Get The Lights, Vote, Kill The Lights, Let’s Go

Under the cover of darkness, Mr Feiner and his Board have done it again. At some point during the last Town Board meeting two weeks ago and the printing of the agenda last week, the bonding for $6.5 million required to pay the settlement for Mr Feiner, Ms Juettner and the Town’s guilty verdict for discrimination against the Fortress Bible Church was changed from a bill of goods the public had been sold to something different. Mr Sheehan, not happy about the change for the Bonding vote, said he would hold the vote over. Mr Feiner, anxious to put his latest and highest-ever guilty verdict behind him, insisted they must vote on it at the Wednesday night Town Board meeting. Mr Sheehan said no. No need for any of Mr Feiner’s sycophants to worry, even with the one day delay, this will pass. The deciding vote will be Ms Juettners. Also part of the guilty “crew”, she is just as eager to sweep this under the proverbial rug. Again, we query why these attorneys have not been disbarred?

The Town is being forced to finance $5.5 million of the $6.5 million Fortress Bible settlement. The original five-year payment schedule was secretly changed behind the public’s back to a fifteen-year period from the originally detailed solution. Utilizing fifteen-years instead of five will lower the per year amount that will result in a smaller tax increase to our already abused taxpayers, but will cost more in the long run and drag out the pain three times over. The Town’s insurance company has already paid Fortress Bible Church the $1 million dollars as required from the Town’s insurance policy. We can’t wait to see the new renewal premiums...

If the bonding doesn’t pass, the Town will be required to utilize fund balance money to make the payment. They would have to do this so they don’t exceed the tax cap as they didn’t vote to exceed the NYS 2% Tax Cap that Albany had passed. Mr Feiner, who raised our taxes by 3.4%, below the 2% Tax Cap, still insists we are under the NYS Tax Cap. What he hasn’t discussed is had he not depleted the fund balance for operating expenses each year, there would be more money in the fund balance and the payment could have been drawn from those funds to begin with.

In order to wire-transfer the Town’s first guilty verdict settlement funds mandated by the courts to the Fortress Bible Church on Friday, the bonding resolution needs to be passed before Friday. If you watched the Work Session, Town Comptroller Bart Talamini got very agitated when Mr Sheehan said he would hold it over. He was almost to the point of snapping at the Board, insisting that they must past the resolution! Mr Sheehan was unswayed and said he would hold the vote over, as he done in the past when something was added to the agenda without enough time for the public to study it. And, with the significant changes that were made along with the faulty/incorrect wording, ABG believes this is the right thing to do.

Tonight, Thursday, January 9th at 9PM will be the vote by the Town Board to offer the Bonding to finally begin payment for Mr Feiner, Ms Juettner, and others, discrimination and reprehensible behavior. A Super Majority is required with this vote for the measure to pass. We’re sure Mr Feiner has already instructed Messrs. Morgan and Jones to vote for the Bonding. Ms Juettner and Sheehan are the unknown entities. Ms Juettner should want to vote for this so she too can move on and distance herself from it. But it is quite the conundrum for her. If she votes no, she risks be “Sonya’d”. She could also simply not attend the vote and thereby be “off the hook” through absentia. Mr Sheehan, after being thrown under the bus by Mr Feiner during the Democratic Primary, can go either way. Yet, we believe he is still ready to vote “no” because of the numerous wording problems in the document. It remains to be seen if a new document is offered tonight for a vote. If that happens, they should all vote “no” as it will be the first time the public is seeing it.

It remains to be seen how this will play tonight. The Board will be attending a political event elsewhere and returning to Town Hall strictly for this vote. It might literally take longer to turn on the lights, take off their coats, sit down, open the meeting, make the motion, do the vote and adjourn before the florescent lights are up to their full luminance.

Debacles in our Town are becoming more commonplace as Mr Feiner’s tenure continues to increase. The taxpayers deserve better. But until the willfully ignorant stand up to the power brokers, it will be awhile before we see A Better Greenburgh.