Babble Mode

Its almost guaranteed for every Town meeting. Mr Feiner rambles on waiting for one of the other Board members or Town Attorney to stop him before he says something incriminating, über-ridiculous or simply not true. Its similar to the drunk uncle at a wedding who, once he gets a hold of the microphone, everyone will role their eyes and wonder what embarrassment is about to come? Rarely, is there the miracle of silence or a self-imposed conclusion.

Mr Feiner is again running for re-election after being Town Supervisor for 22-years. We ask ABG readers to evaluate his record and decide for themselves if he is really our best choice? AGB knows most people only listen to sound bytes and read the headlines from his conspicuous and sometimes concurrent weekly campaign mailings under the guise of community updates from the Supervisor’s office. While many people are able to financially afford Mr Feiner’s gross mismanagement of the Town, ethically and morally there are others that have been championing doing the right thing. This November election Mr Feiner has a credible foe with Edgemont’s Democrat Supervisor candidate and challenger, Robert (Bob) Bernstein, a community leader and activist.

Mr Bernstein was endorsed by the Greenburgh Democrats 54% to incumbent Mr Feiner’s 35% at their nominating convention. At the same convention they also nominated incumbents Diana Juettner and Francis Sheehan. They seem to work at the behest of Mr Feiner and rarely oppose him for fear of being “Sonya’d” out of the inner circle.  You may also recall that Ms Juettner was also found guilty with Mr Feiner in the Fortress Bible Church guilty verdict. ABG wonders when disbarment proceedings will begin against her and Mr Feiner? Mr Bernstein, along with Retired Town Justice Herb Rosenberg of Dobbs Ferry intervened on behalf of the Town of Greenburgh in a lawsuit by the Valhalla School District for $4.6M and subsequently recovered more than $1.1M for the Town taxpayers after Mr Feiner repeatedly made payments (re: payoffs) to them.

At the last Town Board meeting Mr Feiner was in “Babble Mode” numerous times. “Fair, open and transparent, bidding process, RFP process, confident we did the right thing...” the list of catch-phrases he knows to use that the media will attribute to him are many. The reality is our Supervisor, with our Town Board of enablers, uses the Unincorporated Town as his playground making illogical and bad decisions after bad decisions. And each time one of these is brought up by either the G10 or another Town resident, he’ll go into “Babble Mode”. One thing he is well-known for saying, even emphasizing is that, “This is just my opinion, nobody else’s.” Or, he will stammer, “Speaking just for me, I um, would, um be in favor of this. I’m just speaking for me.”

ABG staffers always cringe when we hear him say this. It’s ludicrous that as the Supervisor, he is injecting his personal opinion into a public session when he is supposed to be neutral. His personal opinions are just that, personal, and should stay that way. As the Supervisor he is always the Supervisor and his personal opinions are moot, similar to how a police officer is always considered a police office even if he is not working or on duty. He is the representative for all of the Town residents and should not be taking sides – period. But our Supervisor, laden with self-generated issues of developer back-room deals and meetings (re: Westhab, Stop & Shop, Cumberland Farms, Toll Brothers, Brightview, EastView, etc.), spot-zoning changes (re: Westhab, Stop & Shop, Cumberland Farms, Brightview, etc.), unaddressed flooding of neighborhoods (re: Fulton Park, Babbitt Court), lawsuits (too numerous to list), guilty verdict judgements (re: one is Fortress Bible), intentionally silencing the public (re: Town Board meetings), developers writing Town laws (re: Westhab, Brightview, Eastview), fee and tax increases against our businesses to assist one over others (re: Apple Farm, Cumberland Farms) and fiscal improprieties (re: WestHelp, Frank’s Nursery, Teamster & CSEA Town contracts), lack of infrastructure repairs, the list seems unending. Mr Feiner skirts the boundaries of the law to give his developer friends advantages and breaks no residential taxpayer could dream of. But because the law technically wasn’t broken, Mr Feiner can get away with what he does.

Under Mr Feiner’s rein, the Town taxpayers have experienced 102% water rate increases, 54% Unincorporated area tax increases, 145% tax increases to Village residents and revaluation discussions for years, ultimately costing residents between $100k to $200k per Town Board meeting (sometimes up to $1.2 million). Mr Feiner claims the Town is bound by NY State’s 2% tax cap legislation and there is nothing he can do to help the situation. He and his Board’s caused the situation they cannot fix through inattentiveness, incompetence and lack of managerial or fiscal skills. In fact, the Town could easily go beyond the 2% tax cap as other neighboring communities have done. But Mr Feiner won’t because he wouldn’t be able to brag at election time that he stayed within it. Skillful? Yes. Ethical? No. Damaging to the Town? Absolutely!

Mr Bernstein offers a beleaguered and faltering Town a positive alternative. Mr Feiner has gotten used to abusing his authority in the Town against the private and commercial residents. Each time Mr Feiner and his Board screw-up, residents managed to get screwed too. Mr Bernstein has repeatedly acted in the best interests of the Town with issues such as WestHelp, Frank’s Nursery, requests from the Town’s legal department with issues beyond their capabilities, the Brightview project, and Cumberland Farms and more. The list of Mr Bernstein’s assistance is almost a long as Mr Feiner’s failures.

This September 10th is the Democratic primary that will decide which of these two candidates will receive the Democratic endorsement and run as the democratic candidate. There is no Republican candidate for Supervisor as the Westchester and Greenburgh Republican party have abandoned Greenburgh. So the choices should be rather straight-forward for Greenburgh residents. ABG believes the choice is clear. Please learn more about the records of each candidate and help make Greenburgh better. Imagine, a better Greenburgh.

Mission Accomplished!

When The Paul started the Citizens Committee meeting Monday night, there were the usual faces in the audience. Also in attendance were those The Paul can count on to lob him softballs and non-question questions. This fact was reiterated throughout the meeting and highlighted by one woman who claimed, “We have to take personal responsibility when a storm in coming to be prepared. To do this,” she continued, “residents need to go to “ready.com” for a list of items one might need.” While not bad advice, it’s like watching the TV news before a storm or before a holiday. They’ll start broadcasting what you should do, not do, for how long, and so on for days on end only to see people demanding help because they didn’t heed the advice. 

For the uninitiated, this was strictly a ruse for the public. The Paul sent emails to his devoted followers to attend. And, attend they did. ABG assumes he prompted them to ask “his” questions, offer advice and of course, dish out compliments where “they” believed appropriate. His ploy worked so well, the room began to list as resident and non-resident alike stated that ConEd was the villain. It was working. Most in attendance ignored the obvious: The Paul did nothing to help before, during and after the storm - again! It was more of his standard operating procedure as The Paul got unencumbered publicity before his end of the month publicity quota expired. Frenzied reporters scrambled to get photos and names of speakers, already knowing their medium would simply use The Paul’s press release talking points for the bulk of their articles. In fact, they simply could leave early since they had all they needed before they got there!

As the constant campaigner, The Paul has developed his craft of subtle campaigning into a well-honed and revered art form. When he was awaiting the court’s verdict in the Fortress Bible case, he needed to deflect attention from his illegal actions and fast! Thankfully, the TappanZee Bridge had entered the campaign season from Obama and Cuomo and gave The Paul a deflection subject better than he could have imagine: save the old Tappan Zee Bridge as a park. He wasn’t the first person to come up with this. But since he has unfettered access to the media machine in Westchester, they gave him the platform he needed and led this rally for a short time until the governor trumped him and cast him aside. But the deflection was working.

The Paul and the Town of Greenburgh were found guilty, with the decision appealed and upheld in Appellate Court, of violating the Church’s first amendment rights of free speech, free assembly, equal protection, due process, and the Town had discriminated against the church under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act or RLUIPA. The judge cited the Town for “intentional delay, hostility and bias towards the Church's application.” This is a damning decision as to what’s wrong with and the lack of quality of leadership in the Town!

Thankfully, The Paul’s the Tappan Zee bridge emergency fiasco and gifted him the “out” he needed as he became the lead proponent of morphing of the current Tappan Zee bridge into a High Line Park, similar to what NYC did to a much-different and safer rail track in Manhattan’s west side. But the park wasn’t the issue. Deflection from the Fortress Bible decision was. ABG wonders why there isn’t outrage throughout the Town demanding the resignation of The Paul and his corrupt partner from that event, Councilwoman Diana Juettner? ABG believes he told her to keep her mouth shut and he’ll get her out of this. She obeyed.

The Citizen’s Committee would not have stopped the illegal actions of The Paul, Juettner and the other Board and various Department members who answer to The Paul of bad and illegal behavior. But The Paul certainly could have asked felon and fellow-schemer Alan Hochberg to investigate by forming a Citizen’s Committee subcommittee (as opposed to the faulty Ethics Committee) that could continue The Paul’s deflection toward another (mis)direction. Sure, there would be the questions and legal challenges from the G10, but they would wither through time as the phony decision from the committee would find The Paul did nothing wrong. Can you say Tammany Hall?

New Castle Town Supervisor Susan Carpenter was one of the attendees as well as several New Castle residents. Why they were remains an inconsequential mystery. Could it be she believed she might get an education in solutions management or campaign strategies by attending? She said that her town of was faced with the same problems as Greenburgh. As if scripted by The Paul, she too berated ConEd, the Public Service Commission and offered no solutions. If we continue to elect the same people, listen to the same press conferences and never hold their feet even near the flame, we should not expect solutions or different outcomes!

So The Paul has anointed ex-convict Alan Hochberg to chair the do-nothing committee to find fault with others and assist in deflecting attention from The Paul’s illegal, immoral, and ill-conceived actions until the next fiasco rears it’s ugly head from the shadows. Whether it is the Fortress Bible decision ($8 million), the WestHelp debacle ($1.2 million), the Water Department deficit ($4 million), the Dromore Road decision, Cumberland Farms, Brightview Assisted Living Center, Stop and Shop on Rt 119, flooding in Fulton Park along the Bronx River, flooding on the Rt 9A corridor in Elmsford, 400+ new condominiums off of Taxter Road, 400+ new condominiums at Eastview (both adding to the Rt 9A flooding), 20 new McMansions in Tarrytown/Greenburgh across from Kraft Foods and last but certainly not least, the GameOn 365 Sports Bubble with it’s über-contaminated site on Dobbs Ferry Road, The Paul is costing us a fortune. It must stop! 

The meeting for the Citizen’s Committee concluded with little more than finger-pointing and no solutions offered and the promise to discuss it more. The unsuspecting committee will meet, proctoring some ideas gleaned from The Paul’s press releases and have Alan Hochberg dutifully hand them to The Paul, feigning interest. There will be the requisite pomp and circumstance and then the committee will fade into the rising flood waters until the next time. They’ll never provide a solution to any of Mother Nature’s fury, the Town’s inability to help it’s constituents and The Paul’s ineptness with dealing with anything that doesn’t require having someone else do something. The best we can hope for is for The Paul and his Board to resign. The least we can hope for is they step aside and let the residents provide solutions. We can only hope.

Opening Acts

Town Board meetings are cyclical. When the Town Clerk fails to book an opening act, the meetings might start on time. We’re actually unsure what time Town Board meetings start since they rarely begin at the appointed time. This was the case Wednesday evening as the audience sat through the requisite video shows (there were three) and The Paul’s ramblings like a drunk uncle at a wedding everyone tries to avoid. The audience started out with a few more than the regular attendees but eventually whittled itself down mostly to the G10.

FEMA was the opening act for the meeting with several FEMA representatives going to the podium to state what they can do for homeowners and business residents that have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. While The Paul asked a few questions and Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan chimed in, the result of the twenty or so minutes was if you don’t apply for assistance, you won’t get help. Having witnessed many nearby residents who were flooded in Hurricane Irene be turned down by FEMA for assistance, we aren’t expecting newly affected residents to fare any better.

After the Veteran’s video and the Boy Scouts’ video, the meeting haphazardly got under way. There was a representative from the Friends of the Greenburgh Library who spoke during the first 3-minute public session. She commented on the use of the library during the storm and then pleaded for the Town Board to not cut their funding in this year’s budget. The Paul commented about the 2% Tax Cap from the state, so we still don’t know if the library is able to purchase any new books this year. Interestingly, every time the issue of money comes up and it’s not one of the pet projects of The Paul, we’re limited by the 2% Tax Cap. Otherwise, the Town is spending like there’s no tomorrow – which may be closer than we know.

A representative from the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association got up and asked if the timer could not be started as she wanted to compliment the library for their participation in Hurricane Sandy before she began what she came to discuss. Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan said, “No, you get three minutes like everyone else.” There’s that fostering of community spirit if we desperately long for, shot down again. At one point The Paul began to converse with a resident during their public comment session. During resident Ed Krauss’ 5-minute public speaking session, he stated that maybe this dialog with a resident was an epiphany. But once a dialog started, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan stated, “We’ve already violated our policy of not commenting during the public sessions,” and stopped it before it materialized into something productive. Finally getting some feedback from the silent Board was refreshing. “Back Pocket” knows The Paul will get them in trouble if he’s allowed to ramble for too long.

Many speakers got up and commented about numerous topics. Most residents that spoke, however, seemed to focus on either the referendum or the GameOn 365 sports bubble debacle. After getting pummeled by so many, The Paul exploded and gave his usual dissertation of his skewed view of democracy in action. Many of the points were salient ones that made his comments moot. Uncustomarily, the Board began spouting off many of the same issues and points they had ignored from residents prior to the referendum and The Paul’s signing of the contract with GameOn 365. He seemed frustrated that his supporters abandoned him during this assault. In fact, even most of his commissioners were not in the room, while Tim “Remediation” Lewis kept his head down during most of the meeting unless to tell a speaker their time at the microphone was up. Maybe he was feeling shameful or possibly repentant for lying to residents as to the clean up costs for the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road site. ABG is confident The Paul had mandated Lewis’ behavior with this deal and is now Lewis is reflecting on his time as the Town Attorney and that it too may need “remediation”.

This meeting was perhaps one hour long if you stripped out the opening acts. The Board made themselves the lead agency for a number of projects The Paul wants pushed through for developers. Several gas stations applied to pay the new “fees” (really a penalty tax) for the recently adopted service station law benefitting Cumberland Farms’ “new” gas station on Central Avenue. Many believe this will be crippling to existing service/gas stations in the Town. The low applications prove the Board’s revenue-generating scheme has backfired. For a change, there were no tax certiorari refunds. ABG guesses you could say we broke even this night. Don’t get overconfident just yet – ABG knows it won’t last. It would be nice to think residents were witnessing a new path with Town Board meetings that are conversational, constructive, purposeful and leave us with a feeling of accomplishment. It could have been a great opening act. We can only hope.