Board Condones Secret $1 Million Deal With Semantics

Wondering if this Town's administration will ever follow the law, practice true open government of any sort or simply do the right thing is rarely, if ever, in flux. Business as usual in Greenburgh for the select few in Mr Feiner’s “inner circle” seems to be more the norm as Mr Feiner continues to get more and more brazen with his decisions and actions. Case in point is last Tuesday night’s special Town Board meeting specifically held to accept a $1 Million donation from the Robert Martin Corporation. The donated money can only be used for the purchase of an undevelopable twenty-eight acres strip of land currently owned by the Unification Church in Tarrytown and near I-287. The excuse this time is to preserve open space – a common contradiction with this administration.

The “deal” was struck by then-appointed Deputy Town Supervisor Danny Gold. At the time of the secret proposal, he was and currently is, the President of the East Irvington Civic Association. It is well known that Mr Gold is also friends with Mr Feiner and has usually aligned himself with Mr Feiner’s actions and policies. However, his friendship with the Supervisor simply adds to the potential conflict of interest Mr Gold had as the now-former Deputy Town Supervisor and this secret land deal donation with a developer operating in Greenburgh.

Tuesday night’s Town Board meeting was held in the cafeteria as the main hall was previously booked. There were two groups of people in attendance. One group, favoring Mr Gold’s secret deal “sold” as an open space bonanza, were there and spoke in support of it. It is unknown if they were aware of the specifics surrounding the secret deal. The other group, primarily consisting of the G10, were there in hopes of at least postponing this secret deal. Their feeling was the deal was struck in secret in 2009 by Mr Gold, so why the rush to act on this without first vetting the deal?

Also unclear was since the property is actually in Tarrytown, why was Tarrytown left out of the proceedings? Why was the Town only told of this expiring deal when the clock was ticking toward the end of this five-year secret agreement? Why did Robert Martin offer $1 Million and what was the true cost to the Unincorporated Greenburgh taxpayer and to the Tarrytown taxpayer. In fact, why would the Town entertain this secret deal at all?

Before the meeting began, a rewritten Town Resolution accepting this deal was distributed to the attendees. The reworked wording made the proposal appear less controversial for the Town Board as they moved forward, as they always intended, to adopt the resolution accepting the $1 million deal created by Mr Gold. The Town Board Work Session earlier in the day even found Mr Sheehan questioning many aspects of this deal and the possible improprieties of it. However, rewording the resolution apparently quelled any and all reservations he may have had and he voted “aye” with the rest of the Board. Done deal. Or is it?

The Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations had requested legal help to send this information to the State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, seeking an investigation into wrong-doing. Information regarding the secret deal as well as the parties to it were included. Anyone seeking to read more can do so by going to this link: https://www.facebook.com/greenburghupdate. There, you can download and/or read the documents online. Regardless, more came out at this meeting that was hastily convened to accept the $1 million on the last day.

The first speaker during the Public Comment session was Tarrytown resident, Linda Viertel. ABG staffers and others sat during her opening comments, where she listed some of her credentials, stating that she didn’t have a blog and could not counter statements made about her and may go a bit beyond her allotted three minutes. Even though she spoke in favor of the donation, she stated after the meeting that she was shocked to learn, unbeknownst to her, that Mr. Gold had named her in this secret 2009 agreement! Another Tarrytown resident, Dr. Stanley Friedlander, was also included in the agreement. ABG wonders if she had no knowledge of her inclusion in the deal, what of Dr Friedlander?

Another question is the timing of this proposal as well as the additional applications before the Town to expand the Avalon Green property. Wikipedia defines “Quid Pro Quo as ("something for something" in Latin)[1] means an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favour for a favour"; phrases with similar meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", and "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." ” So why would Robert Martin offer this money to East Irvington’s Danny Gold? They bought his and his Civic Association’s silence when they were expanding Avalon Green back in its heyday. The payoff/payback has finally come full circle. Sadly, as many developers know, its the cost of doing business in Greenburgh.

Anytime anything is done in secret in government many people pay attention. Such is the case here. A secret agreement made by a Deputy Supervisor with a developer with applications before the Town at the time to remain quiet for a finite number of years is wrong. In Greenburgh, however, its business as usual. This type of behavior must cease immediately. Only then can we have A Better Greenburgh.