Memorial Day: Remembering Those Lost

Memorial Day, a U.S. federal holiday, is observed on the last Monday of May to honor the men and women who have died while serving in the military. God bless them all and may they rest in peace.

Edgemont Victorious Against Town For Referendum

The New York Supreme Court has ruled that the Edgemont Incorporation petition is legally valid and overruled Supervisor Feiner's decision to deny the petition. This is the second time that the Edgemont group has been forced to sue Mr Feiner, a Democrat, because he allowed his own prejudice to get in the way of making a simple decision: did their petition meet the rule of law standards? We believe it did.

The court ordered an election to be held within 40 days. However, this is the same thing that occurred over a year ago when Edgemont prevailed in the courts initially to subsequently lose on appeal by the Town. We are not alone believing that the Town will appeal the decision again. This is a strategy that worked for them before so we're sure, sadly, it will be done again.

While we wish to see the law upheld and support Edgemont's right of self-destiny, we are also concerned should the incorporation pass for several reasons. First, everyone against the incorporation has said that the canyon this will leave in the Town budget could be as much as $17 million dollars. Second, the Edgemont leadership has stated that they wish to contract services such as police, sanitation and highway maintenance with the Town. This would provide needed revenue and avoid the laying off of Town employees. Mr Feiner, Mr Jones, a Democrat, and possibly the rest of Mr Feiner's Board, all Democrats, have vehemently and repeatedly claimed that they have no desire to contract these services with them. This is an obvious and egregious display of a lack of concern for the rest of the Greenburgh Unincorporated residents!

Time will tell how this will all play out. We're unsure of what was different between the first and this latest petition submission and the court cases. All we know is that when Mr Feiner and his Board, all Democrats, try to restrict the public's exercising of law, it's time for them to go. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Town Board Violates Law, Approves ShopRite

On Wednesday, May 13th, the Greenburgh Town Board, via a Zoom meeting, unanimously and we believe illegally approved a site plan application by Lewis Masters Holdings LP to demolish the multiplex cinema at 320 Saw Mill River Road (Route 9A) in Elmsford across from Sam’s Club and build a ShopRite supermarket. 

There were 2 Public Hearings held on the ShopRite development. The March 11th Public Hearing, held at Town Hall, had public participation but the April 22nd Public Hearing via a Zoom meeting was presumed to be illegal because of limited participation by the public. Numerous letters of concern were sent to the Town Board which were not acknowledged or heard by the public. 

The site, which had other retail space and still has the KFC and Taco Bell restaurant, covers 10 acres and is in between 9A and the Westchester Hills Condominium. Old Country Road, which runs uphill from Route 9A(east) is a well-traveled road used by school buses from 4 different public school districts as well as Private and Parochial Schools, residents and pedestrians. 

The roadway was originally the only access and egress for the 215 Westchester Hills Condominium owners until Executive Boulevard was created and joined Old Country Road at the top of the hill. Pocantico Park scatter site housing which is run by the Greenburgh Housing Authority, lies to the north. That is the side of the property where the developer plans to build the entrance way which will circle up to the new building.

The ShopRite supermarket will be 75,711 square feet including an accessory interior restaurant space together with approximately 10,765 square feet of attached separate retail space after they tear down the existing National Amusements multiplex cinema and other buildings which contained a number of small businesses.

The application was first submitted to the Town Board on April 15, 2019. However, Mr Feiner instructed the developer to meet with the area residents to get their buy-in. They met at the Westchester Hills Condominium’s Recreation Center. The room was full. And, full of it. Mr Feiner snuck in after the meeting had begun with his Town Board members. Once recognized, he took a lot of hits from residents. While most were okay with a ShopRite coming in, they emphatically insisted that they did not want a curb cut on Old Country Road with the subsequent truck traffic and even car traffic as it’s already a congested road. 

Another major concern raised by the residents of Orchard Lane, which abuts Old Country Road, is the issue of blasting and rock chipping. Their homes were built on cement slabs which contain pipes for radiant heat and water. This issue must be continuously monitored as demolition and construction proceeds.

Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said, “This is positive news for the town especially during this difficult time in our history when so many residents are out of work due to COVID-19. There will be significant construction jobs and permanent job opportunities after the supermarket opens up.” There may be people out of work due to Covid-19 but Mr Feiner also favors keeping the economy shut down which would limit who and how many people may get construction jobs from this project. Our guess would be very few from the area.

The approval contains a number of conditions that the developer must meet. Some of these are:
• The use of LED and motion activated lighting;
• Putting in new sidewalks;
• Making modifications to Old Country Road such as mountable curbs and shifting lanes;
• Designing and installing public improvements such as an updated bus stop and traffic signal modifications;
• Planting additional evergreen screening and repairing fencing;
• Restricted hours for truck deliveries and operation of the trash compactor

All of the claims by the Town Board to not want to vote for this resulted in what was expected: a unanimous vote approving another one of Mr Feiner’s pet projects. The phony compassion from this Board has to stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Armed Forces Day

Requesting Food Pantry Donations on Tuesday May 19

School Administrators Arrogance Ignore Taxpayer Pleas

Numerous taxpayers have reached out to the Greenburgh Central School District (GCSD) Board to implore them to adjust the budget to accommodate the recent financial shortfalls every level of government and the private sector are subjected to. Recently, the Governor issued an Executive order on May 1st specific to election changes.  

School Board/Budget elections have been rescheduled for June 9, 2020 and will be held via mail with return postage included. Each School District will send a postcard notice which details the date of the election, date of the budget hearing, definition of a qualified voter, and an absentee ballot.  Other voting changes for this years elections have also been put in place. 

The GCSD Board published their proposed budget on their website for 2020-21. There are actually two documents, a 2-page summary document and 27-page full/detailed document that show how the $70,274,612 budget for 2020-21 will be spent. The previous year’s budget expenditures was $70,752,506. In total, the decrease between the two budgets is a measly $477,894 or a negative .675%, not even a half a million dollars! So we'll be generous and say it's -.68%!

With only a minus .68% decrease, it’s logical that it would be easy to cut more. But this administration maintains a privileged mentality and apparently wants no part of helping the taxpayer. While the GCSD apparently doesn’t feel the pain the residents do, other municipalities have already adjusted for shortfalls that may impact them with local, state and federal reductions. In fact, most governmental administrations are dipping into reserve funds as well as tightening the “budget belts.”

Another point of contention with this budget is that they are asking teachers to freeze their salaries while Dr Chase and Mary O’Neil get their $2,300 and $2,800 raises respectively. They should be embarrassed to accept this. Recently, Mr Feiner threw out an uncorroborated figure out there, as he often does without validation, that 23% of Greenburgh residents have lost their jobs due to the Covid19 pandemic. Let the administrators take pay cuts before the teachers. 

Finally, the School Board has been holding pseudo-live Zoom meetings. In actuality, what they are doing is holding a Zoom meeting amongst themselves and then someone with a video camera and live feed is filming and broadcasting the meeting. Not only is this ridiculous and cumbersome, it assures the Board a modicum amount of insulation from the public by keeping them at bay. What they should be doing is allowing people to sign up to the Zoom meeting that they are in and let the Host mute them. If they have any questions, they can submit them utilizing the chat feature in Zoom.

The GCSD held a Consolidation Bond vote over a year ago when money was not as tight as it’s going to be now. They threw away a lot of money on slick brochures and mailings (and probably more) to try to pull off the bond. That bond was defeated by a two-to-one margin which spoke volumes. This Board hears, yet they didn’t listen. They claimed the budget was shot down because they did a poor job presenting it. That is true. They did a bad job and they lied in an attempt to convince the public that it was something it wasn’t. 

The public knows more than they let on and still doesn’t trust the administration or the Board for that matter. A negative .68% reduction is about what an austerity budget might be which would mean no sports or busing. We are way beyond needing an austerity budget. They’re still not listening. It’s time for some new thinking on the Board and the administration. It’s the only way to get A Better Greenburgh School District.

Note: This article was written prior to the May 11th Board meeting and may be updated.

Happy Mother's Day

ESCO Probably Costing You Money Instead Of Saving It

From Ella Preiser,  Communications Administrator, Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations

A Message to All:

At this time when so many people are out of work and small business owners are concerned about their survival, some Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations (CGCA) representatives are deeply troubled that the Greenburgh Town Board has not taken the opportunity to inform people about a possible way to save some money.

The CGCA urges you to check your monthly Con Edison bill.  If the bill indicates your electricity supplier is Constellation and your supply cost is 7.709¢ per kWh, you were probably enrolled in this ESCO (starting January 2019) by the Greenburgh Town Board.  If enrolled, you have been paying considerably more than those of us who “opted out” of this ESCO.  Please review the attached table which provides information on the kWh costs per billing cycle for seven different property owners who did “opt out.”  These figures were taken from actual Con Edison bills.  The first five properties are residences. Properties #6 and #7 are small businesses.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with the “history” of the Town’s involvement with this ESCO, attached is information you may find helpful.  At the very least, skip to the last lines of the document below which illustrates the cost savings ($37.15 and $115.53) for a single month for two different properties.  Paying the higher price could be very costly over the two-year contract.

The Greenburgh Town Board is not alone.  Twenty-six other Westchester municipalities participate in this CCA.   The concept was good but it is not working to the advantage of electricity users.  The ESCO named Constellation is raking in millions of dollars from residents and small business owners.

If you are paying too much, contact the Town Board for an explanation of why they did not keep you informed.  Feel free to pass this message on to your neighbors.

Stay safe and well.

Ella Preiser, CGCA Secretary

First Document:

First CCA Contract – How it began – Modest Savings

In 2015, the Town Board discussed with residents the possibility of participating in a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program.  The concept was simple and good – if a large number of users joined together to purchase huge numbers of kilowatt hours of electricity, they could negotiate a cheaper price. Supervisor Paul Feiner issued an email blast 9/29/15 claiming that participation in a CCA could reduce our Con Edison bills by “hundreds of dollars.”  

In January of 2016, the Town Board passed a local law granting Westchester Power authority through a CCA program to procure electric supply from an ESCO (Energy Supply Company) for a two-year contract for all unincorporated Greenburgh residential and small business users who did not “Opt Out.”  The program began with June 2016 meter read dates at a fixed cost of $0.0738 per kWh for the “Basic Supply Option” or $0.0768 for the “Green Option.”  The cost was subsequently increased for residential users to $0.0770 per kWh for the “Basic Supply Option” and $ 0.0800 for the “Green Option.”  There was no penalty to “Opt Out.”

In April 2018, residents received notice from Westchester Power that the rate of the soon-to-expire contract would “remain in place until your January 2019 meter read date.”  No approval for this extension was given by the Town Board. Once again residents were made aware they could “Opt Out” of the program without penalty.

Resident Ken Stahn had opted out of the program. Despite his repeated requests to the Town over the two-year period, no information was provided to the thousands of residents and small business owners the Town Board had enrolled in this ESCO. Thus, unincorporated Greenburgh electricity users had no way of knowing whether they were actually saving money and/or whether they should take advantage of the “Opt Out” provision.   The Council of Greenburgh Civic Association (CGCA) was asked to get involved.  Following a unanimous vote at the June 19, 2018 CGCA meeting, a letter was sent to Supervisor Feiner seeking information.  

The CGCA received a response.  In an email blast on July 24, 2018, Mr. Feiner reported that over the 25-month period from June 2016 through June 2018, residents in the “Basic Supply Option” had saved an average $7.78/month, residents in the “Green Option” saved $6.00/month, small business owners in the “Basic Supply Option” saved $2.01/month, but it actually cost small business owners in the “Green Option” 22 cents a month.  

However, for the very first time the public learned that only 52.67% of the savings actually came from the supply cost per kWh that had been negotiated.  Much of the total savings (47.33%) came from a $1.20/month billing and processing payment charge to each customer and sales tax avoidance (3% for residential and 7.375% for small businesses) on the delivery portion of the monthly bill. Savings from avoiding these two charges had never been mentioned earlier.  And, these two savings were not unique to the ESCO in which the Town enrolled users, but rather were available to any customer enrolled in any ESCO.  

Second CCA Contract – Huge Loses

Although the savings had been modest, the Town Board nevertheless voted to continue participation in the CCA for another two-year contract.  Beginning with the January 2019 meter read date, all residential and small business owners were enrolled for electric supply in the “Standard Option” at a cost of $0.07709 per kWh with the ESCO Constellation unless they “Opted Out.” 

Resident Ken Stahn, who had opted out again, noted each month his Con Edison per kWh costs were lower than the 7.709¢ per kWh costs charged by the  ESCO in which the Town had enrolled residential and small business owners. Mr. Stahn’s continued requests to the Town to provide information to the public were ignored.

Finally, on October 15, 2019, Westchester Power was invited to make a presentation at a Town Board work session.  At that meeting it was revealed that the Town had enrolled a total of 11,777 unincorporated Greenburgh residential and small business owners in the ESCO Constellation.  At the meeting, there was brief acknowledgement that the default Con Edison price for electric supply was at a historic low, but more time was spent blaming higher bills on Con Edison delivery charges.  Praise was given for the metric tons of carbon saved – although Greenburgh deserved little credit since few were enrolled in the “Green” option. It was stated electric supply costs would probably increase next year and reference was made to saving money regarding a Community Solar Project.  The need for a public update was mentioned, but there was no follow through. 

Some CGCA representatives who had opted out of the CCA contract felt the Town Board should inform the public about the higher costs to them.   Data was collected from the actual Con Edison bills of eight properties – five residential and three small businesses – from different areas.  Seven of those properties had opted out of the CCA contract but one business was enrolled.  The data revealed that the seven properties that had opted out had saved between $50 and $700 over the 12 billing periods starting in January 2019.  The one business property enrolled by the Town in the ESCO actually paid more than $1,000 in additional costs over the 12-month period.  Rest assured, that business promptly opted out when presented with this information!

At Mr. Stahn’s request, the Town Board invited Westchester Power to make another presentation at its March 10, 2020 work session.  The representatives again acknowledged that Con Edison default rates were at historic lows. The presentation included a slide showing that those enrolled in the ESCO paid $1,133,210 more for supply, with the additional monthly costs being between $5.71 and $6.92 for residents and between $4.46 and $10.07 for businesses.  However, it was emphasized that those enrolled still had savings over the past three years.  Also emphasized was the amount of carbon saved, likely Con Edison cost increases later in the year, the community solar project and how helpful Westchester Power could be to utility users.  

Ella Preiser, Dorrine Livson and Ken Stahn attended the meeting.  Two tables were presented showing the data collected for the eight properties. Westchester Power representatives were dismissive of the data provided because it contained actual (four-decimal place) per kWh supply costs and did not include a small “Merchant function charge.” They emphasized Con Edison’s rates were unpredictable and the bill was difficult to read.   The Town mentioned the need to provide information to the public.  The next day (3/11/20) at the regular Town Board meeting, Mrs. Livson mentioned the more than one million dollar cost to Greenburgh users and tens of millions to other Westchester County electric users. She asked the Town to release such information.  The Town once again remained silent.

At the April 22, 2020 meeting, held via Zoom, Mrs. Livson again asked the Town Board to inform the public about the electric costs.  The Board agreed to invite Westchester Power to the first work session in May.

ARE YOU PAYING TOO MUCH?

See the attached table which has been revised and lists the one-decimal place costs Con Edison recommends to compare ESCO charges. To determine if you are paying too much, examine the electric supply page on your Con Edison bill and compare the cost per kWh with those shown on the table for the seven properties.  

Contrary to the information presented on March 10, it may be costing you far more than the $6 to $10 per month Westchester Power mentioned.  Just as an example, following is computation illustrating the cost differences of recent bills for Property #5 (residential) and Property #6 (business).  As you can see Property #5 saved $37.15 in just one month and Property #6 saved $115.53 in one month.

1374 kWh @ 7.709¢/kWh = $105.92 + 4.24 (4% sales tax) = $110.02           

1374 kWh @ 5.100¢/kWh = $  70.07 + 2.80 (4% sales tax) = $  72.87

4086 kWh @ 7.709¢/kWh = $314.99 + 26.38 (8.375% sales tax) = $341.37

4086 kWh @ 5.100¢/kWh = $208.39 + 17.45 (8.375% sales tax) = $225.84

                                                                                               

Also note:  Westchester Power cannot rely on 47% savings from other sources on this contract.  The $1.20 per month billing and processing fee remained at $1.20 for businesses but was reduced to 60¢ per month for residents in 2019 and is now 64¢ per month.   Since last spring, the monthly bills no longer mention sales tax avoidance (now 4% for residential and 8.375% for small businesses) on the delivery portion of the bill.