Under The Cover of Darkness

Republican candidate for Governor and former County Executive Rob Astorino, broke a story at a press conference at the County Airport this week stating that the Federal government is and has been shipping illegal aliens into Westchester County via the Westchester County airport under the cover of darkness. The Feds claim the flights are part of a national operation to reunite minors who had been separated from their families at the southern border. In total, it has been estimated that hundreds of iillegals have been flown into Westchester during late-night flights. If this were a legitimate action, the flights would be coming in during the daylight hours and every politician would be on the runway holding a press conference. The fact that they are doing this at night under the cover of darkness belies it's legitimacy.

“I’m now told the flights have been happening since April. Smaller then. Bigger now. 737s daily," Astorino said. “Being secretive makes it worse. I don’t blame the individuals, I blame the federal government for not fixing our broken immigration system and securing the southern border. And I blame our state and local elected officials for either not demanding answers for us or knowing the answers and not telling us or lying to us. We need answers.”

Westchester County Executive George Latimer excused it saying that the HHS operation was part of President Joe Biden’s Office of Refugee Resettlement operation, and not specific to Westchester, as his administration attempts to reunite children under the age of 18 with their families. Although, when you look at the photos you’d be hard pressed to find young children among the mostly adult-looking passengers.

Assemblyman Colin Schmitt (R-New Windsor) also issued a statement of his own condemning the flights while taking a shot at Democrat leaders.

“It has been confirmed that the Biden Administration has been sending flights carrying illegal aliens who were detained crossing our southern border to the Westchester County Airport,” he wrote in an email blast. “This occurred without notice to the public or county officials.

The illegals were taken from private flights and placed on buses. They were apparently eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, but it isn’t clear how many received the vaccine or not clear how many flights have come into Westchester. But, once on the buses, it’s unknown what communities they were transported to. Scary. We have previously reported that at the beginning stages of the Covid 19 pandemic that the County, vis-à-vis the County DSS and County Executive Latimer, housed 40 Covid positive homeless people into the Days Inn (formerly the Saw Mill River Motel) in Elmsford on Valley Avenue. They didn’t notify the Village, offer funds to assist with the daily ambulance transports to area hospitals for non-Covid related issues, such as an upset stomach, dizziness, general malaise, etc. These people know how to “game” the system to their advantage. For instance, they suddenly don’t feel well  at 10 - 11:00AM or at 4PM and get transported to the hospital in time for lunch or later for dinner. Want to stay longer? If they claim to be suicidal, they’ll be admitted for three days for “evaluation.” When they are finally discharged, the County is obligated to find them another room either in the same motel/hotel or another and transport them there, feed them, provide medical assistance if needed as well as clothing.

This clear abuse of power is an affront to to residents of Westchester County and Americans in general. Secure the border and stop this flow. Sending these detainees to be released in our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic represents a clear threat to the health and safety of our region. Our local representatives need to stand up for the safety and well-being of our residents! You can’t tell us in one breath to get vaccinated and wear a mask and then insert contaminated people into our communities. This must stop! It’s the only way we’ll get A Better Greenburgh.

WestHelp Agreements Violated Again

At  the last Town Board meeting they proved once again that it lacks integrity, transparency and honesty with their skewed methods of governance. This latest move belies Mr Feiner’s often used canned phrases of ‘due diligence’, ‘transparency’, ‘faith in the process’ and others. This time the Town Board held a special meeting, a covert meeting if you will, to change the tenets of the previously agreed upon use of the WestHelp facility on the Westchester Community College campus and negate the agreement that had been developed for the property. Originally created and used as an affordable housing facility for mothers with under school-age children, you may recall Mr Feiner chose to leave the vacant facility open after the County ceased using the facility for homeless families. Its original intent and design had been as an affordable housing facility.

With a seemingly veiled public disclosure at the ending of last Wednesday nights Town Board meeting and without any public session, or any public discourse, Mr Feiner and his Board skirted their elected obligation entitled to by the public regarding the WestHelp property. It highlights Mr Feiner’s contempt and low regard for the Greenburgh taxpayer. He and his Board members voted in a hastily contrived “special meeting” to change the determined use for the now degraded WestHelp facility. You may recall, after the lease with the County expired due to Mr Feiner’s twice refused contract acceptance, the facility was vacated by the County’s Department of Social Services (DSS). Mr Feiner took it upon himself, condoned by his Board, to not only leave the facilities unsecured, but to accelerate its degradation so it would need to be torn down, appeasing the residents of Valhalla who were mostly against the site in the first place. The reason? Votes.

The site was the brainchild of the HUD Chair Andrew Cuomo, who was appointed by then President Bill Clinton after Cuomo’s political aspirations were halted when he insulted New Yorkers with several negative comments when he was running for governor. Knowing what short memories voters have, he was whisked away to Washington to wait out the furor. Once his past history was forgotten, he began his anointment to the Albany throne. As governor, he disagreed with Mr Feiner’s newest proposal for the WestHelp site to sell the property to the Ferncliff School for the disabled. County Executive Astorino, as well as other County Legislators, disagreed as well but chose inaction over The Town’s violation of the in-place and still active contract. ABG conversed with County Legislator Alfreda Williams, who said the County Board would need to address any contractual violations and decide how to proceed. Nothing was done.

So, after languishing for four years at the mandate by Mr Feiner, the County finally agreed to let the Town submit a proposal for the site or lose this gift-horse property completely. The facility had generated $1.2 million dollars a year in revenue to the Town. Had the Town continued to receive those funds, we would have had $4.8 million that could have been used toward paying down the $6.5 million guilty verdict fine levied against Mr Feiner after being found guilty by a Federal Court for discrimination, destroying evidence, not being a credible witness and more. In the meantime, Mr Feiner keeps insisting the Town remained within the 2% NYS Tax Cap while raising our taxes 3.4%. More political posturing aided by Cuomo’s 2% Tax Cap hype.

After the NYS Division of Human Rights granted the Town permission to impose age restrictions toward the property’s usage, it was decided to create a Senior Living Facility on the WestHelp site in accordance with the terms of the original lease with the County. They would reconfigure the 108 efficiency apartments into 74 apartments to be rented out to senior citizens. The facility would then be managed by a previously denied management company, Peekskill’s Marathon Development Group. Mr Feiner originally tried to award the contract to a developer with no background or experience in property management. In fact, the deal  that Mr Feiner originally refused to award to Marathon is the same deal as before with two major and costly changes. First, the deal will only bring in $127,000 per year, down from the original proposal Mr Feiner killed. Second, the Town, in particular the Unincorporated Taxpayer, will wind up paying for the remediation to the site! This was another decision made behind closed doors, possibly in an elusive Executive Session and never a posed to other bidders. Faith in the system? Transparency? Due diligence? Hardly.

Messrs. Morgan and Jones “brokered” the same deal that was laid out initially and are now bragging of this “new” deal as though they are master negotiators. They’re not. Because of Mr Feiner and his Board’s actions, the Town not only lost the $1.2 million a year in revenue, they knowingly and arbitrarily decided to cost the Town even more by dragging out this process and agreeing to what had already been proposed, less the four year reduction of income for the Town, income for Marathon and most importantly income that would have helped the resident taxpayers. Now, however, the taxpayers will be “on the hook” for the remediation costs, no matter what they amount to. Additionally, Marathon will wind up managing 54 apartments instead of the originally agreed upon 74 and the seniors that might have been afforded homes will still be left wanting.

If Mr Feiner and his Board were truly interested in providing affordable housing and not just posturing about it, they could have assigned the 108 apartments to some of the 250 families on the Greenburgh Housing Authority’s waiting list once the County ceased their operation of WestHelp.That would have amounted to about half of their waiting list of Town residents being helped. This would have alleviated the blight of Greenburgh residents and probably others seeking a home. There was no stipulation in the original contract about who the Town could place in the apartments once the Town took it over. But since this administration is not sincere about addressing the problem, those people continue to wait - over four years later.

Another connivance by Mr Feiner means more delays and another possible rejection for the use of the WestHelp property from the County. We’re pretty sure that Mr Feiner did not make the switch from senior to affordable housing to help County Executive Astorino in the County’s fulfillment of the federally mandated housing agreement in Westchester. Although, given Mr Feiner’s history of guilty verdicts in court, we have to wonder if he has had any experience with those judges and cut a deal? Regardless, after rejecting proposals from bona fide housing management companies, turning down a cash sale with all remediation costs included, trying to change the use from housing to a school, being found guilty in paying funds to the Valhalla School District, after accusing residents of undermining his (illegal) deals, it will be no small task to see anybody living at the WestHelp facility. That is, unless they are in tents. This must end. It’s the only way we’ll get A Better Greenburgh.

No Change In The Status Quo

The elections are finally over. Enough money was spent on advertising the candidates to balance many local budgets. In Greenburgh, we could pay off all the guilty verdicts brought upon us by Mr Feiner's illegal activities. Accusations flew and junk mailings found postal employees lining up at chiropractic offices in droves. Let's hope the candidates will pick up and properly dispose of all of their yard signs. literature and assorted paraphernalia. In the end though, nothing really changed.
 
The governor's race found Cuomo defeating challenger Astorino. The voting percentage was 55% to 42%. The television and political pundits all said Cuomo handily took this (re)election. But did he? Cuomo received 114,533 votes and Astorino received 86,493. The numbers don't lie but they do tell a story. Given the roughly two to one ratio of Democrats to Republicans in the state, the numbers tell us that Astorino crossed party lines and was attractive enough to some Democrats that they voted for him; or that some Democrats were dissatisfied or mad at Cuomo (and others) and simply voted against the status quo.
 
Yes, Astorino still lost. But did he? As we just said, the numbers don't lie and Cuomo did win. However, this election wasn't as much about Astorino winning as it was to position himself for the next gubernatorial election. Compared to New York's last election's upstate Republican candidate Carl Paladino, Astorino has that Richie Cunningham, aw-shucks demeanor and is very likeable. Having his adorable family in tow doesn't hurt either. He's comfortable with a variety of media and he is fluent in Spanish. He now has name recognition throughout the state, a cadre of people who are willing to stump for him the next time around, greater statewide awareness of state-wide issues and ties to the big money donors. Ultimately, he now has a wider breadth of supporters than he had before.

Locally, we saw sitting Democratic Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, sponsored in part by big Pharma, defeat Republican challenger Mike Duffy. The tally was 62% to 38% (20,765 to 12,787 respectively). In this race, the numbers are pretty much what they were when Thomas Bock challenged Abinanti in 2010, telling us two things: Abinanti has a Greenburgh Democratic base willing to vote the party line regardless of any wrong-doing or lack of knowledge on the issues. Or, simply, the democrats vote for their own and the Republicans do the same. Everyone continues to try to figure out how to capture the Independents and undecided voters to side with them without much success.

In other races, there were a few close calls but nothing radically different. We were watching the Attorney General race because the outcome could have been important for Greenburgh taxpayers. There have been several attempts by different organization to have our Supervisor investigated for multiple wrong-doings with little success. Had incumbent Attorney General Eric Schneiderman lost, we may have been more likely to finally make some headway than previously attempted. 

Propositions 1, 2, and 3 all passed - no surprise there. Each time propositions are put forth, the media blitz to convince the electorate to support them on behalf of the incumbents is untiring and often bereft of information that presents both sides of the argument. ABG wrote about the three Propositions and tried to give the counter-points to make the case to the voters to really think about not voting in favor of them. 

Overwhelmingly, the votes for either status quo or a populace that is unhappy with the dysfunction of government proves at all levels that people want change and deserve better .The northeast seemed to be entrenched and a bit immune to the wave across the nation for change. With Democrats holding onto their seats but spending much more money than ever before to do so, this should be a wake up call for many of them. Contrary to Mr Cuomo's ads, NY and New Yorkers are not doing better and people are still leaving. Now that the shift in the US and NY Senates has happened, our leaders may really be forced to cross the aisle and actually work together. Isn't that what they all tout before they get elected? Let's hope they do. Then, maybe we'll see A Better Greenburgh.

State of The County Address

County Executive and gubinatorial candidate Rob Astorino gave his mandated yearly State of The County address Thursday night. Joined in the front row by his wife and three children, this invitation-only event was a who’s who of Westchester County government and Republican party members. Although, numerous Democratic representatives were absent for this event, several of the Democratic representatives were in attendance. He covered numerous topics affecting the County and either had memorized his speech or utilized a prompter. Regardless, he appeared relaxed, polished and confident as he spoke.

Of particular interest to ABG was the proud announcement of the “great partnership” with the New York Knick’s developmental team, who would be using the County Center for their home games. In general, this is good news, except for Fulton Park, the small community that has been besieged by or abused and ignored by Mr Feiner and the County for years. It reminds us of when political leaders brag about the deals they make for tax savings and incentives they offer big businesses to stay in our county and towns. He made mention of that as well. They never discuss how the residential taxpayer must offset that money. Nor do they ever discuss or seem to help struggling small businesses with similar deals.

The County had used the former King’s Inn Motel for homeless and then a transitional prisoner release location for years, adding to a crime and general lower quality of life for the neighborhood. ABG has recounted the tales of “quickie” sex in cars parked nearby with hookers, empty crack vials and “baggies”, depleted alcohol bottles and used condoms on neighborhood lawns. The County’s solution to these issues was to park a County police car on the street outside the facility. Since then, Mr Feiner “gave” the property to Westhab, as well as the former Fulton Avenue, the increase in traffic for this neighborhood has been staggering.

Now that the Knicks will arrive, the street congestion promises to increase as the $7 parking fee is easily avoided on the north side of the building. With this free parking on the streets in their neighborhood, the Fulton Park Civic Association has reached out to the police department in hope of ameliorating this situation before it gets even worse as the Knicks arrive. The County, along with our Town, doesn’t appear to look beyond the immediate gratification and publicity of new deals.

Astorino mentioned that ticket prices will be only $10 and not require a second mortgage to take your family to a game. So while the $10 ticket price is attractive, and the $7 parking fee is not a killer, traffic and parking issues in this already congested area get worse when there is an event at the County Center. The effect of these events is that roadways backup in all directions, frustrations increase, automotive accidents happen and the event impacts more than just the immediate area. The solution for the County is to spend overtime and place County Police officers to direct traffic. The last time we checked, the County Police’s overtime budget was $8 million.

There was quite a bit said regarding the HUD settlement by Mr Astorino, which elicited not only applause, but several standing ovations. He focused on his actions being driven by the law and legal standing. He also announced a new initiative for the County in that they will replace the HUD money themselves so as to not be held to HUD mandates and standards, maintaining control of what we do in the County under “Home Rule”. An interesting idea whose time may have come under duress, Mr Astorino claimed the cost to residents would be $1 each.

He discussed the increasing Hispanic population to Westchester, speaking a brief time in Spanish and announcing that his Deputy Chief of Staff, Katie Delgado would be starting in an additional new role of Immigrant Services Liaison. He touched on her family’s background and thanked her in Spanish, saying, “Katie, pro favor, levantese (get up).” Whether this was a cheap parlor trick or Mr Astorino actually speaks Spanish remains a mystery.

Mr Astorino took the opportunity to brag about the contracts his administration has worked out with seven of the eight unions of the County’s workers. Then he highlighted the one union that failed to ratify their contract, the CSEA. He thanked the others as they made the concession to pay into their health benefits as everyone else does. He discussed the findings offered by an independent fact finder that the union and how he disagreed with some of the findings but was willing to accept and agree to it. The CSEA apparently was not and has still refused to ratify the contract – “We will continue to negotiate.”

Finally, Mr Astorino discussed his “run” for governor. He discussed that 85% of the Westchester Tax levy will go to Albany to pay for nine NYS unfunded mandates. The County taxes paid to NYS amount to $450 million and the County receives back about $250 million. He referred to this as “Albany math” that is compounded by the crippling 2% NYS Tax Cap. The time to act is now. He said, “The issues of Westchester and New York State are one in the same. Jobs, taxes, education, the environment, preserving the social safety net and bringing some sanity to the burden of unfunded mandates all desperately need attention right now.”

Obviously, this was a receptive and friendly crowd for Mr Astorino. Not everybody applauded or participated in the several standing ovations. His message touched on all of the major points but revealed little unknown information. Acknowledging numerous members of the audience, Mr Astorino played the crowd as good as anyone could. He is correct that he had lowered taxes by 2% in his first year and held the taxes at a 0% increase since then. Eventually, as everyone knows, everyone’s taxes will go up. The hopeful news is that we can get other politicians to follow Mr Astorino’s lead and work to hold taxes at “no-increase” level. We certainly need this in Greenburgh. If and when this happens, we’ll start to see A Better Greenburgh!

Just Watch Me

The time leading up to the next election promises to be interesting and economically advantageous for overburdened and beleaguered taxpayers. Not because we’ll have any breakthrough politicians revolutionizing anything, but because several of our potential candidates want to move up, so they are pandering “savings” to the voters. It’s the classic line from a song, “Vote for me and I’ll set you free.” The reality however, begins more likely as, “Elect me to represent you,” which morphs into, “Thanks for electing me, but after all it is all about me. There’s more I need to do and am seeking higher office to do it. See ya!” More accurately the sentiment should be translated as, “Thanks for electing me suckers! I can make more money and get more power by moving up and away from you. Vote for me again and I’m outta here, just watch me!” Since most voters are willfully oblivious to most politics and their politicians, they think they’re doing their community a service by going to vote, recognizing the name on the ballot and voting for them or simply voting the party line when they don’t know anything of a candidate, encouraging more of the same behavior for the next crop of candidates who come along.

There is usually some sort of damage or havoc left in the exiting politician’s wake in the form of increased taxes, new rules, regulations, fees and restrictions to our personal freedoms. Our own Town leaders say they are business friendly, yet continue to institute or increase fees, pass new regulations (with fines), all limiting the business’ ability to operate profitably. Once a business’ resources are exhausted, several less desirable options are available: they let people go, they cut back on merchandise or services, move to another location or go out of business.

Their acts of desperation to continue to stay in business affects us all as the community tax base begins to erode, employees who had the ability to financially support the area cannot and cut back their spending. Some even lose their homes and are forced to move in with relatives or subsidized housing, aka affordable housing. Less taxes are paid into everything from FICA, Social Security, pensions, towns and villages, etc. The elected politicians quick-buck has long-term devastating effects.

For instance, in Greenburgh we witness a Town Board that perpetually struggles to create new taxes in the form of fees and permits or increase existing ones to offset Mr Feiner’s expensive blunders. Blunders such as Fortress Bible Church ($8M payout); WestHelp ($1.2M/yr loss), remarkably uncovered Tax Arrears ($21M uncollected over 20 yrs), Frank’s Nursery property ($3.5 M lost), water meter debacle ($4M expense) and finally, but not limited to, the 10% salary increase the Town Board will vote itself. Mr Feiner justifies the increase saying the elected officials haven’t had a raise since 2007 or so. Here’s a simple solution: quit! Anytime the salary one receives is not working for someone in the “real world” (private sector), that person starts marketing themselves and seeks a new job. Mr Feiner tried this as a politician when he ran for Congress – and lost. So this time he just instructed his Board to vote them all a pretty hefty raise. While the G10 fights this, the willfully ignorant taxpayers allow this.

Mr Feiner wanted to be in Congress. Mr Astorino wants to be Governor, Mr Christie wants to be President. Mr Cuomo wants to be President – and his actions certainly belie that. In New York, it’s Andrew’s turn, so New Jersey’s big guy will really have his work cut out for him. After Cuomo’s big media blunder years ago, the “payback” to Uncle Mario happened and the junior Cuomo was appointed the HUD Chair so he could pay his dues, keep his big, entitled mouth shut and let New Yorkers forget how he insulted them, come back and get back onto the political horse. Shortly after this time, a younger Noam Bramson was elected as New Rochelle Mayor and his grooming began for the promised Nita Lowey’s Congressional seat when she retired. That is, until the Democratic apparatchik began bandying Chelsea Clinton’s name about as her successor if and when retirement plans are announced. In the meantime, our recently re-elected politicians all desire to use our backs as their stepping stone, so they are doing and saying the right things for taxpayers.

Unfortunately, Mr Feiner will not be going anywhere, anytime soon. We had always hoped that someone else would be interesting in hiring a non-practicing attorney, with no management skills, no budget skills and was convicted in Federal Court? No takers. No surprise. Since he cannot move up, apparently Greenburgh is stuck with him, thanks to the willfully ignorant that just won’t bother to pay any attention to his illegal actions and habitually reelect him. By the way, now that Westhab’s President Robert Miller is retiring, perhaps Mr Feiner will be asked to step in and fill their one void with another?

County Executive Astorino, moving along after his well-deserved reelection, is doing more than putting his toe in the proverbial waters to see if support for his run for governor has any legs. He recently travelled to the Republican Governors Association conference in Phoenix with his wife, and spent time meeting with New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie, another political anomaly in an otherwise overwhelmingly Democratic environ. Why did they need to go to Arizona to talk? They could have more easily gotten together in Westchester or New Jersey to “strategerize”. Details of what they discussed was not made public. According to the upstate newspaper the Democrat & Chronicle, Governor Cuomo claims he knows what the two discussed but isn’t disclosing what he knows.

Astorino ran a campaign about maintaing our neighborhoods zoning independence and the right to control our community’s respective look and feel. He and others have bemoaned the overreaching federal government’s hand into this issue, which ABG believes falls squarely under Home Rule. While many support Astorino’s position, many Democrats, their staff and political pundits, along with anybody anti-Republican, claim he’s doing more harm than good. Because of his actions, the federal government has been withholding funds that are more like member items and costing our communities the ability to offer more to their residents (translation: lost votes). He also reduced the spending for the County’s budget, and actually lowered County taxes. While the County tax portion of property taxes paid by the average homeowner is about 18%, the gesture is more symbolic than tangible. And yet the gesture is having good political payoff for Astorino as well as taxpayers. It appears that he is helping the overtaxed taxpayer.

Common Core is dividing New York parents of school age children. Common Core and standardized testing under the guise of educational improvements will further what school’s institutionalized learning already does. It reduces creativity, individual thought, and exceptionalism, akin to teaching coloring and insisting the kids stay within the lines. It demoralizes teachers whose only love is to impart and nurture knowledge into the rapt minds of our young. Governor Cuomo has been doing a great job of campaigning, with only a few minor missteps from which he’s been able to distance himself thanks to a sympathetic liberal press. He has championed reducing taxes, trying to stimulate growth and jobs. He has taken a position on Common Core, seeming to align himself with the majority of a vociferous public. As he continues to claim to be against high taxes, he streamlined the Tappan Zee Bridge project, continues to espouse development and jobs while bolstering his job approval ratings.

Staunch Republicans have even admitted Mr Cuomo is doing a good job. The side benefit of all of this for the electorate is that we now have a 2% NYS Tax Cap, a Tappan Zee Bridge project seeming to move forward to create jobs along with other taxpayer friendly savings, ensuring New York financial and voting support. Mr Cuomo has also been smart enough (or advised) to stay out of the Hydro-fracking controversy in the Marcellus Shale region, having yet to yield a decision to either support hydro-fracking or not. Mr Cuomo’s gestures are nothing more than a stall tactic and if he can just get to the next election cycle without having to render a decision, he’ll be all set.  But his non-campaigning campaigning is having a good economic payoff for the New York taxpayer that we’ve not experienced in a while.

Obamacare is dividing the country and even the Democrats who voted for it. In fact, Obamacare’s implementation been postponed until after the next election to allow those same Democrats a pass to reelection. Our financial advisors are telling us the worst is yet to come. President Obama’s legacy is done. It’s Obamacare – good or bad. As businesses get affected by it and begin reacting to it as best they can, more and more people will be negatively affected. But the willfully ignorant will have forgotten how they were impacted and reelect the same people, just to get screwed again. The people who are financially better-off will just suck it up as they always do and pay the difference. The politicians will have been exempted from participating and pander to those with financially less, promising them much but delivering little.

It can’t all be blamed on the willfully ignorant, but it’s a good place to start. If and when they start paying attention, we can start to turn the tide and improve our lot in New York. It needs to start locally, only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

News Blackout Continues

ABG attended the Westchester County Republican Convention last night at the Manor House in Hastings. As an aside, the parking lot directly across the street remained closed, forcing all attendees to scramble for the few spaces available in the Manor House’s main lot or park precariously on the side of the street. With an official start time posted for 8PM, the main event didn’t start until 8:45PM. Does anything start on time anymore? 

After seats were finally taken, Westchester Republican Chairman began the meeting. There is a lot of pomp and circumstance during these events, although the Democratic Convention seemed less structured. Most of the evening was dedicated to nominating County Legislature positions, the County Clerk candidate and finally the County Executive candidate. Journal News columnist Phil Reisman was in attendance, probably trying to guarantee a position within the Republican party as his former colleague Matt Richter had done. Also there from the paper was reporter Elizabeth Ganga. Several other media representatives were there as well.

During the nominations process, District Leader James “Jimmy” Chism, made the motion to close the non-existant nominations for County Legislator. Before Mr Colety could proceed, he was interrupted by Mr Ed Ciafone, know as a Yorktown Watchdog, who objected, stating this would allow democratic legislator Mike Kaplowitz to run unopposed. He shouted, “We should not let Mike Kaplowitz, a democrat, run unopposed! I’d like to nominate Gregory Kane, who ran against him before and got 44% of the vote!” Stunned, Colety quickly recovered and told Ciafone his motion was out of order. Then Ciafone challenged Chism demanding he second Ciafone’s motion to prove he was being honest. Chism remained silent. Colety stated Ciafone could nominate Kane on June 7th but his motion was out of order. Ciafone stormed out of the event.

Shortly thereafter, Colety announced they had a special guest and they were going to change the order of the schedule to accommodate County Executive Rob Astorino. Nancy Meehan was called upon to make the nominating speech for the CE. Nancy was appointed to and works for the Board of Elections. Her husband Robert, former Mt Pleasant Supervisor, is the County Attorney, appointed by Astorino. This seemed to be a great night for family and friends.

Astorino made a predictable acceptance speech and received several standing ovations. He stated he couldn’t have won without all the voters from all the parties in 2009. He pledged to continue the fight against Washington DC’s intrusion into Westchester’s housing and zoning, maintaining his other pledge to “Stop the tax madness”. He touched on the lack of tax increases while he’s been in office but not the cuts that had correspondingly been made.

With all of this happening, the Journal News and other media outlets chose once again to ignore the event and write nothing about it. Sadly, we see the news blackout continuing in Westchester, ignoring what they choose and quite possibly believe might hurt their progressive agenda in the region. And yet, these same news organizations have no issue attending the event, eating the free food and having a drink or two without offering even a small paragraph. Why the news blackout for certain events and not others remains a mystery. Although, it is becoming clearer day by day.

What do we want in our Town, County and State? You’ll have a chance to decide.

Bluff and Blink

The latest go-’round with the WestHelp property and the proposed Ferncliff takeover has reached a new low in bluffing. It’s like the card game that has two players vying for the pot waiting for the other to blink.

The Paul began this house of cards-like scheme around 2009 when he decided to not renew the WestHelp lease with the County for the WestHelp property. Whether his Town Board was complicit is of no consequence as they would have gone along with anything he told them to go along with. We can only speculate of his decision to why he wanted to do this? ABG maintains the primary reason would be votes in the upcoming election. He’d remove the homeless from not only WestHelp, but Valhalla, and return this bucolic hamlet into the enclave it had been prior to the now-Governor’s housing initiative was ever built. Might another reason be The Paul was approached by the County Executive himself or a representative or even a County Legislator requesting an alliance of sorts in a tit-for-tat arrangement to be determined at a later date?

What good would all of this be if the County Board of Legislators didn’t buy in to The Paul’s diversion and deflection? After all, he is the master of deflection. Amazingly, no County Legislative oversight committee, the County DSS system or body of inspectors was monitoring the WestHelp property. This transpired for over roughly two years while the County continued to ignore The Paul’s (vis–à–vis Greenburgh’s) contractual violations to not continue to house low and no income people and ignore the maintenance of the facility. Why? Could it be that the County Executive garnered enough bipartisan support to “break” the contract the County has with the Town? Or, could it simply be that a number of County Legislators are from the Yonkers area, and Ferncliff, a for-profit business, is Yonkers based and they are stepping up for their constituent?

This deal ultimately playing out well for the Ferncliff School still seems like a long shot. They essentially have no money to purchase or do the demolition work to destroy the 108 viable apartments others could be using. They then must rely on state funds for construction and then rent! The majority of their residents are from NYC, even though they claim that these children are coming from what is considered low income families. It seems justifying why they should be allowed to move to the WestHelp site is a different kind of bluff. The Ferncliff School has offered to pay $500K a year in rent to Greenburgh yet have no money to secure, demolish and rebuild and are solely dependent on state funding to proceed, if they can proceed at all. It’s been nothing if not a bluff perpetrated by The Paul this entire time and causing unnecessary pain and suffering for everyone!

Until the County Board of Legislators can get County Executive candidate and Chairman Ken Jenkins, Greenburgh County Legislators Alfreda Williams and Mary Jane Shimsky to concede, the County Community Services Committee has introduced items for discussion and a vote by their committee. Another part of the bluff. Ironically, the Chair for this committee is Alfreda Williams, who has been against this move by The Paul. Also on the committee and against this change is MaryJane Shimsky. But the other side includes Legislator Michael Smith of Valhalla. The rest of the Republican legislators will stand side-by-partisan-side with Astorino and Smith. The several Yonkers Democrats who favor of the Ferncliff deal will continue to push for The Paul’s rouse. ABG wonders what will be offered to these Jenkins, Williams and Shimsky to get them to go along?

There has been much ballyhoo about who is more deserving of the property and are homeless people more important than developmental disabled? The answer is simple: it is not a competition and both are in need of our attention and assistance. The issue for ABG and many others, including the Westchester N.A.A.C.P., who helped get the apartments built, is that The Paul took it upon himself to not renew the lease while we still need affordable housing in our area. He chose to violate the tenets of an enforceable contract which his Town Board condoned (naturally) and subsequently endorsed, and remain in violation of that contract for the last 18 months. Again, why hasn’t the County taken action against The Paul and The Town’s contractual violations?

Below are two pages showing the actions of the Community Services Committee meeting. ABG believes it is a bluff because we know they believe if they profess it enough and act as though this were really happening for Ferncliff School, it will. It seems like the old “beg forgiveness rather than ask permission” routine. There are several reasons they should not be doing this. One, it’s unfair to taunt the Ferncliff School like this. Two, Chairman Ken Jenkins, has worked to try to find a suitable location other than the WestHelp site even though County government is not obliged to do so! In fact, there is additional space near WestHelp on the Westchester Community College campus that has been suggested/offered as suitable. Remarkably, we haven’t heard a peep from anyone about this parcel. Three, while ABG believes it will be next to impossible for the County to bring an action against the Town because not only do Astorino, Smith and McCormack live in the Valhalla area, Astorino appointed County Attorney Robert Meehan, lives nearby! Finally, when the lawsuits do start, don’t you think those “aiding and abetting” will be named as well?

The Ferncliff School does great work for a small portion of the population. But their portion of the population should be treated as equally as the others. They need help finding a new location and we wonder why The Paul has never offered them 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the old Frank’s Nursery property? He could have sold the property to the Ferncliff School for $1 if he truly cared about them, had the Town do the site remediation and kill two birds with one stone. 

Others have been helping them in their quest and will continue to do so. We truly wish them success. At the same time, the one property they seek as ideal is committed to another equally important purpose. While we wish we could snap our fingers and find a solution for the Ferncliff School, their needs will be better served if they abandon The Paul’s bluff and look in earnest for another location that is actually attainable. We can only hope that the Ferncliff School is successful in their relocation and that WestHelp gets renovated as soon as possible and it’s 108 apartments be put to good use again. We want to see people in desperate need of housing move into their new homes. Again, 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

WestHelp As A Loss Leader

There are numerous years still left in the WestHelp lease between the Town and the County. The openly professed NIMBY’s of the Valhalla section of Town, are the Mayfair-Knollwood group, lead by The Paul and propped up by County Legislator Michael Smith (R-Valhalla). In a Town Board work session Tuesday morning, the Greenburgh Town Board collectively fell on the sword for their leader. They voted to continue pushing for the County to accept their “sham” deal with the Ferncliff School, making them the official tenant for the now-vacant property. In any other Town, these people would be recognized as racists and run out of Town!

We’ve previously written about the apparent links to the County Executive, the County Legislature, The County Executive’s Communications Director, The Valhalla School District and of course, The Paul. In a concerted effort to drive the unwanted homeless element out of Valhalla, whether combined or singularly, The Paul let the $1.2 million lease with Westchester County lapse, claiming, as he is doing again, that it’s the County’s fault the lease wasn’t renewed. Then to prove his virtue, he manufactured two emails that he claimed were emails he had sent to then County Executive Spano stating he wanted to renew the lease. Everyone who saw the emails said the same thing: they were phonies. 

Monday night The Paul released the RFP’s (request for proposals) submitted to the Town for the County’s former WestHelp property. There were six submissions:

Ferncliff Manor, Inc. 
$500,000 per year to the Town until the year 2031 to operate a residential school for 74 developmentally disabled children. 70% of the children come from families with incomes below $50,000 annually.

Group MRH, LLC & The Richman Group Affordable Housing Organization
$100,000 per year to the Town until the year 2032 to operate an affordable rental housing pursuant to a triple Net sublease agreement with the Town for the remaining 20-year Master Lease term.

HarborView Properties
$125,000 to 165,000 per year to the Town until the year 2032 to operate property as an eighty percent (80%) Market Rate Apartment Rental Community with twenty percent (20%) of Units set aside and designated as ¨Affordable Housing Units.¨

Marathon Development Group
$200,000 initial lease payment and lump sum $2,000,000 at contract closing representing the net present value of 20 year payment streams to the Town until the year 2032 to convert the existing shelter apartments into 80 units of affordable senior housing (55 and older), with a preference for veterans.

Community Housing Innovations
$350,000 per year to the Town until the year 2032 to develop the former WestHELP site for use as affordable housing, primarily for seniors and the existing administration/school building for a community use such as relocation of the Lois Bronz Children’s Center or Ferncliff Manor, Inc.’s. temporary use for a disabled school facility.

WestHAB
$200,000 per year to the Town ($600,000 up front) until the year 2064 to operate affordable housing pursuant to a tri-party lease between WestHAB, the Town and the County using Low Income Housing Tax Credit Equity for 50 years. 

The first proposal is his proposal of choice. It’s the reason he has let the WestHelp facility deteriorate with plans of tearing it down once he finally exhausts the County Legislature with his incessant posturing. His deflection campaign of trying to foist his failure to renew the contract as their fault is not working. Fortunately, the majority of legislators are not buying into his convoluted scheme. Is The Paul simply using Ferncliff as a loss-leader or is it just another deflection, cooked up long before this year’s budget debacle and would begin to take attention off of this year’s budget? He couldn’t know a hurricane would strike, bailing him out of another laser-focused critique of his poorly executed budget. In The Paul’s classic form, he just shrugs off the criticisms.

Interestingly, the WestHelp complex of 108 apartments was built under the authority of the United States Housing and Urban Development. That organization was run by then HUD Housing Secretary and current NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo. ABG believes Cuomo will be running for president in the next election, or at least vice-president. Regardless of his future plans, ABG doesn’t seriously believe that Westchester’s lack of affordable housing would find Cuomo endorsing the demolition of these same apartments after championing their creation. Why should that matter?

First, the state has it’s own budget problems and is unlikely and unwilling to come up with to remove affordable housing. Second, Ferncliff Manor is only offering $500,000 with the proviso that New York State pay for what will happen with the property for them. Without the state’s assistance, it is unlikely that the Ferncliff deal can happen nor would the Town actually be making $500k per year. Undaunted, that didn’t stop the Town Board from supporting The Paul’s harebrained idea – no surprise there! Somewhat sheepishly, Tim “Remediation” Lewis, coming off his major mishandling of the toxic site cleanup costs for the GameOn 365 proposal site, cautiously seemed to offer The Paul an “out” stating they should look at all the offers equally. The Paul barreled on.

The County Legislature, and it’s chair Legislator Ken Jenkins, have repeatedly told The Paul and the Town Board they must abide by the contractual obligations of the existing lease. They are not in favor of repurposing the site and giving up much needed affordable housing in Westchester especially in view of the housing desegregation settlement. While The Paul usually can’t wait to install affordable housing in the most inappropriate places, it begs the question of why he would be so adamantly against maintaining the 108 apartments in Valhalla and keeping the affordable housing? In fact, he’s been on record saying there is a glut of affordable housing in Greenburgh! So, what’s in it for him? 

ABG maintains votes as well as county support for The Paul is his motivation since this appeases Astorino, McCormack, Smith et al. This entire episode is loaded with ethical dilemmas, illegal actions and simply more lies. One of these RFP’s might very well be the one the Town signs on with, regardless of the superficial date The Paul has created for a final decision. These games have to stop. We can only hope.

Williams’ Approach to Occupy WestHelp Has Merit

The Paul acts like he owns Greenburgh. His Town Board knows on which side their bread is buttered and stand at the ready to vote however he mandates. The Board, with it’s typical faux-posturing, are calumniatory of residents who berate their unflinching conviction to the master they are beholden and what he wants done to his playground. Their behavior would almost be comical if it weren’t so distressing. In fact, the chief enunciator is Councilman Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan, who when faced with a declining republican population, hastily switched parties, poked the dogs away from The Paul and snuggled up close, taking advantage of The Paul’s financial resources, mailing lists, email lists and increasing democratic wealth. 

To increase his span of control, The Paul decided it was time to jettison a few resistant Board members and bring in some fresh blood, someone more malleable to his needs. One of those members he kicked to the curb is a former Town Clerk, now County Legislator Alfreda Williams. She had been the Greenburgh Town Clerk for many years when The Paul stumbled upon current Town Clerk Judith Beville. ABG finds her incessant commenting during Town Board meetings is not only unwarranted, it’s disruptive. As the Town Clerk, she is there to record the proceedings (which are captured on video anyway) and announce the speakers during the public hearings and comments. ABG wishes she would simply do that.

The Paul had started a deflection campaign to draw attention away from his bungling (we’re be kind) of the WestHelp property by attempting to shift blame of his screw-up onto the County. Before the last Town Board meeting ended, Councilman Kevin “The Henchman” Morgan stated that the Town cannot proceed with doing anything with the WestHelp property as the County is holding them up with their inaction. Immediately, after the motion was made to adjorn, Williams stood up from the back of the hall pointed at Morgan and said loudly, “Kevin I need to speak with you, now!” Williams stormed up to the dais and proceeded to give him a reprimand for the misleading and incorrect comments he had just made about the County and the WestHelp property. 

ABG has stated in numerous postings the onus is not on the County to find a tenant, but Greenburgh. The contract specifically states that the Town of Greenburgh Housing Authority will maintain the occupancy with low/no income residents. The Paul is in violation of this contract, costing the Town $1.2 million annually.

With the recent Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy fiasco, so many people in Greenburgh remain without power or a place to live. Williams, has come up with a viable and implementable idea to help Greenburgh residents. She wants to immediately open up the currently vacant WestHelp facility to people left homeless or who cannot yet go back to their homes due to storm damage. While The Paul offers nothing but useless attacks toward the utility companies, and insists they hire untrained electricians, he is doing little to actually help anyone. ABG wrote about his methodology after Hurricane Irene swept through and demolished numerous homes and businesses throughout the Town. While he simply gets his media machine to regurgitate his pablum, Williams has struck upon a novel approach to help constituents and the Town. This is the type of thinking that is lost on The Paul and his do-nothing Board. Is it any wonder he ousted Williams?

ABG hopes County Executive Astorino, listens to Williams’ recommendation. Otherwise, he’ll prove to be simply another self-serving politician patting himself on the back. Almost all of our elected officials are scrambling to appear to be doing something while nothing is accomplished by them except insisting on progress reports from the utility companies so they can get airtime. Williams’ idea not only has merit, but exceeds what anyone else is doing to help our residents! Astorino needs to decide that agreeing with The Paul and putting a special needs school on the WestHelp property, which are nothing more than payoffs to his Director of Communications Ned McCormack, and County Legislator Michael Smith, to gain more votes from Valhalla, isn’t as important as actually helping our suffering residents. ABG urges our readers to reach out to their County Legislators and let them know that this is not only a good idea for the facility, but an ideal way to keep the facility doing what it was designed to do: house people in need. We can only hope.