More Conflicts Of Interest, Lies and Ethics Violations

After we published the article about Mr Jones unrelenting drive to pass resolutions TB1 & TB2 on a previous Town Board agenda (see Monday, June 10, 2019 Misdirection, Lies and Ethics), we felt as though we were watching the “Greenburgh sausage” being made. We continued to dig and uncovered even more information that raises doubt about Mr Jones' sincerity of following an ethical course as a Councilman for the Town, liaison for the Greenburgh Housing Authority (GHA) or as an officer of the courts.

You'll recall during the meeting that Councilman Jones made a motion to vote on TB1 and TB2. Councilwoman Hendrickx, newly appointed moments earlier that same night, seconded his motion. After some back and forth, Councilman Sheehan requested those two resolutions be held over. Another argument ensued as Mr Jones insisted they vote on the resolutions. Mr Sheehan insisted that their rules and past procedure allowed any councilperson to hold over any resolution without cause. He's correct and even Mr Jones has held over resolutions. 

There was a contentious back and forth when someone said that Tim Lewis is the "Town Parliamentarian" and should tell them how they can proceed. At which point he said move to suspend the rules and then move the vote. We are not Parliamentarians but we have at least held a copy of Roberts Rules and question the legality, ethics and sensibility of this maneuver. Both resolutions passed with Councilwoman Juettner abstaining, stating they've never done this before and Mr Sheehan voting no. 

One of the issues we’ve uncovered was that Mr Jones, as liaison for the Town Board with the GHA, was also an attorney for the Bozeman Law Firm in Mt Vernon, NY. The Bozeman Law Firm is the law firm that represents the GHA. At one point in the arguing during the meeting, Mr Sheehan stated that a Town Board member even asked the Board of Ethics in 2018 about a possible conflict of interest. That got a rather loud and emotional reaction from Mr Jones. He claimed he had not gone to the Ethics Board and that Mr Sheehan’s assertion was ridiculous. Mr Sheehan said he never mentioned any names. But ABG will. We acquired a copy of the Ethics Board minutes and it shows below, Mr Jones appears to be lying, he was in attendance and he did in fact ask them for an unofficial ruling just as Mr Sheehan recounted. See below:

Mr Jones also stated that he no longer worked for the Bozeman Law Firm. But an email that was forwarded to us partially indicates otherwise. It shows that Mr Jones still may have an active address with Bozeman Law, which is indicated by the address at the bottom of the email. If he simply rented space from Bozeman it would still constitute a business arrangement and be wrong as well as unethical! Notice also that this is his private Gmail account with the Bozeman mailing address. Could he be using this to keep from having certain communications as a Town Board member from being F.O.I.L.-ed?

See below:

So with staffers digging, we checked the Board of Elections records for Mr Jones’ campaign donations. We found several interesting donations to the Committee To Elect Ken Jones, by people connected to the Town Board or seeking positions in the Town Administration. The first is from sitting Town Councilwoman Diana Juettner for $90; next is from Town Clerk candidate Maria Portilla for $50; Alfreda Williams for $200; Mona Fraitag for $500. Ms Fraitag was appointed this year to the Planning Board. There are others but we believe the next two are significant: Andre Early, Commissioner at the Theodore Young Community Center, for $75 and the Bozeman Law firm for $500! Sounds an awful lot like pay to play? 

Next up, we learned that there is an Ethics Board complaint that has been filed against Mr Jones. We sent a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the Town Clerk requesting a copy of the complaint. This request was turned over to Town Attorney/HazMat Mitigation Specialist/Town Parliamentarian Tim Lewis who determined it should be rejected and cited what we believe is an unrelated case of the Herald Company vs City of Syracuse School District where the school district denied disclosing the name or charges against a tenured teacher.

Mr Jones, while believing Town Council positions may be a tenured position, is not a tenured teacher. Nor are we seeking the name of whom the complaint is made against, we already know it’s Mr Jones. What we want to know is what the complaint is for and who made the complaint? Actually, we know that Mr Rodney Lederer-Plaskett submitted the complaint, and ABG will be writing more about this soon. Once again Town Attorney Tim Lewis tried to cite an irrelevant case to stall our information request, a common tactic from this Town administration. But his case is not related to the requested information at hand and should have been released.

Moving right along on the Ethics Express, ABG learned a lawsuit has been filed by the Legal Services Hudson Valley (LSHV) group announcing that they have filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of five current and former tenants of the GHA against The Bozeman Law Firm, PLLC. The Mount Vernon law firm which represents the GHA (a public housing authority) in landlord-tenant disputes lawsuits.

The lawsuit claims that Bozeman Law repeatedly sues tenants in the GHA’s housing sites who receive Section 8 federal housing benefits for non-payment of rent, even though Bozeman Law knows that the sums it seeks are not “rent” by law and often not owed by the tenants. If a tenant obtains a lawyer, many have used LSHV staff attorneys to defend them, Bozeman Law immediately withdraws the legal proceedings. Shortly thereafter, they will re-initiate the same lawsuit based on the same or similar facts. This process is repeated again and again. There’s more but you get the idea.

So if Councilman/Liaison/Attorney Jones is/was/remains on the Town Board as a Councilman, how is it not a conflict of interest that he worked for the Bozeman Law firm who represents and also sues the residents of the GHA? Is the liaison (Jones) to the GHA with copious amounts of information from both sides, both suing and getting sued, over the same matters? And did he ever share any of this information with Town Attorney Tim Lewis, Supervisor Feiner and the Town Board? When he went to the Ethics Board to question a conflict of interest, was the entire story laid out to them or just a partial story or any story at all? Mr Feiner appoints the Ethics Board members. Is that a conflict of interest as well? The taxpayers deserve answers and justice. 

Finally, with the Democratic primary only days away, we’ve learned about the deals that were made behind closed doors for this election. Mr Feiner was promised the Democrats’ endorsement if he endorsed the entire ticket which did not include Gina Jackson at the time. He’s done that. It’s apparently the third or so time Mr Feiner has had the party endorsement. The Democrats’ logic is interesting now that Councilman Morgan has passed away. They will take Ken Jones over Eric Zinger because they don’t believe they can control Mr Zinger. They’re also afraid of Ms Jackson because she might be an independent thinker. We still believe Mr Zinger and Ms Jackson are the preferred candidates. 

We know politics is an ugly machine for most people and they tend to stay away from it. Most people are usually clueless to know the inner workings of Greenburgh politics. We hope that we’ve helped you get a glimpse into what’s going on. If you can, please go vote in the Democrat primary on Tuesday. We suggest moving away from Mr Jones this time around and hope others will take this information and finally do the right thing for our Town. It will make for A Better Greenburgh.

The Real 2015 Year In Review

Each year Mr Feiner  continues campaigning with his one-sided year in review mailing/email blast/press releases. According to this, a lot has been accomplished. ABG would like to offer a counter-balance and tell you what he will not. His comments are in black and ours are in blue - play on words intended.

Have a healthy and happy 2016. And - A BIG THANK YOU for your help in making 2015 a successful year. Here is a review of some of our accomplishments! Please e-mail me your goals for 2016.
• Town budget complies with tax cap --- lowest tax hike in years. NYS is requiring communities to comply with the tax cap if they want residents to receive a bonus check from NYS. We also had to highlight sharing/consolidation efficiencies.
This is simply a false statement for political expediency. NYS state does not require any community to adhere to the tax cap, and is an incentive only if they want to receive these rebate checks. Nor do they mandate the calculation for the actual tax increase to be stated. So while this year’s increase will be 0.73%, it is achieved by drawing down the Town’s Fund Balance, a trick Mr Feiner and his Board have done since slamming the taxpayers with a 23% tax hike in 2008. Robbing Peter to, ahem, pay Paul. 

• Town built or is close to building 1.6 miles of new sidewalks around Greenburgh. New sidewalk in front of Greenburgh Health Center complete in December. Sidewalk built on Benedict Avenue this fall. 
This is another false statement from Mr Feiner. The Town has not built any sidewalks anywhere in the Town in years! Usually when a sidewalk has been built, it was the fulfillment of the contractual mandate from the Town to build a sidewalk in front of a new project. One exception was the brokered “sidewalk to nowhere” in Tarrytown at Benedict Avenue and Rt 119, which was the construction of a limited sidewalk near the then unknown, unbuilt, unfavorable, unpublicized, except to Mr Feiner and his Board, only now constructed Brightview Assisted Living facility. 

• Signed agreement to sell Frank’s Nursery for 3.52 million to Capital Senior Housing (Valterra). 90-100 units of housing on Dobbs Ferry Road. Town responsible for cleanup.
This is true. However, before Mr Feiner acquiesced to the Worthington Woodlands, Secor Homes and Fulton Park Civic Associations as well as the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, he was hell-bent to sell the property to GameOn 365 for a commercial enterprise. With the property zoned for residential use, everyone weighed in that this 8-story commercial monstrosity did not belong in this or any other residential neighborhood. With everyone united, an “Abutters Petition” that went beyond the required 20% opposition, never had to be used. This change being trumpeted by Mr Feiner would have then opened any neighborhood up to the same change.

    

Don’t let Mr Feiner simply gloss over the last sentence, “Town responsible for cleanup.” This is important - which is why he is downplaying it. While Mr Feiner was trying to illegally lease and then sell the former Frank’s Nursery property to his friends from GameOn 365, a counter offer from Ardsley’s House of Sports for twice the dollar amount PLUS full remediation costs for the property was turned down by Mr Feiner and his Board! The only caveat House of Sports insisted on was a full study of the property be conducted so they would know what the cleanup would entail. Still, he said, “No!” 

• Greenburgh-School Partnership - a new playground at the Lee Jackson School. Town used non taxpayer dollars to help fund playground (developer escrow funds). Working with the Greenburgh School District.  Initiated a mentoring program for architects/engineers. Working on a technology initiative - training students to learn jobs that will be needed for 21st century careers, especially in high wage, high demand careers including computer coding and programming, applications development, network management and data analysis, robotics. We want our students to learn about cutting edge technologies. 
These are two completely different and separate issues. As for the playground, we think this is a good thing. As for mentoring with any of our schools, ABG believes Mr Feiner should extend to all students in all schools throughout the Town access to these cutting edge technologies, not just one school or neighborhood. Like the fire districts, he has no input or control over the schools or school districts.

• Town maintained, in 2015, our Aaa bond rating from Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Taxpayers to save about $300,000 in borrowing costs because we have the highest bond rating possible (only 1% of communities in the nation have an Aaa rating). 
A good bond rating is a good thing – if we take advantage of it. But, sadly, Mr Feiner and his Board would rather talk about the rating than put it to good use. Our infrastructure is collapsing from at least 24-years of neglect (Mr Feiner's tenure). The Town should look at several capital projects that can be initiated and begun immediately, such as constructing sidewalks throughout the Town. Have you ever noticed that Mr Feiner is the first to say residents should use alternative means to get to and fro but offers no solutions unless someone else will be paying for it? It's political pandering. The Town should undertake building sidewalks and not wait until a developer has plans to overdevelop a speck of land and be required to build them in front of that property. This logic, while effective some thirty-plus years ago, is no longer germane and needs to be revamped. Flood mitigation, sewer and water piping upgrades are also needed.

• Police start using body cameras.
ABG does not know how many complaints have been lodged against any of our police officers, but believe this can be a good thing. 

• Town and civic groups working more closely. We approved legislation endorsed by the Edgemont Community Council to license massage establishments---giving police the tools to shut down illegal massage facilities that had been used for prostitution and other improper activities. We are working closely with three different Edgemont civic associations on a plan to build sidewalks near Edgemont schools (this school district does not have busing).
This is pure pandering. Mr Feiner has gone out of his way to not work with Civic Associations or their members - as witnessed at most Town Board meetings. As for working with Edgemont, what he says is true. However, he is only doing this because Edgemont has repeatedly threatened to secede from the Town, incorporate and become its own Village to get away from Mr Feiner’s bad management. Mr Feiner cannot afford to lose that portion of the tax revenue, which would significantly and negatively affect the Town’s Unincorporated and overall budget revenues.

• The New York State Senate and Assembly approved a law that enables the town and villages within the town to charge guests a 3% hotel tax. The revenues could generate as much as a million dollars a year to the town. The Governor has not yet indicated whether he will sign or veto the legislation. Should know shortly!
ABG believes in this fiscally challenging time for corporations, corporate travel and such, most hotels/motels make the bulk of their income from corporate travelers. As the “bean counters” begin to scrutinize their colleagues travel costs, it will contribute to a lessening of corporate travel to our area. That will impact not only the hotels/motels, but the car rental businesses, food establishments, trade show participation and more. In fact, it’s such a bad idea, as we were writing this, Governor Cuomo just vetoed the bill!

• Worked with the Greenburgh Nature center on our town wide initiative, working with schools and businesses to introduce and develop conservation/sustainable practices, including food waste management. Introduced community to organic recycling at AF Veteran Town Park this summer.
The fact that the Greenburgh Nature Center is a tenant of the Town, and while these ideas are good ones, they do not originate from the Town Hall corner office, get implemented by the Town or financed by the Town.

• Student intern organized a series of self-defense seminars for college students. One in five girls who attend college are victims of sexual assaults.

As always, Mr Feiner neglects to say how many participants took part in this. Frankly, we wonder why interns need to do this when we have very capable police officers, karate schools, defensive arts teachers that Mr Feiner could have arranged to do this. Regardless, kudos to the interns.

• Town Board approves contract to replace town street lights with LED energy efficient lights in 2015.

ABG is all for using LED lights. In fact, we’ve replaced almost all of our florescent bulbs with LEDs as they fail. This is the problem with Mr Feiner’s approach. He is spending half a million dollars changing light bulbs throughout the Town, incurring more of an expense by throwing away good light bulbs the taxpayers have already paid for and still have more usable life. When bulbs fail, or the fixtures need replacing, that is the time to change out the bulbs.

• Town Board approves using non taxpayer dollars (escrow funds) so that DeSanti Park can be turned into a beautiful new Veteran's Memorial Park in 2016.  We created an index of the names of the approximately 150 veterans who had been interviewed as part of the veterans living history initiative.

While we support recognition of our veterans, we wonder what else those funds might be used for? We also wonder why Mr Feiner would not push a public/private initiative to have private funds pay for this?

• Quick replacement for supermarkets going out of business: Best Markets replaced Mrs. Greens; Acme replaced A & P on Knollwood Road. We still need to encourage a new supermarket to replace the Scarsdale & Hastings A & P.

The supermarket debacle was out of Mr Feiner’s control. Although, when he and his Town Board found out about the first A&P, Pathmark and Waldbaums stores that would be closing, it was former Councilwoman Sonya Brown who held community meetings to try to save those stores. Her reward for that was to be ousted by Mr Feiner. Hence, the term we often use when other Town Board members refuse to oppose Mr Feiner: “Sonya’d.”

• Visits by United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hocul to East Hartsdale Ave.

Really? Every politician will go to any location, meet with any group and press the flesh at any time in hopes they will get a vote.

• Comprehensive Plan Committee presented the Town Board with their draft plan, which will be voted on in 2016 by the Town Board. We currently have no comprehensive plan for the town.

This is not entirely true. There is a Comprehensive Plan for the Town that was adopted in 2003. It just was not a all-encompassing as this latest one.

• Enactment of legislation to reduce Con Ed bills by a few hundred dollars a year. Working with a number of other communities in Westchester on this pilot project that was approved by the NYS Public Service Commission.

Again, this is not entirely true. Yes, there was legislation enacted which forces ConEd to turn your energy information over to an Energy Service Company (ESCO) which will automatically be signing you up to participate in this experiment. 

  

• Town Board formed a Human Rights Advisory Committee in 2015.

ABG believes this was done strictly because it will garner publicity for Mr Feiner. Sadly the federal government, state government and county government Human Rights Commissions weren't enough for Mr Feiner, who continually bemoans government consolidation.

• Nassau County anti-corruption panel cites Greenburgh's strong Ethics laws as a model for the county to enact.

How interesting that they would adopt the Greenburgh law. Strong ethics laws are only of value if they are followed and enforced. Will Nassau officials ignore and trample their law as our Town leaders have?

• The Town Board authorized the Greenburgh Nature Center to build butterfly arbor at the Nature Center - using private dollars.

As the landlord, the Town must review their request to build on Town property. Otherwise, there is nothing from the Town involved in this.

• To slow down traffic and avoid accidents, new stop sign on South and North Roads.

Sadly, ABG admits that while this is good, it’s too bad someone had to die to get these installed. It’s also sad that when neighborhoods ask for solutions to speeding, they are told that stop signs cannot be installed to control traffic. Huh? Isn’t that what this just did?

• Purchase of digital sign board. Police department use the board to inform residents of number of speeding tickets issued on different streets around town. Hopefully, the digital board will motivate people to be more careful motorists. We also purchased rapid flashing high visibility crosswalk light on East Hartsdale Ave. to advise motorists of pedestrians crossing.

Rather than put more police officers and patrol cars on the roads to enforce existing traffic laws or put officers with radar guns in areas where they can effect a slowdown of traffic infractions, Mr Feiner heralds the use of a speeding sign that indicates how many tickets have been written in that particular location. He doesn’t see how it also advertises to speeders that there are no cops here to catch you, just this sign. Once the motorists have figured this out, the sign will prove to be another unnecessary expense.

• We installed a new supplemental boiler at the Greenburgh Library (the library was closed several days over a year ago due to lack of heat).

The Town Board was the lead agency for the library construction project numerous years ago. They had heat pumps that were to be installed on one side of the property, but the Mr Feiner and the Town Board had them installed on the opposite side. They also only went down half the required depth to be effective, so, they don’t work. The boiler they purchased has been plagued with failures, the roof leaked, as did the windows. In the winter they have heating issues, with the sprinkler pipes bursting more than once due to a lack of insulation in the ceiling area. And, in the summer there is not enough air conditioning forcing the use of huge fans to keep people cool. The only good thing was the designer of the building won an award for it! 

   

•  Revitalization of Central Ave. - approving zone change to allow car dealerships on Central Ave. Starbucks to come to Central Ave. - to occupy vacant pea pod across from Hartsdale diner. Best Market replaces Mrs. Greens.
It’s been said that the changes Mr Feiner and his Board made concerning car dealerships borders on anti-trust legislation. And, numerous civic associations and their members suggested Mr Feiner and his Board not do this. While Mr Feiner claims he wants to work more closely with civic associations, this is but one more example where he talks the talk but never walks the walk.

• Comptroller Bart Talamini retires. Town looking for new comptroller.[sic]
Mr Talamini retiring is not an accomplishment of the Town or Mr Feiner. We’re sorry to see Mr Talamini go. Our guess is, he knows where some of the bodies are buried and doesn’t want to be around when they get dug up.

•  Student interns worked with the Greenburgh Nature Center promoting organic recycling this past summer.

 Already mentioned this above. 

• Gigi's Playhouse opens in Ardsley - helping families who have family members with Down Syndrome.

This is a good thing, but did the Town do this? Again, there was no Town involvement.

• Initiating program - barber in training program. Training people who are out of work how to be barbers. Program is now located in Tarrytown.
Interesting that schools teaching hair care must be licensed and meet copious health standards. But those standards are not required in the mystical world of Greenburgh. Mr Feiner must have waved his hands and “poof!” those requirements were gone.

• We continued to proceed with the reassessment of town properties around town. The reassessment process should be completed in 2016 and should stop the bleeding of certiorari actions (tax refunds). Similar properties will be assessed fairly for the first time in 60 years.
Yes, we need to have a revaluation to “stop the bleeding of certiorari actions”. But, don’t be fooled by his statement. Mr Feiner is the one who made the conscious decision during his 24-year tenure to not do a reassessment throughout the Town and not enforce delinquent tax collections (millions of dollars).

• 10 year olds are reporters - new radio station sponsored by Xposure. 10 year old students enrolled in the after school program learn how to become journalists. They interview officials, community members weekly!
We wish them well.

  

•  Using Ridge Hill settlement funds to make safety improvements in downtown Ardsley.
There is a small strip of land being used to “straighten” a short portion of a curve at Jackson Avenue in Yonkers, not in Ardsley. 

• Regeneron purchases land at Eastview. They continue to expand.
This is not entirely true. Regeneron is expanding, just not that much in Greenburgh. The expansion is actually in Mt Pleasant. The piece of property that is in Greenburgh is the parking lot for the actual buildings in Mt Pleasant. Those are different taxation fees. 

• Pet’s Alive shut down their no kill animal shelter. They tried selling the former Elmsford Animal Shelter. Issued an RFP to other animal shelters in the area. No success. They will be turning over the property to the town in 2016 and we will be turning over the property to Paws Crossed, a nonprofit animal rights group that will be operating the shelter as a no kill animal shelter.

The building would probably be cheaper to have torn down and rebuilt based on what the public was told. Mr Feiner had said it needed to be torn down. John Lucido, the Town Building Inspector says it can be made habitable for about $1.2 million dollars – the amount we lose yearly by Mr Feiner deciding not to renew the WestHelp contract with the County. 

• Greenburgh police successful in locating two missing Greenburgh children who ran away from home.

Great job! 

• Appointed new Veterans Advisory Committee to identify resources for military veterans encompassing Veterans benefits, education and networking.
Doesn't the Federal, State and County governments offer this kind of service? Can you say streamlining government? Mr Feiner is the one who wanted to do away with County government because of the redundancy. So, what changed? Of course, publicity and an appearance of doing something.

•  Formed Health Care Advisory Board to provide residents with information about health care services people are entitled to and to help residents with individual problems. They could discuss problems with other neighbors who experienced similar health scares and help people cut through red tape.

See above.

• We expanded the one arm garbage sanitation truck to other sections of the town. A second truck is now serving the community. And, a third truck is on order. Uses one employee instead of three. And, reduces worker’s compensation claims.
This appears to us as a way for Mr Feiner to “get back” at the unions for resisting him in the past. So, for the last year, there have been two garbage collections - the regular/traditional truck and then a second pass by the one-arm bandit trucks later in the day. BTW, how are we going to pick up recyclables with these one arm bandits that can only use the special garbage cans?

• We hired a firm to conduct a management and operations review of the Department of Public Works. Will review recommendations in 2016. Last year we conducted a similar review of the courts and implemented most of their recommendations.

Good. 

The above are just a few of the many exciting new initiatives that have been taken since last Thanksgiving to be thankful for.  Would like to also thank the members of the Town Board – Diana Juettner, Francis Sheehan, Kevin Morgan and Ken Jones, the department heads, town employees, volunteers, civic association leadership and appointees to the Boards and Commissions for your advice and help during the year.  It’s a team effort! 

You’re welcome. While we would all like to feel valued and appreciated, there is a lot of mistrust in our Town brought upon us by our leadership’s actions, some legal, much illegal. We want it to be a team effort, but it’s not. While there is no “I” in Team, there’s also no “We,” “Me” or “Us”. That needs to change. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.

WestHelp Agreements Violated Again

At  the last Town Board meeting they proved once again that it lacks integrity, transparency and honesty with their skewed methods of governance. This latest move belies Mr Feiner’s often used canned phrases of ‘due diligence’, ‘transparency’, ‘faith in the process’ and others. This time the Town Board held a special meeting, a covert meeting if you will, to change the tenets of the previously agreed upon use of the WestHelp facility on the Westchester Community College campus and negate the agreement that had been developed for the property. Originally created and used as an affordable housing facility for mothers with under school-age children, you may recall Mr Feiner chose to leave the vacant facility open after the County ceased using the facility for homeless families. Its original intent and design had been as an affordable housing facility.

With a seemingly veiled public disclosure at the ending of last Wednesday nights Town Board meeting and without any public session, or any public discourse, Mr Feiner and his Board skirted their elected obligation entitled to by the public regarding the WestHelp property. It highlights Mr Feiner’s contempt and low regard for the Greenburgh taxpayer. He and his Board members voted in a hastily contrived “special meeting” to change the determined use for the now degraded WestHelp facility. You may recall, after the lease with the County expired due to Mr Feiner’s twice refused contract acceptance, the facility was vacated by the County’s Department of Social Services (DSS). Mr Feiner took it upon himself, condoned by his Board, to not only leave the facilities unsecured, but to accelerate its degradation so it would need to be torn down, appeasing the residents of Valhalla who were mostly against the site in the first place. The reason? Votes.

The site was the brainchild of the HUD Chair Andrew Cuomo, who was appointed by then President Bill Clinton after Cuomo’s political aspirations were halted when he insulted New Yorkers with several negative comments when he was running for governor. Knowing what short memories voters have, he was whisked away to Washington to wait out the furor. Once his past history was forgotten, he began his anointment to the Albany throne. As governor, he disagreed with Mr Feiner’s newest proposal for the WestHelp site to sell the property to the Ferncliff School for the disabled. County Executive Astorino, as well as other County Legislators, disagreed as well but chose inaction over The Town’s violation of the in-place and still active contract. ABG conversed with County Legislator Alfreda Williams, who said the County Board would need to address any contractual violations and decide how to proceed. Nothing was done.

So, after languishing for four years at the mandate by Mr Feiner, the County finally agreed to let the Town submit a proposal for the site or lose this gift-horse property completely. The facility had generated $1.2 million dollars a year in revenue to the Town. Had the Town continued to receive those funds, we would have had $4.8 million that could have been used toward paying down the $6.5 million guilty verdict fine levied against Mr Feiner after being found guilty by a Federal Court for discrimination, destroying evidence, not being a credible witness and more. In the meantime, Mr Feiner keeps insisting the Town remained within the 2% NYS Tax Cap while raising our taxes 3.4%. More political posturing aided by Cuomo’s 2% Tax Cap hype.

After the NYS Division of Human Rights granted the Town permission to impose age restrictions toward the property’s usage, it was decided to create a Senior Living Facility on the WestHelp site in accordance with the terms of the original lease with the County. They would reconfigure the 108 efficiency apartments into 74 apartments to be rented out to senior citizens. The facility would then be managed by a previously denied management company, Peekskill’s Marathon Development Group. Mr Feiner originally tried to award the contract to a developer with no background or experience in property management. In fact, the deal  that Mr Feiner originally refused to award to Marathon is the same deal as before with two major and costly changes. First, the deal will only bring in $127,000 per year, down from the original proposal Mr Feiner killed. Second, the Town, in particular the Unincorporated Taxpayer, will wind up paying for the remediation to the site! This was another decision made behind closed doors, possibly in an elusive Executive Session and never a posed to other bidders. Faith in the system? Transparency? Due diligence? Hardly.

Messrs. Morgan and Jones “brokered” the same deal that was laid out initially and are now bragging of this “new” deal as though they are master negotiators. They’re not. Because of Mr Feiner and his Board’s actions, the Town not only lost the $1.2 million a year in revenue, they knowingly and arbitrarily decided to cost the Town even more by dragging out this process and agreeing to what had already been proposed, less the four year reduction of income for the Town, income for Marathon and most importantly income that would have helped the resident taxpayers. Now, however, the taxpayers will be “on the hook” for the remediation costs, no matter what they amount to. Additionally, Marathon will wind up managing 54 apartments instead of the originally agreed upon 74 and the seniors that might have been afforded homes will still be left wanting.

If Mr Feiner and his Board were truly interested in providing affordable housing and not just posturing about it, they could have assigned the 108 apartments to some of the 250 families on the Greenburgh Housing Authority’s waiting list once the County ceased their operation of WestHelp.That would have amounted to about half of their waiting list of Town residents being helped. This would have alleviated the blight of Greenburgh residents and probably others seeking a home. There was no stipulation in the original contract about who the Town could place in the apartments once the Town took it over. But since this administration is not sincere about addressing the problem, those people continue to wait - over four years later.

Another connivance by Mr Feiner means more delays and another possible rejection for the use of the WestHelp property from the County. We’re pretty sure that Mr Feiner did not make the switch from senior to affordable housing to help County Executive Astorino in the County’s fulfillment of the federally mandated housing agreement in Westchester. Although, given Mr Feiner’s history of guilty verdicts in court, we have to wonder if he has had any experience with those judges and cut a deal? Regardless, after rejecting proposals from bona fide housing management companies, turning down a cash sale with all remediation costs included, trying to change the use from housing to a school, being found guilty in paying funds to the Valhalla School District, after accusing residents of undermining his (illegal) deals, it will be no small task to see anybody living at the WestHelp facility. That is, unless they are in tents. This must end. It’s the only way we’ll get A Better Greenburgh.

Feiner Pushes New Tax While Professing Tax Cap Compliance

The Rolling Stones' song, You Can't Always Get What You Want, sometimes rings true, except in Greenburgh. Mr Feiner has stacked most of the decks to his benefit for his own agenda. If a taxpaying resident doesn't like a zoning requirement that was created back when our leaders favored a real vision for our Town, they could move and find another place to live. If people found this planning attractive and wanted to be a part of it, they could move to Greenburgh. But nowadays, Mr Feiner and a quid pro quo handshake with developers, can and invariably does, allow it to be changed, regardless of community input. Concurrently, whatever the Planning Review and Zoning Review Boards say is only a recommendation to the Town Board and easily ignored or dismissed by at least three of the five on the Town Board providing Mr Feiner the changes he seeks. It's purely a stacked deck against the resident taxpayers. Now he's going beyond the residents.

Touting the NYS 2% Tax Cap, Mr Feiner has jumped on the "taxing bandwagon" with all of his cronies. He professes to be operating under the NYS 2% Tax Cap through semantics and a willfully ignorant electorate, but he does not actually stick to it. Our State, and in particular our County, has the highest taxes in the nation. And, Mr Feiner just asked his Albany best-buds, Legislators Stewart-Cousins and Abinanti to pass a 3% tax levy that the Town could apply to hotel rooms. What this means is the Town will get a small fee per room, a yearly "windfall" by applying this tax to visitors to Westchester and in particular the Town of Greenburgh.

What Mr Feiner and many politicians like him refuse to acknowledge is that each time another tax is added to a hotel bill, some corporate accountant sits with a calculator analyzing their traveling colleague's expense report and questioning if they really need to go there to begin with, or stay overnight. Eventually, businesses will begin to change their travel habits and affect Mr Feiner's newest cash cow. Since past performance is an indicator of future results, we know Mr Feiner will invariably have another Fortress Bible-like decision waiting against him in the wings. Here's a suggestion for Mr Feiner: stop breaking the law and you won't need your buds to create more taxes!
 
The New York State Legislature approved a law that authorizes the Town of Greenburgh to generate additional needed revenue by having a 3% hotel tax. This tax could generate from non-resident visitors to the Town significant revenue--probably somewhere between $200,000-$500,000 a year. There are almost 2000 hotel rooms in town. According to Mr Feiner, "The dollars received will be used to REDUCE your property tax bills and to comply with the tax cap." Really? Each time he says this he fails to produce either hard numbers or cold facts - and we never see a savings. He speaks in generalities, platitudes and what we like to call a circular conversation. You've seen him do it often. You ask a question and he has some colloquial story or personal experience and steers the conversation away from what the original topic was. Of course, there's always the, "This is just my personal opinion..." Sorry Mr Feiner, your position as Supervisor is like that of a police officer. You are always the Supervisor, just like a cop is always a cop and never really "off-duty", and saying something is your personal opinion doesn't hold water. Now, if you want to step down as Supervisor to have a personal opinion, we'd be happy to give you an open forum...
 
The Town has been seeking permission to impose a hotel tax since at least 2009. The New York State Legislature had previously authorized New Rochelle, White Plains, Rye and 43 counties in NYS to have the tax--but not Greenburgh. 46.5% of the counties that had previously been granted permission to have a hotel tax by the state have smaller populations than the Town of Greenburgh. Mr Feiner argued that NYS was not treating Greenburgh fairly. Now he knows how the residents feel.
 
The villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Elmsford, Hastings, Irvington and Tarrytown as well as villages within the Town of Mount Pleasant were also granted permission to adopt a hotel tax this week by the legislature. But most of these communities with hotels are generally used in part or total for DSS (welfare) recipients. They had formally been known as Welfare motels. So we pay top dollar for these people to live in small rooms with no conveniences beyond a bathroom. We're sure not everybody in these hotels are DSS recipients, but the fact remains that not only did Mr Feiner push for this tax increase, but we a) will not see our taxes go down, and b) in the end only increased the taxes on ourselves. We need politicians that have our best interest at heart, not theirs and the re-election campaigns. It's time for term limits in Greenburgh. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Fulton Park Vindicated Over Westhab & Town Violation

In late 2008 and early 2009, the residents of Fulton Park received a letter from Mr Feiner stating that he had agreed to the demolition of the old Kings Inn Motel and construction of a seven-story Westhab facility. At that time, the motel was serving as a transitional halfway-house for ex-cons recently released from prison. The neighbors in Fulton Park had often complain of noise at all hours of the day and night, sex with prostitutes in cars on the side streets, drinking and drug use. Remnants of crack vials, used condoms and alcohol bottles could be found almost daily on residents front lawns or by the curb. Complaints to the police department resulted in a periodic patrol which consisted of a Greenburgh patrol car driving by. Other complaints went to the County Police as the County was in charge of the facility security - or lack thereof. 

Proposals were understandably met with resistance by the neighborhood because the industrial looking building did not fit in at all. Residents met and complained with Town Board members who were blatantly lied to by Mr Feiner and other Board members, who each said no decision had been made yet. This lie was later exposed when County documents were acquired under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). Those documents showed Mr Feiner's involvement with then County Legislator Lois Bronz, County funding as well as other funding that would help pay for the building. Curiously, before the plans were approved, the Town Board adopted a LEEDS certification for all new buildings within the Town. Westhab was not held to that standard, yet Mr Feiner still touts how "green" the building is. 

The residents were never against building something there, but only asked for a building that was not a huge, 7-story, out of character building that would not blend with the neighborhood. Their requests were ignored and Westhab went with their cookie-cutter gulag approach, justifying it as being patterned after area buildings. The only building it comes close to emulating is the old phone company building across the street with its design from circa 1960. An out-of-date design was used for a new building. 

One of the many conditions that was challenged by residents was their incorporation of the existing Town road that ran between the Kings Inn Motel and the Fulton Garden Apartments, named Fulton Avenue. In typical Town Board style, they ignored the two-way road that had been there from at least 1938 and used by everyone in the neighborhood. The Town ignored all maps and findings the Fulton Park Civic Association and other Associations furnished and accepted it as Westhab's. This allowed its use and could be part of the parking space count that was necessary for their project to move forward. When Mr Feiner wants a project to go forward, mere laws will not stand in his way, as was proven here again. 

Fast forward some seven years later with a lawsuit by the owners of the Fulton Garden Apartments against Westhab because Westhab paved over property that Fulton Garden Apartments has had as an easement for over 30 years. Basically, the property where the parking spaces are, which had been argued about repeatedly by the Fulton Park Civic Association, the Fulton Garden Apartments, the Greenburgh Council of Civic Associations and others, was not Mr Feiner's to give away. But when he favors any project, as long as its not in his neighborhood, all bets are off. Well, Fulton Park Civic Association, the Fulton Garden Apartments, the Greenburgh Council of Civic Associations and others are about to be vindicated even though the damage has been done. 

On the June 17th agenda for the Planning Board is an appeal from Westhab to change the one-way roadway back to a two-way road. Here's the agenda item:
Case No. PB 15-13 Westhab/Fulton Gardens, 22 Tarrytown Road, P.O. White Plains, N.Y. – Amended Site Plan
A work session to discuss an amended site plan application for a proposal to allow two-way vehicular traffic from a previously approved one-way driveway at an existing multi-family building known as Westhab. Presently, vehicles are restricted from entering the Westhab property from County Center Road. The proposed site modifications would provide direct access to an existing parking lot used by residents and visitors of the adjacent multi-family complex known as Fulton Gardens. Currently, the only access to this parking area is from Rt. 119 (Tarrytown Road). The Westhab property consists of approximately 30,492 sq. ft. (0.78 acres) and is situated on the west side of Old Kensico Avenue [sic]  approximately 210 feet from the intersection of Tarrytown Road and approximately 0 ft. from the intersection of County Center Road. The Westhab property is located in the M-174 High-Rise Multi-Family Residence District and is designated on the tax map of the Town of Greenburgh as Parcel ID: 7.500-310-2.


This is significant for several reasons. First it vindicates everyone, the Fulton Park Civic Association, the Fulton Garden Apartments, the Greenburgh Council of Civic Associations and others who did their due diligence and sought the truth. Mr Feiner and his Board, untouchable as they run for re-election unopposed, simply ignored what was right and did what he wanted. The Board knows they should go along or they will be "Sonya'd". Second, Mr Feiner gives carte blanche to developers at the expense of all the neighborhood residents throughout the Town and this practice needs to stop. But this is part of his warped scheme to fundamentally change the makeup of the Rt 119 corridor. He knew that the old phone company building would be taken over by Westchester County's Department of Social Services and its proximity would facilitate Westhab residents who need to report in to DSS regularly by being close by. Third, traffic has increased and backs up substantially from the traffic lights, as residents complained it would. Fourth, when Deli Delicious reopens as a fast food service restaurant, traffic will continue to be a nightmare for residents already living with an F-rating from the flawed traffic study. And finally, to avoid going to court and being found guilty of violating the easement that the Fulton Garden Apartments has for the property Mr Feiner "gave away" to Westhab, they have decided to acquiesce and turn the road back to a two-way lane. This is being done by Westhab to avoid going to court and being found guilty!

It's a shame that Mr Feiner's politics have trumped residents on the right side of the law. It's a shame that the residents of the Town remain willfully ignorant and stand by as Greenburgh crumbles. This laissez faire attitude with Town government must end. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.