“Like A Bad Zombie Movie”

Unknowingly being filmed by the Town video system, three Town Council representatives Morgan, Jones and Juettner were having a casual conversation that was broadcast to the public. In it, Councilman Morgan seated at the conference table asks Councilman Jones, “So Ken, did they clean up [the] WestHelp?” Walking back on camera, Jones shrugged his shoulders almost suggesting a dismissive response.
Morgan continued, “Because, the main building, I had Victor and Richie* in there... ”
“Was it bad?” Juettner queried.
“That building was probably...” stated Jones.
“It looked like one of those bad zombie movies, B movies, with s*** thrown everywhere. So I said, I had them up there because I knew the County was going to try to make us look bad. So they sent like 10 guys up there ”
“Good.” injected Juettner.
“And cleaned up and put everything outside, so.”
“You know what, (unintelligible) its so stupid.”

You can watch the entire video here:

The balance of the conversation finds them discussing what might need to be done to the apartments, and other work to perform at the site. This was quite a different presentation than the unified “Everything will be okay,” or “the mold is manageable,” statements usually made in public. Its disturbing to learn of the actions taken by Morgan and the Board/Supervisor. Now, the County is pursuing taking back control of the property after two years of intentional neglect caused by this same Board and Supervisor. Equally disturbing is that this one action could have been taken over two years ago to close the facility, winterize it or at least keep the heat on to a minimum temperature to preserve the existing conditions of the apartments at that point in time. Even Mr Feiner’s handpicked, unqualified and inexperienced choice to manage the facility said the same thing!

The intentional neglect of this facility by Mr Feiner and his Board is reprehensible. As ABG has stated previously, the Greenburgh Housing Authority has maintained a list of people, residents, seeking housing in the Town. At the time Mr Feiner decided to abandon the facility, there were approximately 250 applicants waiting for a place to live. With 100+ applicants, Mr Feiner and his Board could have moved these people into these apartments with little or no effort. But he chose to play a game with their lives for election votes from Valhalla. This is a very sad state of affairs for our Town. Unfortunately, we’ve learned to expect deceit and lies from this current leadership based past performance. But playing these games when people need a place to live should not be tolerated.

Greenburgh residents have experienced the worst from our leadership numerous times as they rubber-stamp approve projects for developer after developer in the Unincorporated section of Town. No matter how logical, factual, truthful or well-stated, they lose to the developers and Mr Feiner’s goals. Guilty verdicts against the Supervisor and the Town (Fair Practices Committee, Fortress Bible Church, Valhalla School District) abound. Tax increases every year for property taxes, sewer taxes, water taxes) abound. Last year our management-lacking Board did away with leaf pickup under the guise of saving taxpayer dollars. When pushed for the amount saved, the Board offers silence. When neighborhoods fought large projects in their neighborhood based on facts (Fulton Park [Westhab], Edgemont [Dromore Road, ShopRight], Glenville [Stop & Shop, Brightview Ass’t Living], Sprain Road (Toll Bros.), Worthington-Woodlands (GameOn 365), they were dismissed in lieu of the developer’s requests. Spot-zoning, the illegal rezoning of parcels to accommodate a developer, seems to happen as a matter of routine course for developers – especially one represented by a particular White Plains law firm. The Town’s strategy appears to be one of divide and conquer.

When the Bronx River and Saw Mill River sides of the Town suffered from severe flooding from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, Mr Feiner pointed to everyone but himself for residents, his residents, to approach for assistance. Every news media outlet regurgitated his “we seem to care” rant, but never followed up to show what he actually did (or didn’t do) to help his residents. Each event finds him pointing to everyone else to help his constituents except himself. That’s not being a leader or providing real leadership. When it came time to renew the WestHelp contract with then County Executive Andrew Spano, Mr Feiner decided to not renew it in hopes of gaining support from the Valhalla voters. After all, he was going to be running against a formidable candidate with Bob Bernstein (or whomever the unknown future candidate would be) and would need every edge he could muster.

This post only scratches the surface of what’s wrong. This video shows the insolent nature that this Board treats serious issues before the Town. The residents got what they voted for in this past Democratic Primary election. The amount of Democratic voters who participated was miniscule. Many are willfully ignorant and simply vote the party line because that’s the easiest thing they can do. But their cavalier attitude is severely costing all of us more than we should have to bear. Greenburgh residents deserve A Better Greenburgh.

* Victor Carozi, Highway Commissioner, Richard Fon, Deputy Commissioner