Town Reacts After Screw-Up

After many battled with the Feiner Administration for over two years, the Town finally adopted a law regulating massage establishments – not to be confused with massage parlors. What’s the difference? Massage establishments offer legitimate massage and massage therapy services, usually by licensed massage therapists. There is little or no objection to these types of establishments or the massage therapists working there.

The law that was proposed initially and crafted by Robert Bernstein, after highlighting the issue of massage parlors brought to the forefront at an Edgemont Community Council meeting, was left untouched (no pun intended) by the Town Board. Despite regular discussions of the subject at regular Town Board meetings and various civic association meetings, no action was taken. Eventually, with the assistance of Mr Bernstein, a bill was introduced. Sadly, Town Attorney Tim Lewis was against it, saying he didn’t think it was legal.  In fact, before the Town Board would vote the bill into law, he altered it.

Mr Bernstein, an attorney now practicing law in Scarsdale, NY, complained about the changes, stating that they actually weakened the bill and would have a deleterious effect on the police department’s ability to enforce it. It would also not afford protection to the young women working in these locations, whether by choice or not. It has been claimed that many of these “spas” are nothing more than facades for prostitution, sex slavery, and more. By having a watered-down law such as what Mr Lewis ultimately passed on to the Board, helping these young women would be more difficult.

At the last Town Board meeting, Mr Bernstein commented that while the Town had actually passed the Massage Establishment law, Mr Lewis determined they should remain open while their appeals for being shuttered were decided. Ironically, the Town Board condoned Mr Lewis’ action by postponing the appeals process which was supposed to be addressed at that same meeting but was put off until March 14th!

A mere two days following the Town Board’s blatant disregard for the law, a hallmark of Mr Feiner’s career as Supervisor with the Fortress Bible discrimination verdict, WestHelp, Dromore Road, Frank’s Nursery, GameOn 365 to mention just a few, Mr Feiner sent out an email blast announcing that four massage establishments had been shuttered. The charges were unauthorized practice of a profession and prostitution. The first charge was based on the fact that several employees were allegedly operating as licensed massage therapists and were not. The second charge does not need clarification. These are just charges at this point and it remains to be seen if the participants are found guilty and what the punishment might be.

We still don’t know the reasons Mr Lewis did not want these massage establishments closed as each time there is a supposed discussion about his rationale, it’s behind closed doors – another hallmark of the Feiner administration’s "open government” policy. These types of discussions, along with the back room deals, phone conversations that cannot be reviewed under the Freedom Of Information Law (FOIL), and more must end. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Frank's Nursery Debacle: Board Tables Auction Again

The former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road has been Mr Feiner’s personal political monkey, whether on his back or out in front dancing with him since the property was acquired by the Town through foreclosure. The property has been used by him for deflection from critical issues as well as grandstanding whenever possible. In fact, it has been the one property where his only goal seems to be to gift the property to his friends from GameOn 365, a paper company with no assets, no investors and no hope - save one: Mr Feiner’s largess.

The first attempt at gifting the property to GameOn 365 was in the form of an illegal lease shortly after the Town acquired the property through foreclosure. When residents rallied through the threat of another lawsuit, Mr Feiner withdrew his lease offer to his friends. You see, foreclosed upon property must be sold by the municipality that acquires it. Mr Feiner, a non-practicing attorney probably knew this but forced the residents to vociferously point it out.

Mr Feiner then placed a referendum on the election ballot promising the Town $5-million if the public would pass the referendum. They did, giving Mr Feiner new ammunition to sidestep another law he didn’t like nor wanted to obey. What he hadn’t explained was the $5-million was over the course of 13 years and would allow GameOn 365 to “flip” the property once they purchased it. Mr Feiner insisted they wouldn’t do that. Hmm, how could he know what they would do in the future? Ultimately though, GameOn 365 decided to not move forward with leasing the property.

Regardless, he then tried to sell the property to them and at the 11th hour, another offer, in cash and twice as much was submitted to the Town with another threat of a lawsuit. During all of this, residents kept informing the Town of various contaminants and possible carcinogens that would be found on the property if they only looked. Mr Feiner ignored them all. The public insisted the Town remediate the contaminated property and Mr Feiner said, “No, we’ll make remediation a condition of the sale by the purchaser.” What he never publicly told anyone was the the Town may have acquired the property through foreclosure, but the Town never received a clear title for the property. Consequently, they could not sell it. This partially explains Mr Feiner’s initial attempt to illegally lease the property than to sell it.  

Under the guise of pretending to care, the Town authorized incredibly limited environmental testing be done where the two old heating oil storage tanks had been. Surprise, surprise, they found the soil in that area contaminated with, you guessed it, heating oil. Keeping their heads in the sand, the Board went along with Mr Feiner's scheme to now sell the property as is, requiring the purchaser to clean up the contamination. Ironically, Town Attorney Tim Lewis insisted the remediation would not cost any more than $100,000. Forget remediation. The testing alone blew right past pseudo-environmental expert Lewis’ number of $100,000. Unfortunately, while residents continued to clamor for more testing, Mr Feiner and crew just dug their heels in even deeper.

Amazingly, the Town Board continued the ruse by saying we should sell it to initiate the testing required for a sale. Sounds a bit like the famous Nancy line, “We have to pass it so we can find out what's in it.” Lo and behold, Harold Bordwin of GA Keen Realty, the Town’s chosen auctioneer for the property, said that prospective bidders were reluctant to bid on the property because of several unknowns. Unknowns such as what contaminants are on the property, how much of it is there, what the cost for remediation would be (Mr Lewis’ “expertise” aside), and then what steps would need to be taken to make the property whole again for development. The other consequential issue is the ever-present power lines that run adjacent to the property. As such, the figures for the property being discussed by developers were significantly less than the $3.5million offered two years ago by House of Sports in Ardsley for the property.

Another key factor in the entire debacle with what could have been a simple sale if Mr Feiner had followed the law is that of zoning. But out of the 60 or so developers expressing any kind of interest in the property, only 15 have signed confidentiality agreements to move forward with participating in the auction. But between the property’s soil contamination, groundwater contamination and zoning limitations, there was a lot of information that was intentionally not provided by the Town for bidders to move forward. Additionally, the neighborhood residents are adhering to their desire for the property to be used within the zoning that is currently in place for the property (R-30), which can be used for single-family housing, assisted living, public safety oriented buildings, libraries, and such.

After much anticipation, mostly awaiting the excuse that would be used to delay the auction this time, the Town Board held a special Friday meeting on October 31 to again postpone the former Frank’s Nursery property auction! It has already been postponed several times and many in the Town were curious when he would announce this postponement and the reason why? ABG staffers were convinced as were many others that the auction would be postponed or canceled because Mr Feiner could not control gifting the property to friends at GameOn 365. Regardless, this postponement was a fait accompli, a done-deal never going to see the light of day. It seems that several months will be needed to complete the real testing of the Frank's Nursery property before an auction or sale can take place. It’s disappointing because after the months pass, Mr Feiner will return to say the zoning must change for the Town to sell the property.

Many people with the best interest for Greenburgh at heart repeatedly told Mr Feiner and his Town Board that further, more encompassing testing and remediation would be needed before we could proceed. Mr Feiner and his Board refused to listen, instead believing Mr Lewis because his was the answer Mr Feiner told them they sought. Again, it’s disappointing. We as taxpayers deserve and should expect better from the Town’s elected officials. If we don’t receive it, we should vote differently in the next election. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

All Quiet On the Real Estate Front, Just Don’t Get Fooled Again

The property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road has been condemned by Mr Feiner and his Town Board. They have decided to let it languish, contamination and all, and continue to help his favored “paper” company, GameOn 365. As you have read here previously, Mr Feiner has been trying to create a new zoning classification called Recreational. Mr Feiner’s plan, not the plan of the community, especially the surrounding neighborhoods, of both residential and business taxpayers, ignores the wants and desires of everyone but he and his friends from GameOn 365.

Throughout this ordeal that Mr Feiner has manufactured by unethically, although not illegally, acting behind closed doors, Mr Feiner had secret meetings and communications with GameOn 365, well before the Town acquired the contaminated property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery. Almost immediately thereafter, when Mr Feiner announced the Town would (illegally) lease the property to GameOn 365, he began fabricating stories about other possible developers who protested the proposed lease and land usage. But the bully pulpit has always worked for Mr Feiner, his complicit Board and others.

The G10 exposed to the public that the property was contaminated from numerous sources throughout the years while it had been owned by several companies. The back end of the property was used as a dump for construction debris from the White Plains Urban Renewal projects when the original Macy’s and surrounding White Plains area was demolished. Then there were numerous nurseries on the property, with the last two being FlowerTime and then Frank’s. Almost immediately, Mr Lewis started the litany of lies that the remediation would cost under $100k. Mr Lewis is not a noted expert in hazardous material contamination, remediation, litigation and/or related issues. Nor does he have a level of expertise in environmental anything. Mr Feiner continued to claim the Town had a AAA Bond rating. But alas, the two points would never meet and the Town would not remediate the property so as to sell it at a true and fair Westchester piece of property. Rather, Mr Feiner would try to finagle a way to have the new owner/lessee/mark/sap to pay for it.

Since the Town has engaged in an illicit relationship to consistently assist GameOn 365, a for-profit company, we were not really surprised when the venue for their oversized proposal was moved to the Golf Driving Range next door and Mr Feiner supported it. The property, owned by the Vizioli family for years, has a few homes on the property, the driving range office and is flanked on two sides by homes. The Vizioli family had not paid their taxes from approximately 2008 until several months ago. And, they only recently made a down payment and entered a schedule to pay of the rest over several years with the Town. Even though they were known tax cheats, the Town never initiated foreclosure proceedings against them - which is the case with many others as well. It’s interesting that when they didn't have the money to pay their taxes, Mr Feiner and the Town didn’t pursue them for payment and as soon as a buck could be made by them by either selling or leasing the land, they hastily “found” money to start paying the bill. ABG wonders how many other properties have had this preferential treatment?

They say Yonkers is the City of Hills - where nothing is on the level. If that’s the case, Greenburgh is a close second, mostly because of the shenanigans executed with impunity by Mr Feiner and his Board. Mr Feiner and the Town passed a resolution about two months ago promising to sell the former Frank’s Nursery property only to prospective bidders who agreed to comply with existing residential zoning for the property. Now he simply has decided to change the parameters and accept bids instead from anyone, regardless of intended use.

Mr. Feiner said the decision to reverse course was prompted by “legal issues” raised by the Town Attorney that might have interfered with the property’s sale. ABG understands this is all a scam to ensure his friends from GameOn 365 are the (intended) winners of the bid process.  Mr Feiner had naturally declined to say what the legal issues were or why they were not raised before. Previously, he had enlisted the assistance and cooperation of the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association promising “complete transparency” in the upcoming sale. As he is usually wont to do, he changed the "game" in the eleventh hour, changing course and doing so at a work session which ensures no public comment, feedback or repercussions.

After this last rope-a-dope by the leaders, residents are left wondering what is going on behind the scenes and no one has heard anything. Typically, when there is a quiet before the storm, maneuvering by Mr Feiner is taking place behind the scenes. Why does ABG believe this is the case? Like the ads say, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.” Except in Greenburgh. Something is afoot. The auction has been pushed farther back into November as each month finds a new change that mysteriously “must be made”, typically in a non-resistant Work Session.

The Town is continuing down a slippery slope of poor or non-existent ethical behavior by several elected officials in the Town. While their behavior has intended outcomes for some, it has unintended outcomes for the rest of us. Its time for Mr Feiner to practice what he preaches and start operating openly and without favor to his developer friends and others. Only then will we begin to see A Better Greenburgh.

Consolidation Deflection Plus

Recently there was a private meeting with the self-appointed Fairview Fire Monitors and the Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Chiefs along with Mr Feiner. Why would Mr Feiner be participating? Because they aren't really self-appointed, he is the catalyst behind the Fire Monitor group, pulling their strings, if you will, and making sure all the headlines and faux issues deflect attention away from his mismanagement of the Town. This isn't the first time the Master Deflector has done this.

More scrutiny of the Town and actions of its employees is not only necessary, but imperative given the constant illegal actions of Mr Feiner. The change of venue with the former news website, the Greenburgh Daily Voice has given Mr Feiner carte blanche to write anything he wants directly onto the site with little or no fact checking. So, in spite of an outdated and cumbersome Town website where Mr Feiner has free reign, he now has the ability to amplify his mantra, usually poised to benefit someone other than the taxpayers.

The Fire Monitor group is just another example of his control of the issues behind the scenes and ultimately the media. Case in point, when it was time for the Town Board to vote on the budget, he kicked up the high fire taxes as his deflection to hide the almost $17 million dollars in bonds that passed through the Town Board faster than a bullet fired from an outdoor shooting range. With the exception of the G10, there was no outrage with the budget passage. Nor was there even a mention about the Town's oft-touted superior AAA Bond Rating which Mr Feiner always boasts. This would have been a perfect opportunity to mention it, finally in the correct context. Instead, we get more duplicity from Town Hall.

Mr Feiner "kicked off" the fire tax issue when his own contaminated land sale debacle blew up after being brought to the public's attention by us and others with the former Frank's Nursery property. Mr Feiner desperately tried to gift the contaminated land to his friends from GameOn 365 with an illegal lease. When that illegal action was publicized and a lawsuit threatened, Mr Feiner backed down. When he tried to manipulate the sale to GameOn 365 for half the amount that was offered by Ardsley's House of Sports ($3.5M), an established and full functioning business, he incredulously blamed the public of bid rigging and it was their fault that the land sale fell through. Through it all, Mr Feiner knowingly withheld the fact that the Town never had clear title for the property he was trying to gift to his friends. The Town couldn't sell the contaminated property even if they had followed part of the law!
 
More recently, he has reneged on his offer with the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association, as well as the public, to enforce the conditions for an auction of the former Frank's Nursery property to only qualified bidders who intend to use the property as residentially zoned. The Civic Association fought vehemently for this one provision. And, while Mr Feiner had actually insisted on Civic Association inclusion, at the eleventh hour Mr Feiner changed the bidding structure.

This latest twist means bidders will no longer be required to comply with existing residential zoning for the property allowing bids from any bidder, regardless of intended use and totally disregarding the neighborhood and its civic association's request for zoning adherence. According to Mr Feiner, it was a legal necessity. ABG believes the real reason is the structure he had originally put in place would have virtually guaranteed GameOn 365 not be a contender or even the winning bidder. More importantly, he wouldn't be able to control the outcome as a favorable one for GameOn 365. And Mr Feiner's end-game, no pun intended, is to deliver the contaminated property to GameOn 365, one way or another.

All of this is nothing more than deflection - period - taking attention away from the Town's budget fiasco(s). A financial source extremely close to Mr Feiner admitted that the next couple of Town budgets promise to be very painful for the Unincorporated taxpaying residents because of impending increases which will border on obscene. This tells us we should expect more deflection, whether it's a high-line park in Hudson River with the Tappan Zee Bridge, regulating gun ranges, developing and delaying adoption of Comprehensive Plans, withholding tax revenues collected by the Town for the fire department fom the fire department, collapsing park pools, or anti-Semitic charges against other Town employees. We're sure there will always be more to come from Mr Feiner to muddy the facts until he gets what he wants.

One final comment about the Fire Monitors sans Mr Feiner. They are in agreement with several civic association leaders and the fire chiefs that it is not necessary to push for a referendum to consolidate the two "cherry-picked" departments. Numerous residents and the Fire Commissioners, the Chiefs and their members proved with facts and figures that any savings that might be had initially would be short lived and ultimately more costly to the taxpaying public. Since both the Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Chiefs have been openly discussing the issues surrounding consolidation, and their efforts to control costs and expenses, the Monitors agree that the dialog is improved and a pause may be warranted. Perhaps a study about consolidation in the future will be requested and even done. ABG hopes it won't be a knee jerk reaction to another one of Mr Feiner's unqualified comments. We'll discuss this more in another post as necessary.

Greenburgh taxpayers take everything Mr Feiner does "on the chin" and more importantly, with their wallets. This must change. It requires a public that is not content to accept the meager bribes from the Town, or with phony certificates at Town Board meetings. It requires the residents to abandon their willfully ignorant status and become involved. It requires a certain amount of paying attention which our current crop of politicians count on the public to not do. Again, this needs to change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Town Hall Suspected of Bid Rigging - Updated!

In a stunning and yet typical closed door, about-face move, our Town Board is unceremoniously moving swiftly albeit effortlessly toward scrapping the entire proposal constructed for the former Frank's Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road! The multi-million dollar question is why? In particular with this previously passed  proposal was the fact that the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association had participated with significant input into the proposal, actually correcting numerous mistakes pre-final draft. Could the explanation for this move be that Mr Feiner realized he was losing control to gift the property to GameOn 365 and felt he/they needed to move before the "auction" began? Remember, past performance doesn't guarantee future results, but it sure does provide an extremely accurate indicator.

On the Agenda as TB-1 in this Special Town Board Meeting to be held on August 5th at 10:30AM, the Town plans to rescind TB-8, adopted on July 15, 2014 which authorized the marketing plan/budget of GA Keen Realty Advisors related to the sale of the former Frank's Nursery property located at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Why?

With the second agenda item, TB-2, the Town Board plans to turn right around and approve the marketing plan/budget, information sheet, information memorandum, non-disclosure agreement and bidding procedures document for the auction of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road (Formerly Frank's Nursery) and authorizing a marketing plan/budget appropriation amount not to exceed $27,000 to GA Keen Realty Advisors, the Town's Real Estate Advisor. What changed and why?

What the Town Board is doing is removing the unanimously agreed upon stipulation that any bids on the property strictly utilize the R-30 zoning requirements to develop the property! Translation: Bid rigging. For example, GameOn 365 would have to follow the permitted uses of R-30 zoning such as residential housing, assisted living facilities, private clubs, etc., if they were to bid on the Frank's Nursery property. Similarly, this would apply to anyone else as well. And, we all know that what Mr Feiner wants is what will happen, regardless of the hoops he or others must jump through to accomplish it.

Mr Feiner's allegations of citizen bid rigging during the lease/sale/auction debacle with GameOn 365 still rings hollow as the Town Board again tries to change the playing field to benefit GameOn 365. They are still only a paper company with a small handful of investors relying on Mr Feiner's back room agreement for them to purchase the property while more significant offers are ignored. Is this just another ploy in Mr Feiner's bag of tricks? Will we see something added into the new proposal that removes the definition of a qualified bidder, or removal of the adherence to the R-30 Zoning?

You'll recall Mr Feiner tried to illegally lease the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to GameOn 365 about four years ago. Only after residents and civic associations threatened to sue the Town ala, "If you don't like what I'm doing, sue me," to stop his illegal actions did he back down. Fortunately, their threats to sue was enough to stop the runaway Mr Feiner and his Board from breaking yet another law.

Mr Feiner recently reached out to the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association claiming the owners of the Apple Farm, located in the shopping center on Rt 119, expressed interested in purchasing the Frank's Nursery property after the decision to rescind the proposal. The reply from neighborhood's Civic Association was firm: the only way they would agree to the sale of the property is if any bidder adheres to the R-30 zoning codes for the property. Mr Feiner wasn't happy and needed a way to push the Civic Association aside. In fact, ABG believes this could be why there is a special meeting with new proposals being introduced. By the way, given the amount of items on the Special Meeting Agenda, these should have all warranted a regular meeting. However, it would also have warranted the requisite public comments and slowed down the process Mr Feiner seeks to control, exposing their real motivation.

UPDATE, Sunday August 3rd:
In an email forwarded to the ABG offices, Mr Feiner replied to the query as to why the change. His answer below, is vague enough to appear legitimate but is really Mr Feiner thumbing his nose at the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association and their involvement with the entire process that HE insisted they participate in. Here's his email quote:

"RE: Resolution TB-1  08/05/14

we were advised that this requirement would not be legal and could jeopardize the sale of the property.  My understanding is that the town has more leeway re: decision as to who we're going to sell the property to, after the auction take place.  PAUL"

"We were advised" means that Mr Feiner made a decision and is not providing specifics because by remaining vague, his feet won't be anywhere near the fire, let alone held to it. The "more leeway" dumps the ball he temporarily "lost hold of" back in his lap, allowing him to cherry-pick to whom the Town sells the property after the auction. This will allow him to say no to bidders he wants out of the way until he gets to, for instance, the GameOn 365 bid. Since he can't control the bid, he needs to control the awarding of it. This rescinding of the proposal will allow that control to be his. 

Also on the agenda worth mentioning is AT-1, a resolution authorizing tax certiorari settlement with Westhab, Inc./22 Tarrytown Road Housing Development Fund Corporation for a total of $28,901. It's sad that a) the Town granted everything on Westhab's wish list when they sought to build; b) they utilize the police, fire and sanitation services while being a not-for-profit-but-very-well-paid organization; c) they don't have to contract with a carting company for garbage, recycle and trash removal while all other businesses must and are seeking a refund while utilizing Town services. Is this their idea of being a good neighbor, forcing the other residents to pay their share? And where are the financially concerned Fire Monitor participants and why aren't they looking at these expenses and/or behavior?

Having community involvement is critical for the success of the Town. Open government, real open government should be the cornerstone of how government works. Sadly, while Mr Feiner knows how to say and use the buzzwords about open government, he doesn't practice what he preaches. We'll have to wait and see what the changes are in the auction proposal contracts and learn why after the change takes place. Hardly open government. But in Greenburgh, it is our goverment. Only when the willfully ignorant become involved will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Town Drags Feet On Equity Taxing Proposal

It started quite auspiciously, even if disingenuous, as an attack against a good man in the Fairview Fire Department. That attack has morphed into a deflection movement that has accomplished what Mr Feiner had set out to do. He needed to take focus away from his newly proposed Town budget and the gaping holes created by Mr Feiner with the $6.5 million fine, $5.5 million not covered by insurance, the lack of $1.2 million per year by the intentional non-renewal of the WestHelp contract, the loss of an offer for $3.5 million plus unlimited cleanup for the former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road, Dromore Road, Midway Shopping Center, to name a few. Why hasn’t this fire monitor group expanded their scope and begun a study about Town-wide spending, budgets, largess and lawsuit failures? ABG believes Mr Feiner is behind this deflection move to consolidate only two of the three paid fire departments in the Town, utilizing resident Milt Hoffman as his surrogate, to keep any and all focus away from his failings with Town finances.

While fire consolidation has generated quite a buzz, it is also a disingenuous proposal because it only includes two of the three paid departments. Milt Hoffman, a close friend and confidant of Mr Feiner, continues to bemoan the savings that could be had. Yet, the numbers presented by both the Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Chiefs don’t support Mr Hoffman's claims, nor does the now-outdated fire consolidation report Mr Hoffman helped pen and often refers. Who is monitoring the monitors?

However, ABG believes some good has come from this fire district scrutiny.

One problem that was highlighted is the date of the elections for the Board of Fire Commissioners, which is dictated by New York State law, not local or County law. The Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville Board of Fire Commissioners elections are mandated by NY State to be held on the second Tuesday of December. The law also mandates minimum voting hours from 6pm until 9pm. The Fairview Board of Fire Commissioners extended the hours from 5pm until 9pm and are currently investigating ways to expand the hours of voting. One issue is the people working the polls are contracted by the Fire District and all work “regular” jobs. In a discussion with a Board member, ABG learned they are addressing the expansion of voting hours and hope to expand them for this years election. ABG believes this would be a step forward for residents and the District.

Another proposal submitted to the Town Board on May 21, 2014 on behalf of the three fire districts has languished since its submission. The proposal was written on behalf of the three fire districts by Hartsdale Chief Ed Rush. It partially addresses high fire taxes for the districts as well as the tax-exempt properties not paying their fair share for services they take advantage of but are not required to pay for. Simply, the proposal addresses the fact that each fire district pays “rent” for the use of fire hydrants and water in the Town. 

The hydrant/water rental charges in 2013 was $163,530 for Hartsdale, $253,590 for Fairview and $137,460 in Greenville. The proposal references NYS Assembly and Senate bills A4086-A and S5278-A, respectively, allowing municipalities that purchase water from private water companies to allocate the cost of maintaining fire hydrant infrastructure to all customers. Translation? Instead of water costs being paid by only the 52% of taxpayers in these fire districts on only their fire protection tax bills, 100% of the residents who use water in the Town (everybody) and receive a water bill would be paying for water usage and hydrant rentals throughout the Town - including the tax exempts! This will not cause a dramatic lowering of the 52%-ers fire protection taxes, but it does begin the address the non-payment for services rendered by tax-exempts. 

In the Fairview Fire District, 48% of the properties are tax-exempt. That means 52% of the resident taxpayers pay 100% of the taxes, allowing for the tax exempts to get a free ride whenever there is a Fire, Police, or EMS emergency. Our paid-for-by-52%-responders go to the scene and perform their jobs as though these people paid taxes. And, no one has a problem with that. The police department personnel respond to police related events; the fire department responds to their respective fire, ems and other events and EMS personnel respond, often seeking aid from volunteer EMS agencies from the villages. One little-known fact is that the Villages pay for paramedic services to the Town provided by Greenburgh Police. Again, the tax-exempts do not pay for this service, the 52%-ers do!

Mr Hoffman’s group seemed surprised when Chief Rush brought this proposal up at a meeting held at Town Hall with the fire monitors. The audience queried why the Town has not acted on this? Chief Rush mentioned he did not know but had just sent a follow-up email to the Town Board asking for a response. The Problem Solver did not reply. In a separate email forwarded to ABG from a resident, Mr Feiner stated to a resident who inquired about it that he had given the letter to the legal department and to the Water Advisory Board to "investigate". While this sounds logical to the willfully ignorant voter, ABG believes it is another rope-a-dope by Mr Feiner in hopes he can continue the ruse of fire consolidation, garnering more headlines and media time. Sadly, while everyone is clamoring for savings for the beleaguered taxpayer in Greenburgh, someone has finally done something tangible and the Town won’t act. ABG believes it is a step in the right direction and should be implemented immediately!

Fairview Fire Chief Reiss also proposed a $10 student fee be attached to Westchester Community College students’ tuition that would help offset costs for all the fire and EMS calls they respond to at the WCC campus. Here, however it becomes a bit more involved because WCC is part of the state university system and this fee would need to be approved at the state level. Why hasn’t Mr Feiner reached out to his two state buddies and ask them for help? Another idea a residents suggested is to have the Fire District charge tax-exempts properties for fire inspections. Charging for false alarms might add another revenue stream for Fire Districts to raise income. The police department charges for burglary/security false alarms after a certain amount of false alarms have been generated. While ABG likes the fire inspection fee idea, we understand the state prohibits charging for fire false alarms because they are considered "life safety" alarms. However, ABG believes this is worth investigating and if the same component failures are what’s generating an alarm, that fines be levied to force compliance to remedy the defect – with the penalty money going to the fire district.

It would seem that equity of payments for services would be something Mr Feiner would be championing for the taxpayers he continues to abuse. Instead, he shrinks away from helping the people he was elected to serve. Perhaps its time to elect someone else who will represent the residents over the developers. Maybe then we will see A Better Greenburgh.

Just Watch Me

The time leading up to the next election promises to be interesting and economically advantageous for overburdened and beleaguered taxpayers. Not because we’ll have any breakthrough politicians revolutionizing anything, but because several of our potential candidates want to move up, so they are pandering “savings” to the voters. It’s the classic line from a song, “Vote for me and I’ll set you free.” The reality however, begins more likely as, “Elect me to represent you,” which morphs into, “Thanks for electing me, but after all it is all about me. There’s more I need to do and am seeking higher office to do it. See ya!” More accurately the sentiment should be translated as, “Thanks for electing me suckers! I can make more money and get more power by moving up and away from you. Vote for me again and I’m outta here, just watch me!” Since most voters are willfully oblivious to most politics and their politicians, they think they’re doing their community a service by going to vote, recognizing the name on the ballot and voting for them or simply voting the party line when they don’t know anything of a candidate, encouraging more of the same behavior for the next crop of candidates who come along.

There is usually some sort of damage or havoc left in the exiting politician’s wake in the form of increased taxes, new rules, regulations, fees and restrictions to our personal freedoms. Our own Town leaders say they are business friendly, yet continue to institute or increase fees, pass new regulations (with fines), all limiting the business’ ability to operate profitably. Once a business’ resources are exhausted, several less desirable options are available: they let people go, they cut back on merchandise or services, move to another location or go out of business.

Their acts of desperation to continue to stay in business affects us all as the community tax base begins to erode, employees who had the ability to financially support the area cannot and cut back their spending. Some even lose their homes and are forced to move in with relatives or subsidized housing, aka affordable housing. Less taxes are paid into everything from FICA, Social Security, pensions, towns and villages, etc. The elected politicians quick-buck has long-term devastating effects.

For instance, in Greenburgh we witness a Town Board that perpetually struggles to create new taxes in the form of fees and permits or increase existing ones to offset Mr Feiner’s expensive blunders. Blunders such as Fortress Bible Church ($8M payout); WestHelp ($1.2M/yr loss), remarkably uncovered Tax Arrears ($21M uncollected over 20 yrs), Frank’s Nursery property ($3.5 M lost), water meter debacle ($4M expense) and finally, but not limited to, the 10% salary increase the Town Board will vote itself. Mr Feiner justifies the increase saying the elected officials haven’t had a raise since 2007 or so. Here’s a simple solution: quit! Anytime the salary one receives is not working for someone in the “real world” (private sector), that person starts marketing themselves and seeks a new job. Mr Feiner tried this as a politician when he ran for Congress – and lost. So this time he just instructed his Board to vote them all a pretty hefty raise. While the G10 fights this, the willfully ignorant taxpayers allow this.

Mr Feiner wanted to be in Congress. Mr Astorino wants to be Governor, Mr Christie wants to be President. Mr Cuomo wants to be President – and his actions certainly belie that. In New York, it’s Andrew’s turn, so New Jersey’s big guy will really have his work cut out for him. After Cuomo’s big media blunder years ago, the “payback” to Uncle Mario happened and the junior Cuomo was appointed the HUD Chair so he could pay his dues, keep his big, entitled mouth shut and let New Yorkers forget how he insulted them, come back and get back onto the political horse. Shortly after this time, a younger Noam Bramson was elected as New Rochelle Mayor and his grooming began for the promised Nita Lowey’s Congressional seat when she retired. That is, until the Democratic apparatchik began bandying Chelsea Clinton’s name about as her successor if and when retirement plans are announced. In the meantime, our recently re-elected politicians all desire to use our backs as their stepping stone, so they are doing and saying the right things for taxpayers.

Unfortunately, Mr Feiner will not be going anywhere, anytime soon. We had always hoped that someone else would be interesting in hiring a non-practicing attorney, with no management skills, no budget skills and was convicted in Federal Court? No takers. No surprise. Since he cannot move up, apparently Greenburgh is stuck with him, thanks to the willfully ignorant that just won’t bother to pay any attention to his illegal actions and habitually reelect him. By the way, now that Westhab’s President Robert Miller is retiring, perhaps Mr Feiner will be asked to step in and fill their one void with another?

County Executive Astorino, moving along after his well-deserved reelection, is doing more than putting his toe in the proverbial waters to see if support for his run for governor has any legs. He recently travelled to the Republican Governors Association conference in Phoenix with his wife, and spent time meeting with New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie, another political anomaly in an otherwise overwhelmingly Democratic environ. Why did they need to go to Arizona to talk? They could have more easily gotten together in Westchester or New Jersey to “strategerize”. Details of what they discussed was not made public. According to the upstate newspaper the Democrat & Chronicle, Governor Cuomo claims he knows what the two discussed but isn’t disclosing what he knows.

Astorino ran a campaign about maintaing our neighborhoods zoning independence and the right to control our community’s respective look and feel. He and others have bemoaned the overreaching federal government’s hand into this issue, which ABG believes falls squarely under Home Rule. While many support Astorino’s position, many Democrats, their staff and political pundits, along with anybody anti-Republican, claim he’s doing more harm than good. Because of his actions, the federal government has been withholding funds that are more like member items and costing our communities the ability to offer more to their residents (translation: lost votes). He also reduced the spending for the County’s budget, and actually lowered County taxes. While the County tax portion of property taxes paid by the average homeowner is about 18%, the gesture is more symbolic than tangible. And yet the gesture is having good political payoff for Astorino as well as taxpayers. It appears that he is helping the overtaxed taxpayer.

Common Core is dividing New York parents of school age children. Common Core and standardized testing under the guise of educational improvements will further what school’s institutionalized learning already does. It reduces creativity, individual thought, and exceptionalism, akin to teaching coloring and insisting the kids stay within the lines. It demoralizes teachers whose only love is to impart and nurture knowledge into the rapt minds of our young. Governor Cuomo has been doing a great job of campaigning, with only a few minor missteps from which he’s been able to distance himself thanks to a sympathetic liberal press. He has championed reducing taxes, trying to stimulate growth and jobs. He has taken a position on Common Core, seeming to align himself with the majority of a vociferous public. As he continues to claim to be against high taxes, he streamlined the Tappan Zee Bridge project, continues to espouse development and jobs while bolstering his job approval ratings.

Staunch Republicans have even admitted Mr Cuomo is doing a good job. The side benefit of all of this for the electorate is that we now have a 2% NYS Tax Cap, a Tappan Zee Bridge project seeming to move forward to create jobs along with other taxpayer friendly savings, ensuring New York financial and voting support. Mr Cuomo has also been smart enough (or advised) to stay out of the Hydro-fracking controversy in the Marcellus Shale region, having yet to yield a decision to either support hydro-fracking or not. Mr Cuomo’s gestures are nothing more than a stall tactic and if he can just get to the next election cycle without having to render a decision, he’ll be all set.  But his non-campaigning campaigning is having a good economic payoff for the New York taxpayer that we’ve not experienced in a while.

Obamacare is dividing the country and even the Democrats who voted for it. In fact, Obamacare’s implementation been postponed until after the next election to allow those same Democrats a pass to reelection. Our financial advisors are telling us the worst is yet to come. President Obama’s legacy is done. It’s Obamacare – good or bad. As businesses get affected by it and begin reacting to it as best they can, more and more people will be negatively affected. But the willfully ignorant will have forgotten how they were impacted and reelect the same people, just to get screwed again. The people who are financially better-off will just suck it up as they always do and pay the difference. The politicians will have been exempted from participating and pander to those with financially less, promising them much but delivering little.

It can’t all be blamed on the willfully ignorant, but it’s a good place to start. If and when they start paying attention, we can start to turn the tide and improve our lot in New York. It needs to start locally, only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Bernstein Announces Candidacy at Contaminated Site

Surrounded by about a hundred or so people, and in an effort to play off the symbolism of what’s wrong with the Town of Greenburgh, Edgemont resident and attorney Robert Bernstein announced his candidacy for Greenburgh Town Supervisor at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. As you may be aware, this is the embattled location of the former Frank’s Nursery, known to be contaminated with many chemicals, too many to mention now. 

Interestingly, when Mr Feiner wanted to hold a press conference here announcing his desire to award the sale to GameOn 365, the site’s gates were unlocked and anyone wanting access was allowed entry. Mr Bernstein was not afforded the same courtesy. In fact, police had been posted there to forbid entry! Why do you think that is? Is it possible Mr Feiner “suggested” to the police that access should not be allowed? Undaunted, everyone parked nearby and walked onto the property anyway to where Mr Bernstein was. 

Throughout Mr Bernstein’s speech, he touched on costly issue after issue that have been caused by Mr Feiner and the current Town Board. After highlighting troubling issues created by Mr Feiner such as Fortress Bible Church, WestHelp, GameOn 365, etc., Mr Bernstein would say to the crowd, “You know this is wrong”, repeating the phrase, “You know it and I know it!” The crowd was receptive and responded enthusiastically to his message. Also in attendance in the back of the crowd were several supporters of the GameOn 365 proposal.

Mr Bernstein explained this primary race would be difficult but with everyone’s help he was ready to launch the battle for the Democratic nomination. He explained he is up against Mr Feiner’s well-honed political machine, which after 22 years is also extremely well-funded. It starts! 

It’s no secret that Mr Feiner has been ignoring the Town’s infrastructure, crippling our Town Departments, killing employee morale, skirting the law to benefit developers and costing residents and taxpayers millions of dollars in bad deals, lawsuit judgements, duplicate departments and waste! After 22 unimpeded years, it’s time for a change.

What do you want in our Town? It’s time for you to decide.

Bernstein To Formally Announce Candidacy

Bernstein to Announce Candidacy for Town Supervisor at 

Frank’s Nursery on Wednesday

Greenburgh, N.Y. – Bob Bernstein will formally announce his candidacy for Greenburgh
Town Supervisor at a press conference to be held at Frank’s Nursery on Wednesday, May
29 at 7: 30 p.m.

Mr. Bernstein was endorsed for the job overwhelmingly last week by the Greenburgh
Democratic Party at its annual convention. Mr. Bernstein received the support of 54
percent of the district leaders while 22-year incumbent Paul Feiner received only 35
percent.

Frank’s Nursery is owned by the Town, but rather than sell the property, the current
supervisor tried to lease the property to a startup that began negotiating secretly with him
to get the land before the Town actually acquired it. When the Town was sued for
violating the law, the supervisor dropped the idea of leasing the property and said he
would sell it instead. Last week he announced he would sell the property for $3 million –
$500,000 less than a bid offered by an established Ardsley based sports company.
“By insisting on doing a deal with a company that has offered substantially less than a
competing bidder the supervisor is walking right into yet another lawsuit against the
Town, which the unsuccessful bidder has said he will bring,” Mr. Bernstein said. “The
likelihood of the cash-strapped Town seeing any money from the sale is remote at best –
and this could have been avoided if the supervisor played by the rules.”

Mr. Bernstein graduated from Cornell University and the University of Virginia School
of Law. He has lived in the Edgemont section of Greenburgh for over two decades. He
worked on behalf of taxpayers by successfully intervening with Dobbs Ferry justice Herb
Rosenberg to defend the Town against a $4.6 million lawsuit filed by the Valhalla School
District and backed by the current supervisor. Mr. Bernstein intervening recovered $1.1
million in illegally transferred funds.

Mr. Bernstein has also worked to ensure the Town honors the terms of the lease signed
with Westchester County regarding the 108 apartments at WestHELP requiring the 108
apartments be used for affordable housing. He opposed the current supervisor’s efforts to
have apartments destroyed and was recently honored by Greenburgh/White Plains
chapter of NAACP for his efforts with regard to WestHELP.

The town-wide Democratic Primary for Town Supervisor will be held Tuesday,
September 10.

Contact:
Gil Kaminer
Email:
gk1411@aol.com
Phone:
(914) 776-3379

Email: robertbrucebernstein@yahoo.com

Truth, Lies, and the Greenburgh Way

A press conference on location will make an impact. Openly lying during the press conference will also make an impact. Promising to divulge information and at a press conference and then not doing so will make an impact. Inviting the press and neighbors to the press conference and not allowing questions will make an impact. Every aspect of today’s press conference was another part of the insider deal conceived and initiated in 2007 by Mr Feiner to help his “friends” from GameOn 365. One can only wonder what would motivate him to craft and participate in a sweetheart deal with an outside developer over the wishes of so many residents in the area and would not provide the best financial outcome for the Town?

Mr Feiner claimed that two-thirds of Greenburgh wanted the 8-story sports bubble through a biased and slanted referendum of November 6, 2012. A lie? Actually, yes. Only two-thirds of the voters out of about eight thousand who actually voted, out of ninety-two thousand residents in total, wanted the 83 foot tall sports bubble in a neighborhood other than their own. Shouldn’t the neighborhood being affected have the say and not everyone else? Of course. Mr Feiner rebuffed the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association’s repeated requests to meet with him and the Town Board to discuss the proposal before any decision was made. The wording in the referendum ensured a “yes” vote while omitting important and pertinent data. Had the public had been properly informed of the “real deal”, they invariably would have voted against Mr Feiner’s bogus referendum. Those in the know, know that Mr Feiner doesn’t like to lose. That’s not a lie.

Today’s press conference was read by Mr Feiner from a prepared three page document that not only had omissions, but out and out lies. This was another extension of the old adage that Mr  Feiner subscribes to, that if you say something over and over, eventually it will be considered the truth. ABG believes Mr Feiner is incapable of the truth! He claims the Town extracted many concessions from GameOn 365. Yet he mentioned none! He claimed the Town would receive $3M for the sale, $1.7 “immediately” and the balance of $1.3M after the closing. Here’s the semantics and word-play we are so used to from Mr Feiner. In reviewing the contract, the balance of $1.3M is to be paid over the balance of the contract period of 15 years with an interest rate of 2.2%. It is roughly the same deal Mr Feiner and the Board tried to give GameOn 365 all along! Although back then, we were being told we would receive $5M after the 15 years. So we lost $2M in the interim. An omission or a lie? You decide.  Is it any wonder that incumbent and current re-election candidates Francis Sheehan and Diana Juettner didn’t show up to this counterfeit proposal? Please, don’t be too fast to let them off the hook as they are complicit with this since the inception of this deal. But since they are seeking re-election and still need Mr Feiner, they decided they needed to lay low.

Mr Feiner insisted that the Town actively solicited bids for this property after acquiring it. Simply, its another lie. After having his feet held to the fire, the Supervisor had a meager sign put up on the overgrown property advertising it. That’s it. The G10 asked at many meetings what was actively being done to advertise the land. If and when Mr Feiner would respond, he would say “they” put up flyers or he posted it on his blog, which apparently must be an active real estate sales location. What they never did was contact commercial real estate companies to market it. At the last Town Board meeting Mr Feiner accused residents of bid-rigging. This project is a blatant example of just that – not by residents, but by their elected officials! Could the reality be that Mr Feiner has made it so difficult to see the truth and requires so much in “pay to play” fees, that any legitimate developer interested in the property simply decided to pass on it?

The press conference got ugly when Mr Feiner made disparaging comments about the House of Sports, and their parent company Elm Street Sports, along with HelpBurstTheBubble.com and its owner Simon Cohen. Representatives from Elm Street Sports were present and challenged Mr Feiner’s allegations against them. Mr Feiner said he had court papers proving what he said. When pushed to read from them or produce them, Mr Feiner would not. Then he went after one of the principals of Elm Street Sports for comments he made over a year ago at a Town Board meeting. Elm Street Sports has offered $3.5M for the property and promised any and all remediation required before building. Their only condition was the Town provide the requirements to remediate the sight. Mr Feiner never returned or responded to their letters, phone calls or emails. There was no reason to – he never intended for anyone else to get the property than GameOn 365!

Mr Feiner is certainly not the paragon of truth or honesty. Time has proven this and two courts have validated this with guilty verdicts against him for destroying evidence, lying under oath and discriminating against an African American Church (with four additional counts). We found it incredulous when he had the audacity to say, “Finally, I’m troubled by House of Sports relationship with Burst The Bubble, which claimed to be a legitimate not for profit community organization opposing development for environmental reasons.” He’s troubled by a relationship of a private citizen and a private company? Greenburgh residents are all troubled by a relationship between Mr Feiner and GameOn 365’s Martin Hewitt as well as GameOn 365! The residents are troubled by Mr Feiner’s biased challenge of HelpBurstTheBubble.com’s environmental concerns. Had it not been for the residents and in particular HelpBurstTheBubble.com, Mr Feiner would have pushed an illegal lease deal through without regard to the contamination on the site. Now you can see why Mr Feiner is manipulating the press conference against Elm Street Sports and HelpBurstTheBubble.com and not talking about the sweetheart deal he has blessed onto GameOn 365 for practically no serious money and less money overall than originally promised! Mr Feiner had engaged into deflection mode but the residents in attendance weren’t accepting any of it.

Elm Street Sports has promised more litigation for this spurious and frankly, insulting, deal being perpetrated against the Town from within. As we study the contract, the Town plans to vote on this tomorrow night. We pray residents from Greenburgh come to speak out against this sham. GameOn 365 has previously brought in non-residents from outside the area to speak on their behalf, “supporting” this proposal. This is another example of government run amok because we lack term limits and checks and balances with single party control. After Mr Jones shouts down another resident lets see if Mr Feiner will shout out, “You can’t handle the truth!”

With the Democratic Nominating Convention taking place at Town Hall Tuesday night, which we “trust” they will be paying for, we hope the Democratic district leaders will use their better judgement to not nominate Mr Feiner as their top representative for the Town and hopes they’ll be doing the right thing. There’s an opportunity for real change to take place in Greenburgh tonight. Let’s hope they don’t blow it.

Semantics or Another Lie?

Last Friday ABG as well as others in the media fell for Mr Feiner’s classic use of words reporting that the Town Board voted in favor of selling the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to GameOn 365. You’ll recall that Mr Feiner violated his much-touted open government policy as he secretly met with GameOn 365 principals to close a deal even before the Town acquired the property through foreclosure. The they met to work up a lease for the property since GameOn 365 could not afford to purchase it outright. As Mr Feiner craftily tried to slip the lease through the Town Board’s well-greased approval process, an alert and vigilant G10 slammed on the brakes!

It turns Supervisor Paul Feiner said Friday afternoon the town had “decided” to sell the property to Game On 365 for $3 million. Mea culpa – we should have known better. Mr Feiner added that the developer would pay for the site’s environmental remediation, a sticking point with residents who originally fought the proposed illegal lease with a lawsuit. At a press conference to be held at 2:15PM today (real start time is 2:45PM based on past experience), Mr Feiner and his Board plan to account for the supposed 3 to 2 standing with the Board in favor of selling to GameOn 365. It’s not always good to be correct, but ABG predicted this outcome for quite some time now. Still, there never was a public vote to sell to GameOn 365!

At the mid-afternoon press conference to be held at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, Mr Feiner and crew intend to explain their rationale to accept a $3 million bid from Game On 365, bypassing a $3.5 million offer from Elm Street Sports Group, who operates a sports training facility in Ardsley. Here’s a sampling of what ABG predicts will be said to some degree or another, “The Town Board wrestled with which offer to accept for the property. Or, we did our due diligence and tried to get as much money as we possibly could for the land. Or, we had a fiduciary responsibility to the Town and were able to get more money from GameOn 365. Or, GameOn 365 has always be our company of choice because (and here is where excuses won’t matter) they offered to develop the land when no one else would; or, they have a terrific track record with their smaller facilities; or, I see this area being developed as a sports oriented area and as soon as we can drive out the other nurseries and driving range, we will spot zone the property for any developer who stays with a sports theme. Or, we, uh, I mean GameOn 365 will pay for all remediation and we haven’t decided if we’ll give them rental credits for doing so. Or, we have nothing against House of Sports; or, House of Sports is a fine company, but we needed to let someone else have a shot; or, we weren’t sure House of Sports was serious with their offer and Francis said that publicly numerous times; or, I made this decision years ago and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anyone stop me!” Choose whatever line works the best for you.

So at this afternoon’s meeting, ABG hopes that the press will truly question the motivations by those leaders in the Town, why they are ignoring the better offer, and what other elements of this deal will be costing the residents and for how much? Whatever it is, it will surely have a proctological outcome for the Unincorporated Greenburgh residents. Why is everyone ignoring them?. 

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.

No Smoke, No Mirrors, No Breaks

We’ve been treated poorly. Yet, we’ve waited. We’ve hoped. We’ve cajoled, complained and practically begged – all to no avail. We’ve hoped to learn what the criteria was as the Town Board routinely stated they were doing the “due diligence” regarding the WestHelp property that had provided a $1.2M annual “gift” to the Town. The Paul made a non-public decision to not renew the lease. Then he insisted it was the former Westchester County Executive’s decision, not his. Several phony emails later, it was shown to be The Paul who in fact refused to renew the lease, not the County Executive.

The implementation of the covert WestHelp plan from The Paul, aka “Mr. Open Government” with his media buddies, was underway. He had “someone” leave doors and windows of the facility kept open to allow the site to be pillaged of appliances, piping and other components. It also increased the likelihood that mold, animal infestation and weather would further degrade the facility. But for what reason? Once WestHelp ceased to use the facility, The Paul lost the  $1.2M annual golden goose and knew he needed to replace it. Money woes in the Town continue spiraling out of control for The Paul. On top of the lost WestHelp $1.2M annual payments, there was the Fortress Bible Church guilty decision, reaffirmed by an appeals court that could cost The Town upwards of $8M. There was the $4M water department deficit, the “windfall” of returned monies from the Valhalla School District for illegal payments The Paul and his Board made yearly are a drop in the proverbial bucket. And where was his complicit Stepford Board? Nowhere to be found unless they were rubber-stamping all of The Paul’s actions!

The latest move by The Paul and his Board is during almost every meeting, someone will make a motion to adjourn to “Executive Session” so they can collude unimpeded and get out from under the scrutiny of the public eye. The G10 performs the watchdog function long ago abandoned by the media as its members attend various meetings held at different times and locations throughout each day. As they report back we can’t always learn of the misaligned decisions the Board has made due to secrecy. They seemingly violate laws as well as the public trust, and we’re made aware only after it appears on a Town agenda. For a Town administration that espouses open government, there surely seems to be an inordinate amount of secret meetings and decisions taking place.

One decision that was asked about over and over again was the criteria being used in seeking investors for the former Frank’s Nursery property, the WestHelp property, the Brightview Assisted Living property, the Eastview (former Union Carbide) property and others. We’ve received shrugged shoulders and silence to our questions. Franks’s Nursery’s property is contaminated with numerous pollutants, oil and debris (underground). The Paul tried to illegally lease the property to GameOn 365. When the project met resistance from residents, he “offered” it for a referendum at the upcoming election. The referendum passed. A lawsuit followed because the referendum was illegal and he withdrew the lease. Legally, the Town must sell the property. To bolster his desire to give the property to his favored vendor, GameOn 365, he had an appraisal done by a firm that does other work for the Town. The appraisal came in at the exact amount of money GameOn 365 had proposed to pay for the property! Ironically, Elm Street Sports, which operates the House of Sports in Ardsley, has offered roughly double for the property. The Paul is doing whatever he can to stall the higher bid as it does not include GameOn 365.

The property at Eastview has been undergoing constant expansion in the last several years. During all of this expansion there has been no attention paid to the flooding this will cause south of the site. The Rt 9A corridor floods with any steady or significant rain storms now as the Saw Mill River quickly overflows it’s boundaries. It wreaks havoc on the residents and businesses that parallel the river. The Paul made a big deal of cleaning out the river once a Village of Elmsford trustee mades arrangements to do so. The Paul has been asked to do the same thing for the Greenburgh residents along the Bronx River. As with most Fairview needs and no news crews present, The Paul does nothing.

The WestHelp income of $1.2M annually is forever gone for the Town. The Paul had a plan to buy the votes of the Valhalla people by removing those pesky low-income, single, female parents with children that lived there, endearing himself with those voters. He proposed putting a self-contained developmentally disabled school in the space. Funded by New York State, the state said, “No!” A side benefit for The Paul would be to charm the county’s Republicans Rob Astorino, Michael Smith, Ned McCormack and others. This would be a win-win for The Paul. Shady operations? Racism? Sure, but The Paul knows he’s guaranteed to win re-election as there are no democrats strong enough to challenge him from within the party and the republicans have written off the Town of Greenburgh as forever blue!

This morning’s work session promises to raise the Town-wide use of Tums for many residents. Slated to begin at 9:30AM, we’re sure a 10AM start is more realistic. Today is the day The Paul has promised to pick a developer for the WestHelp property. There are several deals being offered and what we don’t know are the deals being made behind closed doors. Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis has claimed it wasn’t fair for the Board to disclose information to the public because these were sensitive negotiations that required secrecy. There were no contracts signed, just proposals. So they could have shared information but chose to remain silent – again. The Paul said they would keep information from the public because a resident spoke with one of the developers, a childhood friend of The Paul. His company subsequently withdrew their offer. Was The Paul’s “deal” so fragile that one conversation would cause its collapse? ABG thinks a more likely scenario was that once the bidder learned of all the misplays, misdirection and illegal activities that The Paul and his Board were doing with this property, they thought it better to exit post haste!

ABG is not convinced a decision will be made this morning. If one is, it will be interesting to see which one they accept. ABG also believes the Board will jump into executive session after exhausting themselves with one decision to hide the rest of their meeting from the public. ABG has also predicted that The Paul will award the sale of Frank’s Nursery to GameOn 365 with some babbling excuse as to why they should get it. Fortress Bible’s financial determination is about to land in the Town’s lap. The Saw Mill River and Bronx River neighborhoods are still flooding. Aging infrastructure collapses can’t keep up with the speed of The Paul’s decisions. More and more bad decisions seems to be the norm from this Town Board. The Paul’s further insulating the public from a truly open government through Executive Sessions and closed door meetings with developers. It has to end. We can only hope.

Under The Circus’ Big Tent

The April 24th Town Board meeting took over two hours to get underway after those in attendance endured presentation after presentation by The Paul. No matter how self-serving these may be, ABG endorses starting the meetings on time and focusing on Town business, not campaigning by The Paul. Seeking cans of Red Bull or just needing a break, people were in and out of the hall repeatedly. If this continues, perhaps The Paul should install easy chair recliners with beverage holders.

Once the public hearings began, speaker after speaker hammered home the fact that The Paul and his Board are being asked the same questions again and again, meeting after meeting and still not sharing information with the public. ABG concurs. Apparently, The Paul’s “Open Government” is only open when it is convenient for him or he has information he wishes to get out. It appears his and the Board’s every move are secretly guarded. The sadder commentary here is that the media in Westchester could be doing their job by investigating his claims, uncovering his deceit and exposing it. Instead, they choose to be his lapdogs and reprint his press releases verbatim or put a positive spin on issues that would be crippling to any other politician.

During the Town Board meetings, the Board has a habit of waiting for a speaker to finish their comments or asking all of their questions and then take their seat before they will address any queries that were made. That is, if they choose to address them. Most times they will remain silent and offer the public no information! One speaker asked about numerous issues in the Town, with his final question being what was the information the Board was seeking regarding the RFP’s for the Frank’s Nursery property and the WestHelp property? As he was returning to his seat, The Paul commented, “I just want to say that somebody was interfering with the process. 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. And if people in the community are abusing it, we’re not going to stand for that.We’ll have to keep more things to ourselves if we are legally able to do. And that’s the reason we’re not giving people as much up to date information as the neg [sic]. I don’t want people making phone calls discouraging some of the better bidders not to deal with the Town.” This is a business? Really? The Paul and this Board have yet to run anything as if it were a business. More importantly, if one resident has a conversation with a bidder and the bidder chooses to withdraw, what does that say about the quality and strength of The Paul’s “business sense” and dealings? A deal shouldn’t be so weak as to collapse because of one conversation.

What The Paul failed to mention was that the resident spoke to a partner of the company biding on the project that was a school friend of The Paul! Ironically, the next person called to the podium to speak was in fact the same resident. He took about four of his five alloted minutes to counter what The Paul had said. It’s interesting that when it’s something The Paul or his Board wants, they will insult and denigrate whomever they please. Yet they state on each meeting’s agenda that personal attacks will not be tolerated. While their common place hypocritical behavior is disgusting, they do control the microphone and get away with the same bad behavior they so desperately try to keep away from themselves. It pathetic.

Other speakers asked about the amount of money the Ardsley Water Wheel property for affordable housing was going to “net” for the Village of Ardsley? Were the other Villages and most importantly the Unincorporated portion of the Town going to get any money as well? No answer. As usual, The Paul was playing with his phone during this speakers limited time. The speaker challenged him to pay attention to what she was saying. The Paul had the audacity to say he had posed her question to a Town forum he participates with and was reading their response. When she requested he read their response, he refused, claiming he wanted to discuss it with the Board privately before sharing it. So why even bring it up? She promised to fax a FOIL request for the information upon her return home.

The Town Board meetings go along like this meeting after meeting. The Town is run more poorly day after day. Undeserving politicians seeking reelection unopposed is not good for the public or the Town. Alluding to the old saying about how power corrupts, it has absolutely corrupted our Town leadership. Morale of our employees is at its lowest of all time. Salaries for the top level of our Town are disproportionately high. The Town is keeling and going to capsize soon. We need a change in Town leadership and fast! We can only hope.

It’s About Time

ABG has maintained along with others that the Town is in violation of the County-Town contract regarding the WestHelp Housing Facility property on the Westchester Community College Campus. The intentional (mis)direction by The Paul to cause the 108 Apartment Facility to fall into a aggravated state of disrepair is nothing short of criminal. To that end, the Westchester County Legislators began finally talking about taking action against the Town and removing the Town as the lessee for the WestHelp property! The shame of this entire catastrophe is that people in need of housing are being pitted against the developmentally disabled by The Paul and his Town Board, all without any of our legislators exhibiting any moral conscience.

ABG asserts that the root of The Paul’s actions against maintaining the WestHelp Facility has nothing to do with his desire to help the developmentally disabled. If he did want to help them, he would have offered the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road as a credible site for them. They need six acres of relatively flat land and 715 Dobbs Ferry Road is about seven acres. But he didn’t offer it, proving his insincerity. ABG believes this was always about The Paul buying votes from Valhalla’s Mayfair-Knollwood School District residents. His illegal payments to the Valhalla School Board was reversed via a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Town against the Valhalla school district. ABG also believes there is complicity on the part of Republican County Executive Rob Astorino, his Communications Director Ned McCormack, Republican County Legislator Michael Smith and Matt Richter, who also is employed by the County Executive.

After fighting a growing tide of resistance from other politicians, three County Legislators have maintained their position of contractual violation against The Paul, the Town of Greenburgh and the County Legislators. While the tide might have been finally shifting to favor what ABG believes is the only correct stance they have taken, it had appeared to be an uphill battle. The Paul’s media outlet confidantes continue to not only drink, but distribute The Paul’s Kool-Aid. They also endorse and condone his corrupt viewpoint of destroying existing and viable housing to gradually force the need to tear it down and offer the property to the Ferncliff School.

Now that it’s safe to change her position, County Legislator Judy Meyers has decided she is against tearing down the WestHelp housing and wants to continue it’s use for housing homeless and low income people. How nice. Why the shift in position? Why didn’t she easily recognize the violation by The Paul and the Town? We need legislators willing to stand up for what is right and not simply ride the wave of their respective party. Meyers jumped on the Democratic surf board to “hang ten”. That’s all happened here. And when it looked like The Paul and Ferncliff might be the wrong side, she headed for the other shore. Is this the best we can do or will can we someday get better representation? We can only hope.

Media Complicity or Just a Lie?

Similar to the never-ending “games” The Paul likes to play for his own skewed reasons, GameOn 365 decided to take a page out of his play-book and issue a misleading press release that was printed by a weekly newspaper. It was a small, under-the-radar press release that went unnoticed by many but was caught by our vigilant Christina, an ABG researcher who was startled to read the incredulous title, “Greenburgh Sports Bubble Is a Go”. This small and misleading press release was from Martin Hewitt of GameOn 365, which stated the Greenburgh Sports Bubble project is back “on”. The reason it’s back on? He states the reason is because the lawsuit by Elms Street Sports, owners of the House of Sports facility in Ardsley, and other petitioners has been dropped due to the unmentioned counter-suit GameOn 365 launched. This “article” seems more like an example of the media being complicit with The Paul and another of his pet projects.

He continues his claim that the lawsuit was dropped due to GameOn 365’s motion receiving sanctions and a dismissal of the suit. This is simply a lie. ABG has detailed quite extensively how and why we believe Hewitt has distorted the truth in the past while maintaining an arrogance when speaking with or to residents. But for him to say he, GameOn 365, or their attorneys caused the lawsuit to be dismissed is altogether not accurate! The lawsuit was maintained by the petitioners even after The Paul announced he was withdrawing the lease “deal” (he had concocted) with Hewitt long before the Town ever acquired the foreclosed upon Frank’s Nursery property. Once his Stepford Board officially voted upon the withdrawal, the petitioner’s dropped their lawsuit. The issue with the lawsuit was that the Town and The Paul were in violation of County and State laws that said a municipality that acquires property through foreclosure may sell it in a public or private sale.

 GameOn 365’s motion claimed that Elm Street Sports had several contradictory statements in it and that Simon of HelpBurstTheBubble.com, had a financial arrangement with Elm Street Sports and it’s owners. While these points may or may not be true, the fact of the matter was that the Elm Street Sports lawsuit was dropped after the Town decided to drop the lease proposal with GameOn 365 – the only reason the suit was initiated in the first place! In reading the GameOn 365 petition, it sounded like the best response they could muster was the old playground ditty, “Nah, nah, na-nah nah!”

Hewitt was quoted as saying, “We are glad that the frivolous litigation is now behind us, and we look forward to making our indoor sports facility a reality for everyone to enjoy.” We wonder why the article’s author never asked even a few pertinent questions? Those might be: 1) Many have stated that GameOn 365 is a “paper” company with no financial resources, is that true? 2) Are you ready to purchase the property right now? 3) Elm Street Sports has an operational facility in Ardsley with financial resources and claims to be prepared to purchase immediately, how does this affect your decision to continue? 4) Claims have been made that you need investors to proceed, have you been able to gain any investors to date? 5) The remediation costs made by Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis were capped at $100k but persist going higher. The escalating remediation costs and a lack of investors from GameOn 365 point to an inability for you to proceed. Is this is not the case, would you explain why not?

The list of questions could continue on, but ABG believes it is pointless. All indicators have pointed to a cold reality for the GameOn 365 organization. They cannot get investors, funding or enough money to proceed. The Paul and the Town Board have dragged their feet with every aspect of this parcel of land with every excuse they could muster. At one Town Board meeting, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan stated he wasn’t looking for the highest bidder for the property. Why not? The fiduciary responsibility of the Town representatives to the taxpayer is to pay the back taxes on this parcel and sell it for as much money as the market can bear. That amount seems to be lost on this Board. We have previously predicted the Board will give this deal to GameOn 365 after all the excuses against doing so are dismissed. Elms Street Sports has offered the Town double the amount of money and full remediation cost coverage to what GameOn 365 has offered. How can they justify taking $1.6M over $3.5M for the property? This would be a no-brainer for any Town Board, except ours.

If the Town cannot see the forest for the trees or cannot figure out which way to go, we agree with the solution many have offered numerous times. Put the property up for a Request For Proposals (RFP) and see not only what offers comes in, but how much others, beyond GameOn 365 and House of Sports might be willing to pay. Those offers may bring something else to the table that everyone wants. We can only hope.