So, What's Next?

The Edgemont incorporation fiasco needn’t be. Mr Feiner could simply find sufficiency in the Edgemont incorporation petition and schedule the referendum to take place. But then again, Mr Feiner is leading this publicity campaign with the hopes of being able to swoop in and save the proverbial day – from himself – and gain another major media exposure extravaganza. What is obvious to those following this sham is that the Edgemont Incorporation Committee (EIC) has dotted their “i’s” and crossed their “t’s”. So, why not just let it happen? Control. Mr Feiner, without the benefit of public input, also decided with secret meetings to hire an attorney and private investigators without telling the taxpayers. Remember this, you’ll see it again.

We spoke previously of an Edgemont resident who had initially been against the incorporation until he learned of the private investigators hired by Mr Feiner and his Board to try to invalidate resident petitions in favor of incorporation. Once he learned of this he changed his tune and said he was disgusted by Mr Feiner’s actions and changed his position. Many that we spoke to at the different hearings echoed these sentiments. Had Mr Feiner left the process to run itself out, followed the law, not tried any of his typical shenanigans, actually done his due diligence, etc., the proposition probably would have died a natural death.

This is not the first time we’ve seen Mr Feiner “muck up” the process. You’ll recall the former Frank’s Nursery property debacle that did not play out as it should have. Years ago, when the former Frank’s Nursery was operating at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, they defaulted on their taxes. Many have speculated as to why. Some said it was just the natural progression of a company failing and ultimately going out of business. Others claimed they walked away from the property because it was laden with contaminants and cheaper to take the loss on the property than to remediate it. After several years, though, the Town acquired the property through foreclosure. And, Town Attorney Tim Lewis stated the cleanup would be no more than $100,000. Not an environmental attorney, or an environmental anything, he was very wrong.

New York State and Westchester County laws mandate that a municipality cannot be a landlord. As such, the Town is required to sell the land or turn it into a park or utilize it as Town property. Mr Feiner, without the benefit of public input, also decided in secret meetings (here it is again), emails and phone calls with GameOn 365 that he and his Board would lease the property to that commercial entity. In fact, email communications acquired under the Freedom of Information law (FOIL), exposed Mr Feiner's promise to supply the land to GameOn 365 at a ridiculously low rental price. The catch was that instead of selling the property, which is required by law, he wanted to lease it to them to install an 83-foot inflatable bubble. That's 8-stories high. More importantly, it is illegal!

But the property in question was zoned residential. By ignoring the contamination and leaving the property dormant for many years instead of selling it as required by law, Mr Feiner made the situation worse than it needed to be. Then again, Mr Feiner enjoys a tradition of ignoring laws he doesn’t like or wants to follow. And, it appears his Board condones these actions. Consequently, the property reverted back from the special business zoning it had enjoyed for decades back to residential! Oops! But Mr Feiner also knew he would make his Board the lead agency and able to change the zoning to whatever GameOn 365 needed it to be. What he hadn’t factored in was the civic associations and the unity of the neighborhoods around the property. Because of their due diligence, they thwarted both Mr Feiner and GameOn 365 and kept the property zoned residential.

Then there’s the Westhelp debacle created by Mr Feiner strictly to manufacture another event to garner publicity at the expense of a school for the handicapped. We are unsure as to the reasoning behind Mr Feiner deciding in secret meetings and without the benefit of public input (here it is again) to not renew the lease from the County of Westchester for the Westhelp property on the Westchester Community College campus. This was affordable housing for homeless mothers built under now-governor Cuomo’s reign in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The property was then turned over to the Town of Greenburgh with a yearly income to the Town of $1.2 million.

There’s nothing wrong with having elected officials who are independent thinkers, unless their thinking doesn’t help their constituents. The Edgemont incorporation issue has become just another one of Mr Feiner’s side shows. Regardless of the impact the people of Edgemont may cause the Town by incorporating and becoming another village in the Town, they have followed the law to get to this point. It would be nice if we had a Supervisor who also followed the law. Perhaps if we did, the people of Edgemont might not be seeking incorporation. Mr Feiner must make a determination this coming week. Hopefully, he’ll do the right thing by all Greenburgh residents. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Addendum to Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent

We neglected one vital point with all that we exposed in the previous article, Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent. There is another critical factor that will ensure GameOn 365 be the successful bidder that acquires the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road under the guise of an auction run by a third party. That point is simply advertising. How the property will be marketed and advertised will either increase the interest in purchasing the property or not.

As mentioned in our previous article, Ardsley's House of Sports offered the Town $3.5 million in cash and full remediation of all contamination for the former Frank's Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. But since they were not Mr Feiner's business of choice, and the newly formed GameOn 365 was, Mr Feiner fabricated a lie that the House of Sports offer was not a serious one. As Donald Scherer, CEO of House of Sports said numerous times, he is always serious when it comes to money. So, Mr Feiner again took it upon himself to intentionally inflict more financial pain to the Greenburgh taxpayers by refusing a valid and more substantial offer.

Reviewing the Frank's Marketing Budget v2, there appears to be line item disbursements listed detailing advertising in several print and online mediums. One example is the Journal News (1x3 ad) for $379; run three times for a total of $1,137. At face value it sounds good doesn't it? The problem with a 1" x3" ad in any paper or online is that it's the size of a mailing label and will not much exposure and review at all. If the Town were serious about advertising in the Journal News, they should be doing an ad that is three or four columns wide by 15". That is the size of an average story in the paper. While we're not trying to beef up ad sales for the Journal News, they are simply taking the money and running what will be the size of a classified ad. How much information can be put in this ad? Realistically, it will probably say: Property For Sale, 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, call 914-993-1500. If there's any room left, maybe they can add: Serious offers (from GameOn 365) only.

Other print media advertisements listed tout more of the 1"x3" advertisements as well. There are several more ads in the Journal News. One such ad is a color ad in the Real Estate section that is 2"x3.5" which is the size of a business card. How much information can realistically and correctly be included in an ad of this size and still be effective. It can't. There's a 2" x 3" Wednesday and Saturday combo ad in the Wall Street Journal that will cost us $1830 for three ads. There are several other  1"x3" ads that will be run in other papers for a substantial amount of money. As we've watched our tax dollars urinated away by Mr Feiner's other follies we now come to this auction. We will see a total of $25,938 spent on ads that will have little or no success because the methodology is flawed.

Our previous article discusses what's called a Stalking Horse and that allows the seller and bidder to engage in a sale without actually having to bid for the property. This is the slight of hand that Mr Feiner, the Town Board and the others will use to ensure GameOn 365 receive the property. When information about the GameOn 365 proposal was requested by the Freedom of Information Laws, the request was denied as was the appeal. If there is no proposal on file, why was GameOn 365's name the only one on the Retention Agreement posted on the Town's website. We wonder if they in fact could be considered as having submitted a serious offer since no paperwork is on file at Town Hall? House of Sports made a legitimate offer. Why weren't they included in the Retention Agreement?

Games are being played again by the Town Board and especially Mr Feiner with the former Frank's Nursery property and what will be done with it. When the games stop, maybe then we'll see A Better Greenburgh.

Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent

 Mr Feiner has tried for the better part of three years to illegally lease, then sell, then connive a way to gift the contaminated former Frank's Nursery property to his favored GameOn 365 buddies. He even went so far as to craft a lopsided and intentionally poorly worded referendum to provide the results he wanted to move the illegal deal forward. Ever the crafty politico, his plan worked. A complicit media even fed the public Mr Feiner's deceptions without question. Continuing to claim that he wanted the best deal for the Town, Mr Feiner steadfastly refused to entertain or accept a cash offer for double the amount, $3.5 Million, from an existing and profitable Town business, House of Sports in Ardsley.

Now Mr Feiner has finally decided its time to stop playing games and auction the property off. Or is it? The end game is never what it appears to be when Mr Feiner and his Town Board have an ulterior motive up their proverbial sleeves. There is multiple documentation on the Town's website regarding the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the hiring of GA Keen Realty Advisors to perform the advertising and the auction of the property for the Town. But its what missing that has us concerned.

The flyer for the sale of the property provides the most basic of information, none of which actually tells a prospective bidder/purchaser what they are really purchasing: multiple contamination and an R30 Zoning requirement. These two glaringly absent points are of major significance to anyone who would be interested in participating with the purchase of this property. Was leaving this information out intentional or accidental? Based on past performance of this Board and Mr Feiner, ABG is relatively certain it was intentional. But why?

The same documents posted on the Towns website lend a bit of a clue. We've already touched on the faulty flyer that will probably not be used with any real verve by the Town or GA Keen. In fact, we believe its creation was part of "Pinocchio Paul's" smoke screen to appear to want to advertise this property while maintaining a final strong hold over the process so that GameOn 365 will be the victor regardless of how many bidders or promises are made for R30 zoned construction. How do we know this, you ask?

There are two indicators that are skewing our opinion. The first is in the Retention Agreement on page four (4) under section F Good Faith. "The parties hereto shall deal with each other fairly and in good faith so as to allow each party to perform its duties and earn the benefits of this Agreement and shall not interfere, prevent or prohibit the other, in any manner, prior to or during the term of this Agreement from carrying out its duties and obligations under the Agreement." Ironically, this agreement was never utilized with the online "Town Square" website, the Daily Greenburgh. You'll recall that Mr Feiner and the Town Board entered into a one year agreement to use the website for no fee. And when the fee would be charged to the tune of $2,000 per month, Mr Feiner said they would not pay and cease using the site. Good faith operators? Hardly.

The second indicator that this is probably still a "done-deal" is on page eleven (11) under Schedule B-1. Here the page says "Game On 365, LLC" and below that it says "Remainder of Page Intentionally Blank". Blank indeed. This appears to be crafted with GameOn 365 as the sole beneficiary, again with the "done-deal" benefitting only Mr Feiner's cronies. Why would House of Sports intentionally be left off of this document? Probably because there was never any intention to sell or gift the property to anyone other than GameOn 365!

Then there's the "Stalking Horse" deal that can be found on Page two (2) of the Working Draft of Bidding Procedures. Stalking Horse? Really? Why not just say that GameOn 365 can bid prior to the auction and have a clear shot at purchasing the property as Mr Feiner intended all along? The Stalking Horse a) "allows the seller to solicit bids on the property prior to the Bid Deadline". ABG has learned that this is a common practice. And, b) "if the seller enters into a binding Real Estate Purchase Contract with the bidder prior to the Bid Deadline, which contract subjects the contract vendee to the Auction, such bidder shall be deemed the Stalking Horse". And of course, if the deal is made prior to the auction and the Stalking Horse is outbid, the Stalking Horse gets  a 3% breakup fee plus reimbursement of actual, reasonable out-of-pocket due diligence fees. And, the auctioneer still gets paid. It seems the only people that will suffer, again, are the Greenburgh taxpayers.

The Town Board has rescheduled the Town Board meeting for tomorrow night. We'll see how accurate our assessment of what is taking place will actually be. It's deals like this with the crafty wording, intentional vagueness and colorful terminology that hurts our Town. This must stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

No Smoke, No Mirrors, No Breaks

We’ve been treated poorly. Yet, we’ve waited. We’ve hoped. We’ve cajoled, complained and practically begged – all to no avail. We’ve hoped to learn what the criteria was as the Town Board routinely stated they were doing the “due diligence” regarding the WestHelp property that had provided a $1.2M annual “gift” to the Town. The Paul made a non-public decision to not renew the lease. Then he insisted it was the former Westchester County Executive’s decision, not his. Several phony emails later, it was shown to be The Paul who in fact refused to renew the lease, not the County Executive.

The implementation of the covert WestHelp plan from The Paul, aka “Mr. Open Government” with his media buddies, was underway. He had “someone” leave doors and windows of the facility kept open to allow the site to be pillaged of appliances, piping and other components. It also increased the likelihood that mold, animal infestation and weather would further degrade the facility. But for what reason? Once WestHelp ceased to use the facility, The Paul lost the  $1.2M annual golden goose and knew he needed to replace it. Money woes in the Town continue spiraling out of control for The Paul. On top of the lost WestHelp $1.2M annual payments, there was the Fortress Bible Church guilty decision, reaffirmed by an appeals court that could cost The Town upwards of $8M. There was the $4M water department deficit, the “windfall” of returned monies from the Valhalla School District for illegal payments The Paul and his Board made yearly are a drop in the proverbial bucket. And where was his complicit Stepford Board? Nowhere to be found unless they were rubber-stamping all of The Paul’s actions!

The latest move by The Paul and his Board is during almost every meeting, someone will make a motion to adjourn to “Executive Session” so they can collude unimpeded and get out from under the scrutiny of the public eye. The G10 performs the watchdog function long ago abandoned by the media as its members attend various meetings held at different times and locations throughout each day. As they report back we can’t always learn of the misaligned decisions the Board has made due to secrecy. They seemingly violate laws as well as the public trust, and we’re made aware only after it appears on a Town agenda. For a Town administration that espouses open government, there surely seems to be an inordinate amount of secret meetings and decisions taking place.

One decision that was asked about over and over again was the criteria being used in seeking investors for the former Frank’s Nursery property, the WestHelp property, the Brightview Assisted Living property, the Eastview (former Union Carbide) property and others. We’ve received shrugged shoulders and silence to our questions. Franks’s Nursery’s property is contaminated with numerous pollutants, oil and debris (underground). The Paul tried to illegally lease the property to GameOn 365. When the project met resistance from residents, he “offered” it for a referendum at the upcoming election. The referendum passed. A lawsuit followed because the referendum was illegal and he withdrew the lease. Legally, the Town must sell the property. To bolster his desire to give the property to his favored vendor, GameOn 365, he had an appraisal done by a firm that does other work for the Town. The appraisal came in at the exact amount of money GameOn 365 had proposed to pay for the property! Ironically, Elm Street Sports, which operates the House of Sports in Ardsley, has offered roughly double for the property. The Paul is doing whatever he can to stall the higher bid as it does not include GameOn 365.

The property at Eastview has been undergoing constant expansion in the last several years. During all of this expansion there has been no attention paid to the flooding this will cause south of the site. The Rt 9A corridor floods with any steady or significant rain storms now as the Saw Mill River quickly overflows it’s boundaries. It wreaks havoc on the residents and businesses that parallel the river. The Paul made a big deal of cleaning out the river once a Village of Elmsford trustee mades arrangements to do so. The Paul has been asked to do the same thing for the Greenburgh residents along the Bronx River. As with most Fairview needs and no news crews present, The Paul does nothing.

The WestHelp income of $1.2M annually is forever gone for the Town. The Paul had a plan to buy the votes of the Valhalla people by removing those pesky low-income, single, female parents with children that lived there, endearing himself with those voters. He proposed putting a self-contained developmentally disabled school in the space. Funded by New York State, the state said, “No!” A side benefit for The Paul would be to charm the county’s Republicans Rob Astorino, Michael Smith, Ned McCormack and others. This would be a win-win for The Paul. Shady operations? Racism? Sure, but The Paul knows he’s guaranteed to win re-election as there are no democrats strong enough to challenge him from within the party and the republicans have written off the Town of Greenburgh as forever blue!

This morning’s work session promises to raise the Town-wide use of Tums for many residents. Slated to begin at 9:30AM, we’re sure a 10AM start is more realistic. Today is the day The Paul has promised to pick a developer for the WestHelp property. There are several deals being offered and what we don’t know are the deals being made behind closed doors. Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis has claimed it wasn’t fair for the Board to disclose information to the public because these were sensitive negotiations that required secrecy. There were no contracts signed, just proposals. So they could have shared information but chose to remain silent – again. The Paul said they would keep information from the public because a resident spoke with one of the developers, a childhood friend of The Paul. His company subsequently withdrew their offer. Was The Paul’s “deal” so fragile that one conversation would cause its collapse? ABG thinks a more likely scenario was that once the bidder learned of all the misplays, misdirection and illegal activities that The Paul and his Board were doing with this property, they thought it better to exit post haste!

ABG is not convinced a decision will be made this morning. If one is, it will be interesting to see which one they accept. ABG also believes the Board will jump into executive session after exhausting themselves with one decision to hide the rest of their meeting from the public. ABG has also predicted that The Paul will award the sale of Frank’s Nursery to GameOn 365 with some babbling excuse as to why they should get it. Fortress Bible’s financial determination is about to land in the Town’s lap. The Saw Mill River and Bronx River neighborhoods are still flooding. Aging infrastructure collapses can’t keep up with the speed of The Paul’s decisions. More and more bad decisions seems to be the norm from this Town Board. The Paul’s further insulating the public from a truly open government through Executive Sessions and closed door meetings with developers. It has to end. We can only hope.

Go For Broke

At the March 27, 2013 Town Board meeting, the G-10 representatives were the only participants willing to show up and speak. The topics du jour were the WestHelp debacle where Valhalla’s racist NIMBY’s and the Town Board continued encouraging The Paul to allow the degradation of the WestHelp facility in hopes of purchasing Valhalla votes in the upcoming election. Next was the former Frank’s Nursery at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, replete with contaminated soil, back-room deals, unanswered environmental concerns and “confidential information” the Town Attorney deemed inappropriate to discuss. ABG believes any offering to purchase Town property should be put on the table for scrutiny and review by the public. It’s our property! Ideally, an RFP should be proposed. Lewis’ opinion did not stop the G-10 from further questioning and comments. The third discussion topic was the never-ending, never-performed, town-wide revaluation plan (hereafter: reval). The Paul has talked about this for years and but never acted upon it . His motto might be, “Why fix it when I can talk about it and still get re-elected.”

Why is the Town reval such a hot, scary and hands-off topic? Why has The Paul stayed away from it for so long? Because it’s a politicians worst nightmare. Certiorari challenges are how taxpayers within the municipalities typically counter the seemingly high and unfair tax assessment for their property. There’s an explanation of why and how revaluations affect homeowners that is somewhat simple, yet effective. One-third of the properties that are revalued will see their property taxes increase, one third will remain the same and the final third will see a reduction. Senior citizens seem to get clobbered by revals most often as they have purchased their homes years earlier, paid ever-escalating property taxes, retired and live off of a fixed income in the same home. Once their home is revalued, it invariably increases in value and winds up costing them more in property taxes. Increasingly, there are  companies more available willing to assist a large number of businesses and a growing number of residential owners to get certiorari adjustments as a means to a lower end in the Town of Greenburgh. Each Town Board meeting sees a non-stop increase in certiorari adjustment payouts. The March 27th Town Board meeting saw the Town expend $719,240 in tax certiorari adjust payouts! And, that’s not the highest one to date!

Adding up the amounts of money The Paul and the Town Board routinely drain from the wallets of the Unincorporated residents on a bimonthly basis is staggering. Each twice-monthly Town Board meeting the focus on larger and larger amounts of certiorari adjustments, fines, settlements, etc. In fact, one recent certiorari payout several months ago was about $1.2 million dollars. Couple the Town Board bimonthly events with the monthly $100K in lost revenue from the County contract for the former WestHelp property, the impending guilty verdict from the Fortress Bible lawsuit for up to $8M, and one has to wonder if the Town will soon face bankruptcy under The Paul’s administration? Join us as we sing, “I hear the train a-comin’...”

One easy example to eliminate unnecessary and controllable expenses is to combine the two Recreation departments The Paul insists on maintaining. As an example, both recreation department’s pool chemicals are not purchased for both pool facilities by one department. It makes no sense but it continues as the Veteran’s Park pool purchases are made by “their” recreation department and the Theodore Young Community Center’s pool purchases are made by the other recreation department. It’s been publicly alleged at an open Town Board meeting that maintaining the two recreation departments as separate but equal is racist by nature. It’s also costly.

This despicable behavior fits The Paul like a glove. He has openly flaunted this demeanor as part of the “goresome foursome” with County Executive Rob Astorino, County Legislator Michael Smith and County Executive Communications Director Ned McCormack. How do we know about The Paul’s racism? ABG witnessed it at an NAACP meeting held in White Plains several months ago when he publicly slipped and put his foot in his mouth*. We also know because he was found guilty of discrimination, destroying evidence and more in the Fortress Bible case. A subsequent appeal of his guilty verdict by The Paul and Diana “Sleepy” Juettner was struck down by a Federal Appeals Court, validating the guilt of The Paul and Diana Juettner.

Running the Town requires basic management skills. ABG believes the department heads (Commissioners) are qualified to run their own departments. If they are doing their jobs well, the running of the Town becomes a bit easier. But even with qualified individuals at the helm, The Paul and his Board manage to screw things up. Morale is at an all time low. Teamster-member Town employees are forced to wait four years before The Paul will negotiate their contract. There’s a hiring freeze in place unless it’s a position The Paul wants to fill with one of his cronies. It was pointed out by one speaker that the Town Board maintains its vacancy of moral actions because they lack a moral compass. ABG believes this is mostly because they wish to be re-elected and helped by The Paul. Subsequently, they blindly and unconditionally follow The Paul’s mandates and lead – contrary to Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan’s pronouncement of independent thinking on behalf of the Board members. Could a contributing factor be that the Town Board consists of only one political party? Possibly. Regardless, ABG is of the mind that it may be time to vacate the holder of the Town Supervisor position for someone with management experience and the ability to judge right from wrong instead of whether they are gaining a vote or not. Maybe it’s time to go for broke! We can only hope.


* See: 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013 - Feiner Insults NAACP:

http://www.abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2013/01/feiner-insults-naacp.html

and

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 - Feiner Insults NAACP - Part 2:

http://www.abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2013/01/feiner-insults-naacp-part-2.html

A Questionable Appraisal

ABG was finally able to find and review the appraisal for the former Frank’s Nursery site at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Our findings, while not revolutionary, raise a few questions as to what instructions the appraisal company and their appraiser were given toward the property. During the entire period of this fiasco induced by The Paul, which has been going along for about two years now, there have been numerous “plays” by The Paul, his Town “Go Along” Board, and Tim “Remediation” Lewis. Ironically, the appraisal uses some of the same language as GameOn 365’s website.

This whole debacle began with The Paul secretly meeting with the owners of the GameOn 365, who convinced The Paul to let them “have” this property for basically a monthly maintenance fee under the guise of a deflated “rent”. He agreed. Next, he enlisted his buddies Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti and Andrea “Platitudes” Stewart-Cousins, to submit an amendment to the Finneran Law during the wee morning hours of their respective Albany legislatures immediately prior to their end-of-year recess. This practice has been performed traditionally in Albany for years. Apparently, Abinanti who insisted he was not a career politician when he originally ran for State Assembly after his 20-year tenure as a County Legislator, knew all about this maneuver and jumped right onto it when The Paul beckoned. Stewart-Cousins obligingly followed suit. It’s disappointing that they would just go along with The Paul’s request and not ask any residents’ from the neighborhood they’re supposed to represent for an opinion.

Knowing his Board would vote through any scheme he asks for, The Paul fabricated a pretext of needing only a lease with this piece of property exclusively with GameOn 365, without putting the property up for sale as required by law or offering it to the public for a Request For Proposal (RFP). Once he made the illegal misstep of not selling the property as mandated by law and promising GameOn 365 sole participation for the property, GameOn 365 was able to solicit investors for their Sports Bubble idea. Notwithstanding that the property reverted back to Residential Zoning after six months of being foreclosed upon and unused by the Town, The Paul skirted the zoning issue each time it was raised. A fervent proponent of spot-zoning, The Paul isn’t worried about zoning restrictions.

To add insult to injury, The Paul needed another diversion away from this illegal deal – and quickly. Planning ahead to the 2013 election, The Paul knew he had upset a lot of tried-and-true supporters and needed to make up lost votes. So he casually allowed the lease with WestHelp and the County of Westchester lapse, claiming then County Executive Andrew Spano was the one who didn’t renew the lease. When proof substantiated that it was The Paul, not Spano, who didn’t renew the lease, The Paul fabricated emails he supposedly sent to Spano requesting renewal. Again, these were proven to be falsified emails. During that same time frame, the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit was adjudicated against The Paul, current Councilwoman Diana Juettner and the Town, citing they lied under oath, discriminated against the African American Church and destroyed evidence. It is a well publicized fact that The Paul has experience with evidence tampering. An Appeals Court denied the Towns appeal of the decision, determining the guilt of The Paul, Juettner and the Town! We await the judgement which many say could go as high as $8M!

Simon Cohen, a nearby resident to the affected area, started a website called HelpBurstTheBubble.com and did a mailing throughout portions of the Town attempting to stop the GameOn 365 proposal. His contentions were numerous as he was against the size, use of the property, the illegal lease deal, the favoritism practiced by The Paul and his Board. He quickly gained a foothold and many rallied with him in an attempt to halt this out-of-control, illegal and improper “done-deal”!

During the summer months, The Paul, ever-shrewd and manipulating, offered an outdoor Town Hall style meeting on the property to answer residents questions and concerns. He canceled the first meeting although about 100 residents are said to have shown up. The following night there was the actual,  official meeting. ABG witnessed the condescending attitude that owner Martin Hewitt had that evening as he was given the microphone and stated to the crowd, “Here’s how this is going to work. You raise your hand, I’ll call on you, you can ask your question and I’ll answer it. I won’t answer questions that we’ve already covered.” This understandably irritated a large portion of the crowd seeking answers. And when questions were repeatedly not answered in lieu of softball questions, the meeting quickly devolved. Plus, GameOn 365’s bussed-in supporters tried to shout down residents as they spoke.

Many residents, including the G10, repeatedly suggested to The Paul and his Board that a fair market appraisal be performed. There were many numbers continually tossed about and many insisted a real number be had. The Paul refused, knowing that without having an accurate number, it would be difficult to makle a case against his illegal plan. After Town Assessor Edye McCarthy insisted that the property values The Paul was using were inaccurate, she refused to answer when pushed for an approximate value of the property either “as is” or remediated, saying once a structure was placed on the property, the value would change. Everyone understood that. This just seemed to be more obfuscation by The Paul’s administration.

The Paul was forced into a corner with his new offer to sell the property to GameOn 365 in a number of ways. Stall as much as he might, GameOn 365 doesn’t have the money to purchase the property and is solely relying on investors to cough up the money. But he also couldn’t sell without an appraisal of the property so he finally, and begrudgingly, had an appraisal done. As you can see in the last line of the picture below, the appraisal states that the property value is based on remediation. We find it difficult to believe that an appraiser would give a valuation of a property on a possible future condition, or a guess, which is what this appears to be. It is also questionable that the appraiser came in with a valuation at the same amount as GameOn 365 offered for the property. Hmmm?

HelpBurstTheBubble took the next step and initiated a community supported lawsuit against The Paul, his Town Board and GameOn 365 to stop the madness. No stranger to lawsuits, The Paul dug his heels in even more. As the court date approached, The Paul no doubt saw the light or received some real legal advice, invariably from someone other than the Town’s legal department who told him he would lose – again. So he decided to “sort of” follow the law, which basically states that any foreclosed property the Town acquires must be sold. So, The Paul announced the sale of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to GameOn 365. This was simply a deftly executed move by The Paul. House of Sports’ owners decided enough was enough! They went public with an offer to the Town for the property of about twice as much as GameOn 365, for $3.5M for the property!

This new dilemma for The Paul and the Town Board presents uncharted territory for them: it’s an ethical and even a moral choice they must make to do the right thing. Since they are representatives of the residential and business residents of the Town, it is incumbent upon them to do what is in the best interest of the Town and our finances. Since The Paul has cost the Town approximately $12M this last year, the House of Sports offer is major bailout compared to the GameOn 365 offer. Since he refuses to put it out for an RFP, we urge him to take the highest offer for the property. Tim “Remediation” Lewis has stated they gave their word to GameOn 365 for the property to develop. Lewis also gave his word to the public that the remediation would not cost more than $100K. Just the testing went beyond that! That they gave their word based on an illegal deal makes this a no-brainer for any of us with a conscience. As such, we think the best course of action for the Town is to finally do the right thing and either sell the property to House of Sports or advertise it for RFPs.

Another point that is critical with this property is that The Paul has only entertained building another business at this location to replace Frank’s Nursery. The property has reverted back to residential zoning and the neighborhoods in the area would like to see it remain residential. ABG agrees. There are too few opportunities to create or expand new or existing neighborhoods that provide various types of housing in our Town once a business leaves. This is a golden opportunity for the Town to expand our residential tax base.

The Town should get as much as we possibly can for this property to help offset the financial plight The Paul has forced us into. The Town Board must accept House of Sports’ offer if they refuse to put this out for RFP. We can only hope.

An Excuse to Perpetuate Illegal Offers

ABG has just acquired two letters (below) delivered to the Town of Greenburgh in advance of the impending Town Board Work Session slated to be held on Tuesday at 9:30AM. The scheduled meeting would invariably not start on time as the audience members, applicants and viewers would be forced to wait until the Board finally shows up. The work session meetings, which typically never start on time, would have included several topics that are generically listed on the posted agenda on the Towns website. But the waters had gotten even murkier for The Paul in short time. Subsequently, while the Elm Street Sports proposal for double the amount GameOn 365 offered, was slated to be discussed, The Paul was running scared and eliminated it by canceling the meeting!

Because Councilman Morgan had a funeral to attend, The Paul thought it appropriate that Town business be halted and foregone because one Board member would not be present. While we appreciate the sentiment, the Board should meet and carry on the Town’s business – less one. It didn’t seem to stop them at all when rookie Councilman Ken Jones was sick for several meetings that were slated to contain votes on the GameOn 365 proposal. ABG believes Jones decided to take some “sick time” to avoid having to take a position on the various GameOn 365 votes, which we hope he, along with many others of the public, recognized as illegal and more importantly, unethical. Too bad he wasn’t there to vote his conscious – something this Town has been missing for numerous years under The Paul’s rule.

If you have followed the GameOn 365 debacle for the last two years or so, you know that The Paul was exposed to having secretly met with GameOn 365 owners to broker a secret back-room deal for the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. During this time, the Elm Street Sports Group, owners of the House of Sports Facility of Ardsley, NY, had purchased the property at 2 Elm Street, in Ardsley. This had been a former tennis facility and the home of Selecto, a food distribution warehouse which suffered a catastrophic fire years ago and the death of an employee. Selecto would never return to the location. With the purchase, renovation and opening of House of Sports, they have added to the Ardsley landscape, infused the tax base and vitality of an otherwise languishing local economy.

To ensure GameOn 365 every advantage and unfair “edge” they might need to build their proposed “sports bubble”, The Paul stacked the deck in GameOn 365’s favor. He agreed to a proposed fifteen year lease for the knowingly contaminated site, aware it was the acknowledged White Plains Urban Renewal dumping site! When area residents contested The Paul’s strategy with a lawsuit, following his own advice (“If you don’t like what I’m doing, sue me!”), he changed tactics and finally decided to follow the law. Simply, the law states that the supervisor must sell any land acquired through foreclosure, or use it for Town purposes if they decide to keep it. Morally bereft and challenged, our Town Board decided their spines, and political careers, should remain out-of-play. So they went along with The Paul to get along and not be “Sonya’d” out of their generous part-time jobs.

Interestingly, the Town had a property appraisal recently performed for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road and the amount of the appraisal was the amount that GameOn 365 was offering! Hey, wait a minute... is it possible to to stack the deck any more than it already is? Well, The Paul tried. Since The Paul’s illegal actions were bad enough, Elm Street Sports decided to up the ante, so to speak, and took a page out of The Paul’s playbook. They made an public offer to the Town to also purchase 715 Dobbs Ferry Road for roughly double what the GameOn 365 organization offered the Town! The difference between the “real business” that Elm Street Sports operates versus the “paper business” GameOn 365 talks about, is that GameOn 365 is still searching for investors for business model that GameOn 365 hopes to operate with someone else’s money. Elm Street Sports has the capital to purchase and remediate the site now. GameOn 365 is a pyramid scheme designed to operate only after they raise the money necessary to purchase for their possible business.

While the choice over which proposal should be accepted is obvious to the vast majority of people, one speaker at the last Town Board public session stated that he overheard a conversation where Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis stated to the effect that while the Elm Street Sports proposal might be better for the Town, they gave their word to GameOn 365. While giving and sticking to one’s word is laudable, this was one wrong, illegal and unethical move after another for a project destined for failure under the law.

This new opportunity affords the Town Board a facility to right many wrongs, whether intentional or not (ABG is being generous). The Town has lost about $1.5M in taxes on that property. The offer for $1.5M in total from Game On 365 only negates back taxes. In effect, the Town is giving them use of the land for free. The proposal from Elm Street Sports pays the $1.5M in back taxes and gives the Town a profit of $1.5M. And, while GameOn 365 was positioned to appear to pay for remediation of the property, they simply do not have the money to do so, cannot raise what will be needed, and have the opportunity to exit the deal when things get too problematic for them. All of the money that will be needed for the remediation will be provided by Elm Street Sports, something GameOn 365 won’t agree to. This is a no-brainer – even in Greenburgh.

It is incumbent on the Town to accept the best offer for the residents of the Town, regardless of how much “keeping your word” can be used as an excuse to perpetuate illegal offers. Elm Street Sports’ offer is in the best financial, ethical, zoning, planning and neighborhood-centric interests of the Town and the community. Another obvious solution out of this predicament is a legitimate sale process with a new RFP. ABG urges the public to contact The Paul and the Town Board with phone calls, letters and such to let them know you support Elm Street Sports’ proposal or a new RFP. Giving and keeping one’s word is only important when the word is for something legal and morally just. Let’s hope the Town Board understands the difference. We can only hope.

Letter from Elm Street Sports:

Letter from the Elm Street Sports attorneys:

Done-Deal Flatlines, CPR Performed

ABG has learned from our sources that there have been discussions with the Greenburgh Town Attorney, Tim “Remediation” Lewis about the latest twist with the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Originally, The Paul and his minions on his Stepford Board, decided to lease the contaminated residential property to a corporation called GameOn 365. The owners consist of a group of stock brokers who seemed to be hoping to “cash out” of the über competitive and slumping stock industry and shift into a different arena, playing games. It almost rings of the celebrity who pines to own a nightclub or restaurant only to find out how much actual work it really requires and the cash intensiveness of it. Just ask Mariano about his New Rochelle venture.

Like other projects The Paul has covertly moved through his “friends and family network”, with rubber-stamp approval by his Board, this entire proposal reeked of collusion. He proposed leasing the property to GameOn 365 without so much as addressing the pollutants that are saturating and buried into this property. The Town acquired this property in 2011 after Frank’s Nursery filed for bankruptcy, abandoned the contaminated property, and the Town inherited it through foreclosure. Prior to the foreclosure, The Paul was secretly meeting with Robert Gould, of Game On 365, to finagle a deal before the property “went public”. The Paul, pro-developer and lacking any business acumen, all but guaranteed the property to GameOn 365, just as he did to Westhab in the Fulton Park section of Fairview, including the necessary spot-zoning they required.

A nearby resident to the property, Simon Cohen, mounted a campaign against the proposal by launching a website, HelpBurstTheBubble.com and sent a corresponding mailing to area residents. It was this mailing that got the attention of residents that had been purposely shielded from the proposal by The Paul’s duplicitous maneuvering of the process and system. Enter the ever-vigilant G-10, whom have raised numerous flags regarding the often suspect and illegal actions of The Paul and his unethical board. Following suit with questioning the actions of The Paul and his miscreant Board were the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations. 

With the exception of the East Irvington Civic Association, all of the represented civic associations were against this proposal. They were not against a sports bubble per se, but against the process (or lack thereof) through which it was sanctioned, the nefarious taking of residential property for commercial use, the lack of environmental remediation, State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) studies, etc. In favor of the proposal was the East Irvington Civic Association, led by The Paul’s minion, Daniel Gold, who routinely attends Town Board meetings and speaks in favor of most Town projects – as long as it’s not in East Irvington.

The HelpBurstTheBubble.com, the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association and others decided to put their money where their mouth was and initiated a lawsuit against the Town and The Paul to stop this travesty. The points of the lawsuit were recently amended to expand the capacity of wrong-doing on the part of The Paul and his Board. The points of the lawsuit were: 1) The Town violated Westchester County and New York State Law and exceeded its statutory Authority by leasing the site to GameOn 365; 2) The Town illegally segmented the projects environmental review; 3) The project requires a full environmental impact statement; the Town’s restricted lease with GameOn 365 violates the residency restrictions of the Finneran Law; 4) The Town failed to comply with the mandatory notice requirements set forth in the Town law.

As is typical with The Paul’s administration, the members know to “tow the line” or be jettisoned, as seen with former Councilwoman Sonya Brown. So, once the lawsuit came about, Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis began his boss’ defense, saying the lawsuit had no merit. Even The Paul would say the same thing whenever it came up. ABG imagines they sat in their offices, cloaked from the phony “open government” The Paul always professes, speculating whether or not they had any chance of winning this lawsuit. Since Tim “Remediation” Lewis’ expertise is in hazardous materials remediation and abatement, we doubt he offered any input. Our best guess is the typically vociferous Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan was the lone voice advising The Paul with a simple shrug of his shoulders, realizing this was a no-win, Sonya Brown moment.

The Paul, ever the consummate politican/non-practicing lawyer, determined without the help of his consigliere, this would be yet another lawsuit he had no chance of winning. Critics of the lawsuit weren’t so sure. But The Paul needed this lawsuit to go away so he could put another notch in his win column against the G10, the neighborhoods, civic associations and the residents, all while helping his developer friend. But what to do? Finally, he gleaned the answer from the lawsuit he was so afraid of losing: sell the property. As mentioned earlier, the lawsuit had recently been amended to incorporate the County law, which says, “The supervisor shall sell, either at public or private sale, as the town board may by resolution direct, and upon such terms and conditions and for such sum or sums as the town beard shall by resolution approve, fix and determine, any property or any part or parts thereof acquired by the town by reason of any tax lien or transfer of tax lien and convey title thereof in the name of the town.”

Earlier, The Paul stated that instead of selling the property in a depressed market, the Town board opted for a 15 year land lease which will generate close to $5,000,000 for the Town in total for 15 years. They continually claimed there would be financial benefits to the Town by retaining ownership of a valuable property while receiving annual income that far exceeds any potential tax it would receive from selling the property. ABG doubts that would be the case if this property were remediated and properly marketed for sale. As is standard with a land lease, Game On 365 will begin paying full rent upon the issuance of building approvals and receive rental credits for all money they spend on the remediation. So with a quick reality check, the Town will be paying for all the remediation and not collecting any rental income for years! 

Now that The Paul has announced the Town will sell the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to Game On 365 for $1.55M, he has effectively thwarted another costly lawsuit which would have been avoided if he had simply followed the law to begin with. The Town is also circumventing the Request For Proposal (RFP) process, assuring that no other higher bids could earn the Town more money for this almost-open-government-sale, performing any real market value assessments, or have any other pesky fact or legitimate detail get in the way of The Paul delivering the promised property to the preferred developer. ABG is unsure of how The Paul set the $1.55M sale price, except that during the RFP process to lease the property, the Town was offered $1.5M to purchase the property. Apparently, the Town is allowing Game On to pay a hair ($500) over that price even though it’s an incredible gift for 7 acres of prime real estate. We are still waiting for the “problem solver” to solve the biggest problem we have in Greenburgh. We can only hope.

Report To The People Offers Little

As if schooled by The Paul, we received a recent “Report to the People” campaign piece that said little, but managed to produce a collage of pictures with the sender posing with several politicos and others from the public, all under the pretext of performing legislative service. The reality is, he is short on substance and long on hyperbole. By the way, we’re not using his name to keep from promoting his lame record and abuse of mailing privileges. We hope that others will view this and other campaign mailers with a more critical eye.

On the front page of the campaign piece is “his statement” in response to the Newtown murders of twenty-six people. These murders were truly horrible and ABG means no disrespect toward those victims, families and friends who are suffering from this. It’s a shame that he would use this as a political opportunity to issue a statement “in response” to the Newtown shootings, when nobody asked him for one and he has nothing to add. Sadly, it’s pure politics. His plan? Keeps guns away from those who would misuse them, ban military style weapons, register all guns, their transfer, mandate their secure storage, carefully license every gun owner, train them in gun safety, and check on them periodically. Then he wants to utilize more mental health professionals in the community to minimize the likelihood of violence. Of course, he fails to mention how to pay for all of this or any real strategy for implementation.

ABG is always saddened to see anyone injured or killed. In fact, several of our staff members volunteer in the Greenburgh community in different capacities and recognize first-hand the horrors that people inflict upon others. We also recognize that most of his talking points are strictly designed to appear to promote a call to action while merely promoting himself. The reality is nothing will happen and in particular, he will do nothing but continue to talk about it. The shooter in Newtown appears to have a history of mental illness. For that matter, his mother, whom he also killed, must have had something wrong too, since she legally purchased and kept weapons in the home, and took her mentally ill son to the firing range to “bond”. He didn’t use military style or assault weapons. In Webster, NY, the shooter of the two firefighters was obviously deranged and then killed himself. Could the talking points our representative have made a difference? We’ll never know. Lets examine his points individually.

1) Keep guns away from those who would misuse them. It’s great to say, but how to you propose to do this? Will he introduce another unenforceable law that he can brag he co-wrote or co-sponsored? You can’t control who gets a gun unless that person is a law-abiding citizen. It’s like putting locks on doors; hence the saying, ‘locks are for honest people’. The amount of people who own guns versus the amount being murdered is being disproportionately represented.
2) Ban military style weapons? They are. It was not a military style weapon that was used in the Newtown killings. It was an over the counter automatic rifle. But okay, ban military weapons. How?
3) Register all guns? Good luck making that happen. Handguns are currently required to be registered, rifles are not. Since the police are prohibited to enter your homes by the constitution, this would be a voluntary program at best, is unenforceable, and limited to the law-abiding. However, if we should attempt to have all guns registered, amend the current law to include rifles. It’s a start in the direction he claims we need. We agree it needs to start.
4) Regulate gun transfers. Again, how? An example was given by a friend whose grandfather gifted a shotgun to his teenage grandson. He took the time to train him in the proper use of the gun, the grandson took a gun safety class and became a remarkable target shooter – not a hunter. As a familial transaction, government would never know about it.
5) Carefully license every gun owner. We already have this law on the books and again, normal law-abiding citizens are never the issue. In fact, the Newtown shooter’s mothers guns were legally registered. Sometimes, bad things happen by bad people that no amount of legislation will stop.
6) Train them in gun safety. Good idea. And yet, government has mandated every new driver take an 8-hour driver safety class before they can take their driving test. Yet once licensed, many of these new drivers still drink, text, and drive under the influence even though they were told them it wasn’t safe to do it. And which group has the highest accident rates? New drivers. So, how much of government mandated training is going to produce the results he seeks?
7) Check on them periodically? Could this be more ambiguous? We hear of child abuse victims all the time who are neglected because a case-worker was overworked or unable to effectively investigate the parents. So, now he proposes hiring more people onto the government payroll that is already bloated? Can you say tax increase? His response, of course, will be, “If we save just one life, any cost was worth it.” That’s debatable.
8) Stop glorifying violence. Many talk about needing anti-violence, especially the Hollywood crowd. Aren’t they the same ones that make and star in the violent movies for gazillions of dollars? The movie industry’s been in a slump and then the action-packed, violent, James Bond “Skyfall” movie sets records for attendance. Add to that The Expendables, Transformers, Batman (repeatedly) etc., proving the law abiding public wants these films because movies are an escape from our everyday lives. Hollywood is being disingenuous, not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them. Good luck with stopping that.
9) The group he works with passed legislation requiring micro-stamping bullets to assist in tracing weapons back to their owner. Didn’t the police know who was doing the shootings in most of these killings. Feel good legislation? You decide.

There were several other items he “worked” on. Or did he? Actually, here’s some of the mailing’s legislatiive topics that was passed into law but not necessarily written by our legislator: DNA Databank, Domestic Violence protections, Cyber-Bullying, Micro-stamping, I-Stop (Internet - System for Tracking Over Prescribed drugs), Water Protection (accidental sewage discharge notification into waterways, sponsored by him), Health (prohibits smoking within 100ft of a school - because our police officers need to be busier), Hydro-Fracking (requires studies of the health impacts of hydro-fracking, co-sponsored by him).

Finally, to the back page of the campaign piece. He claims we need to replace ConEd as their Hurricane Sandy storm response was “totally inadequate, a management fiasco, a poor plan, poorly executed.” He’s calling for hearings into ConEd’s poor response. Why? We know their response was as good as it could be given the magnitude of damage and their current staffing. ConEd called in for help and the ConEd unions turned some of the non-union utility workers away. What results could hearings possibly render? The committee’s 30-page report summary will state that ConEd was woefully understaffed, the size of the storm was unpredictable, and the amount of damage into the billions of dollars and the federal government, along with FEMA must do more. This is strictly grandstanding on his part. The Paul will want to get in on the media frenzy and issue a press release commending the committee, berate ConEd again (he’s already done this), and say we should do away with county government.

He has introduced legislation for an idea that many have offered before him to put a height restrictor at the entrances of our parkways to deter trucks from accessing the roadways. He doesn’t even allude to how much will this cost? Regardless, it does have merit. Currently, the bridges that get repeated hits on the Hutchinson River Parkway cost us little if anything but time to address. When a bridge hit in Mamaroneck happens, the County Police respond (paid, on duty), the Mamaroneck Fire Department (no cost, volunteer) responds, a wrecker responds (big cost, insurance pays) and tickets and fines are issued. Virtually no cost to the tax payer except for the time delays. Now, we’ll be paying for some elaborate study, then prototype development, testing, changes and installation. Worth it, or another government boondoggle? Whatever the cost figures are that are presented to the public, triple the number and you’ll have the final cost. Watch for the federal and state subsidy slight of hand with the accompanying claims of low cost to the taxpayers because the feds are picking up the bill. YOU are the feds picking up the bill!

He also is requesting a discounted rate for all Westchester residents who use the Tappan Zee bridge. ABG, as well as everyone else we discuss this with, recognizes that the tolls will skyrocket once the bridge is completed, so this is highly unlikely to happen. He is still insisting on only building one bridge and keeping the original bridge as a park and bus use. Apparently, it’s been designated as maintenance-free and no longer needs demolition. He should pay more attention when he’s at his part-time job supposedly representing us to what’s already been decided. There will be two bridges, no park and dedicated bus lanes. But he’ll be able to say look what I tried to do for you – and with a straight face.

He brags that he was able to get legislation approved to allow Greenburgh (really The Paul) to lease Town property to a private, for-profit business, undoing the safety net provided by law to protect the Unincorporated residents of the Town. Another legislator from the other side of the building was participatory in the unraveling of this law. Then his last tidbit is that he joined with the Pleasantville mayor, other local officials and numerous residents to stop the installation of cell towers there. Funny, we wonder why he didn’t help the Irvington residents trying to accomplish the same thing? ABG’s guess is that The Paul wanted the towers and he was afraid to go against his eminence.

All of these talking points make for a nice generic mailer/campaign piece that does nothing but continue to aid incumbents with their off-season campaigning. Change a few pictures and this template will surely be used by other legislators. They keep their name out there, ensuring little chance that the electorate will vote for a new candidate come election time. Ultimately, they are doing little for the prized salary and perks they receive. It needs to change. We can only hope.

Opening Acts

Town Board meetings are cyclical. When the Town Clerk fails to book an opening act, the meetings might start on time. We’re actually unsure what time Town Board meetings start since they rarely begin at the appointed time. This was the case Wednesday evening as the audience sat through the requisite video shows (there were three) and The Paul’s ramblings like a drunk uncle at a wedding everyone tries to avoid. The audience started out with a few more than the regular attendees but eventually whittled itself down mostly to the G10.

FEMA was the opening act for the meeting with several FEMA representatives going to the podium to state what they can do for homeowners and business residents that have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. While The Paul asked a few questions and Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan chimed in, the result of the twenty or so minutes was if you don’t apply for assistance, you won’t get help. Having witnessed many nearby residents who were flooded in Hurricane Irene be turned down by FEMA for assistance, we aren’t expecting newly affected residents to fare any better.

After the Veteran’s video and the Boy Scouts’ video, the meeting haphazardly got under way. There was a representative from the Friends of the Greenburgh Library who spoke during the first 3-minute public session. She commented on the use of the library during the storm and then pleaded for the Town Board to not cut their funding in this year’s budget. The Paul commented about the 2% Tax Cap from the state, so we still don’t know if the library is able to purchase any new books this year. Interestingly, every time the issue of money comes up and it’s not one of the pet projects of The Paul, we’re limited by the 2% Tax Cap. Otherwise, the Town is spending like there’s no tomorrow – which may be closer than we know.

A representative from the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association got up and asked if the timer could not be started as she wanted to compliment the library for their participation in Hurricane Sandy before she began what she came to discuss. Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan said, “No, you get three minutes like everyone else.” There’s that fostering of community spirit if we desperately long for, shot down again. At one point The Paul began to converse with a resident during their public comment session. During resident Ed Krauss’ 5-minute public speaking session, he stated that maybe this dialog with a resident was an epiphany. But once a dialog started, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan stated, “We’ve already violated our policy of not commenting during the public sessions,” and stopped it before it materialized into something productive. Finally getting some feedback from the silent Board was refreshing. “Back Pocket” knows The Paul will get them in trouble if he’s allowed to ramble for too long.

Many speakers got up and commented about numerous topics. Most residents that spoke, however, seemed to focus on either the referendum or the GameOn 365 sports bubble debacle. After getting pummeled by so many, The Paul exploded and gave his usual dissertation of his skewed view of democracy in action. Many of the points were salient ones that made his comments moot. Uncustomarily, the Board began spouting off many of the same issues and points they had ignored from residents prior to the referendum and The Paul’s signing of the contract with GameOn 365. He seemed frustrated that his supporters abandoned him during this assault. In fact, even most of his commissioners were not in the room, while Tim “Remediation” Lewis kept his head down during most of the meeting unless to tell a speaker their time at the microphone was up. Maybe he was feeling shameful or possibly repentant for lying to residents as to the clean up costs for the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road site. ABG is confident The Paul had mandated Lewis’ behavior with this deal and is now Lewis is reflecting on his time as the Town Attorney and that it too may need “remediation”.

This meeting was perhaps one hour long if you stripped out the opening acts. The Board made themselves the lead agency for a number of projects The Paul wants pushed through for developers. Several gas stations applied to pay the new “fees” (really a penalty tax) for the recently adopted service station law benefitting Cumberland Farms’ “new” gas station on Central Avenue. Many believe this will be crippling to existing service/gas stations in the Town. The low applications prove the Board’s revenue-generating scheme has backfired. For a change, there were no tax certiorari refunds. ABG guesses you could say we broke even this night. Don’t get overconfident just yet – ABG knows it won’t last. It would be nice to think residents were witnessing a new path with Town Board meetings that are conversational, constructive, purposeful and leave us with a feeling of accomplishment. It could have been a great opening act. We can only hope.

Carcinogens at Frank’s: Should We Ignore?

Resident Hal Samis, having recently retired from the real estate industry, posed these questions to the Town Board and several news media outlets. The Greenburgh Town Board seems to rarely, if ever, answer questions that residents raise at the Town board meetings. ABG felt obliged to publish these as Mr. Samis’ GameOn 365 questions are germane to the public’s right to know. The lamestream media will ignore them to insulate The Paul. Here are Mr. Samis’ unedited questions:

Could these questions be answered? And such preventive action/notice, as would be required or deemed prudent, be undertaken IMMEDIATELY?

1) When does the Lease become effective? I am not asking when rent commences but at what point or date certain that the Tenant (GameOn 365) takes possession of the property and assumes standard Tenant responsibility?

2) Whatever entity controls the property, be it the Town or the Tenant, now that it has been determined that the site is contaminated, i.e. evidence of carcinogens, shouldn't the Landlord and/or Tenant, the responsible party(ies), immediately see to it that the property is properly sealed off from allowing unrestricted entrance and that signs warning of contamination be posted immediately. In its present unsecured state, visitation to the property is both possible and permitted with little effort and assuredly without reliance upon hazmat outerwear.

3) Given that there is no Bonding or even Rent Security required of the Tenant (normally found in all Leases), at the time that the Tenant accepts the Certificate of Occupancy and opens its doors to the Public:

a) over the course of the Tenant's rent paying 15 year term, should discovery find the site to be still contaminated and this to the harm of the visiting and unknowing public (had a less than comprehensive plan of remediation been chosen), who is responsible for such damages as may result from successful litigation by harmed plaintiffs?

b) were the Tenant, GameOn 365 and its successors or assigns, to be found liable by a Court, what assets, other than the existing site improvements net of liens, does the Tenant possess to satisfy such judgements? Since the Town presumably conducted due diligence into the finances of the Tenant and found them to be ready, willing and ABLE to enter into this Lease, I would assume that by unannounced side agreement (albeit contrary to the Lease "this constitutes the entire...") that some sort of escrow arrangement of future profits is required. Am I correct regarding the existence of such?

c) if both the Town and the Tenant, jointly are found liable and, should the Tenant be found lacking in assets, will the Town then be solely responsible for the payment of damages?

d) were the Town and the Tenant, singly or jointly, give consent to a sports facility which will recruit children as paying clientele AND to do so without first seeking all cures and remedies currently available to the Town and the Tenant to cure known contamination, are both the Town Board and the Tenant subject to criminal prosecution?

Please prepare specific answers to the specific questions ready for delivery at the next Town Board meeting. This should require little effort as I'm certain that the Town Board would already know these answers having voted to execute the Lease, having voted to expand the Phase II Study and having accepted the language of the Referendum Proposition.

Hal Samis

Can He Ignore Them Now?

Residents have been complaining about The Paul’s actions for some time. The G10 pointed out the property’s history having been a dumping location for the White Plains Urban Renewal when that downtown area was being renovated and The Paul ignored them. When the G10 pointed to deficiencies in the environmental study that was proposed, The Paul ignored them. When the G10 pointed out the violation of county and state laws regarding the acquisition of foreclosed properties, The Paul ignored them. When the G10 pointed out that the zoning was residential, not commercial (and knowing he could change it at his behest) The Paul ignored them. When neighborhood residents objected to an 8-story-plus size building on the property, The Paul ignored them. When a developer speaks, The Paul is all ears. When the community speaks, The Paul ignores them. 

The Paul foisted a Greenburgh Town referendum onto the ballot to approve or disapprove the private enterprise’s profit-making sports bubble on 715 Dobbs Ferry Road the day of the election. The Paul stated that the resistance to the sports bubble was nothing more than an exploit by the House of Sports of Ardsley, a new brick and mortar sports facility, whose motive was to fight future competition. They claimed not, stating they welcome the competition. One ABG staffer showed us two mailings she received and a neighbor received from GameOn 365 and pointed out the address label. It was identical to the “layout” when she receives a Town mailing or a campaign piece from The Paul. Her maiden name as it appeared on their home’s deed years ago is what tipped her off. It’s the same for everything she receives from the Town. It’s the only thing she ever receives via US Postal mail with her maiden name.

The Paul rounded up the usual suspect to speak on behalf of the GameOn 365 deal and even offered both sides the opportunity to air a ten-minute video touting their “side”. The two videos could not have been more contrastive. The GameOn 365 video was a slick, vacuous show of pictures with kids playing soccer and seniors being interviewed. In fact, their video even mentioned that voters should flip the “new” 1800’s era ballot over to vote for the proposition. How did they know it would be on the back? Possibly because they did their homework or probably because The Paul coached them as to what to say? The opposition’s video was chocked full of information and facts as to why the Referendum should not proceed. While the count for the two video’s viewing was disparate, it wasn’t enough to sway the vote – which is what The Paul calculated.

The Paul is a shrewd and cunning politician, while fostering the disheveled, unkempt goofball persona. He knew putting this ill-fated idea to a referendum would silence critics whose argument had been to put it out to a referendum. But once The Paul stuck his hand into the referendum mix, he screwed up what may have been a good thing had been done properly. Since it wasn’t done properly, a lawsuit filed by numerous corporations and individuals will be all that is left to save the residents from a dispossessed and impoverished Town Board. And, once in court, The Paul will argue that the referendum passed and the suit should be dismissed or found in his favor because less than 1% of the people spoke. If The Paul loses, he’ll use his standard “battle cry” that this judge doesn’t like him, or it’s a blow to democracy and/or the people. He’ll then begin a new deflection campaign.

In the end, the simple fact is The Paul doesn’t listen to his constituency. He caters to developers and is slowly eroding the Town’s charm and beauty into something most people do not want. The infrastructure has been neglected and ignored to the point of major concern in all neighborhoods with the exception perhaps his own gated community. It’s hard to know just who’s interest The Paul has but so far his history has proven it to be the developers. Perhaps it’s time for the Town to hire a Town Administrator, reduce the Supervisor’s salary, and get the Town on the right track. We can only hope.

Proposition #1 Passes With More Contamination Than The Site

The fix was in, the deal was done, the bed was made and the lights turned out. The lease process began well before the Town assumed ownership of the foreclosed property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery. Once the ownership passed hands, The Paul let it fall right through his. While everyone familiar with the property acknowledged and explained the hazards and toxicity of the site to The Paul and his Board, he and they ignored them. Those who understand The Paul’s methods of how he operates knowing that once he makes up his mind to do something, he will not back down, no matter how illegal, immoral, dangerous or costly the project is or will be for the Town.

When nearby resident Simon Cohen launched the ‘HelpBurstTheBubble’ movement, he was uninitiated in Greenburgh politics. He portrayed the contaminated site and The Paul’s actions with logical, real and tangible reasons why it shouldn’t be done. In the end, it didn’t matter as The Paul began and continues to ignore the law mandating the sale of foreclosed property. He ignored all of the points raised by not only Mr. Cohen, but others. The G10 (formerly G8) stated and gave proof of contamination, flooding issues, traffic concerns and so on. Unfortunately, it’s the same litany we’ve repeatedly witnessed being ignored by the Town Board, aka Lead Agency, for project after project. Many had asked for a referendum to find out what the residents wished the Town to do with the property. The Paul ignored them. Then, as the opposition started to gain legitimate inroads toward stopping the ill-conceived project, The Paul then decided to hold a referendum only to have or not have the GameOn 365 bubble. Shrewd.

In classic form, The Paul began his deflection methods to distract from the bubble and began talking about all things unrelated. The media, complicit with him, routinely play along, ignoring their role as fact-checkers and reporters (in the strictest sense) of what all and any of our politicians do – legal or illegal. ABG is convinced we will never have any Watergate-type exposé except when the media is seeking to destroy an existing candidate or politician that is from the “other side” or opposes their agenda. Regardless, ABG will continue to champion the truth as much and as often as we can.

So what’s next? A lawsuit against the Town had already been initiated to stop the referendum bubble deal. As others have aptly stated, The Paul will now trumpet his mantra that the people have spoken and it’s democracy at it’s best, blah, blah, blah. Frankly, it’s a shame The Paul and his Board have so little regard for doing the right thing with people’s health. What’s worse is The Paul’s and his Board’s unbridled willingness to move forward with this dangerous, deceitful and problem-ridden project.

Just as importantly, not doing a thorough and proper site evaluation, remediation cost bidding and finally a site remediation before doing anything with the property for political expediency is unconscionable. It appears our elected officials abandoned a moral compass for a buck some time ago. Yet, to knowingly proceed is nothing less than criminal. Let’s hope the (yet another) lawsuit against the Town will force them to stop and do what is truly the right thing. We can only hope.

Vote NO – Carcinogens Found on Proposition #1 Site

In a stunning release by Woodard and Curran, the company doing the environmental study for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, they reported contaminates that exceed acceptable levels for state cleanup criteria for commercial use were found at that location. This is the site of the proposed Proposition #1 which would (illegally attempt to) authorize the GameOn 365 sports bubble project. Numerous concerned Town residents objected to the proposition and repeatedly pointed out the site was believed to be packed full of contaminants and toxic debris, some originating from White Plains construction sites and others from two long-time nurseries.

Due to this finding, The Paul had his Town Board authorize additional money to be spent to investigate the property to the tune of $69,670 more dollars. Not $69k or $70k, but $69,670. Residents had been told by Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis that the Town would only need to spend $100k for site study and cleanup. This no longer seems to be the case with this new discovery. Regardless, The Paul, Tim “Remediation” Lewis and Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan had stated at numerous Town Board meetings that the costs for testing and remediation would be capped at $100k. It appears that the inside information they failed to share with the public is slowly escalating to an amount that was previously unforeseen.

In arrogant defiance while being caught with his pants down, The Paul insisted this Proposition is still good for the Town, he insists the Town should proceed as he planned. Interestingly, it was The Paul, when pushed by residents at the last two Town Board meetings, who said that the safety of the children is paramount and the Proposition as well as the lease would not go through if anything was found that deemed the property dangerous to children and their parents. Ironically, no mention was ever expressed for concern of the employees.

It appears that the concerned residents of the Town were correct in their widespread criticism of the actions of The Paul and his Board regarding Proposition #1 and the GameOn 365 sports bubble. The overwhelming evidence confirms what the long-time residents had warned everyone about. Another critic of the Proposal #1, Simon Cohen, who organized the HelpBurstTheBubble movement, was berated by many at numerous meetings and is owed an apology.

Here again is the video the concerned Greenburgh residents made against Proposition #1:

While ABG is pleased that so many were on the right side of this issue for the right reasons, it is discouraging that our elected representatives are not representing the residents’ best interests, but those of the developers. This has to change. While none of our Town elected officials are running for office, ABG joins many others in asking for their resignations. We can only hope.