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.

Welcome The Worthington Woodlands Civic Association

A newly formed civic association meeting was held Monday evening in the Town Hall’s main meeting room. Uncharacteristically for that room, this meeting started on time at 8PM on the dot. So, to The Paul and his Stepford Board, it can be done. With so much going on throughout the Town, as well as issues concerning their neighborhoods specifically, neighbors reached out to each other and decided to join together. About fifty or so residents from several neighborhoods converged upon Town Hall.

Other meetings were also underway in other rooms throughout the Town Hall facility. Several members of other civic associations joined this newly formed association as guest speakers, and to help aim the group toward accomplishing several goals. First thing was to fill several positions such as President, Vice-President and the like. That went remarkable well as neighbors eagerly stepped up to help out. Because time was short, the guests guided several conversations and suggestions toward the newly elected officers and members.

Next was a discussion about the GameOn 365 Sports bubble that The Paul and his Stepford Board have already voted on and signed a lease for on the contaminated, formerly owned Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road. For many residents, this was the first time many were learning of this. They asked about the referendum The Paul has be talking about? One member explained that The Paul is opening up actions to be taken in their neighborhood to the entire Town to decide through this referendum. Another civic association guest speaker explained what The Paul will say regardless of the outcome. If the referendum passes, he’ll say, “This is great! Democracy works and the people have spoken. I’m so happy.” If it fails to pass, he’ll say, “It doesn’t matter, we’ve already signed the contract, so the deal proceeds and the vote really doesn’t matter. I’m so happy.”

Another guest speaker was from the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, the umbrella group for all the Town civic associations. She expounded on the history of the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit and subsequent guilty verdict against The Paul and his previous Town Board. She also explained the appeal process that the Town just lost as well – guaranteeing more tax increases for Greenburgh residents! The decision holds The Paul and the Town guilty of discrimination, destroying evidence amongst other verdict findings. Some in the audience welcomed the explanation of the entire process while still amazed and disgusted by the behavior of Town leaders. As a note, Town Attorney Tim Lewis had repeatedly refused to discuss Town strategy for their appeal with the public. Perhaps if he had, greater legal minds within the Town may have been able to help gain a more favorable outcome.

A brief discussion of The Paul’s failure to renew the $1.2 million Westhelp contract with the County took place and the impact this loss of revenue is having on the Town. They didn’t discuss the $4 million loss from the water department or the 19 laptops stolen from the Theodore Young Center. They didn’t discuss how the Teamsters have been without a contract for four years. They didn’t discuss the spot zoning performed by the Stepford Board while ignoring recommendations of the Planning and Zoning Boards. They didn’t discuss the reshaping plans for Central Avenue or Rt 119. There will be other meetings and plenty of other topics to discuss down the line.

They did touch on the reduction in curb-side leaf pickup and the supposed savings taxpayers will “enjoy”. Really? The Town is keeping the equipment and the same highway crews will now pick up bagged leaves left at the curb by homeowners or gardeners (for additional fees). No savings there. There is no personnel reassignment or hourly savings with this change and no waste removal cost savings – nothing! The Paul cannot tell us how much taxpayers will save as there really are no savings. It’s The Paul’s routine deflection tactic. To quote one of the G8, we currently pay for these services and they should be maintained or our taxes reduced to match the reduction of service!

As you can well imagine, the meetings and conversations were spirited and ran past the official end of the new civic association’s first meeting. The organizers should feel they’ve earned the right to claim success based on the turnout! Welcome to the new Worthington Woodlands Civic Association and best of luck in the future.

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.