety net for incumbents. Since Mr Feiner boasted of his 28-year tenure as valuable job experience, he cut off those critics who either believe he has been in office too long or favor term-limits. Mr Cioffi favors a three-term limit as a maximum. 

Ironically, at the Town Board debate several months ago between the two annointed Democratic candidates running against Democratic Hartsdale resident Eric Zinger (we believe a better choice), Councilman Jones stated that a candidate needs 12 years to get anything done if elected. His neatly-crafted and yet absurd explanation was that it takes 4 years to settle in and get past the previous position-holder's issues. The next four years to introduce his issues while working on other Board member issues and the final four to get his issues addressed. If that were truly the case, when will he seek to change the term for Greenburgh Council persons to 12-years? It seems very convoluted to us.

So with Mr Jones into his third term, he should be leaving us soon. As an aside, Mr Jones also has two pending ethics complaints brought against him during the summer months that have languished. Why have they languished? As you know, Mr Feiner, vis-a-vis’ his Town Board, chooses and appoints all members to all of the Boards he creates or sustains.This Board is no different. They had been operating for over a year with one less member than “required”. That member, supposedly a Republican for balance on the otherwise Democratic Board, had been AWOL for about a year after being appointed. Since then, two members resigned and one is out on sick leave. This is known within the Town’s various Boards as falling on the “Feiner sword” whenever necessary. By doing so, Mr Jones gets to seek re-election unencumbered by the “Ethics Complaint Albatross” overshadowing his candidacy. After Mr Jones is re-elected to his Council seat, Mr Feiner will appoint new members to revitalize his Ethics Board.

The first evening’s debate had no real drama or fireworks. Mr Cioffi mentioned early on that he had told Mr Feiner that he would keep the campaign civil and courteous. He also said that after 28-years, it was certainly time for a change. Mr Feiner said that his 28-year experience, contacts in state and federal governments have helped him get things done for Greenburgh. 

One thing that he didn’t mention was his ability to get laws changed that benefit him, such as the one he asked his cohort Assemblyman Tom Abinanti to introduce in Albany to change the incorporation laws to slow, stop or thwart the Edgemont incorporation effort. Or, like the one he asked Mr Abinanti to introduce to alter the Finneran Law. Why is this significant? Payback. Mr Feiner did Mr Abinanti a favor by blocking the Fortress Bible Church from building on property that was behind Mr Abinanti's home and neighborhood. Mr Feiner would subsequently be found guilty of lying under oath and destroying evidence by a Federal Court and fined $6.5 million dollars. That was one helluva a price for Mr Feiner to pay, but in reality, we are the ones paying! By the way, Mr Abinanti has since moved out of Unincorporated Greenburgh!

The second debate, hosted by the Hartsdale Neighborhood Association, would find an equally stifling environment of 3" x 5" index cards and a lack of community engagement. This one would offer a slightly different environment. The opening statements would be five minutes instead of two and answers would be restricted to two minutes instead of one and a half. Mr Feiner was allowed to go first, reading his accomplishments from prepared text in a loose-leaf binder with topic tabs. So there was literally no change in content this evening from him with the exception of going longer. Interestingly, he kept touting the Towns AAA Bond rating, which does little for us since the Town floats few bonds. It really only highlights the taxpayers ability to dig deeper into their wallets every time he raises taxes. He also claimed that the Town has stayed under the 2% tax cap. But if you take away the allowable exceptions when calculating the actual tax increase according to Mr Cioffi, we have seen an average 4% yearly tax increase over the last 20 years!

Mr Cioffi stated that Mr Feiner has a reputation for answering phone calls and emails at all times of the day or night. He has billed himself as the problem solver. He also said that Mr Feiner claims the Town is running well and our various departments are doing a fantastic job. That may be, at least according to what Mr Feiner says, but since Mr Feiner is the only one person receiving and responding to emails, we’ll never really know. In fact, Mr Cioffi said that this is a failed model because there is only one point of contact for 90,000 people, which is inefficient, provides little to no accountability and no open or accessible records that could be studied and quantified by residents. 

Another interesting proposal by newcomer/fresh voice/outside thinker Lucas Cioffi is a two-year tax moratorium once he takes office. This idea, which has several reasons behind it was copied by Mr Feiner who has recently started saying that the Town will have a 1-year tax moratorium this coming year. This exemplifies why we need to have term limits and why it’s time for a change: different ideas, different thinking, different solutions. 

Want another idea that highlights different thinking? When his opening 5-minutes started, Mr Cioffi said that he would address all questions from where he was seated but would go in front of the crowd for this one part. “This one part” turned out to be him saying to everyone, “Think about what it is that brought you here tonight?” The second question is, “What does Greenburgh need right now and going forward?” Then he asked everyone to introduce themselves to the person next to them and tell them why they were here. This was a powerful and creative gesture, the likes of which we promise will be copied and reused by Mr Feiner.

After this unique opening, Mr Feiner and Mr Cioffi danced around the issues. Mr Feiner read most of his answers from his playbook and Mr Cioffi comfortably responded to the questions without a prepared set of answers. Now, we don’t believe for a minute that Mr Cioffi wasn’t prepared, but he seemed thoroughly knowledgable with the information he was putting forth. He also said that this election was about building bridges across our neighborhoods.

The first debate spent a lot of time, questions and answers about the Edgemont Incorporation issue gnawing at the Town. The second debate did not. Mr Feiner spoke often about the unsanctioned Hartsdale 4-Corners revitalization. He has already spent an unauthorized $400,000 dollars on purchasing two properties behind the old DairyDel corner store. He also mentioned that there are many priorities throughout the Town, including storm water and traffic issues including at the four corner area. What he didn’t mention was that he has ignored those problems especially in that area during his 28-year tenure and only got interested in them when rumors of a Hartsdale Incorporation began circulating.

Mr Feiner also mentioned a food scrap recycling program. He didn't discuss getting our taxes under control. Mr Cioffi did. Mr Cioffi said the budget is 220 pages with only three charts. He pointed out that Mr Feiner said Mr Cioffi’s two-year tax freeze wasn’t a good idea, and then a week later copied the Cioffi campaign’s idea with a one-year freeze. Feiner supporters will justify this as smart - taking a good idea and running with it. Realists, however, will be critical and wonder why he never did this before? 28-years of complacency.

We can go on but won’t. As Mr Cioffi said in his summary remarks at the second event, “Mr Feiner talks about how he can get Albany to listen but he can’t get Edgemont to listen.” This election is not about who is the best candidate, but to quote Mr Cioffi, “It’s about what is the best system to run Greenburgh?” Mr Cioffi has a lot of good ideas, something we have not had in years. This might just be the change we need to make for A Better Greenburgh.

Learn more by watching the debates for yourself (links below). Or, come to the next debate to be held on Monday, October 28 at the Theodore D. Young Community Center (32 Manhattan Ave, White Plains) @ 7pm.

Debate Links:
https://youtu.be/1qW4O4tdXnE
https://youtu.be/6h0_skPh7Tc