Too Much of One Thing

The political pundits are transmitting in high gear now that the elections are over. Republican wins have shifted the balance of power once again – although not here in Greenburgh. In fact, when nothing changes things usually seem to get worse for the electorate, just as we’ve seen in Greenburgh. Without a balanced Town Board, Ethics Board, Planning Board (insert the Board of your choice), we do not get the best of what the Town (cities, villages, hamlets, etc) could offer. There is no creative thinking, no new ideas, little variety, limited progress and never any challenge to do more or better for the taxpayers. Quite the contrary.

Mr Feiner decided to discriminate against the Fortress Bible Church when the Church purchased property near Dobbs Ferry Road. While his reasons to discriminate may have only been known to himself, his attack on the Church was not only morally wrong, but after a protracted court battle and opportunity to settle, finally cost the taxpayers $6.5 million. Had the first Town Board had a mix of parties and personalities when Mr Feiner’s crusade against the Church began, and the subsequent Town Boards had more of a variety of members with a backbone to stand up to Mr Feiner, perhaps this disaster could have been averted. It’s one tremendous black-eye for Greenburgh.

Mr Feiner, convicted for discrimination, decided to not renew the lease at WestHelp on the Westchester Community College campus, costing Greenburgh taxpayers $1.2 million per year. This project for affordable housing was the brainchild of then HUD Chairman Andrew Cuomo, who was appointed to the position without any “housing” or management background. After insulting the NY public with several derogatory comments during his now-forgotten first gubernatorial campaign, he was told to accept the job from President Clinton, keep his mouth shut and in a few years they would let him be governor. He needed to make a name for himself and did so offering subsidized housing in Westchester for those in the DSS system. It was supposed to transition into senior housing after ten years. The state made the project happen and construction was done. Cuomo now had something to show on his HUD resume. The County gifted it to the Town. And for years, the Town raked in $1.2 million per year with little or no effort on our part. Cuomo towed the line and was anointed governor. You have to love New York.

But Mr Feiner decided to try to win votes from the Valhalla community by not renewing the contract when it came due, allowing it to languish into disrepair, in hopes of necessitating the demolition of the facility and delivering what Valhalla had wanted. Mr Feiner hoped for said votes. But by doing this, he stopped the largest non-tax income-producing revenue stream to the Town, forcing taxpayers to make up the difference. Had any of our Town Board members been of another political party and not dependent on Mr Feiner for re-election and feared being “Sonya’d”, we may have seen this move curtailed or at least brought to the public’s attention and be stopped before the damage was done.

According to County Legislator Alfreda Williams, the County subsequently told Mr Feiner and the Town Board to rent the apartments or else the County will terminate the lease with the Town, take back the facility and do with it what was planned. The Town would continue to lose $1.2 million with no chance of ever getting that money back. Currently no action has taken place but Mr Feiner’s repeated attempts to gift the management to unqualified companies (see Cuomo above) who promised more than could be delivered and tried to re-negotiate the contractual terms. Eventually, he was dropped as Mr Feiner’s preferred management vendor.

Mr Feiner insisted on green-lighting the Brightview Assisted Living (and Stop and Shop, and Westhab, and Deli Delicious, and the Central Avenue car dealerships special treatment, and Ferncliff, and Taxter Ridge, and well, you get it) project on what is considered by many as an inappropriately-sized piece of land. And now, as the construction of the building glaringly hovers over the intersection of Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue, we think they were right. Not only did Mr Feiner endorse and promote this project, he knowingly allowed them to turn Greenburgh residents on Medicare away from this upscale and private organization!

The point is a simple one in that having elections is part of our heritage and is a good thing. As the saying goes, too much of something isn’t always a good thing. We’ve had twenty-two years of Mr Feiner’s mismanagement, illegal actions and not enough creativity, open government and new ideas. It’s time for a change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Due Diligence, Colorful Language and “Sit the F*** Down!”

The first round of public comments where residents get only three minutes to speak seemed to pick up the pace of the Town Board meeting. Two service station owners spoke of multiple violations by a gentleman named Ali, who is running a gas station at Central Avenue and Old Army Road, and would like the Town to look into his sign violations, auto repairs and more. Their request to the Town Board is to have the playing field leveled by mandating the owner comply with all laws that they are all required to follow and cease his illegal operations. Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis stated they would look into these complaints and get back to them in two weeks. We wish them luck with having the Town make the owner comply and then getting a response from the Town.

Installing sidewalks seemed to be a popular subject as the cost of maintenance and installation of sidewalks was not in the proposed capital budget, also on the night’s agenda. One resident discussed the need on Old Kensico Road for sidewalks as they have witnessed a significant increase in speeding now that the Town has repaved the road. The Paul agreed. One advantage of the repaving was the “lowering” of the road surface which returned a viable curb for the homeowners, preventing water on the street from entering their yards and homes as it did previously. That speaker finished with a criticism of the WestHelp bid by the Town Board, while complimenting them on the New Resident Event held earlier in the evening.

The Paul decided to expound on how aggravated he was over the controversy with the WestHelp bidding process. He started out calmly and then became more agitated as he continued, stating the Town will get $1.5 M within months of signing the lease and there were millions of dollars at play and we’d get several million dollars less if we went with the next bidder(s) on the list. Apparently to The Paul, his logic justifies the Town’s acceptance of an illegal bid to make a few million dollars more over the course of the 18 years. One good thing, borne from a bad thing, is still bad; and it sounds just as illegal. 

Then The Paul brought up Ferncliff and Harbor View, which was the developer mentioned above that dropped out of the bid, and claimed members of the public were trying to stop the highest bidder from working with the Town. He distorted these facts while ignoring reality. His actions were what caused Ferncliff from not happening, as they were never a financially viable candidate for the WestHelp property. Harbor View backed out of the deal because there was an internal conflict with the two partners, with one working secretly with The Paul and the other kept in the dark. They also didn’t want to be in the middle of a public feud with The Paul, the County and the State.

The Paul commented, “Now there’s an attempt to, um, smear the reputation of the third bidder; someone who is offering significantly more money than anyone else. Um, what concerns me, the issue that concerns me even more is the ramifications that this is going to have on every bidding process.” While this sounds very authentic and perhaps a bit sincere, what The Paul fails to mention is that all of the WestHelp bidding process circumstances were created by his actions and condoned by his Board! The fact that the applicant from Group MRH lied to get the bid and subsequently admitted he lied to the Journal News reporter is the single-most damning ramification – all created by the applicant! In fact, the public’s only involvement prior to this was that they were doing the real due diligence and found the discrepancies in seemingly all of the information being presented to the Town.

The Paul’s tirade continued about a resident contacting him because he was appalled that a reporter went to the bidders home and took a picture of him in an undershirt. This same person said he would never bid with the Town to not have his reputation defamed. First, The Paul never mentioned if this person he spoke of would ever be submitting a bid on anything in the Town anyway or was simply making a point that The Paul would seize upon. Second, Mr. Harris let the reporter into his home. Third, what he was wearing was insignificant to the reporter and he could have taken a moment to “suit up” if his appearance were of concern. Third, and probably most importantly, the home address was the one provided as the business address on the bid. As such the reporter went to the business address supplied to the Town in the bid. If he didn’t want people to contact him at home, he should have listed another address for the business, perhaps one where he could share office space for a fee.

The next statement is the phrase we believe will be the new catch-phrase of the day from The Paul and his Town Board we’ll be hearing often. “So what’s going to happen because of all this controversy is we’re basically… I consider this a form of bid rigging. And I’m saying it is bid rigging. It is bid rigging because what we’re basically doing is we’re discouraging the highest bidder from getting an award from the Town.  The aim of all this character assassination is to encourage people who win a bid successfully to drop out of the process and what’s going to happen its not only this project that counts. It’s going to be all these other projects.” Then he rambled on without offering any proof but claimed to have letters that the public hasn’t seen validating his position. It was an amazing exchange and then he reiterated, “I am convinced that this is a form of bid rigging.”

The second public comment, where the public is given five minutes to speak, became the liveliest and testiest. The first speaker, Robert Bernstein detailed point after point of the submitted information, explaining the incongruities he found and the apparent falsehoods throughout. At the end of his time, Mr. Bernstein chastised Councilman Jones as a lawyer and member of the NYS Bar reminding him that he has a duty to make sure no fraud takes place in the Town of Greenburgh. Councilman Jones appeared visibly shaken and was sweating profusely. Once Mr. Bernstein’s time was up, he concluded, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have a duty to do the right thing. You have a Supervisor out of control. You need to put a stop to this.” The Paul responded that they have a duty to make sure there is no bid rigging in the Town; to which Mr. Bernstein countered with, “Sir, you have faked this offer. The only one who is bid rigging is you!”

Resident after resident came to the podium to highlight discrepancies in the bid for the WestHelp property, the process, the illegalities of same, and occasionally other issues involving the Town.  Toward the end of the evening in what turned into more and more absurd responses from our Town “leaders”, Ms Preiser asked numerous questions of the Board and had a short dialog with them. When the last speaker, Mr. Bock asked for his turn at the podium, the Board begrudgingly conceded. As he was speaking, several Board members were busy with their electronic devices and not paying attention to what he was saying. Mr. Samis approached the dais and said loudly, “Mr. Feiner isn’t listening to you! He’s playing with his machine.” Councilman Jones told Mr. Samis  to sit down. Mr. Samis then repeated himself. Councilman Jones responded, “Sit down! Sit the f*** down!” Mr. Samis remarked that, “Mr. Jones spoke and he never speaks during a meeting.” Jones insisted that Mr. Bock was speaking. The Board immediately rose and they simply said in unison the meeting was over and exited. Mr. Bock’s final comment in disgust was, “This is Open Government at it’s best.”

The language used by Councilman Jones, no matter how frustrated he may be, is inexcusable for any of our Town “leaders”. We understand that sanctions should be placed against Mr. Jones, but know in “Bizarro Greenburgh”, he will probably be receiving an award at the next Town Board meeting. ABG noted several Board members were outside after the meeting by their parked cars laughing. 

Please watch the two Public Comments portions of the meeting to be enlightened as to what is happening to our Town by our “Leaders”. To see the part where Councilman Jones loses control, go directly to the last view minutes of the Second Public Comment section. But don’t sell yourself short; and watch the whole event:

http://greenburghny.swagit.com/play/05082013-689

Psst, Nobody Will Know...

Most Town Board meetings, as well as Work Session meetings, go unnoticed by the majority of resident taxpayers and business owners. In fact, this is one of the most emboldening elements in The Paul and his Board’s illegal, collusive and immoral actions. While the G10 continues it’s admirable defense of these same taxpayers from these actions, it’s getting harder and harder for them to keep up with all the bad decisions made by The Paul and ratified by his Board.

The latest unholy mess be perpetrated onto the Town has been with the property formerly known as WestHelp, located on the southwestern corner of the Westchester Community College campus. In a show of support for the Valhalla community, The Paul had used Unincorporated Town budget funds to erect an 8 foot tall chain link fence topped with barbed wire to keep the pesky low-income, single mothers and their young children contained and unable to roam the sleepy hamlet, devaluing their property. Others claim the fence was erected to keep single men out. County Legislator Michael Smith bemoans the fact that they have an overabundance of homeless people in their neighborhood. He openly states that there is a halfway facility across from his street and anyone who believes they should be there should ask to have them put in their own neighborhood. Valhalla has too much in one place.

Ned McCormack, formerly part of Valhalla School Board, and now right-hand man for County Executive Rob Astorino, along with Michael Smith, the then-president of the school board, agreed to a money laundering scheme proposed by The Paul years ago. Their brief meeting on that fall day would begin the ruination of the Town’s largest revenue/income stream that was essentially gifted to the Town by the County. Adding insult to injury, Smith, et al, decided to use the funds appropriated to the school board to take a party cruise with money originally intended for the Valhalla students’ benefit. When asked, Smith claimed at the time that county legislators and the county executive gave their approval with no indication that there would be any future repercussions. His moral compass misplaced, that was good enough for Smith and his crew as they hit the high seas. A lawsuit, subsequent loss and fines for repayment of the money proved that simply taking everyone at their word, with-a-wink-and-a-nod just doesn’t cut it!

The Paul was still determined to work with the Valhalla residents in hopes of nurturing votes in the next election, unsure if he’d be running for the supervisor’s position unopposed or if he’d have to mount a real campaign. He knows he can rely on Council member Kevin “Henchman” Morgan and his daughter to challenge opponent ballot signatures keeping The Paul out of the fray. So at the end of his last unopposed victory, he hatched a new scheme for votes. The Paul did not renew the lease with the County for the WestHelp property, told someone to make sure the facility was left open to slowly deteriorate and then did what he is so good at doing: deflection. He talked about Frank’s Nursery, dog parks, the Tappan Zee bridge, hydro-fracking upstate, closing Indian Point, ConEd’s dismal response during hurricane Irene and other things that have nothing to do with running the Town or which he has any authority or control. His deflection was working. “Mr. Open Government” knows what to say especially as he pens letters to the editors, community view op-eds, and interviews by the rotating reporters du jour who never get a chance to learn his modus operandi. It’s amazing that he has all the answers for every other issue but can’t run the Town efficiently.

The next step was to get someone to move in to the WestHelp facility if he couldn’t get it to deteriorate quickly enough to raze it. After all, what would please the Valhalla voters, Astorino, Smith, McCormack and the rest more than getting the homeless out of the facility? Tearing it down! So he needed a group to “play” and he found a neighbor right in his own back yard. The Ferncliff School located just over the Greenburgh boarder in Yonkers was looking to relocate. The added benefit for The Paul is that he could get another group moved farther away from his own gated community. He suggested renting the facility to them and they went after his plan like sharks chasing surfers. Their concerns were that they needed relatively flat land and while the WestHelp property might fit the bill, they would need to destroy about half of the existing facility and rebuild to meet their needs. Ferncliff and The Paul stated there was no other property anywhere that could suffice. Interestingly, The Paul never offered a similarly sized and appropriate property to them that could be ideal for the school – with some remediation. But The Paul already promised that property to Martin Hewitt, a principle for a start up venture/paper company known as GameOn 365 in a back room deal. The property? Frank’s Nursery.

The G10 pushed at every meeting to get The Paul and his Town Board to do the right thing. The NAACP, who intervened with the Valhalla property when then-HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced was looking to build the 108 units there, has consistently voiced their opinion that the housing should remain and continue to be used as affordable housing. Dave Wilson of the Journal News moderated two forums discussing the history of the facility, its usage, and future use. Legal opinions were tendered as well. The overwhelming majority of people, whether Greenburgh residents or not, tired of The Paul’s tactics of pitting the developmentally disabled children of Ferncliff against the affordable housing needs of residents. The Paul spoke at the first forum but said nothing and seemed to ramble on incoherently until a statement insulted the audience. The normally friendly crowd for The Paul got restless and the meeting was abruptly ended. Yet, at Town Board meeting after meeting, The Paul would continue have his foot soldiers march up to the podium and endorse the Ferncliff plan to take over WestHelp.

“R-F-P! R-F-P! R-F-P!” Okay, there were no protest chants for a Request For Proposals but it was the constant pushing by the G10, and others that forced The Paul’s hand and he asked for RFP’s for affordable housing prior to the state weighing in and saying nay to Ferncliff moving to the WestHelp property. Five companies that were affordable housing oriented companies submitted RFPs. The Paul claimed the Town Board would do it’s due diligence and investigate the offers. Apparently, one of the submissions was from a former school mate of The Paul. Can you say, “favored status”? Regardless, after a conversation with a resident, they withdrew their application. Another of the applications was from Ferncliff. They were in fact the highest bidder at $500k in rent per year. This wasn’t even half of what the Town had received from the County contract that had now run dry at $1.2 million per year. So, then there were three.

The G10 persisted for two long years and dictated the property be used as intended. They also met with County Legislators to try to get them to investigate The Paul and the Town’s failure to adhere to the contractual requirements for the WestHelp property. With a split vote in that legislature, things became a bit dicey for the democrats in charge. Could they go after one of their own (The Paul) and risk alienating themselves within the party? Some did, but enough didn’t. Smith, a Republican, had a veritable meltdown one evening at a County Board meeting over this issue. The Paul spoke at the County Board meeting, punishing them directly and then had Ferncliff supporters speak. The trick was to have the parents speak of the duress and uncertainty they live with if Ferncliff doesn’t get this property; which are all legitimate concerns. Fortunately, the state intervened and said said, “No.” They were against tearing down existing affordable housing in Westchester, nor would they supply the demolition funds and subsequent building funds Ferncliff would require if they received the property. All of their money has probably been allotted towards rebuilding the Tappan Zee Bridge.

There was one bid left in the RFP process that had all the right components, from a Richard Harris, not the famous actor, of the company called Group MRH, LLC. He submitted his “plan” along with a “resumé” and corroborating documentation stating he was working with well-known and respected affordable housing company, The Richman Group. The problems with the submissions from MRH are many and ABG believes were never intended to see the light of day. ABG believes that the RFP submission from MRH was designed to bolster the RFP submission of the Ferncliff School to the top of the pile with a $500K rental payment, besting the $100K up to $350K from the other applicants. By the way, we don’t believe the Ferncliff School was part of this ploy. The Ferncliff figure of $500K was an assumptive amount they hoped the state would pay for rent if Ferncliff’s proposal were to be accepted.

The resumé submitted by Harris was typed on plain paper as opposed to a letterhead of the company he represents and simply adorned with the word “Resume” at the top. It was more of a letter format than an actual resumé format typically seen in business. The text is eerily similar to that found from their “partners” literature. More importantly, after The Paul announced the partnership of Richman and Group MRH receiving the Town’s nod, the Town attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis received a Cease and Desist order from The Richman Group Affordable Housing Corporation Vice President stating there was no partnership. Harris claimed to have a 10-year track record in affordable housing and yet his company has only been in existence for two years! ABG believes Harris may have been encouraged to submit a proposal only to bolster the Ferncliff offering so The Paul could get the tenant he wanted. But when the accepted proposal could not stand up to scrutiny, The Paul forged on, stating the lack of partnership between these two (Group MRH/Richman) didn’t matter to the Town and the deal stands. Obviously, not on two legs.

While this was going on, Ferncliff was reworking their bid. We’re not sure why as their ability to secure funds from the state to proceed anywhere seems unlikely. Could their actions have been suggested by The Paul in hopes that once this deal with Group MRH fell apart they would swoop in and save the day? Perhaps. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.

Because of all the incongruous and conflicting information, the G10 has once again asked that the deal with Group MRH be terminated. Once it is learned that any applicant has not been totally truthful or has apparently lied on their application, it should be dismissed and the next available bid be utilized. The Town Board is holding a work session meeting this morning, stated-time to begin to be guessed by all, to discuss this matter. We’re sure The Paul will remain obstinate and insist on discussing this in Executive Session. But, before they adjourn, they will award the sale of Frank’s Nursery to the lowest bidder, GameOn 365. Let’s hope no other countries send representatives to Greenburgh as the Russians did about two years ago to see how our government works. This is not how it should be and must change. We can only hope.

Due Diligence?

So much for The Paul and his Town Board doing their “due diligence”! You’ll recall in Town Board meeting after meeting The Paul continually boasting, to the point of bragging, that the Town Board was doing their due diligence in choosing a company to take over and operate the WestHelp property. For two years now, Town residents, the NAACP and others were all insisting to return it to its proper intent as affordable housing. You may recall the town is contractually required to provide low/moderate income housing at the WestHelp property.

But in a move to purchase votes and endear himself with Valhalla residents and certain county republicans, The Paul ordered the apartments to remain vacant for nearly two years. He also insisted they remain left open to facilitate their ruination, ultimately requiring demolition. This would ensure no low/moderate income residents return to the bucolic Valhalla Hamlet and allow The Paul to gift the property to the unsuspecting Ferncliff School to build a new residential school for the developmentally disabled on the property. The state rejected that proposal last month, insistent the property be used for affordable housing as intended. Another of The Paul’s latest schemes that would backfire!

Month after month, meeting after meeting many residents, and specifically the G10, would ask what the criteria was for selecting a vendor for the property. The new catch phrase from The Paul and his Board was, “Yada, yada, yada. We are doing our due diligence.” You can easily substitute a host of words/expressions for the “yada, yada, yada’s”. These substitutes could be: “blah, blah, blah”; “go away, go away, go away”; “we’re in over our heads, we’re in over our heads, we’re in over our heads”; “help us, help us, help us”. The list is endless. And yet The Paul persisted they stick to their due diligence story – and they did. Due diligence actually requires doing something. It appears they did little, if anything.

It’s been about two years or so since The Paul decided to pull the plug on the Town’s most lucrative “do-nothing” contract with the County of Westchester. The Town earned $1.2M per year in rental payments from the County for the WestHelp property. Because of The Paul’s latest scheme, the taxpayers lost this cool $1.2M per year that will a) never be recouped; and b) never be replaced with anything even close. In the meantime, after doing their due diligence, The Paul instructed his Board to choose the bid from a new partnership made up of the Richman Organization and Group MRH. They did. This partnership proposal promised to pay Greenburgh $1.5M up front and almost $500,000 annually. The payments will continue through the year 2032. They will also spend approximately $2M in renovations. The Town won’t even be making half of what it was before this debacle began and the Ferncliff School is no closer to finding a new home.

Now it’s been uncovered through other people’s due diligence that there is no partnership between the Richmond Group and Group MRH! So what due diligence was The Paul and his go-along Board engaged in? Can we expect similar due diligence from them regarding other projects in the Town, such as the Frank’s Nursery property? Or how about the spot-zoning changes recently made to accommodate the Brightview Assisted Living facility just off of Benedict Avenue at Rt 119? How much due diligence was performed here?

The Brightview spot-zoning change, another “done-deal”, happened not only for the Brightview developers, but was passed by the Board under the guise of a Town-wide change to allow Assisted Living facilities throughout the Town. Justification for this spot-zoning for one developer was evenly spread out through the entire Town’s Unincorporated districts, allowing four story buildings on postage stamp sized properties in residential neighborhoods. Due diligence? Hardly. The attorneys for Brightview wrote the spot-zoning change to benefit themselves and The Paul and his Board voted to approve it, and fast! After all, Brightview is on a schedule and might withdraw their plan if they’re delayed. They’ve repeatedly said so.

Now that the WestHelp deal is done, The Paul openly stated that the two organizations are not a partnership. And when asked if this would alter the WestHelp property deal or not, The Paul, who begrudgingly only reverses course when he is mandated to do so by court rulings, said, “Not at all. It’s not really a big deal. Richman was never going to be the financial backer. There were zero misrepresentations on the part of (MRH).” Perhaps not – technically. But after all the espoused due diligence, ABG wonders what their due diligence actually was? And now that you do know something is amiss, most normal leaders, at least in business, would take pause, review, perhaps reopen the evaluations or reopen the RFP process. In a story ABG posted called “Under The Circus’ Big Tent” on April 26th, we quoted The Paul saying, “This is not a game. This is not entertainment. This is not a circus. This is a business. We have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayers of Greenburgh to get the best possible deal for the Town.” This is a business? Really? Fiduciary responsibility? C’mon! Of course the representatives for MRH had no comment. They got what they wanted. Could this deal have been promised to them? You decide.

If this sounds a bit familiar to ABG readers, its because we’ve been living through this same scenario with another Unincorporated property and phantom business. The former Frank’s Nursery at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road was another “done-deal” brokered behind closed doors by The Paul and his Board with the “paper” company GameOn 365 before the Town acquired the property through foreclosure. Apparently, GameOn 365 did not have the money to purchase the property, so The Paul offered to lease it to them. A lease is simply illegal by county and state law. It wasn’t until a lawsuit was filed against The Paul and the Town that he withdrew his lease offer and offered to sell GameOn 365 the property – until House of Sports doubled the offer! That’s when The Paul and Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan began a new mantra that they were only looking at “serious investors”. GameOn 365 had, and continues to have, no money. House of Sports is fully operational and has the financial resources to enter into the sale. Where’s The Paul’s fiduciary responsibility now? Business indeed!

The Town officials obviously did not do any due diligence and again made a deal with a questionable start-up company. Even more incredible is the arrogance of The Paul and his insistence to continue with this deal. ABG had hoped the Town’s due diligence would surprise us with a transaction that might get renovations underway immediately, help those in need of housing and follow the law. Once again, the Town leaders have failed miserably – this time with due diligence. Just as the investment company ads claim, that “Past performance is no guarantee of future results”, ABG is not confident The Paul and his complicit Board will do the right thing with the Frank’s Nursery property and provide us with different results. We can only hope.

Two Years Too Late: WestHelp Decision Finally Made

There were three RFP’s presented to the Town Board for the WestHelp property. As previously posted, The Paul and his former schoolmate’s deal parted company supposedly after a resident had a conversation with one of this bidders partner. Either The Paul’s deal was incredibly flimsy or the conversation was incredibly powerful. ABG honestly believes it was a combination of both. In a failed and illegal attempt to vacate the property and install the Ferncliff School into the facility, The Paul literally cost the Town millions of dollars in lost revenue that will never be made back and caused viable apartments to unnecessarily fall into disrepair.

At the Town Board Work Session, a record forty-five minutes or so transpired before the Board adjourned to Executive Session. During the public portion of the meeting, they accepted the bid from a new partnership made up of the Richman Organization and Group MRH. Their partnership proposal promises to pay Greenburgh $1.5M up front and almost $500,000 annually. These payments will continue through the year 2032. They must also spend approximately $2M in renovations. This unnecessary expense is because The Paul/Greenburgh left the apartments exposed to the elements, causing them to fall into into unnecessary disrepair since October of 2011, when the Town took over the property!

While the Town has lost $1.2M per year and will never recoup those losses, ABG is happy to see the property finally be used for what it was intended - housing. We’re also glad that the housing will be focused on providing homes for people from age 55yrs and older. It’s a shame that the hijinks from The Paul and his complicit Town Board were allowed to get this far. Let’s hope a decision for the former Frank’s Nursery is soon to come as it’s another property that has fallen into The Paul’s mischievous hands. We can only hope.

Why No Decision?

With the WestHelp fiasco finally behind us after New York State’s representatives stated they would not endorse demolishing existing, albeit decaying, affordable housing, we continue to watch The Paul and his Board sit on their proverbial hands as the lessee of this facility. The Paul had requested proposals for the property some time back. ABG is convinced this was nothing more than his typical stall tactic while he waited for the circling wagons of support to make their final decision his way. Ever the shrewd politician, he began this debacle over two years ago when he hatched yet another lawsuit-worthy scheme!

If you follow ABG, we had been against what The Paul was doing with the WestHelp property all along. Others had been against him as well and we have all prevailed on the side on logic, common sense, societal decency, and by a rudimentary understanding of the contractual agreement the town maintained with the county! It was no surprise to many of us that this proposed WestHelp destruction for the benefit of the Ferncliff School of Yonkers would never materialize. Being proved right does not make us feel like the victor. ABG and others feel terrible that the Ferncliff School was duped and set back by The Paul’s maneuvering and manipulation of them. ABG has written about this sort of behavior from The Paul. It’s a shame that Ferncliff lost two valuable years in their search for a new location because of his lying and scheming!

But what of the property now? While this two-year long saga dragged on, the property was intentionally left abandoned by The Paul and the Town. Open to the elements, stripped of piping and appliances, vandalism, and animal destruction, it’s estimated to cost about $3M to renovate the facility before it can be used again. That’s about the same amount of money the Town could have made, not lost, had the Town simply secured the facility. The Greenburgh Housing Authority has people in need of housing which could have satisfied about half of their list of people had The Paul and his Board elected to simply put them in the facility once the County ceased to utilize it. Everybody lost by the Town not resigning the contract with the County, especially it’s own residents in need of a home. Its a shame the we continued to lose the $1.2M per year in rent by The Paul and not house people in need of existing affordable housing.

Again, what of the property now? The last Town Board work session had a few of the bidders for the property “re-present” their RFP, with one company increasing their cash offering by doubling it. Then, shortly thereafter, they withdrew from the bidding. ABG believes if The Paul and his Board operated in ernest, and did a legitimate RFP process each time there was Town involvement in a property for sale, we would see higher amounts offered. But there appears to be nothing but collusive actions every way we turn, so it’s difficult to know how successful the Town might actually be in a process of true “open government” was practiced.

There are two properties in the Town languishing under The Paul’s distorted view of what our Town needs. First is the obvious degradation and proposed ruining of the WestHelp facility for him to garner favor with County Executive Rob Astorino, County Legislator Michael Smith and County Communications Director Ned McCormack. Of course, the gain for The Paul is a recouping of lost Valhalla votes after having his illegal payments to the school board stopped in court! The second property is at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. It’s the old Frank’s Nursery property that The Paul tried to illegal lease to GameOn 365 with another back room deal. There are numerous issues here as well but a much simpler solution from which several might be offered. The Town should do the site remediation that is required to make the property “whole” and then offer it for sale instead of trying to finagle a way to get someone else to pay for the cleanup. If The Paul’s concern for the Ferncliff School were genuine, he and the Board would sell the property to Ferncliff School and kill two birds with one stone. If not, ask for an RFP for the property instead of making another illegal back room deal for it. Assume the land, remediate it and make it another ball field/park within the Town. One of the two recreation commissioners (duplicate positions) said we need more fields for the Town. ABG believes this was a dishonest plea, sought and paid for by The Paul as an endorsement of the GameOn 365 deal he brokered prior to the Town acquiring the foreclosed upon property. 

The Town had RFP’s submitted a month ago. Now The Paul is playing more games and re-interviewing the companies’ and their submissions. Why has no decision been rendered when they’ve had enough time to proceed? ABG doesn’t buy their constant reply of doing their due diligence. Their operational incompetence will not matter how much due diligence is done. Regardless of the lies, back room dealings and promises made, the Town has the ability to right this extremely wrong position - twice - and get the Town back on track. We can only hope.