Pre-Primary Democratic Candidate Forum

Three ABG staffers attended the Candidates Pre-Primary Forum at Town Hall on Thursday night. It started on time, unlike every Town Board meeting which starts late to the detriment of many audience members or taxpayers wishing to speak or be heard or are being time-constrained by childcare issues or work the following day. Remember this point, you'll see this again. The event was hosted by the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations and moderated by the League of Women Voters. When CGCA Chair O'Shea asked the audience to join in a pledge of allegiance, the apathetic crowd hesitantly and seemed to begrudgingly participate. Pathetic.

The first face-off was between 10-year incumbent Town Clerk Judith Beville and her challenger, Maria Portilla, who is endorsed by Mr Feiner. Having won the draw, Ms Portilla read her opening statement first, saying that the Town Clerks office is in crisis. While it was a good catch-phrase, and may be correct, she used it a little bit too much. However, it also established the core argument for her candidacy and apparently rattled incumbent clerk Judith Beville. Ms Portilla is a Senior Case Worker for the Westchester Department of Social Services and mentioned several innovations that she will implement as Town Clerk. Frankly, they should have been implemented long ago.

When it was Ms Beville's turn, she listed the accomplishments that she has overseen, stressing that she has a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master's degree in Public Administration, stating that the Town Clerks position is not an entry-level one. That said, elections are about change if warranted or desired by the populace. And yet, Ms Beville started out as the Town Clerk after being elected and did not work her way up through the ranks to become Town Clerk. So it appears that it is an entry-level position after all.

During this brief period of campaigning, we've seen Ms Beville out and about more than usual and heard people discussing her office more than ever. Specifically, that she's had a complete changeover of personnel, disclosed HIPAA information of a former staff member and shredded numerous boxes of files erroneously. She mentioned her Masters Degree in Public Administration several times which is certainly an accomplishment to be proud of and we respect. However, simply having an academic degree doesn't necessary make you qualified in a particular field. A bit of irony was that while Ms Beville was speaking, the buzzer/timer that she usually operates for the Town Board went off and forced her to stop speaking -- another issue people have complained about during her campaign is that she injects herself into discussions during the Town Board meetings.

The next phase was the asking of questions which were all submitted by audience members prior to the event's start. The t-ball questions that were asked were quickly answered at which point the moderator said they were out of questions and then asked the audience if anyone had any additional questions? There was a flurry of activity in the back of the room as audience members submitted more questions, which were mostly a rehash of what had already been discussed, and covered no new ground. It was embarrassing that so little specific issues and actual solutions went unaddressed. 

It was also disappointing that Ms Beville's record remained unchallenged. While she touts improving response times for freedom of information requests, she contradicted herself by saying it's the department heads that don't respond in a timely manner. So while it may not be her fault specifically, she hasn't improved those response times. She boasts about internships and while Mr Feiner also touts and utilizes interns, that hasn't reduced our taxes or facilitated a better operating government. It also seemed that she started each of her answers with a qualifying comment that she was not responsible for this or that. It was always someone else's fault.

Finally concluded with no real enlightenment for Town voters, a short intermission allowed for some unearned back-slapping until the Town Board candidates took to the dais with the same moderator. Those candidates were Eric Zinger of the Hartsdale area, Ken Jones of Parkway Homes area and Gina Jackson, all of Unincorporated Greenburgh. The moderator seemed to struggle reading the questions that were submitted. These questions were now elevated to softball-level questions, a step up from the t-ball questions asked earlier. It should be noted that these are all candidates of the same party so going into this already accounts for a lack of challenges. Again, we had hoped for more.

All three gave an opening statement with Mr Zinger going first, stating that this was the first time in 12-years that voters had an opportunity to vote for challenged seats. That remains to be seen. As an incumbent, Ken Jones enjoys a certain amount of "incumbency lead" that should automatically help him in the primary vote. So, if the voters follow past practices, they'll re-elect the incumbent and elect one new candidate. The real "choice" might only be between Mr Zinger and Ms Jackson. We hope that is not the case and finally breaks the stranglehold at Town Hall.

We expected Mr Zinger to go after Mr Jones and his ethical challenges (read our previous article of Monday, June 10, 2019 - Misdirection, Lies and Ethics). Instead, Mr Zinger discussed his time living in Hartsdale, working in the financial world, and how the Hartsdale 4-Corners has declined for years until he, along with others, formed the Hartsdale Neighbors Association and got more involved with the Town government. He stated he would like to see the Edgemont Community not incorporate and stay within the Town and is willing to work towards that end. He also lamented how frustrating is is for residents to have to wait for an opportunity to speak at Board meetings. And of course, he, as well as the others, said we must make Greenburgh more affordable.

Incumbent Ken Jones opened with the statement that since he has been on the board we haven't had any Fortress Bible Church-type lawsuits. That's one hell of an accomplishment. Perhaps after being surrounded by so much bad that this actually looks good to him. It's not. You'll recall that Mr Feiner and the Town were found guilty of 7-counts of discrimination, including lying under oath, destroying evidence and more in the Fortress Bible Church discrimination lawsuit and fined $6.5 million dollars. $5.5 million of which the insurance company refused to pay (nor has to) because Mr Feiner was found guilty in Federal Court. Mr Jones conveniently neglected to mention the two pending lawsuits currently underway and during his watch: the Dromore Road lawsuit and the Ferncliff Cemetery lawsuit.

Ms Jackson stated that she had lived in Atlanta and moved back to Greenburgh and is living with her mother, "Thanks, Mom." She did say she cannot afford her own home. This seems to be a never-ending complaint of every younger generation. Many of us couldn't afford our own places when we started out so we lived with our parents, got a place with friends and had roommates until we got married or better jobs or both. Sorry, but owning a home where you prefer to live is not a right and is something to strive towards. Government trying to control housing either directly or through legislation never accomplishes much except creating more government jobs and restrictions that keep many of these same generations that it's said to be for unable to move in. That's why there are apartments. However, in this case the argument made her the face of the point which could help her.

One question that was asked of all the candidates was what they would do to increase public participation at Town Board meetings. We've written often about the G10, those ten or so regulars that show up to the meetings and speak. In fact, we've also mentioned how the Town Board actually engages in back and forth conversations with new, uninitiated first-timers. The G10 are never given the same courtesy unless it's to somehow make the Board look good.

Mr Zinger said he would start the meetings on time, have documents that are slated to be discussed or voted on available at least 24-hrs earlier so residents have a chance to study them and treat people with respect. Ken Jones said starting the meetings on time would help. The audience laughed, acknowledging that he is a part of the reason the meetings start late. He also stated he wants to get Dial Democracy working. Keep in mind that Dial Democracy hasn't worked in years and falls under the Town Board's purview. For those unaware because it doesn't work and may note know about it, Dial Democracy is the hypothetical ability of Town residents to telephone directly into Town Board meetings, on air, and ask questions of the Board during the meeting. Mr Jones is the one candidate in the position to do something about this but has not. When the question of creating leaf blower usage legislation came up, he stated there were already leaf blower ordinances on the books but enforcement is difficult as response times after a complaint is made may find the offender finished or gone before the police can get there.Mr Jones apparently can recognize the problems but is unable to solve them even years later.

Ms Jackson would like questions to be able to be submitted online so that more people could be engaged in issues. She also said she is a stickler to start on time. When responding to the question of leaf blowers noise, Ms Jackson clearly didn't know there were already ordinances on the books and suggested we could use ordinances to control the noise. We appreciate that Ms Jackson is newly returned to the area. Perhaps its a bit premature for her to run at this juncture, perhaps not. Even with this faux pas, we need fresh, non Feiner-mandated thinking on the Board. Although, the fact that she is on Team Feiner means she won't really have to worry about what she knows or not.

We'd like to mention one other question that was asked and that was if the candidates supported term limits. Mr Zinger readily said yes, he supports term limits. Ms Jackson said she did not and stated that that was what elections were for. Mr Jones said he would support a three-term limit and gave an obviously well-thought out and yet convoluted answer. He said yes but for three terms of 4-years each (currently at $79k/year plus benefits that, if declined pays them even more money). He claimed that the first term you are learning the ropes and are voting on issues that were not yours. The second term you are starting to work on your issues and the third term you are bringing them to fruition. It was an impressive conveyance of what is wrong with government and many of our elected officials. If you need twelve years to implement anything, but cannot get Dial Democracy working in four, you are the wrong person in that office.

In the end, many people left this meeting disappointed because they didn't learn much if anything they didn't already know. However, we believe Eric Zinger was the strongest of the three candidates and actually offered a few solutions while the other two spoke in generalities and platitudes. Even so, we wish the candidates luck and hope the democratic crowd that will vote in this primary on June 25th will give some thought to this year's vote and consider a different mindset when voting. It will help to make A Better Greenburgh.

We Struck A Nerve

The G10 is used to hearing lies, “misinformation” and obfuscation from the corner office and from many of our elected officials. Typically, most of the employees of the Town are open, truthful, helpful and friendly. But whenever we uncover, expose or publicize a lie, Mr Feiner and his team ramp up the rhetoric. If you are fortunate enough to be allowed a miserly 3-minutes to speak at a Town Board meeting and expose a lie, the standard answer blurted from Mr Feiner is, “That's not true.” Once you’ve heard that said, you know you’ve hit the nerve. You had your 3-minutes. Thanks. Now get lost!

Following his admission of exposure, depending on how critical the lie is will warrant the requisite response. Case in point? Our previous article highlighted the impending tax increases that everyone in Greenburgh will be socked with come next year. This year is only the announcement phase – a Feiner administration ploy dating back years. After all, we don’t want to have the tax increase hanging over our heads come election time. So, announce it during the transitional phase between school graduations, school ending-camp starting and vacations and walk away slowly. Taxpayers, while hurting financially due to the burdens imposed by Mr Feiner, knowingly have short memories. Still, we hit a nerve.

When we pointed this out in our article entitled Town Delivers Triple-Whammy on June 8th, it was met with the veiled media blitz, “Assessor Clarifies the record...” in the Feiner-friendly mainstream media. You’ll probably recall that the Town mailed, at $.46 per piece, a letter on the first day of the appeal period for tax grievances*. It was subsequently postmarked five days later - robbing dissatisfied residents of six usable days to appeal their assessment increases. This is just like the Town Board meetings where Mr Feiner and his Board delay the Town business operations using delay tactics doing presentations, listening to poetry, song and other non-town operational time-killers. They do this to thin the crowds knowing most people work for a (highly-taxed) living and can’t spend all night watching this abuse.

The letter from the Town begins with, “In 2016 the Town of Greenburgh underwent an important and much needed reassessment project.” It doesn’t say that Mr Feiner neglected to perform his duty and do the reassessment during his 24-year tenure! It continues on, describing their use of Tyler Technologies to complete the assessment process. It doesn’t mention the dissatisfaction not only Greenburgh residents found with this second-rate company, or the other communities who utilized them as well only to experience a public furor at those town and village meetings. Tyler Technologies seemed to screw up more than they got it right.

The assessment change for a neighboring property went from $279,400 to $290,600, resulting in an $11,200 assessment change. The media blitz from the Assessor’s office says that blogs are providing inaccurate information saying if your assessment went up, your taxes will increase. “The assessment adjustments due to market trends do not necessarily indicate an increase in property taxes.” This sure sounds like it’s opening the door to higher taxes. Regrettably, we do need higher taxes in Greenburgh. There are several more lawsuits the Town must fund due to the laws being violated by Mr Feiner and his Board. As such, we, as a Town, need to fund the guilty verdict fines and penalties being brought upon us by this administration. We wonder if they would be so cavalier with their bad decisions if they could be held personally accountable? Regardless, raising taxes is obviously one way to fund these repeated court cases, guilty verdicts and fines.

So the assessor’s media blitz continues to discuss the need to focus on the 2017 assessment roll and that your taxes in 2018 will be based on the 2017 assessment. Basically, she is saying nothing will happen this year when you’re paying attention, but rather next year after the shock has worn off. She continues to discuss the 65 community outreach meetings that they’ve been presenting for the last three and a half years. It doesn’t mention when taxpayers tried to ask questions and were told to wait until they finished speaking. Obviously, the smarter-than-the Town Board-thought residents while respectful, didn’t realize how poorly residents get treated by the Feiner administration. The Edgemont people do, hence their incorporation movement. This abuse needs to change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

* Grievance period is from June 1 to June 20.

A Zone Free Greenburgh – Will Anything Change?

It’s no secret that Mr Feiner has ruled against the Edgemont incorporation petition. It was also no secret that he was against the incorporation from the get-go. For all intents and purposes, the petition was correctly filled out, filed and met the standards of the law. Now, many are asking what’s next?

Comments made at many of the meetings were what we expected to hear as elections are coming up soon, we should run another candidate, someone should run, we’ll vote him out and more. The problem is that no one will vote him out. The master of the campaign, Mr Feiner continues to get 7-9,000 votes when running unopposed. Should a viable candidate appear and even contemplate running against him, it will need to be an independent candidate, not a Democrat or Republican. In fact, the Greenburgh Republican party has written Greenburgh off as unwinnable and will not “waste” Republican resources in Greenburgh.

Several years ago Edgemont resident Bob Bernstein challenged Mr Feiner in the supervisor race. A progressive democrat, Mr Bernstein's candidacy forced a primary runoff, pitting he and Mr Feiner against each other for the democratic nomination. While Mr Bernstein met with community groups, went to events and reached out as much as he could, Mr Feiner used the then-personally controlled GBList (Town email list) to rally his troops. Subsequently, several things happened.

First and foremost, Mr Feiner won the primary. Second, he and his “team” attempted to disqualify Mr Bernstein’s petition signatures, this time not using private investigators and a retired judge. Third, he sat back and utilized his 24+ years of contacts, favors, connections and paybacks to defeat Mr Bernstein. While the numbers always amaze many people, only a small fraction of residents even bother to vote. So the argument about voting him out of office is more than likely, moot!

So?

We’ve written previously that what affects the Town in one community will eventually do the same thing in another. Examples? An easy one the Brightview Assisted Living Center at Benedict Avenue and Rt 119. The G10 fought most of what the proposal encompassed alongside the small group of residents that live in the Glenville section of unincorporated Greenburgh. Therein is the rub. The residents in Glenville went out of their way to try to work with the builder, believing the Town would have their back. They played by what they thought were the rules and were summarily dismissed - and ultimately screwed - getting an oversized behemoth structure smack dab in the middle of their small single-family homes neighborhood. Other neighborhoods got screwed as well.

How?

The attorneys for Brightview wrote the zoning bill that Mr Feiner and his Town Board adopted into law for assisted living facilities in the Town. It did nothing if not address and eliminate every issue Brightview faced with their proposed project. Subsequently, the bill was adopted and pushed through the various Boards with almost record setting speed. With no resistance left against the Brightview projects, residents and the G10 repeatedly argued that they were setting a terrible precedent for the Town with future assisted living facilities. That precedent has come full circle.

When?

In a 4 to 3 vote, the Greenburgh Zoning Board of Appeals voted to allow a 3,000% variance as well as to waive the 4-year old assisted living zoning code’s mandate of a minimum 4-acre requirement. It is not unusual to see developers ask for and receive variances. A setback variance example from a required 8-foot setback to a 6-foot setback would be considered reasonable in some instances and probably granted. Invariably, most people would not have an objection to that. If a developer were to ask to change a 50-foot setback to a 10-foot setback with a four to five story building in a residential neighborhood, many, if not all in the neighborhood, would probably object. This is exactly what happened in Glenville when Brightview agreed to slightly turn their building instead of reducing its size to try to make it more palatable to the residents it was about to overwhelm.

So, now that the developers know what they can get away in the zone free Town of Greenburgh, they are proceeding with every ridiculous proposal they can come up with, including the 3,000% variance Shelbourne knows Mr Feiner will vote against but instruct his Board to pass. Why have zoning laws or even a Comprehensive Plan if all the administration will do is kowtow to every developer that comes before the Town with a proposal?

In a sadly veiled attempt to justify their votes favoring the Shelbourne project, Feiner appointees Daniel Martin, Rohan Harrison, William Losapio and Louis Crichlow ensured a back-door for Mr Feiner and his Board to escape another lawsuit initiated by Shelbourne after we believe Mr Feiner instructed his Board to rescind the negative declaration for the project, claiming the project would not have a negative impact on the environment. They also ignored the Fire District’s request for a study of the impact the facility will have on the emergency services they provide. All examples provided by Shelbourne have thus far been inadequate or not on a par with the size of the district, staffing, size of facility, amount of patients/residents, etc.

This project has been favored by Mr Feiner from its inception. Consequently, Mr Feiner’s Board is also in favor of it. Residents be damned, but this project has legs and has begun to run, regardless of what the neighborhoods want, the fire district says or the laws that are being swept aside. Mr Feiner was able to slow the Edgemont incorporation attempt by finding the petition insufficient. Pro-incorporation proponents are taking a step back and regrouping. Mr Feiner is ensuring several things will happen by those pro-incorporation residents. First, a new petition being crafted. Second, a larger boundary being created for the proposed village. Third, another lawsuit (or more). Fourth, people on the fence or wondering about incorporation have now been convinced to change their position, favoring incorporation. Finally, people who may have been in Mr Feiner's camp are jumping ship. His plan is backfiring!

The behavior of Mr Feiner and his Board are disappointing to people in the know. People not in the know usually find out after the bad decisions have been implemented, groundbreaking has taken place and the done-deal signed, sealed and delivered to the developer. This has to stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Can He Ignore Them Now?

Residents have been complaining about The Paul’s actions for some time. The G10 pointed out the property’s history having been a dumping location for the White Plains Urban Renewal when that downtown area was being renovated and The Paul ignored them. When the G10 pointed to deficiencies in the environmental study that was proposed, The Paul ignored them. When the G10 pointed out the violation of county and state laws regarding the acquisition of foreclosed properties, The Paul ignored them. When the G10 pointed out that the zoning was residential, not commercial (and knowing he could change it at his behest) The Paul ignored them. When neighborhood residents objected to an 8-story-plus size building on the property, The Paul ignored them. When a developer speaks, The Paul is all ears. When the community speaks, The Paul ignores them. 

The Paul foisted a Greenburgh Town referendum onto the ballot to approve or disapprove the private enterprise’s profit-making sports bubble on 715 Dobbs Ferry Road the day of the election. The Paul stated that the resistance to the sports bubble was nothing more than an exploit by the House of Sports of Ardsley, a new brick and mortar sports facility, whose motive was to fight future competition. They claimed not, stating they welcome the competition. One ABG staffer showed us two mailings she received and a neighbor received from GameOn 365 and pointed out the address label. It was identical to the “layout” when she receives a Town mailing or a campaign piece from The Paul. Her maiden name as it appeared on their home’s deed years ago is what tipped her off. It’s the same for everything she receives from the Town. It’s the only thing she ever receives via US Postal mail with her maiden name.

The Paul rounded up the usual suspect to speak on behalf of the GameOn 365 deal and even offered both sides the opportunity to air a ten-minute video touting their “side”. The two videos could not have been more contrastive. The GameOn 365 video was a slick, vacuous show of pictures with kids playing soccer and seniors being interviewed. In fact, their video even mentioned that voters should flip the “new” 1800’s era ballot over to vote for the proposition. How did they know it would be on the back? Possibly because they did their homework or probably because The Paul coached them as to what to say? The opposition’s video was chocked full of information and facts as to why the Referendum should not proceed. While the count for the two video’s viewing was disparate, it wasn’t enough to sway the vote – which is what The Paul calculated.

The Paul is a shrewd and cunning politician, while fostering the disheveled, unkempt goofball persona. He knew putting this ill-fated idea to a referendum would silence critics whose argument had been to put it out to a referendum. But once The Paul stuck his hand into the referendum mix, he screwed up what may have been a good thing had been done properly. Since it wasn’t done properly, a lawsuit filed by numerous corporations and individuals will be all that is left to save the residents from a dispossessed and impoverished Town Board. And, once in court, The Paul will argue that the referendum passed and the suit should be dismissed or found in his favor because less than 1% of the people spoke. If The Paul loses, he’ll use his standard “battle cry” that this judge doesn’t like him, or it’s a blow to democracy and/or the people. He’ll then begin a new deflection campaign.

In the end, the simple fact is The Paul doesn’t listen to his constituency. He caters to developers and is slowly eroding the Town’s charm and beauty into something most people do not want. The infrastructure has been neglected and ignored to the point of major concern in all neighborhoods with the exception perhaps his own gated community. It’s hard to know just who’s interest The Paul has but so far his history has proven it to be the developers. Perhaps it’s time for the Town to hire a Town Administrator, reduce the Supervisor’s salary, and get the Town on the right track. We can only hope.