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.

Town Taxpayers Continue Losing

Mr Feiner won again and the Town lost. The upcoming elections that he will run in unopposed, will garner him 7k+ votes. Back in the driver's seat again, he'll do what he does at every Town Board meeting and adjorn to Executive Session when the public pushes too hard. Secretly, do the Town Board members give "high-fives" when they adjourn to Executive session? They seem to adjourn regularly into Executive session to address “personnel issues” and leave the audience to wonder what's transpiring in the back room. Amazingly, the one personnel issue they’ve never addressed is the appointed Tax Assessor’s racist remarks during a meeting with subordinates. If you haven’t read our previous post, here’s an excerpt of a complaint letter that arrived to ABG recounting racist remarks made by Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy. Warning: this may be offensive to many:

This employee’s original letter was addressed and delivered to Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy and carbon copied to the Union President and most importantly Mr Feiner. ABG's understanding is that Mr Feiner, nor the union, took any action to address these racist remarks then or now. This speaks volumes of the duplicity, favoritism and disparate treatment of the “chosen” people within the Feiner administration and the rest of us. ABG has had conversations from others speaking about various wrongdoings within the Town.

One question that has been raised by many is why isn't the Journal News or any of the weekly newspapers pursuing this racism in Town Hall under Mr Feiner? They chose to ignore Mr Feiner’s bad behavior, condoning racism, and then create a series of stories about intolerance in Mahopac! The Journal News is also the first place many will go to champion separatism, under the guise of individuality, segregation, under the guise of cultural heritage, and uniqueness under the guise of personality. Do you recall the 1960’s when the mantras of the times were “give peace a chance”, “love is the answer”, “power to the people”, and “don’t trust anyone over 30”?

The 1960’s and 1970’s were a time of joining together and fostering a “oneness” with all people. Yes, there were problems .There was also disdain for those who would act prejudiciously towards others as the generations then sought to better our circumstances. New and sometimes radical ideas of equal pay for equal work, affirmative action to right the wrongs of the past, tests for civil service positions to remove nepotism and favoritism with job appointments were the talk of the decade. Great strides were being made as our society moved to better ourselves. The anti-war movement begot the environmental cries to “save the planet” and healing in our country between races, religions, gay/straight, and so on finally seemed on the mend. Schools were now teaching that we were all “one”. So what happened?

One thing that was mentioned was our eagerness to hyphenate into groups, losing the uniqueness we enjoy by being Americans – and to a degree, political members within the Greenburgh communities became more divisive and isolated than ever before. Theodore Roosevelt’s speech on hyphenated Americans rings true in some depth of what is going on in these times. We refer to his speech* tendered on May 31, 1916 in St Louis as it related to fighting abroad in other countries and allegiances to the United States. While the model was used toward countries that were escalating toward the first World War, we can see a parallel to what is going on today.

Mr Feiner goes out of his way to deflect attention from his own bad behavior toward others. He’s manufactured issues by writing incendiary op-ed pieces about closing Indian Point without  suggesting alternatives. He went after a fire chief who said something derogatory about him years ago and apologized continually utilizes Greenburgh Town Hall as his personal bully pulpit without paying the costs associated with keeping it open or staffing it to foster, some say fester, unworkable proposals such as a High Line Park. And when questioned about rising Town expenses by concerned and tax weary residents, he ignores them. At meetings he simply looks down and plays with his phone.

It was he who created a fervor over keeping the old Tappan Zee Bridge “up” as a high-line style park, a la NY city’s own, completely different and easily maintainable high-line park. He lost traction with that hype once Governor Cuomo put his foot down and said, “No!” He conveniently “forgot” how he had earlier decried the need to replace the aged bridge because needed maintenance was too costly and the bridge was unsafe and could collapse at almost anytime. Not true. His administration is filled with experts; he with nuclear power and bridge construction and Town Attorney Tim Lewis with Hazardous Materials contamination and remediation.

When the WestHelp debacle began, it was he who decided to make illegal payments to the Valhalla School District, condoned by his Town Board. Town residents questioned Mr Feiner as to why even make those payments? He simply whipped out his cell phone, looked down and ignored those questioning his motivation and illegal behavior. It was he who decided to violate the WestHelp contract with the County. He decided to toss away $1.2 million per year, forcing Town residents to make up the difference. In the Fortress Bible Church case, even a Federal judge found his actions illegal, finding him guilty of discrimination, lying under oath, destroying evidence and more! That episode ended up costing the Unincorporated taxpayers $5.5 million ($6.5 million in total)!

It was Mr Feiner who insisted on eliminating the after school homework assistance program for the costlier and instituting the supposedly “better” Xposure program and then told Commissioner Carter he needed to raise income at the Center. Homework assistance ceased as did use of the Theodore Young Community Center while the Xposure program was running, effectively shutting the center down to the non-participating Xposure members of the community. This list is endless.

Of course, we haven’t mentioned all of the bad and illegal decisions Mr Feiner has made to cost us income. The list continues to grow as we witness more and more of his costly and disrespectful actions toward Greenburgh taxpayers. It must stop. Only then can we have A Better Greenburgh.

*Access President Roosevelt's speech here: http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/images/research/txtspeeches/672.pdf

Racism Thrives

We have often written about different racist incidents that have prevailed in our Town government. The most recent is with Greenburgh Police Officer Brad DiCairano. Apparently he posted a picture on Facebook that showed a photo of blacks on a minivan protesting last summers Michael Brown killing in Ferguson, Missouri, next to one of baboons jumping all over a white woman's car. The post drew criticism from fellow officers and we understand was then shown to GPD Chief Christopher McNerney a day or so later. But, by the time Chief McNerney learned of the Facebook page, using the name 'B-rad Di', it had been taken down. Chief McNerney had placed DiCairano on modified duty upon his return from vacation. Officers are permitted to express their personal views as long as it does not, among other things, “negatively affect the public perception of the Department” according to the department's social media policy.

The rest of Officer DiCairano’s troubles can be discussed at a future date. The fundamental questions seem to be whether or not he overstepped the department's protocol and were his first amendment rights being upheld or not? Should a police officer, or any municipal employee be held to a different standard and does this violate his free speech rights? As horrible to some and perhaps entertaining to others as this act may be, should this officer lose his job over this or just be reprimanded? And, does he deserve a second chance if he apologizes and shows remorse?

ABG learned that Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner condemned the Facebook post once he learned of it and said he was confident McNerney was taking it "extremely seriously." “Law enforcement people have to interact with all aspects of the community and it's totally inappropriate for them to be encouraging, even privately, any forms of hate or racism,” Feiner said. How interesting that he would only single out law enforcement and not other Town employees. 

Then Mr Feiner sent out an email blast about this incident to several thousand people in the Town, stating:

An unpleasant note…a police officer was suspended today and relieved of his duties for the posting of a racially insensitive posting and comments on facebook[sic]. The internal investigation is continuing. The officer faces discipline up to and including termination of employment. I have asked our newly formed Human Rights Committee to review the town’s policies regarding town employees who make racially offensive comments and to come up with policies that would apply to all employees who work for the  town.

PAUL FEINER

In a March 10th Town Board meeting several years ago, Councilwoman Sonya Brown publicly “dressed down” Mr Feiner explaining that he had told her and other candidates running for re-election to not bother campaigning in Fairview because those voters were unintelligent! It seems from what Ms Brown was saying that he was alluding to the minority community there. So, how can Mr Feiner continue to claim to be against racism when he condones it repeatedly? 

In our article entitled “Selective Racism Condoned By Supervisor” on April 8th, 2014, we quoted Mr Feiner as saying, “We cannot, as elected officials, allow discrimination to rear its ugly head.” Yet he sent emails endorsing Superintendent Ross after allegations of racism were made against him and has since been fired from Greenburgh Central School System. His racist remarks were proven to be made over an extended period of time.

Mr Feiner and the Town Board chose to ignore the use of the “N-word” in Town Hall by Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy in a meeting with department employees present. We posted an excerpt of a letter (below) of complaint from the offended party in that same article. The complaint was summarily ignored by the Town. Why was Mr Feiner absent after a complaint of racism was filed against Town Assessor Edye McCarthy? Perhaps Mr Feiner waved it off saying, “It’s not that big a deal.”

Below is an excerpt from the complaint letter addressed to Town Assessor Edye McCarthy and carbon-copied to the Union President and Supervisor Paul Feiner on October 27, 2008. We have omitted the names and body of the letter to protect the privacy of the victim.  

We forewarn you that the content may be considered disturbing.
Here’s an excerpt from that complaint:

We’re surrounded by double-standards: Recently, Mr Feiner himself was found guilty of discrimination and violating the civil rights of the Fortress Bible Church of Mt Vernon after they sought Town approvals to build a new church and school on Dobbs Ferry Road. Mr Feiner did not want them building in the backyard of his friend, then County Legislator and now NYS Assemblyman Thomas Abinanti and tried to scuttle the Church's application. It was proven in court that Mr Feiner openly practiced discrimination against the Fortress Bible Church when the Church purchased property and sought to construct a new church and school on it just off of Dobbs Ferry Road.

In time, Fortress Bible Church filed suit against the Town after being pushed once too often. It’s believed that Mr Feiner tried to “convince” them into donating a fire truck to the Fairview Fire Department in return for permit approvals. It’s widely believed he did this to the Westchester Meadows (aka Hebrew Home) in Valhalla. They capitulated and amazingly the Fairview FD received a brand new Rescue truck and the Westchester Meadows was able to continue construction. But the Church wasn’t going to be coerced into agreeing to Mr Feiner's alleged demands and questionable behavior. The Church went to court and was victorious. Their victory is the Unincorporated Town’s loss as we will be forced to cover Mr Feiner’s illegal actions to the tune of $6.5 million!

Racism should not be welcome anywhere. Yet it seems to have found a home in Greenburgh, well-known to be a sanctuary Town for issues Mr Feiner decides are acceptable. But due to condoning racism himself, he should recuse himself from any and all conversations surrounding it. He should also not be an adjudicator if Greenburgh Police Officer Brad DiCairano should face disciplinary actions for his post on Facebook via the Town Board. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

2014 Year In Review - The Rest Of The Story

We’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

Each year Mr Feiner emails, publishes and mails his review of 2014 to residents. We deem this an unnecessary and costly event for taxpayers. Many items he alludes to have nothing to do with him but he chooses to include them. It’s his list and he can put  in it what he chooses. Similarly, since it’s his list, most of his efforts are not accurately recounted and that is why we do our rebuttal list. Please note that ABG has not edited Mr Feiner's points.

Here are some of Mr Feiner’s highlights that were emailed to the thousands of names on the Town’s infamous GBList email addresses list held so closely to the vest by Mr Feiner. Those not on the list will be mailed letters via snail mail. While all of this could have easily and more cost-effectively been posted on the Town’s website, it doesn’t allow Mr Feiner the same campaign publicity and results. As such, we want you to see the other side of the year in review and have included our take on his take.

PF:  Unlike some communities in NYS, the Town has complied with the tax cap every year since the State Legislature recommended that local governments keep tax hikes under their recommended tax cap levy. The Town Board unanimously approved the 2015 budget last week which  again complies with the  tax cap.

ABG: What Mr Feiner conveniently doesn’t mention is that in order to squeak by under the tax cap, he and his Town Board raided the Reserve Funds of $2 MILLION (40%)! This is money that would normally be used for tax certiorari settlements and lawsuit settlements against Mr Feiner and the Town. There are plenty of claims. The Town, along with the school and fire districts, averages several hundred thousand dollars to $1 million per Town Board meeting in certiorari and lawsuit settlement refunds. This is hardly the time to “steal” money from one fund to cover another. The real issue here is the misappropriation and/or use of funds by this Town administration. Unfortunately, the one-party Board of political hangers-on will follow Mr Feiner’s instructions to ensure re-election.

PF: Town maintains AAA bond rating from both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s---an accomplishment only 1% of communities around the nation can be proud of.  Communities around the nation have experienced bond rating declines. It’s nice that Greenburgh continues to have the highest rating possible from two independent agencies.  Our Aaa rating equates to over $200,000 in interest savings over the life of the debt service.

ABG: In order to maintain this bond rating, the Town borrows very little. Without taking advantage of the low rates, Mr Feiner and his Board have neglected the Town infrastructure to the point of serious degradation of drainage systems, roadways, parks, buildings and more. Regular maintenance on Town owned buildings is ignored until what would be considered normal, less costly repairs turn into catastrophic repairs requiring much more financial commitment.

PF: The new sanitation truck that picks up garbage with an automated hand is now operational.  We’re able to manage with one employee, not three on a truck and anticipate significant savings of your tax dollars.  The Town will continue to expand this method of garbage collection with more routes and new trucks in the coming years.

ABG: They anticipate savings but refuse to provide figures. This is one of Mr Feiner’s well-developed scams. He’ll say something will save us money or blurt out an unsubstantiated dollar figure, while there was no study done, no definitive amounts offered and we’re simply supposed to take his word for it. Now he is saying they will expand this program even before any conclusive performance results can be had or used to substantiate its value.

PF: I meet on a regular basis with retired local management consultants, corporate executives who volunteer their time--offering valuable suggestions on how the town could be better managed. We started the 2015 budget process early in the year and they helped identify over a million dollars in new sources of revenue or cost reductions!

ABG: After all these years of saying this, he still has not learned or used proven management techniques and processes that the business world uses daily. Nor has his claim provided us with these new sources of revenue. The budget he provides in the 11th-hour has minimal opportunity for change by the time the public, who are the real team of reviewers, gets to see it.

PF: Howard Reiss was appointed as the new Fairview Fire Chief earlier this year. He’s trying hard to reach out to the community.  Mike Goldstein was elected Hartsdale Fire Commissioner and Clarie Pizzuti was elected Commissioner of the Fairview Fire Department by large margins. Both were supported by residents who would like to see fire district spending monitored more closely.  A new citizens committee - the Fairview Fire District Monitoring Committee- was formed.  The Fairview, Greenville & Hartsdale fire departments worked with the town –participating in our 9-11 memorial and annual Veterans day memorial event.

ABG: Chief Reiss was appointed the new Chief of the Fairview Fire Department and we wish him well. What Mr Feiner doesn’t say is that he mounted an attack campaign against then Fire Chief Anthony LoGiudice, who resigned due to health reasons. Mr Feiner conveniently doesn’t mention it was he who was responsible for the creation of the Fairview Fire District Monitors Committee and posted his long-time friend and cohort to run it. The Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Districts had new candidates run for one open seat in each district’s Board. We are convinced that both candidates for each district were handpicked candidates by Mr Feiner. The one for Fairview was a member of his fire monitors club. Interestingly, when Mr Feiner lives in his home in the gated community of Boulder Ridge, he is protected by an all-volunteer Fire Department and not the paid fire departments in Greenburgh. When he lives at his mother’s residence in Scarsdale, he is protected by the (paid) Scarsdale Fire Department, also not one of the three paid fire departments in Greenburgh. He pays the lowest fire protection taxes and should let the public take care of their respective fire services and stay out of politicizing them!

PF: The town has started promoting organic recycling to residents- an initiative that will eventually reduce the amount of garbage by over 30%.  Thanks to the Greenburgh Nature Center for leading the way!

ABG: He has said this before and there is nothing new here. The Greenburgh Nature Center is a private organization that rents their space from the Town. What is not mentioned is how Mr Feiner arrived at a 30% reduction of garbage figure and how this will be accomplished.

PF: The town has been successful in collecting significant  back taxes owed to us --an initiative that will continue.  Since the List of Delinquent Taxes was filed with the County in April 2014,  62 parcels have been removed from the  delinquent List (2 parcels were removed because they are owned by the State and the remaining were removed because of full payment or a new tax agreement).  A total of a little less than $3.1 million of delinquent taxes was either paid in full or subject to new tax agreements (including current taxes paid in order to be eligible for the tax agreements).  There have been 22 new tax agreements.  Of the 62 parcels, 40 were single family, multi-family or condos.  I have worked with Westchester Residential Opportunities helping families who owe back taxes come up with plans so they can keep their properties.  We continue to receive additional payments from those owing back taxes.

ABG: First, it’s about time! The Town has been delinquent under Mr Feiner’s tenure for going after tax-cheats, tax-evaders and others delinquent in paying their Town taxes. While Mr Feiner had 22-years to collect back-taxes and deliquent taxes, he chose to ignore the problem. During Mr Feiner’s tenure, the tax-paying residents have been subjected to double-digit tax increases, increased fees and increased fines for various violations when they may not have had he done his job. The need to generate revenue by Mr Feiner is only exacerbated by a) his managerial incompetence and b) his constant ignoring of problems that would be better addressed sooner, rather than later.

PF: The town has upgraded our software. The new  Munis Enterprise Resource Planning Software centralizes our financial processes. Many benefits to the town: We will be able to do a better job tracking expenses per department during the year. In 2015 we expect to implement more internal control procedures that will enable us to cut costs. Sometime in 2015 we expect to be able to  be able to collect water bills payments electronically.

ABG: As a rule, most if not all, software companies exist by generating revenue via their upgrades. Since this software will track expenses per department, what was the expense of this software upgrade? Also, each budget season finds Mr Feiner arbitrarily cutting departmental budgets without regard to the items he decides are unnecessary. Our department leaders do a reasonably good job of explaining their expenses during the year. And while ABG does not believe municipal budgets should have categories labeled “miscellaneous” that go beyond $1,000, it is up to Mr Feiner and his Board to rectify that. But they won’t. This point by Mr Feiner is meaningless.

PF: The town hired an auctioneer, GA Keen Realty Advisors to oversee the sale of  Frank’s nursery on Dobbs Ferry Road. We delayed the auction after being advised that additional environmental reviews were needed. Potential purchasers want to have a better understanding how much environmental cleanup work will be required before building on the property. Woodard & Curran Engineers will be conducting the environmental reviews and has been in contact with the NYSDEC. There is significant interest in the property from potential purchasers.

 ABG: Delayed? The delay was based on the delay by Mr Feiner and his Board by ignoring the property’s contamination after ownership was transferred to the Town through foreclosure. Then Mr Feiner attempted to secretly enter into an illegal lease with a "paper" company. Residents requested the property have testing done to find out what contaminants were on the property. Playing games with semantics, a popular pasttime of Mr Feiner, he instructed a testing company to focus on a certain area for testing, ignoring the rest of the property’s space that was used as a dump by the City of White Plains Urban Renewal Project that tore down the old Macy’s and surrounding structures. These old buildings have classically used what we now know are carcinogenic materials such as asbestos, lead and more. Mr Feiner ignored everyone’s pleas to clean up the site before trying to do anything with it. ABG believes his ultimate goal is to gift the property to his friends and their “paper” company.

PF: Many of the problems at the Town Court have been resolved. Over a year ago the Town Board contracted with an independent audit company to conduct a study of Town Court operations. The court has already implemented many audit recommendations leading to improved internal controls and efficiencies. We are about to embark on another major independent study of operations-- of our Public Works department. 

ABG: The problems still exist. Supposedly there were millions of dollars in unpaid traffic and parking violations that Mr Feiner brought interns to address. Eager to do whatever is asked of them, interns cost us little, offer no expertise and provide Mr Feiner with multiple press releases about what a great job they are doing. Do we really want to trust our millions of dollars of income to interns? The obvious answer is, “No!” Mr Feiner hired a new Court Clerk from Port Chester to run the Town Court Department. She was there only briefly when Mr Feiner announced to the Town Board he needed to almost double her salary. ABG believes he told the Board to vote in favor of her salary increase or be “Sonya’d”. Fearing Paul’s wrath and possible excommunication, they did as instructed. Soon after, the newly appointed and extremely well-paid Court Clerk bolted back to Port Chester, able to parlay her higher Greenburgh salary to a comparable one in Port Chester. Once gone, we learned she provided the Greenburgh Courts with little or no relief other than a higher Greenburgh Court Clerk salary for the next person and we still don't know how many tickets remain unpaid!

PF: The town spent $3 million dollars on road repaving on streets throughout the town. The town and villages within Greenburgh jointly purchased significant amounts of asphalt for road repaving, saving many thousands of dollars.  Very pleased that New York State listened to our concerns and repaved W Hartsdale Ave, a road that was in desperate need of repaving.

ABG: Most of the roads in need of repair in the Town merely get patched as having an unused AAA Bond rating yields little in infrastructure maintenance. Getting NYS to pave certain roads thjroughout the Town is our elected leaders’ job! Ironically, the Villages within the Town have maintained a purchasing consortium for about the last ten years. Mr Feiner made the decision to not participate and pay higher prices than they did for all materials. Again, saying “we saved many thousands of dollars” is an empty statement. How much did we save?

PF: By collaborating with other municipalities in Westchester, the town has saved significant dollars with our reassessment initiative.  The town hired Tyler Technologies to collect data.  Updates on the progress of the data collection can be found on the home page of the town website: www.greenburghny.com.  Town Assessor Edye McCarthy and I have been meeting with numerous civic groups during the year answering questions about the reassessment process. This is the first time in over 60 years that all properties are being reassessed.  Once reassessment is completed there will be more stability, fewer tax certiorari refunds, reduced legal costs.

ABG: While what Mr Feiner says here is technically true, the fact remains he is at the root cause for not doing revaluations. Trying to split the expense of doing revaluations with other communities might have saved us a few dollars, but we paid out millions of dollars to comparatively save pennies. Another example of a lack of management skills and a waste of time meeting with retired local management consultants and corporate executives! His time might be better spent sending less campaign mailings out and enrollment in some management classes.

PF: The town is in the process of moving forward retrofitting our lights to more efficient LED lighting. Taxpayers will be thankful because there will be major savings of taxpayer dollars.

ABG: Mr Feiner and his Board decided to replace current light fixtures and bulbs to an added cost of just over a half a million dollars. Again, what are “the major savings” and how long will it take for us to reap those benefits? Those questions go unanswered. As does the question of why not wait and replace the fixtures and bulbs through attrition, when the equipment actually fails?

PF: John Sexton was appointed the new Library Director. Thanks to the Greenburgh Library Foundation and a grant from NYS, the library has invested in two self check machines that allow patrons to check out their own library materials --saving staff time and costs.

ABG: Congratulations and good luck to Mr Sexton. The Greenburgh Library has a competent staff who are usually eager to assist but has remained a political football for Mr Feiner and the the Library Board. That said, the two check-out stations will certainly alleviate the ill-conceived and ill-placed check out desk that routinely finds itself backed up with patrons checking out books, cd’s and dvd’s. Again, how much savings in staff time and costs are we netting? Please provide facts and figures. As for saving staff time, they work in the library and are doing library tasks. Whatever they are doing is their job. More importantly, ABG would like to see Mr Feiner and his Board stop holding the Library budget hostage each year just to prove he can.

PF: Town Clerk Judith Beville has been overseeing our internship program for students. Many students have worked on interesting projects during the year and summer months. In 2014 one of our summer interns was profiled by SUNY Albany as one of their outstanding students and featured on WCBS radio for the work she did as an intern. And, last year a student intern was selected to compete in a game of JEOPARDY (he won a game!).  We continued training students interested in a career  in journalism with our student news network program.

ABG: Thankfully, the Town Clerk’s department is staffed by some very competent people, allowing Ms Belville to spend her invaluable time with extraneous affairs that will do little to improve the Town’s operation, cost-effectiveness, communications and more likely furthers her political employ. Perhaps she should be focusing on improving the new video systems that have not worked properly since being upgraded.

PF: Veterans Living history initiative -- Alan Hochberg and Steve Wittenberg have already conducted over 125 interviews of World War II and Korean conflict veterans. These interviews are broadcast non stop during the Memorial Day and Veterans day weekends. Each of the interviews is about half hour long.  A new committee made up of veterans is planning a Veterans memorial at DeSanti Park on E Hartsdale Ave.

ABG: While the Veteran’s Living History idea is a good one, and we believe in giving convicted criminals a second chance, we are not happy about how convicted felon Alan Hochberg tried to position himself a veteran and reap whatever accolades he could from that. We wonder, once a criminal...?

PF: The Town Board created a new Human Rights Liaison Committee to work with the Westchester County Human Rights Commission.

ABG: This seemed to be a duplicative committee. But it’s always Mr Feiner who says we should do away with County government. So this is contradictory and perhaps simply a political positioning move.

PF: Union Baptist Church located on Manhattan Ave celebrated their 100th birthday this year. Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church celebrated their 75th!

ABG: Congratulations to both Houses of Worship!

PF: Edgemont schools was named the best school district in the United States by www.businessinsider.com.

ABG: Edgemont has had numerous feuds with Mr Feiner and his Town Board, which sits poised to incorporate and get out from under the Towns horrible fiscal, failing infrastructure, tax and legal incompetence. Nothing about the Edgemont schools is attributable to the Town and is in part why the Edgemont Community is so critical of Mr Feiner and his Board’s actions.

PF: The Greenburgh School district (previously called Central 7) is partnering with the town - working on a very exciting ACE mentoring program. Students who attend the school district will be able to mentor with architects and engineers. Participating students will be eligible for scholarships of between $1,000 and $10,000. Tahira Chase was appointed the Interim School Superintendent this year.  The mentoring program for architects and engineers will start in January, 2015.

ABG: While we endorse almost anything to help improve our students, this limited program does nothing to allow help to the majority of students who may not be of the same academic accomplishments as hopeful engineers. Mr Feiner and his Town Board have absolutely no input or gravitas in this program. Congratulations to Tahira Chase on being appointed the INTERIM School Superintendent. What does this have to do with an engineering program?

PF: Westchester County is continuing to work on replacing the Crane Road bridge. Some residents of Edgemont complained that work was taking place throughout the evening -disrupting sleep.  I think that governments and contractors that do construction work during the evening should be required to offer immediate neighbors a free hotel room while the  overnight work takes place-if the work will continue past midnight and into the early morning hours. We did this a number of years ago when a shopping center in Greenburgh was repaving their parking lot during evening hours.

ABG: While its always good to sympathize with residents, this is exactly the type of thing local elected officials should be addressing for their constituents. We’re sure Mr Feiner has done his usual rope-a-dope and sent letters to other elected officials seeking them to get involved with correcting this travesty but doing little if anything himself.

PF: The town completed a stormwater project in December after we received  a grant from the Bronx River Watershed initiative to redevelop the northeastern portion of the Town Hall parking lot. The goal: to implement storm water retrofit project capable of providing water quality treatment for stormwater runoff from existing impervious areas. Impervious surfaces have a direct connection to pollutants located within storm water runoff and the quality treatment of existing impervious areas with the Bronx River watershed

ABG: While this sounds phenomenal, it does little if anything to help residents in the area as once the riverbed overflows with flood waters, the residents homes get flooded. This project was like throwing stones to fill the Grand Canyon. We’ve written many times about how to address the flooding problem. Unfortunately, the Town, County and State all sit on their thumbs and do nothing to provide any actions to give relief to the river-bound area residents. And, while there was a lot of hoopla around cleaning the debris from the Saw Mill River in Elmsford, that was a directive conceived and implemented by the Village of Elmsford, not the Town. Nothing like that has even been attempted or done at the Bronx River.

PF: We’re moving ahead with rezoning plans to allow for car dealerships on Central Ave.  Significant tax revenues!  807 building permits were issued in 2014 (as of last week) compared to 627 in 2004.

ABG: What the Town is actually doing for the three car dealerships is passing new zoning restrictions preventing new car dealerships from opening on Central Avenue in the Greenburgh stretch of Central Avenue! This scheme was concocted by the three existing auto dealers and their attorney's to prevent future competition from entering “their” space. Many believe these actions border on anti-trust liability for the Town although our über-legal department believes otherwise.

PF: Saks 5th Ave outlet is opening up their new store on Route 119. The new outlet might motivate other high end stores to consider Central Ave and 119 for their stores in the coming years.  A new yogurt store on E Hartsdale Ave is a big success. And- Ben’s deli will  open up their new deli on Central Ave in January, 2015.  The Zoning Board granted Deli Delicious (deli located on Route 119) permission to proceed with their application for a drive through window.

ABG: Saks 5th Avenue OUTLET is not the same as their flagship store opening. Since Mr Feiner lacks any business acumen, he is remiss in believing this will start a spurt of high end retailers to locating on Central Avenue or even in Greenburgh. Congratulations to Ben’s Deli upon their impending opening. We understand that Town bureaucracy has slowed their opening. The final atrocity is the Deli Delicious drive-through window, allowing for the entire property to be paved with blacktop, setbacks ignored and trees removed.

PF: 40 years ago I got my start in public life by successfully pushing for the closing of the Bronx River parkway on Sundays for bicyclists. In 2014 Bicycle Sundays celebrated their 40th anniversary.

ABG: While this is a nice idea, although not practical, the County struggles each year to find funds to pay for the enormous overtime required to afford County Police officers to work this event. This is the same County government and workers Mr Feiner seeks to eliminate.

PF: A gun range on Ardsley Road was shut down by Con Ed after bullet fragments hit a woman. Other bullet fragments were found on residential properties. Since this incident I have been contacted by others around the state who have experienced similar problems. We learned that outdoor gun ranges are not regulated by the state or federal governments.  A new state of the art indoor gun range opened in a commercial area of Greenburgh (Elmsford) this fall.

ABG: First, Mr Feiner said he wanted to close this outdoor gun range housed in a sunken quarry and surrounded by rock walls to the applause of residents. Second, Mr Feiner lied to the public at a Town Board meeting when he said he didn’t want to close the gun range down. Then he proceeded to send out emails via the GBList endorsing a shutdown. The gun range had safely existed for about 70 years without incident. While we don’t doubt something hit the leg of a resident, the lab results were inconclusive and did not substantiate the claims made against the gun range. It didn’t matter. Mr Feiner made up his mind to close the range and that’s what happened. The outdoor range offered an environment that cannot be duplicated for police officers to learn in. Yes, there is an indoor range opened in North Elmsford that we understand will charge about twice as much and not be available as much to the gun enthusiasts.

PF: Over 5 years ago I organized a job club that has assisted the unemployed find work. We’ve helped over 200 people find part time or full time jobs. WJCS, the library and I also co-sponsor job forums during the year with excellent speakers who have helped people improve their job search strategies.

ABG: Sadly, there are no employment agencies in Greenburgh or our area and are relieved Mr Feiner is filling that void. At least Mr Feiner doesn’t have any Town issues requiring his time.

PF: Garrett Duquesne is the new Commissioner of Planning. The Comprehensive Plan Committee is revising their draft plan, based on community input. The new plan, once adopted by the Town Board will help us attract and keep businesses in the town, thereby improving our tax base.

ABG: First, congratulations to Mr Duquesne. We have always believed him to be forthright and pleasant to work with and wish him well. Second, the Comprehensive Plan could have been released earlier but Mr Feiner routinely added more issues for them to address every time a political hot potato landed in his lap. The first draft release found many, many issues that the residents and civic groups disagreed with. There were also many points added by former Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden who had his own agenda for Town-wide expansion. Thankfully, he has left us. We await the final draft.

PF: Working with Edgemont community leaders and residents of the unincorporated section of Hastings on child pedestrian safety initiatives --which hopefully will lead to more sidewalks near schools.  Have been in contact with Congressional representatives and the United States Department of Education to learn more about federal grants that will be made available to local governments for sidewalk construction.  The police department and Town Board approved the installation of no parking signs during school hours on Seely Place.

ABG: The safety issues were brought to the attention of the police and Town Board through a video presentation and many parents complaining. Ironically, the parents are a large group of the offenders. Let’s hope the police can do something positive before someone gets hurt.

  

PF: Hastings on Hudson initiated an interesting deer birth control study. They hope to bring down the deer population by 35-45% over five years. They seek to inoculate as many does as can be reasonably captured during the period allowed by the DEC license with a immunocontraceptive. they will repeat the effort over 4 subsequent years monitoring whether the deer population drops.  If the Hastings experiment works Greenburgh might be interested in expanding the initiative.

ABG: Where is the Greenburgh Nature Center, our Animal Control people and frankly, hunters? We can cull the growing deer population as had been done in the past and it would be quicker than doing another study. We hate to quote Greenburgh’s new slogan so soon, but “Why fix it when we can talk about it?”

PF: I received many complaints early this year about mail delivery and worked with United States Postal authorities and our congressional representatives to improve service. There has been a significant drop in complaints.

ABG: Could the drop in complaints be that the Post Office ignores them all and people just give up? It’s just like trying to get action from Town Hall.

PF: New water meters have enabled the water department to monitor individual water usage. We look for variances in usage and when someone’s water use is higher than it usually is we contact them to determine if there is a leak. We have saved some residents thousands of dollars.

ABG: There it is again, “We have saved some residents thousands of dollars.” And again, there is no actual amount of money proffered. Could it be because it didn’t happen?

PF: Thankful to the snow angels, TV angels who volunteer their time helping the disabled and elderly clear their driveways of snow and remove old TV sets to the highway garage.

ABG: While it’s good to help others and there is nothing wrong with his snow angels program, its also called being neighborly when you help a senior citizen or disabled neighbor with snow removal. Most people just don’t use it as a campaign tool.

PF: construction has started on a 22 unit affordable housing at the old waterwheel property in Ardsley. The new affordable housing units, once it opens up, will offer volunteer firefighters and municipal workers needed affordable housing opportunities. The building should be completed in 2015.  17 units will be affordable. 5 workforce housing.  Brightview Assisted Living facility is under construction in the Glenville/Tarrytown section of unincorporated Greenburgh.

ABG: The Waterwheel project had been broached years ago and turned down. What the above point makes is that 17 units will be offered through a lottery to residents throughout the state and 5 units will go to Ardsley volunteers or municipal workers. It’s pure hype. Brightview, amidst picketing by area unions for unfair wages being paid, will not allow Greenburgh residents on Medicare to move in there. And, the zoning that was created for the entire Town was specifically written by and will benefit Brightview, not the surrounding neighborhood.

PF: Mariano Rivera, one of the most dominant relievers in major league history opened up the Elmsford Little League games earlier this season.  ALSO PLEASED that Madison Square Garden recently responded to a request I made to allow a limited number of students to visit their training facility which is located in Greenburgh ---and to interact with some of the stars at the facility.  The first tour (with about 20 students) will take place in January, 2015.  Had the honor of shaking the hand of President Obama when he visited Tarrytown earlier this year to discuss the Tappan Zee bridge construction project.

ABG: Mariano did visit the Elmsford Little League, but Mr Feiner had nothing to do with it. The MSG organization routinely offers tours and having the President come to Westchester only highlighted the lack of traffic solutions currently suffered by residents and guests.

PF:  The town opened to residents new outdoor exercise equipment at Travis park.  A new playground at Yosemite Park also was dedicated.

ABG: The new exercise equipment at Yosemite Park was not the brainchild of or implemented by Mr Feiner. But we’re happy to see it there anyway.

PF: The town has been working with residents of Edgemont on improving pedestrian safety at the Seely place School. No parking signs from 7 AM to 9 AM and 2 dPM to 4 PM on Seely Place and Henry Street were placed. We are considering constructing more sidewalks near schools around the town and have reached out to the federal and state governments expressing interest in applying for funding.

ABG: We’ve already commented on some of this. However, Mr Feiner loves to talk about sidewalks and then turn his back on those neighborhoods seeking them. The saving grace here is that it is the affluent area of Edgemont and their threats to Incorporate would have a devastating effect on Town finances in general and the taxpaying public as well.

PF: Progress is being made to complete the missing link at the South County Trail between warehouse lane and Main Street in Elmsford. Westchester County has proposed an 8 foot wide 3,300 long asphalt pathway .

ABG: While this is nice, it is all County controlled and Mr Feiner and the Town have no dog in this race.

We haven’t gone in depth with the Fortress Bible settlement ($6.5Million), still abandoned WestHelp ($1.2Million/yr+daily deterioration and remained purposely off of Mr Feiner's list), Tax Certiorari refunds, Frank’s Nursery property ($3.5Million), Massage Parlors, Dromore Road, Sidewalks, Million-dollar payments for property, Video department issues and more. Don’t worry, the truth must prevail and as such, we’ll be back with more real information for you.

Greenburgh School Superintendent Finally Terminated

After earning a salary of $235,266 per year, the Greenburgh Board of Education has finally voted to fire School Superintendent Ronald O. Ross immediately. He had been on administrative leave for approximately four months after accusations were made by the school administrators and staff of discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Interestingly, Mr Feiner never complained that Mr Ross' salary was more than his as he will do when he goes after someone he doesn't like.

Accused of discrimination and creating a hostile work environment in a lawsuit in May 2014, the lawsuit finally forced the school board to place an interim school superintendent in the position during the investigation. As reported by ABG in our article posted on Friday, May 9, 2014, Hypocritical Supervisor – Anti-Jewish: Bad, Racist: Best of The Best
Ross was sidelined in May. 

The lawsuit allegations indicated he was verbally abusive to employees, called them names, humiliating them in public and made it impossible to do their jobs. Our original article detailed some of what he was alleged to have said to employees. We also posted two photographs of Ross. The one that is used as part of the "publicity package" and more current one of him. Both are seen here:

Below is a copy of two emails sent by Mr Feiner to select School Board members when this began, asking the School Board members to not seek to replace Superintendent Ross. He closes the email with the sentence, “If I did not think that Ron was the best of the best – I would not write this note.” The second email (bottom) again finds Mr Feiner is disappointed to learn of an effort to replace Superintendent Ronald Ross, claiming Ross is hard working, and he really cares about “our” children. Mr Feiner does not have children who attend the Greenburgh schools, so “our children” seems a bit contrived. In closing with the second email, he says, “I would be happy to meet with you to discuss why I think it’s important to keep Ron Ross working for our community.” Mr Feiner has a knack of turning opinions when going one-on-one with people.
 
 

On September 19th another lawsuit was filed alleging similar unacceptable behavior by Mr Ross by a teacher formerly working in the Middle School. ABG finds it sad that Mr Feiner, who himself was found guilty of discrimination in Federal Court against the Fortress Bible Church, would endorse Mr Ross and his discriminatory behavior. Ironically, ABG also posted an article discussing discrimination complaints made by a Town Hall employee who was in a meeting and forced during this meeting to listen to a rant by Greenburgh Town Assessor Edye McCarthy. A complaint was filedand subsequently ignored by Mr Feiner and the Town Board, ultimately being swept under the rug by them, even after it was repeatedly brought up at Town Board meetings by the public.
Here’s an excerpt of those comments from that letter:

This letter was submitted and cc’d to Mr Feiner. But instead of addressing Ms McCarthy’s racist comments at Town Hall, Mr Feiner probably felt if he ignored it, he could sweep it away. His previous statement was proven hollow and obviously nothing more than posturing based on the inaction we've witnessed. He previously said, “We cannot, as elected officials, allow discrimination to rear its ugly head” is not only disingenuous, but self-serving and insulting to those who do the right thing on a daily basis. Again, why wasn’t Ms McCarthy disciplined or terminated from her position? 

Greenburgh is a widely diverse Town - its part of what makes our Town so rich. Why has Mr Feiner not addressed the racism within his own administration and with his appointed Department Head? Why has he personally practiced and been found guilty of racism during his 22 years in office and not been disbarred and removed from office? We need honest leadership in Greenburgh. We need change in Greenburgh and a fresh start from what has become a stale and unwelcome status quo. Mr Ross' departure is a fitting start. We need more. Only then can we have A Better Greenburgh.