Lowey Will Not Seek Re-election in 2020

White Plains, NY – Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY17/Westchester and Rockland), Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, announced today that she will not seek re-election next year in the following statement: 

“After 31 years in the United States Congress, representing the people of Westchester, Rockland, Queens and the Bronx, I have decided not to seek re-election in 2020. 

“It is my deep honor and privilege to serve my community and my country, and I will always be grateful to the people who have entrusted me to represent them. 

“I am proud of the help my office has provided to thousands of constituents on matters ranging from health insurance and veterans’ benefits to Social Security and student loans. “As a long-time Member of the House Appropriations Committee, I have secured funding to clean up and protect Long Island Sound and the Hudson River; increase access to Head Start, after school programs, and community health centers for thousands of local children and families; provide New York’s fair share of homeland security assistance; and make the commute across the Hudson easier and safer on the new Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. In difficult times, including after September 11th and Superstorm Sandy, I have fought hard in Washington for federal assistance to recover and rebuild. 

“I authored legislation to institute the .08 standard of enforcement for drunk driving, which has dramatically reduced DWI fatalities. My legislation to require commonsense, clear allergy information on food labels has improved and saved countless lives. I am also proud of my successful efforts to require contraceptive insurance coverage for federal employees and to dramatically increase investments and gender equity in federal medical research. 

“As the Chairwoman of the Appropriations subcommittee that writes the foreign aid bill, I have advanced record funding for women’s health and basic education - especially for girls - around the world, a strong U.S.-Israel relationship with bipartisan support, and other investments that support American interests abroad. 

“I am honored that my colleagues in Congress elected me as the first Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee and will fight vigorously for House Democratic priorities as I negotiate spending bills for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. 

“I am especially thankful for the dedication and wisdom of my current and former staff in New York, in Washington, and on the House Appropriations Committee. Partnerships with countless advocates, leaders, and elected officials in New York and Washington have been invaluable. I look forward to more time with my husband Steve and our family, who have strongly supported my career in public service. 

“Thank you to the people of my district for the opportunity to serve. I will continue working as hard as ever – with the same optimism and energy – through the end of this term in Congress.”

Paragon of Virtue

ABG posted our first discoveries of The Paul’s illegal sanctioning of Town Hall for a group of democrats making phone calls for Obama, and quite naturally assumed The Paul guilty. Then we read a post by one of the G8 which brought up a good point. Perhaps The Paul didn’t know of this usage as others in Town Hall routinely schedule rooms for meetings by various organizations, not the supervisor? A valid question to say the least. But, just like the kid who cries wolf one too many times, The Paul has had in hands in more dark, Town-wide “done-deals“ than an army proctologist with a new wave of recruits. As a result of his past behavior, we quite naturally placed the blame with him. We still do. Only after constituents and the media exposed the misuse of the Town Hall did the Obama campaign offer to reimburse taxpayers for the theft of public space. 

All one must do to arrange a meeting room for your organization at Town Hall is call the Town Clerks Office. There, Town Clerk Judith Beville, too busy planning the next concert, poetry reading or student film for the next Board meeting, will have one of her able assistants talk to you and book your room. How much vetting takes place during the process is unknown? Is it possible that one of the employees made the decision to provide the Obama Phone Bank the use of Town Hall? Did they clear it with, or was it Belville herself, that made the decision? Either way, it was Belville, who is responsible for all of the actions of that office. It’s immaterial whether she either assumed The Paul would be uninterested or consciously did not bother to tell him. Perhaps she was being intentionally deceptive, following in the footsteps of her boss? It doesn’t matter. The Paul is responsible for the actions of all of his departments.

ABG doesn’t believe The Paul will just let anything go and demand everyone throughout his administration keep him informed of their respective departments actions. If Belville alone made the decision, ABG is pretty sure she still “ran it by” her exalted leader. ABG would like to know if there are any written rules of usage to dictate what qualifies or not for booking or refusing a room? How thorough a vetting process exists for room usage? Would they simply book a room to a hate group if requested? ABG hopes not, but now we’re not so sure. This isn’t like pulling up to the Alexander Hotel and checking in for a couple of hours of fun in the sheets and leaving before anyone is the wiser. This happened every week on Tuesday nights for many weeks in a row! It would be hard to convince ABG that The Paul or Clerk Beville didn’t know who and for what reason this room was being used. This is a serious enough breach of ethics (contradiction of terms in Greenburgh) that The Paul should demand Town Clerk Beville’s immediate resignation!

Next we’ve learned that Douglas Colety, Chairman for the Westchester Republican Party and another paragon of virtue, has requested an investigation by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for the possible illegal use of Greenburgh Town Hall by the Democratic Obama campaign group. Colety issued a press release stating, “Taxpayers have a right to know that public facilities are not being used for partisan political campaigns and no municipal building should ever be converted into campaign headquarters for any party. It is critical that the Attorney General step in to answer important questions, including whether any town employees were used to keep Town Hall open for the evening phonebank and whether any laws were broken in the process.”

It’s kind of funny that the “pot” is asking for the “kettle” to be investigated. Colety has attracted quite a bit of his own scrutiny in the recent past with his paid position as a Commissioner at the Board of Elections, the Chairman for the Westchester Republican Party, the New Rochelle GOP leader and owner of the Executive Star Mailing Services. ESMS is the million dollar printing company Colety owns and operates printing most, if not all of the Republican Party and candidates’ literature and campaign mailings. A printer we know told us he tried to work with Republican candidates but it was “suggested” they utilize Colety’s printing and mailing services or risk the consequences. What consequences you wonder? ABG was told by two candidates (promised anonymity) that Colety, who was joined at the hip with Westchester Independence Party Chairman Dr. Giulio Cavallo, can practically guarantee the Independence line if Colety asks him for it for a candidate. Colety is also known to donate money to the campaigns of those candidates he “likes”. 

By the way, Colety’s “lieutenant” at the Westchester Republican Party is John Cerino, Westchester County Executive Astorino’s “Scheduler”. There’s a terrific “title” for another hundred-thousand dollar payback position. Colety’s Deputy Chairperson for the Westchester Republican Party is Christine Sculty, who also works for Astorino at an annual hundred-thousand-plus dollars. Former Mt. Pleasant Supervisor and now Astorino-appointed Westchester County Attorney Robert Meehan along with his wife are both heavily involved in the Westchester GOP, as well as employed by Westchester County and the Westchester County Board of Elections (under Colety) respectively. Who doesn’t work for them, democrats? Nope, their side has numerous positions doled out by the Democratic Commissioner Reginald Lafayette.   

Regardless of Colety’s conflict of interests and improprieties, he has made a point that ultimately will get a headline for a few days and go nowhere. We agree that The Paul’s administration should be taken to task for this latest abuse of power. We know the Attorney General will leave The Paul alone for familial reasons. We do need someone to go after The Paul, his Stepford Board, the Town Clerk and the rest of his rancid administration to clean up the Town after this latest violation of trust from The Paul. We can only hope.

Stealing Town Hall

One way to ensure illegal activities go unnoticed as well as for them to continue is to not be open and forthcoming about these activities. With a Town Supervisor who touts open government whenever a reporter is within earshot, or more importantly, an uninitiated and unknowing resident, he is noticeably absent now. By his own decision and circumventing all checks and balances he would normally ignore anyway, he has been allowing the democratic party members unfettered use of Town Hall as a phone calling bank for the current President and ABG is sure for his next campaign. Why would he do this? It’s simple really. He is disliked by most democrat party leaders and this buys the Democratic Party’s support in his next year’s run for supervisor!

While many may cry foul, The Paul realizes most people are civically under-involved. Consequently, this, like his other transgressions and illegal activities will allow him to eventually just slither away unscathed. Since an article about this also appeared in the pro-Feiner, Greenburgh Daily Voice (Gannett owned as well as the Journal News), there will be no follow-up story, no investigation, no use of interns to monitor or collect fees for Town Hall usage, and certainly no admission of guilt by any of the usual suspects in the administration.

Similarly, what does our Town Clerk do when she’s not planning veteran’s barbecues and Town Board meeting concerts? We can’t answer that. We do know that her staff is hard-working. So, here’s a suggestion of something for her to do. Post a white board in the lobby of Town Hall listing all the daily meetings that are taking place. She can list the group utilizing the room, what room they are in and the time range for their meeting. This way, anyone coming into Town Hall can easily see who is there, where they are meeting and how much money the Town should be charging/making with each usage.

To cover-up his illegal actions, he has now offered the use of Town Hall to the Republicans for the Feiner-fee, magically created from who-knows-where? Perhaps he determined this scale of income utilizing the Tim Lewis Environmental Cleanup knowledge base? His generosity and largess was not voted on by the Board, not advertised to the public and certainly not put out for a phony referendum. Nor is asking the Republican Party if they want to do the same illegal thing the democratic party is, a way of neutralizing his first illegal action. But now Feiner believes all is well in the Town Hall Bizzaro World and will continue the well crafted charade of his “woe is me” persona. This is just one more example of what is wrong with the administration and our Town.

The Town has lost $1.2 million yearly by The Paul abandoning the WestHelp contract. The Town “lost” 19 laptops from the Theodore Young Center. The federal courts upheld the Fortress Bible guilty verdict against the Town and The Paul for up to $8 million. Then there’s the missing $4 million dollars from the Water Department. There’s the continued duplicate expenses of maintaining two Recreation Departments and staffs. There’s also the GameOn 365 Bubble Debacle that will cost the Town in a lost property sale and the subsequent tax payments thereafter. Finally, there’s the several hundreds of thousands of dollars lost through the certiorari adjustments the Town pays out at every Town Board meeting because The Paul and his Stepford Board refuse to perform a revaluation in Greenburgh. And that’s just some of this year’s interesting happenings around Town.

The Paul’s actions must be stopped. We need management skills, leadership skills and true open government in Greenburgh. Maybe it exists in a Greenburgh somewhere, but not in 10607. We can do better. We can only hope.

New Deflection Tactic: It’s Not Me, It’s Them!

ABG has bemoaned The Paul’s deflection tactics quite often. The latest “game” is his tactical switch regarding The Paul’s abandoning of the WestHelp property and contract. The contract would have generated a guaranteed $1.2 million in revenue if The Paul had simply signed the renewal contract between the County and the Town. Traction of The Paul’s inaction is spreading, and even The Paul’s allies in the lamestream media are now starting to say he cost the Town $1.2 million a year. Imagine how different the stories might have been had The Pauls’s media cohorts actually reported instead of regurgitating his press releases?

The Paul’s newest tact is that Westchester County is not moving fast enough for The Paul and his Stepford Board in making a decision with possible usage of the former WestHelp site on the Westchester Community College campus. So now, instead of recognizing and being associated with inaction to the loss of $1.2 million in contracts with the County, The Paul wants to be seen as trying to use that property right away, that it is languishing even though he has a prospective tenant for it. Apparently, his lead agency mentality with the ability to ramrod through any he decision he desires has taken hold. ABG believes if feels if he can deflect the conversation away from his inaction about not signing the contract to making the issue about the County Executive’s inaction with the property, he’ll shine again, the clouds will part and everyone will forget his bungling of the no-brainer contract. ABG will not let that happen.

He’d like us to forget that the facility is vacant and falling into disrepair because of his refusal to renew that contract. He’d like us to think then County Executive Andy Spano’s office delayed the contract to renew and it’s because of them the facility is vacant (its always someone else’s fault). He’d like to convince us that the Spano administration was seeking to repurpose the property anyway and his inaction was not the reason Greenburgh no longer is being paid for a contract he chose to abandon.

The contract with the County-owned property was to manage the facility for low income people. ABG is not concerned with who specifically lives there, rather, that qualified and/or deserving and people needing housing are provided help. The Town’s Greenburgh Housing Authority has a waiting list of about 250 people seeking low income housing. The amount of homes this could provide to some of those people could reduce that number by 108, the amount of units at the facility. ABG feels The Paul should bite the ego-bullet, admit he screwed up – again – and take real action providing homes for those on the waiting list. ABG doesn’t want to see more press releases about building a new school for a Yonkers school when Greenburgh residents need a place to live! The needs of our own should be what is motivating The Paul. Unfortunately, they’re not!

The Town officials may be tired of waiting for the Astorino administration to submit legislation to change the venue of the property. Too bad. The Paul and his Stepfords can solicit proposals all day long. There is a contract in place that says Greenburgh, through the Greenburgh Housing Authority, shall run this facility for it’s intended purpose - housing. The Town is breaking the lease by not providing low income housing at this site. Stop making up numbers about how much the property could generate with a school versus affordable housing and put those in need under a roof. ABG realizes The Paul has lost the $1.2 million for this year and should move on. Literally. Just go. We can only hope.