Geppetto Would Be Upset

He’s at it again. Mr Feiner has decided to increase his range beyond the coveted “GB (e-mail) List” and launch yet another snail mail blitz on behalf of a infant business. No, this not about a business that addresses things for kids. Rather, this is another politically correct “green” startup that Mr Feiner has decided to promote with taxpayer money. You will recall he has done this before with other companies. Just because someone says it’s green, doesn’t necessarily make it so. Mr Feiner always seems ready to commit our tax dollars without consequence or validation. This time the company he’s promoting is Solarize Westchester.

He did the same thing a short time ago with Sustainable Westchester, a startup energy company that was begun by a group of attorneys experimenting with Greenburgh’s residents to perfect their energy “company” to later be rolled out throughout the country. Mr Feiner had singularly decided without taxpayer input, to enter ALL RESIDENTS into an Energy Savings Consortium Organization (ESCO) called Sustainable Westchester. 

This was a three-year contract with no guarantee of savings from day one through day one-thousand and ninety-five. They were originally promising to save energy money for taxpayers’ electric and gas services. Once the Town adopted their plan, the gas portion mysteriously disappeared and was not included in the overall package. When pressed, Mr Feiner ignored the questions because if you don’t answer, he knows people will stop asking. Regardless, Mr Feiner did mailings, press releases, radio broadcasts and so claiming that participants would save from $400 to $600 dollars a year. After much scrutiny by many civic associations and Mr Ken Stahn of the Sprain Road Civic Association, it was determined that his claims were unrealistic.

When all of the calculations and math was completed, Mr Stahn declared an impasse. He was unable to see how any resident could possibly save $400 to $600 dollars given the current energy prices. In fact, he met several times with them to try to prove the claims by Mr Feiner. He could not. In fact, now that the Sustainable Westchester program has been underway for about a year now, we’ve been unable to validate those claims and have learned of only minimal savings upwards of about $30 (on the high side) having been seen by those residents he’s enrolled into the program without their approval! In fact, as we wrote this article, ABG learned that ConEd Solutions, the actual company contracted by Sustainable Westchester to provide and bill for the actual delivery of electricity, was sold to another energy company. That company claims they will honor Sustainable Westchester’s agreements. 

“Solarize Westchester has expressed interest in working with the Greenburgh Town Board screening potential solar companies – trying to come up with the most competitive pricing proposal and quality installation.” Translation from Feiner-speak into real-world English: We want a monopoly on selling and installing solar panels in the Town of Greenburgh and know if we enlist mostly Mr Feiner, but also include his Town Board, we will have an unencumbered bonanza and lock out any competition. It’s like Sustainable Westchester all over again. 

The letter that Mr Feiner mailed to residents says you might be able to save a few hundred dollars a month by placing solar panels on your roof. He then extols the benefits of one of the Town Board members’ savings, which he doesn’t quantify (nor ever will), and fails to mention there are panels on every roof surface of his home. He adds that there were no up front costs. Is that with this same company or a different one? Naturally, he doesn’t say. He also doesn’t touch on any permits that homeowners might need to pay for to do this work. He doesn’t mention any inspections that need to be done during and after the installations and he doesn’t mention how long it will take for the installation to return the investment to the homeowner. Finally, he also doesn’t mention if the panels are a purchase, lease or some other kind of financial arrangement with the homeowners. 

In the end, we are all for solar and other forms of energy savings and devices, both environmentally and financially. We just don’t think the Supervisor and his Town Board should be the “pitchmen” for a private company, no matter how laudable it may be. As Mr Feiner continues to use his office as a bully pulpit, many people may be lured into a false sense of security and ultimately get burned - such as senior citizens. This blatant salesmanship from Mr Feiner and his Board must end, as well as the lack of truth coming from his administration. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Questionable ESCO's To Be Forced On Residents

We recently wrote about our trying to learn about Sustainable Westchester, the energy company (ESCO) all Greenburgh residents will be forced to be made a member if Mr Feiner has his way. We're also interested in its sister company, Solarize Westchester, for similar reasons. Both seem to be “blessed”, authorized, and financed by New York State, with ties to the bloated thread of New York State's labyrinth of bureaucracy. By the way, both of these companies are not-for-profits. Being a not-for-profit does not guarantee the residents and/or major taxpayers of the Town any kind of quality performance or financial savings. What is promised is our knowledge that the past performance of our Supervisor provides an almost iron-clad guarantee of future results through his oft-times illegitimate if not downright illegal, behavior. But what of NYSERDA, Sustainable Westchester and Solarize Westchester?

We went to the NYSERDA website to find out about this program. Their home page provides a small bit of information, one piece being "The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, known as NYSERDA, which states they "promote energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources." It says a few other things that have a politically correct “ring” to it. Please don’t misunderstand, we endorse energy saving efforts, renewable energy solutions and others that may be in development. But, we also realize the need, dependency, efficiency, cost and viability of carbon based technologies as well. We admit that being aware and respectful of our environmental impact must start individually. That’s part of the problem here in Greenburgh. The individuals are not being allowed to make their own decisions and are being spoken for by Mr Feiner and his Town Board.

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When we clicked on the Sustainable Westchester home page, we got the picture on the left (Image 1). When we tried to delve further with many of the links, we got an error page similar to the one below it (Image 2). Do they have something to hide? Then we tried the Solarize Westchester site. We again found minimal information with more snippets of generic information. What we also found was that the Board of Directors information is conspicuously missing.

Mr Feiner has taken it upon himself to compromise your extremely valuable personal information by not only entertaining Sustainable Westchester’s request to the Public Service Commission, by telling taxpayers that we are being signed up for this - whether you want it or not. It will happen as soon as the Town Board passes the resolution adopting this convoluted proposal. The petition from Sustainable Westchester starts out in the introductory statement, saying amongst other things, “...its implementation of a demonstration of community choice aggregation...for an order requiring Consolidated Edison, Inc., of New York and New York State Electric and Gas Corporation...to provide certain of the Utility's customer information to...to Petition.”* 

The lack of information about moving ahead (or not) with the Town’s participation of Sustainable Westchester’s ESCO is moving frighteningly too fast for many residents who continue to come up short for answers. Rather than feel that Mr Feiner is trying to hoodwink them, it would behoove this unchallenged administration to take a step back and gather as much information and conclusive evidence as possible before acting on joining residents into the ESCO. They should also withdrawl the proposal until such time that any and all answers are supplied, mailings are agreed to be performed and paid for by Sustainable Westchester, residents will have the opportunity to opt IN and not opt OUT. Finally, there should be a guarantee of savings that will be refunded if prices rise. If this “deal” is as good as Mr Feiner claims, he should have no problem with any of these points and moving forward at a slower pace – and canceling it if it does not offer the guaranteed savings being purported. Otherwise, they should simply scrap the entire thing. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

* We skipped information in parenthesis on their web site by providing “...”.

Stop Town From Releasing Your Information To Private Company

We have just begun to dig into the Sustainable Westchester company, funded in part by NY State, and its sister company, Solarize Westchester. We can find a link between the two but are unable to scratch beyond the surface. Apparently tied into the bloated thread of New York State's labyrinth of bureaucracy, both of these companies are not-for-profit. The proposal Sustainable Westchester has submitted appears to request the Town and Consolidated Edison provide them with your private information! This could be interpreted as similar to questionable companies who sell your email addresses, personal addresses and other personal information. Being a not-for-profit does not guarantee anything and past performance of our Supervisor is certainly an indicator of future results.
 

Distinguishing between a not-for-profit and a for-profit company implies that a not-for-profit business will not turn a profit. It's a mistaken belief that non-profits cannot and do not make money. This is hardly the case as many do actually not only make money, but make a lot of money and sometimes not related to the actual non-profit purposes. The biggest difference between profit-driven and not-for-profit companies is how profits are distributed. A for-profit company redistributes profits to its shareholders and a not-for-profit sees the money go back into the company or toward more and/or higher salaries.

The mere fact that a company is organized under the not-for-profit corporation law does not mean that contributions to them are necessarily tax deductible. But many times those with access to the press will push on behalf of the not-for-profit, claiming that, "This company is doing important, vital, charitable work, etc., and by the way, they are a not-for-profit company." So what? The common misconception is that a not-for-profit has to be profit-LESS entity and operate at a loss or just break-even. There is no such legal requirement for this. Nor is there any restriction of paying extremely handsome salaries to its officers and even their staff. Why do we mention this?

Mr Feiner has already decided that the Sustainable Westchester plan is a go-ahead. This may have appeared validated as representatives from Sustainable Westchester were not even present at the opening of this public hearing. Mr Sheehan had raised some reasonable questions about moving forward with this but Mr Feiner continues to ignore all rational arguments to slow this process down. In fact, yesterday there was a press release from Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, announcing more than $1million in restitution will be awarded to NYS energy customers from an energy service company! It was found that these people were falsely promised lower energy prices and some enrolled WITHOUT their consent and they will now receive partial refunds! While violating the law has never bothered Mr Feiner, it should give him pause to re-evaluate moving forward with so many unanswered questions looming. Next up, Mr Feiner will spew a cornucopia of terms he likes to use whenever the G10 prove him wrong, using phrases such as, "We must follow the process", "do our due diligence", "people must have confidence in the system (interchangeable with process)", "this is only my personal opinion", and so on.

While our digging into ESCO's and Sustainable Westchester did not provide enough in-depth information beyond sound-byte-like snippets, what we did find is what we believe is a significant conflict of interest with Sustainable Westchester. The Board of Directors* of Sustainable Westchester include the leaders of the same municipalities who have entered into a contract with Sustainable Westchester! Mr Feiner continues to try to spin their membership as a good thing, without acknowledging their membership as Board of Directors! Has Mr Feiner been promised a Board of Director position once the proposal is adopted? Could that be why he has pushed so adamantly for the Town to join?

Why is this not “great news” as Mr Feiner purports? Several reasons. First, Sustainable Westchester is using this application to gain your personal information! Whether it's only for your mailing address or more, the Town should not be assisting a private corporation in acquiring your personal information to operate their business. Second, you may recall, the Town refused to give its email list to a Civic Association who wished to use it for informational purposes, and was ordered to do so by the court with the provision that it not be used for commercial purposes. That decision is currently under appeal. Third, residents should have to opt IN, not opt OUT of this program. But that is not how Mr Feiner is working this questionable process. Fourth, is the obvious conflict of interest by the participating communities whose leaders sit on Sustainable Westchester's Board of Directors. Why wouldn't these Board of Directors, who control the direction of their communities, put their communities in this program? It's an obvious windfall for them. Something here stinks!

During the public comment portion of the July 8^th, 2015 Town Board meeting, the "done deal" was obvious when Mr Feiner slipped and then backpedaled as he said (paraphrasing) that they could hold off voting on this proposal until he gets information from other community supervisors on the success of this program and then vote for it. This is just another delay tactic to assuage the public's unified objection against this plan. It's another Feiner deflection as he pushes all residents into a questionable program. Ken Stahn, President of the Sprain Road Civic Association, organized a meeting immediately prior to the last Town Board meeting. He said that there were too many variables still unaddressed and we don't need to be the “leader or the first” to do this. He also commented that the Town is involved in a corresponding program, Solarize Westchester, that seems like it may be a better deal but also has unanswered questions and may require waiting a bit more. Bob Bernstein commented that this Town Board's members are not energy experts and should not get involved with this given their track record.

In the end, this proposal will pass regardless of the arguments against, the proof against, or the simple logic that the Board will ignore because Mr Feiner tells them to do so. They'll ignore the cost of or even the fact that the Town will pay for mailings instead of Sustainable Westchester; ignore the penalties incurred by residents who didn't know Mr Feiner secretly enlisted them in the program to boost the numbers for his friends ESCO; ignore that the costs may go up and the residents will have little or no recourse for refunds or to get out from under until the 3-year contract expires or if the cost of energy goes down, forcing residents to pay more than the market rate and putting the ESCO in financial difficulty. Mostly, they'll ignore that the willfully ignorant have once again had their freedoms chipped away by not having the choice to opt IN, but rather must opt OUT. This must change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

* The Board of Directors for Sustainable Westchester include, among others, Noam Bramson (Mayor of New Rochelle), Chris Burdick (Supervisor of Bedford), Tom Roach (Mayor of White Plains), Nancy Seligson (Supervisor of the Town of Mamaroneck) and finally Mike Spano (Mayor of Yonkers, often referred to as the City of Hills, where nothing is on the level).