Town To Spend Over $12+ Million Tuesday Night

Tuesday night promises to be a bonanza of spending of taxpayers money beyond their control and worst nightmares. It promises to also be a gravy train to contractors based on the agenda that is posted on the Town's website.

First up under Decision heading, shown below, is the Town's increase in taxes through rate increases for Water and Sewers. Of course the Town budget promises another tax increase when they pass the budget. Mr Feiner will posture that the Board stayed under the 2% NYS tax cap at 3.4%. The mainstream media will validate whatever he says. We hope the Town Comptroller attends this meeting, but this time comes prepared to actually provide answers to the public’s questions and doesn’t say, ”I don’t know and will have to get back to you.” 

DECISION
- To consider the Proposed 2014 Capital Budget and the 2015-2016 Capital Plan of the Town of Greenburgh. The capital budget was released to the public on May 28th.
- To consider a proposed increase and improvement of the facilities of the Town's Consolidated Water District
- To consider a proposed increase and improvement of the facilities of the Town's Consolidated Sewer District.

Next up under the heading of Supervisor is an ongoing and pending controversy coming from the Town Board, where the Town Board plans to condone anti-trust actions in Greenburgh by approving a request of the remaining three automotive dealerships left in Greenburgh on Central Avenue to block any competition from coming in through the adoption of this law(below). Many have fought to stop this debacle but since the attorneys for the three car dealerships have made the case, Mr Feiner wants this passed and so it will be. These attorneys also represent numerous developers friends of Mr Feiner in the Town. What passing this change does is keep any other auto dealer from gaining access or participating in selling or repairing automobiles on Central Avenue. Here's what it says on the agenda:

SUPERVISOR FEINER
Introduction of Local Law amending Section 285-29.1 of Chapter 285 of the Code of the Town of Greenburgh entitled “Zoning,” to allow owners of pre-existing motor vehicle sales uses, motor vehicle sales lots and accessory motor vehicle repair facilities in the Central Avenue Mixed-Use Impact District to apply for a special use permit from the Town Board to alter and/or expand existing facilities.

Of course, the "mother lode" on the agenda of what taxpayers will be forced to pay for is a plethora of bond issues that total 25 expenditures by our count. This doesn't include the three-quarters of a million dollars in certiorari refunds to also be voted upon Tuesday night. The certiorari refunds are due to (mostly) businesses challenging their tax assessments. Since revaluation has never been done for the 22 years Mr Feiner has been in office, the Town, schools, fire districts, sewer districts, etc., are compelled to refund the money. So when Mr Feiner complains about the high salaries of other employees, whether they are Town employees or not, he is disingenuously trying to deflect attention away from what he is costing the taxpayers.

Here's a list of what will be presented, ultimately voted upon and wonder what this is going to cost us: COMPTROLLER – 993-1528 - CO 1 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $5,100,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York to pay the cost of the Increase and Improvements of the Facilities of the Town's Consolidated Water District in said Town - CO 2 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuances of $500,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York to pay the cost of the Increase and Improvement of the Facilities of the Town's Consolidated Sewer District in said Town - CO 3 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $1,000,000 bond of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Employment of Experts to Assist in a Program of Revaluation of Real Property, in and for said Town - CO 4 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $100,000 bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of a Comprehensive Engineering Study to Replace the Falling Timber Retaining Wall at the Highway Garage, in and for said Town - CO 5 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $500,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Installation of LED Street Lighting at Various Locations in the Town - CO 6 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $154,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay cost of the Acquisition of Computer Servers, Routers and other Equipment and Software for various Town Administrative Purposes, in and for said Town - CO 7 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $250,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York to pay the cost of the Construction or Reconstruction of Various Sidewalks or Curbs, in and for said Town - CO 8 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $223,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Acquisition and Installation of Communication or Transmission Systems Improvements, in and for said Town - CO 9 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $64,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the purchase of Equipment and Vehicles for use by Various Town Departments, in and for said Town - CO 10 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $45,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Installation of a Fire Suppression System for the Ammunition Room at Police Headquarters, in and for said Town - CO 11 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $80,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Installation of Guide Rails at Various Locations Along Town Roads, in and for said Town - CO 12 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $50,367 Bonds for the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the purchase of Various Equipment for Installation or Use in Town Buildings, in and for said Town - CO 13 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $134,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Acquisition of Various Replacement Passenger Vehicles to Replace Similar Vehicles in Service for Three Years or More, or in the Case of Police or Fire Vehicles, One Year or More, in and for said Town - CO 14 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $350,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Acquisition and Installation of Drain Pipe and Related Drainage Improvements Along Old Saw Mill River Road, in and for said Town - CO 15 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $350,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Acquisition of an Automated Refuse Collection Vehicle, in and for said Town - CO 16 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $175.000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Construction of a Retaining Wall at the Police Department Headquarters, in and for said Town - CO 17 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $870,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the purchase of Equipment and Vehicles for Use by Various Town Departments, in and for said Town - CO 18 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $130,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of Improvements to the Town of Greenburgh Library, Including Installation of a Supplemental Boiler and Modification of the Circular Flower Bed, in and for said Town - CO 19 - 7/08/14 A Resolution authorizing the issuance of $92,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of improvements to the Police Department Headquarters, in and for said Town - CO 20 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $155,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of Improvements to the Town Court House, in and for said Town - CO 21 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $25,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the purchase of Traffic Signal Transfer Switches, in and for said Town - CO 22 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $50,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Replacement of Doors and Related Reconstruction Work at the Lois Bronz Facility, in and for said Town - CO 23 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $1,500,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of the Resurfacing of Various Town Roads, in and for said Town - CO 24 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $45,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of Security Enhancements and Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning Improvements to the Department of Public Works Facility, in and for said Town - CO 25 - 7/08/14 Resolution authorizing the issuance of $162,000 Bonds of the Town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York, to pay the cost of Various Improvements for the Greenburgh Nature Center, in and for said Town The fact that Mr Feiner has lumped all of these expenses into one summertime meeting for a total bond expenditure of $12+ million is wrong. Keep in mind this doesn’t include the money for paying the fine for the $6.5M* Fortress Bible Church discrimination guilty verdict! With it, the total is $17.5+ million! It's a clever ploy to ensure the path of least resistance for himself and the Board by scheduling all of this during the summer months and after a big holiday weekend. ABG hopes to see more than the G10 and many more residents come out and speak against this. Without having enough time to evaluate all of these, and knowing Mr Feiner has at least a three-to-two vote to move these forward, all we can think about is the military term BOHICA**. It’s a shame taxpayers must be treated this way by their elected officials. But, as the willfully ignorant, they allow it. It’s time for them to go. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh. * $1M is covered by Town insurance. However, since Mr Feiner was found guilty of discrimination, destroying evidence and lying under oath in Federal Court, the insurance policy does not have to pay the remainder of the guilty verdict fine of $5.5M – the Unincorporated taxpayers must. ** Bend Over Here It Comes Again.

Feiner Guilty Again

ABG and others have been saying Mr Feiner had violated the terms of the contract the Town entered into back in 1989 with Westchester County regarding the WestHelp “gift” years ago. You’ll recall, then State of New York Governor candidate Cuomo, later appointed to the position of HUD Commissioner, built the facility amidst intense controversy in the area. The Town received the keys to the WestHelp property at no cost and was allowed to collect rent without having to lift a proverbial finger, or spend any real money for the facility. In fact, with the exception of erecting a fence to keep the residents in (others claim it was to keep people out), the property has remained unchanged for years.

The residents of WestHelp were primarily females, some with youngsters, some not. The area residents of Valhalla, along with several community leaders objected to these young families and did not want them attending their Valhalla schools. To reward them for accepting them, Mr Feiner instituted payments to the Valhalla School Board. In 2008 the State Comptroller said Mr Feiner illegally paid-off the Valhalla School Board with these payments. These payments were challenged in court. No surprise here, but Mr Feiner lost and was again found guilty of providing illegal payments and the Valhalla School District was ordered to return the money. This was all due to the successful legal challenge by Greenburgh residents, Robert Bernstein and Herb Rosenberg. They brokered a repayment deal for a return of the illegally expended money by Mr Feiner, and while these two residents won the court case on the taxpayer’s behalf, their efforts will “only” gain the Town a return of about $1.2 million.

Mr Feiner decided to play politics in the last election and use the WestHelp property as a political football for his own endgame. In the election prior to this last one, Mr Feiner began to lay out his plans to get more votes from the Valhalla area by pandering to their elitism. To hedge his bets because he is so disliked by the majority of Democratic leaders in Westchester, especially in Greenburgh, he decided to pander to the Republican leaders, from the top right on down. Having originally been against the affordable housing from the start, they naturally supported Mr Feiner’s folly and the Republicans in the County Legislature, aligned together against anything Democrat, went right along with the County Executive’s endorsement of Mr Feiner’s plan.

Thankfully, our two County Legislators representing Greenburgh and County Legislative Chair Ken Jenkins, saw through Mr Feiner’s charade and sought to stop this travesty. Equally important was their desire to put people in need of housing into those languishing units. Now, however, since Mr Feiner ordered the apartments to be left open to be ravaged by the elements, animal infestation, vandals and so on, the usage of those apartments is on hold until they can be renovated. As the tide against Mr Feiner rose and the defecation began to hit the ventilation, Mr Feiner went into “deflection mode”, blaming this on the County Executive saying the County Executive is against affordable housing. It’s ironic because the County Executive’s entire administration is based on two things: lowering taxes and completion of the court agreed upon affordable housing throughout the County.

Refusing to admit this problem was caused by him and condoned by his Town Board, Mr Feiner began twisting a small bit of truth into one of his “Deflection Mode” lies. He even went so far as to “hire” a non-provened management company, Group MRH. This “company” is comprised of one man who apparently lied on his application bid to the Town Board. He stated dollar amounts to renovate and manage the facility. When it got down to actually doing some work, he asked for all kinds of adjustments from the Town Board at a work session. It was defeating the whole purpose of a bid. All of the other (losing) bidders, with affordable experience, came in close to the same amounts with their bids for renovations, down payment to the Town and management fees. Mr Feiner stayed with his poorly handpicked choice.

Prior to the Group MRH fiasco, we witnessed another Feiner Deflection where he promised the affordable housing property to the Ferncliff School for the Developmentally Disabled. They were ecstatic to finally find a place that might fit their needs. But when residents resisted this flawed plan, Mr Feiner insisted it was the residents (G10) who were compromising his efforts and affordable housing! Not knowing any better, as well as not being used to being lied to by government officials, they believed Mr Feiner and his Town Board’s offer as sincere. The G10 knew better and often stated that the Town was under contract to utilize the property for affordable housing. Mr Feiner didn’t care and continued his ruse with Ferncliff, dealing them a crushing blow once the County finally told Mr Feiner the facility will not be sold, torn down or used for anything but affordable housing. We can only sum up Mr Feiner’s actions as despicable. 

Another part of the lies from Mr Feiner is that he and Town Attorney Timothy Lewis refused to disclose the Environmental Impact Study for the property and the study’s requirements. One requirement was that whomever takes over the project would have the right to renovate and rent all 108 apartments. This is simply not true! According to the 1989 document two units would need to be combined into one, creating one appropriately sized living unit. Ultimately, they would be left with 54 dwelling units, not 108! Fewer units mean close to half the number of residents and occupancy, and the question of parking is another point of contention. Given the change in occupancy, there should not be an increase in traffic. Finally, the gross and net incomes for the facility management will be significantly less than promised. Another Feiner lie.

In the end, Mr Feiner and his Town Board have intentionally neglected the WestHelp property for 27 months. When they learned a County inspection was scheduled to take place, Councilman Morgan instructed Commissioner Carosi to send a cleanup crew to the site to clean up debris, mow the weeds and generally straighten it up. It’s the only time the Town expended any effort toward the facility. As such they are in breach of the contract that had been worth a minimum of $1.2 million a year for the Town. They are also in breach of the taxpayer’s trust. The Feiner-faithful re-elected him to office in spite of this debacle that needn’t have happened – along with Fortress Bible Church and so more.

It remains to be seen what the County plans to do with the property, if there will be fines against the Town, a termination of the contract and possible court action. If the County chooses to go to court against the Town, Mr Feiner’s track record does not provide any level of confidence for our already overburdened taxpayers. Mr Feiner should consider stepping down for health reasons – ours. Then we can focus on A Better Greenburgh.

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.

Greenburgh: WestHelp, WestHab, West-Broke

   Based on an article in The Journal News, by reporter Stacy Anderson, the Valhalla school district is suing the town in an effort to continue receiving $650,000 a year from Greenburgh under the WestHELP Partnership Grant. All the agreements in the world will not help squeeze blood from a stone. Stacy, a nice person and an able writer, fails to verify through historic actions and investigation, anything the supervisor feeds her (hence the moniker stenographer).
   She writes, "Although Greenburgh's counterclaim seeks to recoup the $1.8 million it had already given the school district, the three say that town attorneys cannot adequately represent taxpayers because town Supervisor Paul Feiner favors the agreement." Did she ask Town Attorney Lewis what he could do as opposed to just taking his word for it? Did she contact Herb Rosenberg or Bob Bernstein and ask what the alternatives might be for the town and it's attorneys? Evidently not.
   Paul Feiner has typically kept the taxpayers in the dark. He continually paints the stalwarts who show up at Board meeting as "anti-everything" he and his merry Stepford board proposes. Not true. His and their sloppiness, incompetence and ineptness are proof of their failures. What does that say of our school system?
   He references one magazine article from Money magazine about Greenburgh being the 80th Best Place to Live. That they strictly reviewed the Town through numbers and what his highness told them doesn't paint a clear picture. BTW Paul, anything but first place is a loser. And, 80 is too far down the list to be all that impressive. Based on this scenerio, Bush could have looked like a great president if he worked like the supervisor does. 
   WestHab is another mess that the supervisor insists on illegally moving forward for the benefit of a developer, not the town. He and his merry goof-ball board members rubber stamp the project along and the community, ultimately the town, suffers. This project is so bad that Sanborn, the VP of Land deals, was fired last week because he couldn't get the project to move forward, even with Feiner's illicit and illegal actions. Feiner's gotta go before the town is driven into bankruptcy. So does the Board.