Greenburgh Central School District Vote Passes and Disappoints

In reviewing the numbers after an election of any kind held in Greenburgh, the apathy and blasé attitude of voters has reflected poorly on the vast majority. It seems that particular causes may unite a certain part of the citizenry, and there are groups in our community doing the same things at the local level.

The School Board elections and the School District’s budget vote took place after being delayed by NYS and rescheduled from May to June with a mail-in vote as opposed to an in-person vote at the polls. Good or bad, the numbers were somewhat the same as many more people had the opportunity to vote but again, did not bother to vote. It seems the only time we see a spike in voting is when there is a project(s) in a certain neighborhood that literally affects them in their backyard. Hence the term we’ve coined called OIMBY: Only In My Back Yard.

There are roughly 90,000 residents in all of the Town of Greenburgh. There are six Villages including an seventh possible new one with the Edgemont incorporation looming near. The Villages in the Town are Elmsford, Ardsley, Hastings-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown. Interestingly, they have their own elections yet are also allowed to vote in Town elections, which many feel is just seems wrong. But because of this, Mr Feiner and his Board play the Villages like a fine instrument to ensure no matter how much they touch that turns to crap for Unincorporated Greenburgh, Mr Feiner, et al, will get their votes to remain in office and not be held accountable or culpable for their misgivings, lies and illegal actions.

So, while we know there are 90,000 residents, we also know that not all can vote. Greenburgh School enrollment is about 1800 kids. So roughly speaking, without fact-checking the dual-parent vs single-parent households status, there could be up to 3600+ voters participating in a school vote. According to information provided by School District Clerk Ivy Krauss, the actual count of ballots that were distributed to registered voters was 16,563. The amount that was returned of votes cast was 3,594. So 78.3% of the voting population did not participate. Those voting for the budget approved it, 1,968 to 978, roughly a two-to-one victory. Or was it?

Out of those numbers there were 619 votes that were disqualified because the voters didn't read the instructions, understand the instructions or thought their votes would be counted regardless of what they did or didn’t do correctly. So 3.74% of the voters who thought they voted weren’t counted. A breakdown is as follows:
401: oath envelope not signed; 190: oath envelope not provided; 15: oath envelope contained extrinsic papers (ie more than one ballot); 9: ballot torn and/or defaced; 1: signature did not match that of the voter; 2: ballot was blank; 1: oath envelope did not contain any ballot. Apparently, everyone is okay with these amounts being dismissed. Why? Probably because the budget passed.

What we are struggling with is that out of 16,563 people who could vote, only 3,594 did vote - a slight increase from the usual amount. We’d have thought that those who don’t usually come out to vote would have thought this mail-in style voting would prove more convenient and garnered more votes – but that doesn’t appeared to be the case. In fact, statistics show that senior citizens typically vote against school budgets for a host of reasons. And, when the School District and the Administration pushed the ill-fated consolidation bond proposal, a two to one defeat was confirmed to be in part due to the senior citizens vote. And, knowing Mr Feiner has injected himself as the caped crusader of poor mail delivery, how much of the votes cast never made it beyond the mailbox they dropped it in? We may never know.

There was also a proposition to move money from one part of the budget to a reserve fund for maintenance and repairs. That passed with 2519 votes for and 445 against. Previous Boards have failed to adequately fund the repair budgets for years causing much disrepair of our school buildings and an excuse to consolidate. Still, the taxpaying public saw past the incorrect information provided and shot the consolidation down. The several proponents of the consolidation were Superintendent Chase, who appears to be trying to develop herself as a brand; Trustees David Warner and Terry Williams. In fact, both of these gentlemen have been on the School Board for years and hold responsibility for the lack of repair funding which has led to the degradation of the buildings. Could this have been a covert plan all along?

Two School Board members were running for re-election, Tracy Mairs and Ashley Pineda*. Ivy Kraus, the School District Clerk, shared the totals for their re-elections: 2441 and 2391 respectively. We have no problem with either candidate seeking a second term of office and believe they can make a difference in that period of time although we prefer term limits. We’ve seen Ms Mairs openly participate in school district related conversations but hardly ever witness Mr Pineda getting involved in the discussions. Granted this was his first year in the position and may taking some time to get up to speed and comfortable. As such, we believe he needs to step up his game.

Voting during this primary coincided with the School District/Board elections were fraught with problems. The voter sites that were trimmed back seemingly experienced problems that caused hours-long delays in voting. Some have claimed this falls in Mr Feiner’s lap. While we never hesitate being critical of Mr Feiner, it does not. But he did say he would write a letter or two to the appropriate parties involved. Translation: send a letter and out of his hands and done. Move on to his next contrived issue.

This election was rushed by the School District per the mandates of Albany and the Governor. While we're sure everyone involved tried their best, it still seemed unorganized to some extent. If this is the precursor to the November elections, we’re not hopeful that we’ll be seeing results on election night. This has to change and get better. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

* A one-year incumbent filling the balance of a term of a Board member who resigned and needed to run for the position.