Mr Jones went to the Westchester View Lane meeting the previous Sunday and was met by community leaders who have vociferously represented their groups against these zoning and bubble proposals requested by GameOn 365. The G10 were elated at this meeting with standing room only. In fact, stalwart community leader Ella Preiser, a volunteer of many Town committees, and currently on the Town’s Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, commented that it was great to see so many neighbors come out for this issue.
Two expansion plans were on the agenda and were voted through without objections. Then Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden took to the microphone, apparently to soften the blow of the Town Board moving the GameOn 365 projects forward as the Lead Agency against the wishes of the public in attendance. He practically whispered his informational presentation, which frankly was unnecessary, and when residents shouted they could not hear him, he turned the microphone over to another speaker. He could have briefly explained that the Town Board must vote to make themselves the Lead Agency in order to initiate a SEQRA study instead of trying to fake real concern with an elaborate hoax to placate the angry room. The Town Board received a reality check from the packed room that they didn’t believe or approve of the Town Board’s repeated lies about these issues on Dobbs Ferry Road! The residents admonished the Board that no one has contacted them about the GameOn 365 proposal even though the Board continued to state otherwise.
Speaker after speaker rose to the podium to say the Town must stop the proposed zoning change, stop the proposed bubble and focus on selling the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road before they do anything else. The Board sat in their usual unresponsive silence. At one point, however, Mr Feiner made a comment seemingly to defend Mr Madden’s unethical behavior of divulging confidential Comprehensive Plan information to GameOn 365’s developer. Mr Feiner said the Comprehensive Plan information was available to the public*. A member of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, stood up and said, “That’s not true!” Mr Feiner repeated that the Comprehensive Plan information was open to everyone. Again, “That’s not true!” Mr Sheehan, the chair for the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, remained silent. While Mr Feiner can maintain the bully pulpit because he has a microphone and won’t allow residents to speak, being loud doesn’t make him right. After going back and forth several times, he finally said, “Well, it should have been open.” This is a standard tactic for Mr Feiner and the Board members when a resident catches them in a lie.
As the Board listened to nothing but irate constituents, we saw Mr Feiner on his cell phone. We imagine Mr Feiner texting Mr Jones saying, “We’re sinking and fast. We may need to delay this until they stop coming out.” Mr Jones leaned over several times to discuss something with Mr Morgan. Mr Jones might have returned the text message, “What do you want me to do?”
“Move for postponement.”
“Done.” With a little bit of stammering, whether genuine or good acting, Mr Jones said somnething to the effect of, “It looks like we will need more time to...”
“I make a motion to hold this over for two weeks,” said Mr Jones. The angry taxpayers weren’t happy with a postponement and let the Board know it. Shouts emanated from the entire room to take an up or down vote. Even Mr Sheehan and Ms Juettner wanted an up or down vote. The motion was seconded by Mr Morgan and passed with a three to two vote to postpone with Mr Feiner, Morgan and Jones voting in favor and Mr Sheehan and Ms Juettner voting against.
Stay tuned, as there’s more to come with this proposal. We urge residents who normally don’t bother with Town Board meetings to continue applying pressure to the Town Board. The Town Board’s delay tactics to wear down the populace have begun. This will not be the only postponement or delay. Eventually, they will close whatever public comment is going on, adjourn to Executive session or a Work session and vote this project through. Or, Mr Feiner will ask GameOn 365 to withdraw their application until no one is paying attention and magically, it will reappear to see another day at a later date. When the Town Board feels they can vote it through, whether with a unanimous vote or not, they will. The public is already enraged that their wishes are being ignored. The Town Board must listen to its taxpayer-residents. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.
* The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee had made the decision not to release information as they were working on the new plan to avoid confusion and conflict before it was released in full. An example was originally given to withhold releasing it piecemeal. This way, if they wrote Chapter 2 and someone got a hold of it and started developing plans based on what Chapter 2 said, and then in Chapter 6 there was a change that affected Chapter 2 and had to be changed, the information the developer had would be wrong. Mr Feiner knew this. Mr Madden knew this as well, but chose to divulge the information to a developer anyway.
"The Town" is desperate to recoup revenue lost on the many tax certiarori's (reductions) granted to many real estate interests. A quick read reveals this to be in the millions. Additionally, the taxpayers are on the hook for tens of millions in fines, judgements and penalties due to the actions of our Board led by our supervisor. The ordinary taxpayer will be making up the difference. How else to support the overpaid employees and the outsize pensions and benefits? Who approved the payment in lieu of acceptance of the health care benefits now received as a stipend to our supervisor and others. Right there is $10K per individual. "The Town" is not the personal piggy bank of those who are employed by it.
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