Government Should Remain Neutral - Addendum

Painting the picture of volunteerism and helping the elderly, Mr Feiner did a mailing on behalf of another company in February that cost taxpayers 48¢ each at face value. There are about 35,000 households in Greenburgh. If he sent this mailing to those households, without duplicates, he would have spent $17,150! We typically refer to this as campaigning as this mailing venue allows him to keep his name front and center with the Town of Greenburgh constituency. As a one-time effort, or a quarterly summary of what is taking place in the Town, etc., we might be more understanding. But we’re not. The reason we’re not is because he does these mailings multiple times a week at taxpayer expense and still does multiple summary mailings. Then at budget time, he insists that all the other depatrtments make reductions!

This particular mailing was to promote a “not-for-profit” company that provides rides for seniors citizens to their doctor appointments at no charge, using volunteer drivers to shuttle the seniors. This is a laudable venture at face value. But once you dig just a little bit, you quickly learn that the founders and operators of this organization are doctors, either come from the medical community or are somehow involved in the medical community. Could they simply be doing this to make sure their patients continue to show up for their appointments, ensuring Medicare payments? They claim that the seniors do not need to pay for their rides, can typically get one ride per day except under certain circumstances which are not detailed on their website, and that they do accept donations. What they don’t discuss is how they actually pay for whatever their operating expenses might be.

While this organization may or may not have an ulterior motive and we believe they do, Mr Feiner should not be promoting them, especially with a 48¢ mailer consisting of three pages (two sheets) printed at Town Hall on taxpayer copiers and paper. In fact, taxpayers are charged 25¢ per print when they ask for a copy of a document from Town Hall. This is another possible expense to taxpayers of 3 x 25¢ = 75¢ x 35,000 = $26,250. So, using medical terminology, this is a non-billable advertising expense for the doctors of $43,400 that Mr Feiner decided without taxpayer input to simply give away on their behalf. We’re pretty sure the doctors involved in this can afford to advertise.

In the end, we’re suspicious because Unincorporated Greenburgh has roughly half of the Town properties listed as tax-exempt. Instead of pushing another tax exempt company, perhaps Mr Feiner and his Town Board should focus on the P.I.L.O.T. Program. This program is geared toward receiving payment from tax exempts for services rendered to them, or Payment In Lieu Of Taxes. Or, Mr Feiner could simply follow the law and not cost us in court fees and guilty verdicts as he did in the $6.5 million dollars from the Fortress Bible Church case, or the $1.2 million dollars for breaking the lease with the County for the WestHelp property, or the loss of $3.5 million dollars + remediation for the former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road, or collect on unpaid tickets through the Greenburgh courts, or, the $25 million in unpaid property taxes, or, well you get the idea.

The constant campaigning by Mr Feiner would not be so difficult to accept if he wasn’t spending our money to do so. He has a significant political campaign war-chest and it continues to grow thanks to taxpayer largess – although not by our choice. It has to end. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.

Government Should Remain Neutral

A short time ago, Mr Feiner did his routine email blast with the coveted GBList. We'll reiterate he is violating daily yet another court's guilty penalty and order by refusing to turn the list over to the resident who had requested it. She was refused, appealed, refused a second time, sued and won in court for access to it. This is significant mostly because Mr Feiner has always been content to violate the laws he doesn't like without consequence as well as the trust of Town residents. However, Mr Feiner wholeheartedly endorses his developer friends’ projects du jour, usually at an extreme cost to neighborhoods throughout the Town. Now, however the other shoe appears to be on his foot.

We were originally going to write about how Mr Feiner has again mounted a campaign blitz on behalf of his friends from GameOn 365 and their most recent push to build a mega-sports complex on Dobbs Ferry Road. You'll recall they tried to proceed with acquiring the property with an illegal lease scheme concocted and championed by Mr Feiner. Then he tried to gift the property to them at a significantly undervalued price with obscenely minimal payments over 13 years. When another area resident and business owner offered to purchase the property for double the amount at $3.5 million in cash and pay for all site contaminated remediation, Mr Feiner refused to entertain their offer claiming it was not a serious one. What he should have done was publicize all the facts about the property, interested parties and their offers. Clearly, the Town could have held the upper hand while being open and transparent. But once Mr Feiner began the closed door, back room meetings, that ship sailed and sank. Or did it?

Now, many years later, the property remains vacant and still contaminated because the Town Board has kowtowed to Mr Feiner's wishes to finagle a way to gift the property to GameOn 365. Both Mr Feiner and his Town Board have not done the right thing with this (now-reverted) residential property! While Mr Feiner should have the taxpayers best interests at heart, he's more interested in helping his friends. Apparently the City of Yonkers isn't the only municipality with a Friends and Family Plan for developers.

Regardless of Mr Feiner and the Town Board's illogical, perhaps immoral, if not illegal, actions with the former Frank's Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road, this article is about to shift gears and focus on the over-development of our Unincorporated Town property. We have bemoaned the fact that every sliver of space in Unincorporated Greenburgh is being gobbled up by developers who then approach the Administration and tout the benefits of mega-construction on the land.True to form, Mr Feiner instructs his Board how to vote and the developer's presentation sails through and before you can say, "Wait just a second," the Town Board declares themselves the lead agency and the deal is done.

Here's a few such examples to what we are referring. First, we'll go with Brightview Assisted Living Center. Mr Feiner touted the availability and need for Greenburgh residents to have a place they could spend their remaining years. What was uncovered and at first denied by Mr Feiner was that someone without assets and on Medicaid would not be allowed to move in. In typical Feiner-form, he finally acquiesced, admitting he was still in favor of it, apparently the poorer Medicaid recipient-residents be damned. This mammoth structure looming over Rt 119 is adding to the infrastructure burden and not contributing any relief to the residents. At least the developers are making out well.

Second, he is entertaining a proposal on a triangular strip of land between the Sprain Brook Parkway off of Payne Street for a 96 room assisted living facility. Access and egress will happen through one of the side streets off of Payne Street. The increase in traffic through a residential neighborhood, we're sure, will be proposed as either negligible or non-existent as these are retired, non-driving occupants. Whatever the developer wants is probably what the traffic study will say. Interestingly, all of these projects are green-lighted (pun intended) regardless of what the traffic study says. This will increase traffic and further burden the infrastructure.

Third, was the Westhab project in Fulton Park, proposed as a 7-story apartment building and finally constructed as a three story gulag-style building that is an eyesore to the neighborhood, Rt 119 and will ultimately become a Section 8 housing facility. Throughout all of the disingenuous posturing from the Town Board, residents were continually told that no decision had been made by the Town Board and they could still say no to the project. What they conveniently left out was that no open decision was made, nor was it made public. The deal was done with the neighborhood, the infrastructure and traffic to the area be damned.

Fourth, there are several plans to build apartments without parking on Central Avenue since Mr Feiner and his Board forced a new tax onto service stations, forcing them to close (opposite Scarsdale Ford). There's also Dromore Road off of Central Avenue. The pièce de résistance is the mega-development that's been presented in North Elmsford's Eastview area. Over 100 acres have been green-lighted by Mr Feiner and his Board to build more of the same. Mr Feiner has never met a developer whose plans he didn't endorse. The over-sized development there is another added burden to our infrastructure as well increasing traffic. The attitude at Town hall is that traffic is already congested so a little more won't matter.

The latest debacle to be proposed is in Ardsley at what was the old Akzo Nobel Chemical site that was in the area of 9A and the Saw Mill River Parkway. STOP! Mr Feiner says its not a good location. He says the developers should reconsider building there because it will, ahem, tax the infrastructure. All developers in the area know that there is no project that Mr Feiner won't give a thumbs-up to as long as his precious gated community is left alone. Infrastructure be damned! Could it be the carcinogens left on the site that might poison staff and residents? No. What's good for the goose, perhaps? No. Too much traffic? No. Overburdening the schools? No, not even close. Then what could possibly cause Mr Feiner to be against another development?

Votes. That's right. Mr Feiner is afraid to upset the Villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry and Hastings. He will lose beau coup votes from the otherwise solid stalwarts at election time. How can we tell? It's simple really, but an even more obvious example is the cleaning out of the Saw Mill River after the massive flooding that we believe was, in part, caused by all the over-development approved by Mr Feiner and his Town Board. He rallied alongside Elmsford's Babbitt Court residents, Ardsley and the other river towns in Greenburgh. More importantly however, is that he did absolutely nothing about helping the Greenburgh residents along the Bronx River corridor. Why? They cannot bring enough votes against him in an election so he knows he can ignore them - and he and his Town Board does just that.

ABG believes the site for this newly proposed multi-family metropolis is a viable one in a location that will not intrude on any residential neighborhoods. And, lo and behold, there is an extremely successful sports complex nearby for the families to use. We understand they might be looking to expand and this could be just the venue to help them along. We accept that Mr Feiner routinely lies to the constituency, the courts and God knows who else. And, it was during his 22-year tenure that the infrastructure was neglected. Hardly a valid argument for him to make now. But we needn't accept this bad behavior from our government leaders. Politicians should remain neutral with developers and their projects and not advertise on behalf of them. They should also invest in its infrastructure, not use its failings as an excuse. It's time for a change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh

Don’t Worry, I Promised

Trying to get a jump on the GameOn 365’s latest application to the Town, Mr Feiner has once again tried to move the process along by emailing thousands of residents via his cherished GBList. This is the same list which he and the Town have been court-ordered to turn over to a resident, whose repeatedly denied FOIL-ed application forced her into court. Subsequently, the court found in her favor. Transparency? Open government? Honesty in government? You decide.

According to Mr Feiner’s email, “Game On has filed a petition to amend the zoning code to initiate a review of a proposal to build an indoor and outdoor privately owned recreation facility on parts of the Golf Range property.” He continues, “Currently, the property is not zoned to allow recreational uses. The project would include an indoor space housed in a permanent structure covering about 107,630 square feet of the approximately 32 acre property. The remaining land would be preserved as open space and used for recreation fields and related uses. The driving range would stay open.”

While the presentation sounds innocuous enough, which is always accompanied by soft pastel drawings and paintings. He discusses how this offering is different from the previous “sports bubble” that had been proposed. He continues by saying, “Members of the Town Board and I have not made any decisions on whether to approve or reject the petition.” We hardly believe this to be the truth. We read a post by a resident on another site and have chosen to include it here as it succinctly sums up Mr Feiner’s position with GameOn 365:
“WPEyesNEars:
Here's the quote from PF: "Members of the Town Board and I have not made any decisions on whether to approve or reject the petition," Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner said." This is an outright lie. He was in favor of it when he tried to illegally lease the property to them, then sell it to them at an undervalued price, the put it on the ballot as a proposition, then refuse to entertain the House of Sports offer for double the amount plus remediation, then skew the contamination study to move the process along for GO365, and finally to have an "auction" until the auctioneer said no one would bid for contaminated land and finally, when TL said remediation costs would be no more than $100k. They have been doing everything they could to give this land to GO365. Try writing the real story!”

What is most disturbing throughout all of this is the lack of respect Mr Feiner has shown to the residents of the area. Numerous Civic Associations, individual residents, families and leaders have objected to all of the GameOn 365 proposals. Mr Feiner has routinely tried to change the position offering to broker meetings and meet individually with residents. His “divide and conquer” methodology has been a proven winner for him. The residents continue to say they only want residential housing built on the property, not commercial.

Once the former Frank’s Nursery property was acquired by the Town, Mr Feiner and his Board sat on their hands and frequently ignored the contamination within it. When the police department, the courts and the library all were suggested as tenants of the property, the severe contamination of the site prohibited it. During the GameOn 365 debacle created and fostered by Mr Feiner and his Board’s incompetence. Elm Street Sports, Inc., of Ardsley, offered twice the money for the land, plus total remediation for the property. Mr Feiner said, “No! Theirs was not a serious offer.” One of the owners said at a Town Board meeting he was always serious when discussing money.

Now that GameOn 365 has come back with a reworked proposal, albeit a moderately changed one, they’ve decided instead of an 83-foot tall Sports Bubble to build a warehouse-sized building on the east border of Golf Driving Range property line, closest to the Frank’s Nursery property. In effect, they too are thumbing their noses at the residents by moving it even closer to the existing residential housing. We know from our various meetings with Town Civic Associations that this is still unacceptable. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Feiner orchestrated this latest scheme to invade the neighborhood.

The Town Board sits impotent, afraid to upset their elective apple carts as Mr Feiner controls their destiny. Ultimately, and unfortunately, we believe that since Mr Feiner wants GameOn 365 to succeed, and he always gets his way, he will help them get their approval. He’s content to remove more of our green space while adding to Greenburgh’s Corporate Park environment. After all, we believe he promised it to GameOn 365. This has to stop. The electorate keeps voting him into office and it’s time for a change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

The Con Continues

For over three years now, Mr Feiner and his Town Board have been playing games with taxpayer property. For over twenty years now, Mr Feiner has been playing games with taxpayer money. The wallet-busting Supervisor has no plans to follow the law and will engage again in more spot-zoning to achieve his cash “fix”. Specifically, the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery property, which has languished as a contaminated, still undeveloped plot of land that continues to be mired in ineptitude and a morass of legal hijinks.

The property could have been sold for a profitable $3.5 M to Elms Street Sports, but Mr Feiner and his Board, began a new deflection campaign by concocting a slew of stories of “serious offers”, “genuine interest”, “real offers” and other well-played lies to keep the Town’s only serious offer from ever seeing the light of day. The reason? Mr Feiner promised the property to Martin Hewitt of GameOn 365 and by hook or by crook (the right word), he plans to keep that promise no matter how ill-advised or costly it will be for the Town taxpayers.

That’s one of the predominant issues here. The fact that Mr Feiner made this significant arrangement with Mr Hewitt, et al, before the Town acquired the property through foreclosure is critically important. But it’s not the only factor contaminating this entire process – beyond the physical contamination of the land at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. It’s also symbolic that Mr Feiner brought in his Board to strengthen this improper deal. Is it merely coincidence or intentional? ABG wholeheartedly believes its intentional. Mr Feiner couldn’t sell the 83-foot inflatable balloon deal by himself as his credibility is shot within the Town. Oh sure, the lamestream media will regurgitate his pablum, and that helps his cause du jour.

But its not enough and his need to add a legitimate air to the deal was desperately required. As he prepped “newbie” Councilman Ken Jones to go along, he merely had to “head tip” toward Councilman Morgan to get him on Board. Fellow discriminator Councilwoman Diana Juettner would go along with his scheme as she too was embroiled in the guilty verdict with Mr Feiner over the Fortress Bible Church discrimination case. That left Councilman Sheehan, who went along but was later thrown under the bus when Mr Feiner challenged petition signatures witnessed by Mr Sheehan, claiming Sheehan lied as to his permanent home address. Nice.

During this time, Mr Feiner actively ignored the 20-years worth of other foreclosable properties throughout the Town due to non-payment of taxes. That is, until a G10 resident stumbled upon “secreted” paperwork in Town Hall that was not supposed to be viewed by the public! The papers listed information as to how the Town was owed over $20 million dollars in back property taxes and should have been pursued by the Town through foreclosure. This discovery was a revelation! The Town had just been found guilty of discrimination in federal court and upheld in federal appeals court and being forced to settle, having to pay $6.5 million dollars with this guilty verdict. You’ll recall that the discrimination against the Church was trumpeted by Mr Feiner and backed by Ms Juettner. Once this “new” information was exposed*, Mr Feiner immediately offered a Tax Amnesty program to the twenty-plus year’s worth of offenders. The illegality of what he was doing was questioned by many, but since Mr Feiner has no trouble ignoring laws he dislikes, he simply shoved this one aside and began his Deflection Campaign for amnesty.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the $1.2 million a year the Town was now losing yearly because Mr Feiner chose to not renew the WestHelp lease in Valhalla. So with some quick accounting in broad strokes, the Town has cumulatively lost:
$20+M from outstanding tax arrears,
$2.4M from WestHelp (so far),
$6.5M from Fortress Bible Church guilty verdict,
$3.5M from Frank’s Nursery
$9M for underinsured tree death lawsuit
Sub Total lost to taxpayers by Mr Feiner: $40,200,000.

What’s missing here are the assorted financial fees for consultants, legal teams, court expenses and, well, you get the idea: there are many ancillary expenses that the Unincorporated Town taxpayers have been forced to pay for Mr Feiner’s illegal, irreverent and bad behavior. ABG has asked before why both he and Ms Juettner have not lost their law licenses as they are officers of the court and must adhere to the law, not break it? Isn’t being found guilty in Federal Court enough validation to endorse this?

During the entire GameOn 365 back-room debacle deal to court and the subsequent intended handoff of the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, we’re suspect that Mr Feiner has been coaching Mr Hewitt either directly or indirectly as to how to proceed to ensure he and his newly formed company receive the property. During this entire time, Mr Feiner has engaged a concerted misinformation scheme to discredit Elm Street Sports’ $3.5M cash offer for the property. Ironically, Mr Feiner and the Board have always had the right to make a private sale of the property to whomever they wanted. But this was never about making a sale of the property. This was always about Mr Feiner finding a way to “gift” the property to a personal group of friends without the resources necessary to purchase it. Without investor money GameOn 365, is simply a paper company without any resources, location or staff.

To continue the con game which all of these players have been engaged in, now GameOn 365, possibly under advice of counsel (Mr Feiner?), have begun a new chapter in their Book of Deceit. They claim to be moving forward with an alternate plan: building their ridiculously out of place sports bubble on the Golf Driving Range owned by the Vizioli family. The Vizioli family is currently one of the property owners with over $1M in tax arrears since 2008 that the Town has not bothered to collect. But, they have missed the tax amnesty period originally offered and can no longer pay the back taxes without penalties.

Another ploy GameOn 365 appears to be perpetrating on the community with Mr Feiner and Mr Madden’s approval, even endorsement, is to bring in other for-profit corporations to partner with them to offer varied services under the umbrella. The plans have now gone from a sports bubble and soccer field to a sports bubble, several sports fields and other facilities on the “new” site, truncating the driving range. You may recall several years ago that Mr Feiner attempted to “steal” the Vizioli Golf Driving Range by eminent domain to build a police station/town court complex. When that failed, a developer investigated building a senior housing complex that the Town then shot down. Now, all bets are apparently off for the Vizioli’s as they forego preserving their business and Mr Feiner is right on board with them to hand it over to GameOn 365. So, the hell with the taxpayers in the surrounding residential communities and what they want. In fact, now GameOn 365 has asked the Town to rezone the 32-acre area to benefit only them, yet again. This is quite a bit larger that the (almost) 7-acres of the Frank’s Nursery property.

ABG is confident that the Town Planning Commissioner and the Town Supervisor will resort to the spot-zoning Mr Feiner’s beloved GameOn 365 requires to proceed. The Town Board will invariably vote in favor of the spot-zoning change as they are used to going along to get along. At worst, it will be three in favor of the spot-zoning and possibly two against. This fight against spot-zoning, government officials assisting for-profit and even not-for-profit companies pitted against other, non-favored for profit companies is simply wrong. It could be worth an Ethics Board complaint, but their crafty use of words will yield little, if no results slowing or stopping the Town Board.

Another downside of Mr Feiner’s pursuit to illegally influence the results for a for-profit company, such as GameOn 365, is that the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery, will continue to languish. Mr Feiner’s greed to have his favored GameOn 365 receive the property over Elm Street Sports, who offered twice the amount of GameOn 365 in cash and would assume the contamination cleanup, has effectively flushed that deal away. Then Mr Feiner said other companies expressed interest in spending even more than the $3.5M Elm Street Sports offer. This was apparently another Feiner lie. Each time residents asked him who offered more and how much, he refused to say. Ah, yes, open government.

What all of this really means is that a) the Town will not be making $3.5 million dollars in cash; b) the property will not be remediated of the contamination that exists; c) once the illegal spot-zoning takes effect, no other company, investor or developer will look to develop the property; d) the “big need” for fields that was the impetus and justification for Mr Feiner to push his favored GameOn 365 to getting the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, is now moot. Only in Bizarro Greenburgh. It has to change. Only then, will we get A Better Greenburgh.

* Mr Feiner is only for open government when its convenient for him to share information or he gets caught not being forthcoming with information. Such was the case here.

Bravado Through The End The Year

Mr Feiner rarely disappoints us. Wait! Please do not misinterpret that statement to believe we are pleased with Mr Feiner’s behavior. Quite the contrary, we are not! The fact that he would write a Letter to the Editor of the area’s only daily newspaper complaining that County Executive Rob Astorino is contemplating a campaign run for Governor borders on incredulous! And while its sad that Mr Feiner would attack Mr Astorino for something he himself has done, Mr Feiner’s bad behavior, political opportunism and partisan politics goes beyond acceptable. We’re sure his diatribe has also gone to the weekly papers to be printed as  “news” (read: propaganda). It’s also the expected Feiner Deflection as he tries to distance himself from the WestHelp debacle, water rate increases, 3.4% tax increase and of course, the $6,500,000 settlement he and his Board made with the victorious Fortress Bible Church – although nobody really won. However, Fortress Bible Church pulled off a major feat never-before-seen in Greenburgh: they got the Town to pay for their new church and school’s construction costs! To paraphrase Mr Feiner, “Good news! We’re number one in lawsuit settlement payouts in NY!” 

Mr Feiner wrote this Letter to the Editor bemoaning County Executive Rob Astorino’s exploration for a run for Governor. He complains that Astorino should have told everyone before the election that he was interested in running for Governor. Really? What about when Mr Feiner ran for Congress after being re-elected for Town Supervisor? He never informed the Greenburgh residents to not elect him as he would be throwing his hat into the Congressional arena. Mr Feiner also refused to attend the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations candidate forum, choosing instead to campaign at a supermarket. And how about Mr Feiner’s “best-bud”, Tom Abinanti? He did the same thing, running for County Legislator and almost immediately after being re-elected and accumulating 20 years in office, announced his candidacy for State Assemblyman. Where was Mr Feiner’s outrage then? Since there was no political capital for him there and there was no benefit for Mr Feiner, there was no verbal or written outrage.

While denouncing Mr Astorino, Mr Feiner also insults County employees, in particular, the County Legislators, stating, “If County Executive Astorino runs for governor in 2014, Westchester will have no functioning county executive during the duration of the campaign. We will still be paying his full-time salary, but not getting full-time attention. Mr. Astorino will be traveling the state, not tending to county business.” It was Mr Feiner who has repeatedly stated that we don’t need County Government. And, if Mr Astorino were away, would everything cease to operate in the County? Hardly, the County Legislators, Commissioners and managers would continue to do what they do. And, whether you like County government or not, there is a Deputy County Executive who can and often does fill in for the County Executive. But won’t statements such as this one above cause more damage and inflict less cooperation from other levels of government and individuals? You decide.

In fact, if Mr Feiner really cared to learn what takes place when he’s away, he might ask his Commissioners and Department Leaders what they do when he isn’t in –beyond celebrating. Or, when Mr Feiner is away holding press conferences on topics he has no authority over, no involvement in or is of no interest to the Town. Topics such as closing Indian Point, saving the rusty, decrepit Tappan Zee Bridge as a park because the maintenance will magically cease to be an issue if the State makes it a Highline Park. Mr Feiner really doesn’t know much about maintenance as witnessed in the Town’s infrastructure which seemingly never requires maintenance nor receives any from Mr Feiner. We’d venture to say our Town operates better and more efficiently when Mr Feiner is not here.

Mr Feiner continued, “Communities like Greenburgh could suffer because we won’t get needed county cooperation when we need it.” To be clear, Greenburgh could more likely suffer because of statements Mr Feiner makes like this one than anything else. He continues, “For example, the town still has not received permission from the county executive’s office to lease the former WestHELP property for affordable housing. We’ve been waiting months for an OK. We’re still waiting.” It should be noted that Mr Feiner let the contract lapse after being prodded to re-sign by the Spano and Astorino administrations. Other elected officials, specifically the Republicans, will undoubtedly continue to work with Mr Feiner while his own Democratic party won’t. 

Even as he is disavowed by the Democratic leadership, he continues to rub salt in the “County wound” to get back in the good graces of the Democrats, audaciously throwing the lack of County approval out as the reason for delays to leasing the WestHelp property. The shine from his brass set is blinding! Mr Feiner created the issues surrounding WestHelp and the delays are because he violated the contractual agreements the Town entered into years ago with the County. Shame on him for trying to deflect attention away from his wrong-doings and blame someone else again. It’s all on him.

He then mentions the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) money not making its way to Greenburgh because the County Executive has a dispute with HUD regarding the affordable housing settlement. Mr Feiner complained that the County Executive wasn’t active, then he complained because the County Executive is active. What’s it going to be? If he’s active and money is withheld, wouldn’t that suggest you would want him inactive and have money flowing? But Mr Feiner contradicts himself, apparently not wanting either. Mr Feiner’s lies, deflections, missteps and screw-ups are finally taking their toll. Taxpayers in Greenburgh know all about this. He complains that we would be paying for Mr Astorino but he wouldn’t be here working. That’s kind of funny coming from Mr Feiner. At least Mr Astorino didn’t vote to increase his salary by 10% as Mr Feiner and his Board unanimously recently did.

The taxpayers in Greenburgh are slowly watching their Town decline into Detroit with over-paid, patronage, do-nothing jobs, wasteful spending, spot-zoning and more. Our taxes are increasing by 3.4%, beyond the 2% NYS tax cap Mr Feiner insists we are below. We have guilty verdicts from multiple lawsuits, lost revenue, certiorari adjustments that look like the budgets for small nations, disappearing assets right from under everyones noses and there continues to be no accountability. It has to change. Maybe 2014 will be the year. We can only hope. It’s time for A Better Greenburgh.

Read Mr Feiner’s letter here: http://www.lohud.com/article/20131230/OPINION/312300048/We-need-an-active-county-executive?odyssey=mod|newswell|text||s

Opaque Transparency

The Merriam-Webster definition of transparency is shown below. We purposely decided to show it rather than type it out so as to, ahem, be transparent.

A screen capture of the definition of the word, transparent, from
the Merriam-Webster digital dictionary.

Staffers at ABG thought the most accurate definition was #2a: free from pretense or deceit :frank. As in the nursery? Seriously though, free from pretense or deceit accurately sums up the machinations taxpayers have been punished with as Mr Feiner seeks a way to steer the multi-contaminate property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to his chosen beneficiary GameOn 365.

Mr Feiner routinely espouses transparency whenever the topic is broached, usually at a Town Board or similar meeting. His online “go-to” guy is Councilman Francis Sheehan. You’ll recall during Mr Feiner’s preliminary attempt to remove his then-opponent for Town Supervisor Democratic Primary candidate Bob Bernstein, he threw Mr Sheehan under the proverbial bus. Mr Feiner alleged Mr Sheehan’s listed home address on the ballot signature petitions was a lie. Mr Feiner went forward with this accusation knowing that Mr Sheehan and his family had moved into a temporary residence while his home was being remodeled to make it handicapped accessible for his aging mother, who has since passed away. While its unfortunate that Mr Feiner engages in such unscrupulous behavior, this time his wrath fell upon Mr Sheehan. Mr Sheehan’s more recent actions and conversations have caused speculation by some that he might be positioning himself to run for Supervisor against Mr Feiner in the next election. Although at last night’s Town Board meeting he reverted back to saving Mr Feiner from himself as he spoke. The answer might become apparent if Mr Sheehan gets “Sonya’d” by Mr Feiner.

The previous Town Board meeting found several topics discussed by the G10 and others. Mr Feiner and crew also let everyone know that he postponed the Frank’s Nursery “auction” from the previously posted date of December 3, 2013 until some time in 2014. He declined requests to specify a date or explanation as to why he has delayed this again. Ah, transparency. He subsequently mentioned that two other parties have expressed interest in possibly purchasing the property for more than the Town-stipulated minimum bid of $3.5 million. This means he is in communication with others, possibly affecting the outcome of any sale. But what of Mr Feiner’s goal to create a recreational zoning category to ensure limited bid participation for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road? He needs a way to ensure delivery of the property to GameOn 365 and this would certainly keep the amount of participants to a minimum. Ah, transparency.

Residents and taxpayers have said if this property’s sale were properly advertised and marketed we might get more than the paltry $1.7 million (with the Town “carrying” $1.3 million spread out over 13 years at a rate of 2.6%) from Feiner-annointed developer GameOn 365. Ardsley’s House of Sports upped the ante by offering $3.5 million dollars for the property, thwarting Mr Feiner’s easy gifting of the property to GameOn 365. In fact, numerous FOILed emails between Martin Hewitt, a principal for GameOn 365, and Mr Feiner, found them agreeing to cease sending emails and only have verbal contact to avoid having their communications FOILed by outside parties! They agreed to that strategy. Ah, transparency.

One concern highlighted by several residents was that they repeatedly asked for a Request For Proposal (RPF) for the property after Mr Feiner attempted to illegally enter into a lease with GameOn 365 for the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property. Why an illegal lease you might wonder? Any law Mr Feiner doesn’t like is simply ignored under the old adage to beg forgiveness rather than seek approval. Under Westchester County and New York State law, any property acquired by a municipality must either be developed for the municipality’s use, such as a park, office or other facility (police station and library being the most obvious). If that is not done, the municipality is required to sell it. Mr Feiner’s excuse for the lease was so the Town could keep the property and fifteen years from now be able to “take it back” when it is worth more and do what they will with it. That’s simply not legal to do. We often heard, “If you don’t like what I’m doing, sue me!” from Mr Feiner. So, once again, several neighborhood organizations sued Mr Feiner to stop another illegal action by him. Days before scheduled to go to court Mr Feiner, realizing he would be losing yet another lawsuit, dropped the lease scheme.

Needing to deflect attention away from his illegal actions, he made an announcement that he would put the property up for a referendum and let the voters decide what should be done with the property. Knowing the predictability of Greenburgh voters, he worded the referendum in such a way that would almost guarantee passage. He was right, it did pass. He followed up with a non-stop barrage of hallelujahs that the voters had spoken. What he always purposely avoided saying (as in the truth) was that only the minuscule portion of voters who voted in this election favored the referendum. Disingenuous? Sure, but it took the focus away from Mr Feiner’s illegal lease deal with GameOn 365! Ah, transparency.

So now there is a new sign on the property that says the property is For Sale. No other information is posted, such as whom to contact if one is interested in purchasing the property. The sale has been purported by Mr Feiner to be sold “as is”, referring to the known multiple contaminations on the property from a heating oil spill, carcinogens from being used as a dump for the White Plains Urban Renewal, herbicides, pesticides and whatever else. The fill was placed near the rear of the property, where the property historically floods. Concerns have repeatedly been made about water runoff and the spread of contaminates and carcinogens. Town Attorney Tim Lewis, the “unofficial expert” repetitively informed concerned citizen taxpayers that the contamination was not that bad without conveying specifics. Ah, transparency.

A forthcoming surprise announcement of the sale of the property by Mr Feiner should be entertaining if nothing else. Many have bandied about different ideas and directions the Town might take to make the favored GameOn 365 sale happen. Mr Feiner has often displayed his own brand of shrewdness and misdirection to get what he wants and is probably working on a new plan without input from the Town Board to ensure GameOn 365 success. Unfortunately, this is what we have often come to receive from Mr Feiner.

We’re hopeful, but not confident, that the Town Board will do the right thing and abandon the scheming to ensure only one purchaser for the property. Having an auction with sealed bids is not the spirit or intent of an auction, although legal. Postponing the sale to have time to change the zoning is not the spirit or intent of doing the right thing for the taxpayers and the Town.

The Town Board and Mr Feiner have a fiduciary responsibility to get the largest amount of money for this property. Period. He should abandon these games - pun intended - to award GameOn 365 the property and figure out how to pay back the money he has continued to cost the taxpayers: $8M (Fortess Bible Church), $1.2M/yr (WestHelp), $21M (tax arrears), $3.5M (Frank’s Nursery property), $4M (water meters), 10% salary increases, the list goes on. Mr Feiner rarely respects what is right for the neighborhoods, ultimately degrading the quality of life in those neighborhoods. He should embrace honesty and tell the truth about why he is doing what he does and maybe we can start to see transparency in A Better Greenburgh.

Shakedown Or A Real RFP?

There is never a project proposed by any developer that Mr Feiner, and hence his Board, ever objects to. His Board will routinely insist independent thinking and then unaniminously vote with Mr Feiner. On the rarest occasion, one might be given permission to stray and be allowed to object to a vote. One exception may be with the House of Sports. They were the high bidder for the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery, after theatening a lawsuit if they weren’t allowed to participate for the property. For some unexplained reason (wink, wink), Mr Feiner has taken it upon himself to battle on behalf of, and assure the award of the property to GameOn 365.

His first attempt was to offer GameOn 365 an illegal lease for fifteen years for the property. The community, Elm Street Sports, HelpBurstTheBubble.com, the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association and others initiated a lawsuit to stop the illegal lease based on County and State law. As the court date loomed closer, Mr Feiner finally withdrew the lease citing it would tie up the sale of the property in the courts for too long. He would know all about that as a non-practicing attorney who always seems to be in court as a defendant. County and NY State law mandate any property received through foreclosure must either be used by the Town for Town purposes or sold. The Town had earlier refused to use the property as a temporary library while the “ski jump’s” construction forced the library to remain closed. The reason? The property is contaminated!

Needing to initiate the “Feiner Deflection Tactic” and fast, Mr Feiner said the Board would consider selling the property, but only to GameOn 365! The G10 hammered the Town Board, citing a lack of ethics, transparency, open government, lying, back-room deals, secret emails and the like and insisted he do the right thing and hold an RFP, Request For Proposal. The Board remained silent. Mr Feiner has touted Greenburgh as having an open government and even trained his Board to dutifully repeat his mantra, “We’ll post it on the Town’s website, so everyone can see it.” ABG wonders when in Executive Session, if Mr Feiner will tell the Board, “Just tell them we’ll post it and then bury it somewhere. Wait. You know what, don’t post it, we’ll mess with them for a week or two and then post it and say it was there all the time. Francis, you just tell them it was your fault and mea culpa and, well, you know the routine.” “You got it boss.” G10 persistence usually pays off and eventually the information will get posted or “FOIL-ed” and the information will finally be had. It’s just a shame that Mr Feiner and his Board feel they must play these games. Still, no sale. Several Work Sessions earlier found the Board struggling to find ways to silent the persistent public from speaking.

By law, the Town has the right to hold a private sale for any acquired foreclosed property. Had Mr Feiner been truthful and not having secret meetings for the property with GameOn 365 prior to Town’s acquisition of the property, the sale probably would have gone through unquestioned. He was simply trying to stall the process so GameOn 365 could raise funds through a public offering. But that couldn’t happen until a lease was signed. Since Mr Feiner has been dishonest before the Town even owned the property and continued to lie about it, it begat more lies. And you know how that goes. Once you lie and then try to cover it up, things just get worst. Mr Feiner’s back-room, closed-door deals have become a Greenburgh standard within the developer community. Those seeking support before pitching their project to his Planning, Promotion and Promise Commissioner, Thomas Madden, are instructed as to what the “donation gift” must be before the Commissioner will check off all the ‘Yes’ boxes before hastily, if not giddily presenting it at a Town Board meeting in Mr Feiner sanctioned rapid-speak.

Mr Feiner plays the “donation gift” scheme often for said blessing. But it hasn’t always worked. In fact it backfired when he pulled this stunt on the Fortress Bible Church. They refused to play Mr Feiner’s games and said, “No!” to his demands. So Mr Feiner, aided by Councilwoman Diana Juettner (then and now a current Board member) said, “No!” to Fortress Bible Church and finally blocked their property development of a new church and school in then-County Legislator Tom Abinanti’s neighborhood. Was the goal all-along simply to help a crony? Abinanti has since moved to Tarrytown, possibly to distance himself from this debacle now that he’s moved up as a State Representative.

Since then, the Federal Courts have found Mr Feiner and his Board of that time, guilty of violating the rights of a church to the free exercise of religion and equal protection under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and liable for destroying documents. The federal judge who heard him testify found him “not credible.” If you read the transcripts of the case, Mr Feiner’s testimony sounds almost verbatim to Oliver North’s Iran Contra testimony, “I don’t remember.” How convenient and embarrassing at the same time. Mr Feiner and Ms Juettner appealed the decisions. The appeal was upheld by the Federal Appeals Court, saying in part, “In short, the Church has presented overwhelming evidence that its application was singled out by the Town for disparate treatment.” The previous courts verdict stands.

The would-be easily done sale of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road wasn’t done, and Mr Feiner tried to do an illegal lease and was stopped, he needed to regroup. Time to initiate the “Feiner Deflection Tactic” again and go after someone else to take the focus off of him. He chose to go after the G10 and the public at large as the problem. He simultaneously had another self-inflicted fiasco underway with the WestHelp project that he brought upon the Town to gain votes from the Valhalla residents yet cost us $1.2M per year.

Without a plan in place, Mr Feiner went public to test the waters saying the Town would sell 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to GameOn 365. He held a press conference which became a contentious shouting match between the public and Mr Feiner, who threatened police action against the same residents attending the press conference after he had unlocked the gates of the property and invited them in. At Town Board meetings, Mr Feiner began to concoct stories about how “certain members” of the public are doing everything they could to sabotage the Town’s sale of this property. The reality was the public was fed up with the illegal lease scheme and Mr Feiner’s insistence of the sale to the lower bidder. Game On 365 bid $1.7M for the property with yet-to-be-raised money compared to $3.5 in cash from House of Sports. The devil is in the details. The “Feiner Deflection Tactic” was wearing thin and not working like it should.

Time for a new “Feiner Deflection Tactic” so Mr Feiner began to say he couldn’t sell to either interested party or the other would sue the Town. “Push this as the argument” Mr Feiner might have said to the Board. But newly found guilty Attorney and Federal Felon Juettner and fellow candidate Councilman Francis Sheehan desperately needed to distance themselves from Mr Feiner so they remained silent. Newcomer Ken “Sit the F*** down!” Jones was coming under fire by fellow attorney and Supervisor Candidate Bob Bernstein, as an attorney who was setting himself up for his own legal problems withthe NYS Bar Association member.

The public continued to demand an RFP. Mr Feiner needed time to construct what would appear to be an RFP, but struggled, needing ensure the outcome would favor GameOn 365 over the Elm Street Sports’ significantly better offer. Thrown into the mix was another curve ball, a formidable opponent seeking the Democratic endorsement for Town Supervisor: community leader and activist Robert Bernstein (http://bobforsupervisor.com/). Mr Bernstein, the G10 and others have all offered this Town Board suggestions and ideas as to what could be done with the property. The Board and Mr Feiner ignored all offers.

Time again for a new “Feiner Deflection Tactic” so Mr Feiner began to say that this was a form of bid rigging. At each opportunity, he would cite that one developer who bid on the WestHelp property backed out because a resident convinced the company to back out. The resident presented the facts to the developer and they made a decision after learning all of the information that Mr Feiner had not shared. Mr Feiner sent out press releases and made public statements that the public was engaged in bid-rigging. The only bid rigging taking place was by Mr Feiner and his Board. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be laughable.

Now that an election is upon us, Mr Feiner is finally touting an RFP after insisting on his vision to turn the DobbsFerry Road corridor into a sports venue area. Adding insult to injury is GameOn 365’s announcement that they have entered into an “purchase option” with the Golf Driving Range next to the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property as their new partner. GameOn 365’s principal, Martin Hewitt, made this announcement at a recent Town Board meeting immediately after Mr Feiner said they would do an RFP for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Coincidence? Collusion? Hewitt also stated they would continue to be involved with bidding for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road as well. Again, more Feiner-like, if not Feiner-suggested, shenanigans to gain control of the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. How so?

ABG is suspect of any real “partnership” between the Golf Driving Range and GameOn 365 because of all of the history thus far between Mr Feiner and GameOn 365. As with most partnerships, they typically have a clause in their contract that will allow the other partner the right of first refusal or in this case, the right to purchase their partner’s share of the business before it can be offered for sale to anyone else. This agreement means little, if nothing, as it relates to the Golf Driving Range. What ABG thinks will happen is at some point GameOn 365 will bid for the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road property against whomever else. Mr Feiner will award the bid to GameOn 365, who will then say that their partnership with the Golf Driving Range has terminated for some unforeseen reason and they will simply be working with the 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Remember, Mr Feiner still needs to get his way. Not sure ABG is correct? Go back and read the referendum Mr Feiner and the Town Attorney wrote for the election.

In the end, this will just be another shakedown by Mr Feiner and his Board to get what he wanted all along: a done-deal to a favored developer for little or no real money for the residents of the Town. Sadly, this is the type of behavior that is not acceptable in any government and needs to end. Twenty-two years of this is enough. Please find out more and make an informed decision in this next election.

Open Letter from Former Justice Rosenberg

The letter below, written by former Court Justice Herb Rosenberg of Dobbs Ferry, was a response to an email sent out by Mr Feiner using the Town’s email list. Illegal? No. Ethical? No. Another weapon in Mr Feiner’s campaign arsenal? Absolutely! Mr Feiner has been in a collusive relationship with GameOn 365 to give the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former-Frank’s Nursery, to them for “a song” and then carry the mortgage for 13-years. He now wants to delay the sale with a phony RFP until after the Town’s proposed Comprehensive Plan is approved. ABG is not convinced this will ever happen under this administration.

The Town of Greenburgh acquired the former Frank’s Nursery property through tax foreclosure in 2011, Mr Feiner has battled concerned residents for over two years to illegally lease, and then sell the property to a startup venture named GameOn.

Refusing to publicly disclosed who they are, Mr. Feiner insists he has spoken about the property with potential bidders, offering more money for the property than House of Sports. Why he refuses to inform the Town residents who these people are adds to the shroud of secrecy and back room deals Mr Feiner is so anxious to do.

Here is Justice Rosenberg’s unedited letter:

Paul,

As with your earlier referendum, your letter misstates facts and omits important facts.  While that doesn't seem to bother you, I will comment for the sake of others.

1.  You have said several times that both GameOn and House of Sports have threatened lawsuits.  You know perfectly well that GameOn isn't going to sue because, as the lower bidder, they have no claim, and if they did sue that would be sanctioned by the court for a frivolous lawsuit as part of the quick dismissal of their case.

2.  You say, in your questions, that the site "is currently appraised at $1.6 million but would be worth more if it is rezoned for other uses."  You omit the fact that the property was appraised with GameOn's recreation proposal before the appraiser, including the need to rezone.   Your misleading point seems to be that the property would be worth more if it is rezoned for recreational uses.  In fact, it is worth  more, as House of Sports has shown.  It is the appraisal that was "cooked" so that GameOn could bid $1.7 million and make it seem like a fair price.

3.  Although you state the appraised value, you fail to state the amounts already offered -- $3.5 million from House of Sports and $1.7 million (with a highly contingent additional $1.3 million) from GameOn, which you touted as a fair price.  That kind of information is important for purposes of asking residents for an opinion.

4.  You say that people have been calling you.  You always say that people have been calling you, but of course you can't prove it and nobody can disprove it.  But if true, so what?  People, in general, don't have the financial, legal, or planning knowledge that is required for such decisions, and so you are just using the words "people have been calling" you to justify whatever actions that you want to do, because there is no way to prove that anyone called you.  However, I doubt that this will ever stop you.

4.  Most of the questions -- especially the last eight -- should not be asked of the general public.  The Town Board has been elected to study, consider, research, etc., so that intelligent decisions can be made by responsible elected officials who are expected to understand legal, financial, budgetary, planning and environmental issues -- things that the general public is not trained to understand and does not have the information to understand.  In other words, your questionnaire is unserious.

You are now talking about selling the site in the winter of 2014.  If yours were an honest approach, it would mean a further delay of almost two years.  But you have not shown yourself to be honest.  It is fairly clear that your real purpose -- or strategy -- is to prevent the House of Sports from acquiring the property, probably to enable the GameOn people to get financing.  Or maybe it is just to spite House of Sports.  The public good has been secondary in your actions in recent years.

You have turned a golden opportunity into a mess, and as usual, the Town will suffer.

Herb Rosenberg

Purchase Option Agreement

Parsing words. Wordsmith. Semantics. Grammarian. These are the voyages of the starship Greenburgh, where no man (or woman) working for the Town or with an arrangement with the Town can ever be accused of giving a simple and direct answer. Lest you not believe ABG, simply ask Mr Feiner or any of his Board a simple and direct question and then listen to their answer. Their operative buzzword will be heavily dependent on obfuscation. The 2013 re-election promises more activity and involvement from them but rarely of substance. They’ll be speaking but are they saying anything?

Speaking of substance, the last several Town Board meeting found Mr Feiner and his cohorts being relentlessly challenged and berated by angry residents for numerous misdeeds undertaken by the administration. The “boom” is poised to cascade upon the Town with a resounding, “Gotchya!” once the courts determine the compensatory damages Mr Feiner and the Board incurred upon us after discriminating against, lying under oath about, and destroying evidence proven with the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit, for which the afore mentioned were found guilty! Another hot-topic was the illegal lease and subsidizing of property for GameOn 365. They have been referred to as a “paper company” and/or “shell corporation” who held secret meetings with Paul Feiner before the Town acquired the foreclosed upon property! His Board condoned the brokered (done) deal, ratifying it every step of the way with the only beneficiary being GameOn 365.

Martin Hewitt, a principal of GameOn 365, attended the Town Board meeting and was the first speaker during the 3-minute public comment session. He said he would be brief and not use his entire time. He was only 21 minutes shy but who’s counting? He began his statement by saying, “GameOn has entered into a purchase option agreement to purchase the land known as the Westchester Golf Range. The Westchester Golf Range encompasses the golf range you see and the surrounding acreage around it. We intend to build the Westchester Field House as we intended to build on the Frank’s property and keep the golf range in tact.”

The rest of what he said doesn’t amount to all that much. But the key to his bluff this time is again in the details of what he said, and the specificity of his words. ABG doesn’t maintain a Board of Directors of lawyers, such as the Greenburgh Town Board, so our legalese may be disputable. Let’s examine what Mr Hewitt said this night. “GameOn has entered into a purchase option agreement to purchase the land...” The key as we’ve examined this is that all it really means, beyond the parsing of words, is they may have said to the owners of the Westchester Golf Range, “We’d like to go on record that we are interested in purchasing your Golf Range.” Hence, a purchase option agreement. We also imagine the response being, “Yeah, that’s nice. Listen, money talks. Who do I look like, Paul Feiner? Come back and talk to me when you have the money!”

Hewitt also claimed that he would be keeping the Westchester Golf Range as it is and simply add the Westchester Field House. This starts to make Mr Hewitt’s “plans” a bit sketchier and ABG more skeptical. What he is alluding is that he will be purchasing both properties and creating a mega-sports complex. But how can he do this? He didn’t have enough money to purchase the Frank’s Nursery property unless the Town financed the deal for him by offering an unsecured loan. One way would be for GameOn 365 to actually purchase the Westchester Golf Range with a minimal down payment and have the current own carry the mortgage as Mr Feiner offered to do for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Although, Mr Hewitt claims to want a mega-sports complex, it appears what he would be doing is creating is his original proposal for the Westchester Field House on 715 Dobbs Ferry Road – the former Frank’s Nursery property.

ABG can think of several considerations with this taking place. First, perhaps GameOn 365 found their sugar-daddy investor and can actually purchase, albeit limited, a property now. Second, everyone has failed to comment on the hazardous contamination and remediation that must be addressed at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Third, if GameOn 365 were able to purchase the Westchester Golf Range, the Town could still undermine everything Mr Feiner claimed with doing an RFP at the Town Board meeting and still do a private sale of the property to GameOn 365. Fourth, as such, House of Sports might not want to be next door to GameOn 365, which has always been Mr Feiner’s ultimate goal to gift 715 to GameOn 365. Fifth, if House of Sports is interested in developing the property at both locations, what’s to stop them from continuing to “trump” any offer GameOn 365 might choose to make? Having a profitable and operational sports business certainly make it easier for them to do this. Sixth, Mr Feiner has pulled so many stunts during this entire scam, it’s hard to believe anything he tells us any more. Could this simply be another ploy by a previously resistant Mr Feiner to the House of Sports’ offer with the end-game of getting House of Sports out of the picture? 

What’s it going to be? Nobody really knows. ABG believes the RFP proffered by Mr Feiner at the last Town Board meeting is not sincere. Like his bogus referendum to help GameOn 365, we still believe he is trying to find a way to give the gift of real estate to GameOn 365. GameOn 365 is threatening to purchase the Westchester Golf Range, which seems like another illusion and maneuver for appearances sake, using semantics to purport their case. By seeming to want the entire entity of two properties, ABG believes they are trying to scare away Elm Street Sports from participating by parsing words. 

ABG disappointingly knows, as does everyone else that Mr Feiner met secretly with GameOn 365 to strike a sweetheart deal before the Town acquired the Frank’s Nursery property through foreclosure. As such, we are suspect that the same type of meeting may have taken place again with new ground rules drawn and a new strategy in play. Let’s see where this new voyage takes us. Wherever it is, keep your phasers on stun, computers on and reset your B.S Meters to allow them to set off alarms when the peak!

Public Forces Feiner To Capitulate

In an “its about time” moment before the public comment section was about to begin, Mr Feiner finally closed the barn door now that all the animals are out and announced that he and the Town Board have decided to put the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road out for an RFP (Request For Proposal). For about three years now, the G10 specifically, and others, had been asking, telling, cajoling and pleading with the Town Board members and Mr Feiner to put the property up for an RFP. The good news for the Town residents is that the G10 were relentless first about the illegal lease and then the below market value sale of the property, inadvertently keeping the process on hold until now. What is so important about now? Mr Feiner has opposition for his job in the 2013 Democratic Primary elections. 

Faced now with an impending election, Mr Feiner must have recognized the futility of trying to continue his “gift” deal to GameOn 365 for the property. Forget the illegal nature of everything he was trying to do by offering the property for lease. Forget that he created a slanted referendum to push his agenda of gifted property to GameOn 365. Forget that he prolonged three years of wasting our time, losing money and revenue through his actions. He claimed at last night’s Town Board meeting that if he sold the property to one business, the other would sue the Town - and vise versa. He purported to be concerned about litigation and delays. Interestingly, litigation and delays have never been a concern for Mr Feiner in his 22 years in office as lawsuits abound. The most significant would be the guilty verdict in the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit.

So what changed? Getting honest answers from this Town Board has always proven incredibly elusive, especially with our double-talking Supervisor. While the Town indicated it would accept an offer last week for the property from the Ardsley-based Elm Street Sports for $3.5 million but preferred a lower bid of $1.7 million from the Feiner-annointed GameOn 365. What happened to those offers and why has Mr Feiner offered to do an RFP? Was it the culmination of the onslaught of information from rational, intelligent residents able to prove that Mr Feiner’s actions were nothing short of illegal? Was it the threat from numerous attorneys that they would sue the Town if Mr Feiner proceeded the reason? Was it the fact that his customer of choice didn’t have enough money to do the deal unless the Town carried the paper? Could it be all of the above?

GameOn 365 representative Martin Hewitt spoke at last night’s Town Board meeting and then bolted like he saw his car being towed. He said that GameOn 365 is looking to purchase the Golf Driving Range property next door, which is about the same size as the former Frank’s Nursery property and probably more expensive. Then he added he planned to be involved in the RFP for the former Frank’s Nursery as well as the Driving Range. Hardly believable. Unless he won the lottery, he has been unsuccessful in raising the required funds to offer more than a deposit on the former Frank’s Nursery property – even with the Town underwriting him. Secret meetings aside, how will he be able to purchase the second property let alone both. But he can dream. We also question how enthusiastic the homeowners will now be on Westchester View and the surrounding area toward GameOn 365 after learning they will be moving directly next to them? And since this will be a private sale, the only gift Mr Feiner can offer Mr Hewitt now is carte blanche spot zoning – a hallmark of the Feiner administration.

ABG has also pushed for an RFP for this property. Regardless of the purchaser, remediation and contamination is still an issue. It hasn’t been used for something as serious as Indian Point’s spent fuel rods, but the site is contaminated and needs significant remediation. We have learned all too often, all too clearly and all too easily how deceitful Mr Feiner and his Board has been at every juncture of this debacle as well as others. As such, we and others are naturally suspect of his motives and what other back room deals may have already taken place with Mr Hewitt and what promises have been made – legal or otherwise. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Truth, Lies, and the Greenburgh Way

A press conference on location will make an impact. Openly lying during the press conference will also make an impact. Promising to divulge information and at a press conference and then not doing so will make an impact. Inviting the press and neighbors to the press conference and not allowing questions will make an impact. Every aspect of today’s press conference was another part of the insider deal conceived and initiated in 2007 by Mr Feiner to help his “friends” from GameOn 365. One can only wonder what would motivate him to craft and participate in a sweetheart deal with an outside developer over the wishes of so many residents in the area and would not provide the best financial outcome for the Town?

Mr Feiner claimed that two-thirds of Greenburgh wanted the 8-story sports bubble through a biased and slanted referendum of November 6, 2012. A lie? Actually, yes. Only two-thirds of the voters out of about eight thousand who actually voted, out of ninety-two thousand residents in total, wanted the 83 foot tall sports bubble in a neighborhood other than their own. Shouldn’t the neighborhood being affected have the say and not everyone else? Of course. Mr Feiner rebuffed the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association’s repeated requests to meet with him and the Town Board to discuss the proposal before any decision was made. The wording in the referendum ensured a “yes” vote while omitting important and pertinent data. Had the public had been properly informed of the “real deal”, they invariably would have voted against Mr Feiner’s bogus referendum. Those in the know, know that Mr Feiner doesn’t like to lose. That’s not a lie.

Today’s press conference was read by Mr Feiner from a prepared three page document that not only had omissions, but out and out lies. This was another extension of the old adage that Mr  Feiner subscribes to, that if you say something over and over, eventually it will be considered the truth. ABG believes Mr Feiner is incapable of the truth! He claims the Town extracted many concessions from GameOn 365. Yet he mentioned none! He claimed the Town would receive $3M for the sale, $1.7 “immediately” and the balance of $1.3M after the closing. Here’s the semantics and word-play we are so used to from Mr Feiner. In reviewing the contract, the balance of $1.3M is to be paid over the balance of the contract period of 15 years with an interest rate of 2.2%. It is roughly the same deal Mr Feiner and the Board tried to give GameOn 365 all along! Although back then, we were being told we would receive $5M after the 15 years. So we lost $2M in the interim. An omission or a lie? You decide.  Is it any wonder that incumbent and current re-election candidates Francis Sheehan and Diana Juettner didn’t show up to this counterfeit proposal? Please, don’t be too fast to let them off the hook as they are complicit with this since the inception of this deal. But since they are seeking re-election and still need Mr Feiner, they decided they needed to lay low.

Mr Feiner insisted that the Town actively solicited bids for this property after acquiring it. Simply, its another lie. After having his feet held to the fire, the Supervisor had a meager sign put up on the overgrown property advertising it. That’s it. The G10 asked at many meetings what was actively being done to advertise the land. If and when Mr Feiner would respond, he would say “they” put up flyers or he posted it on his blog, which apparently must be an active real estate sales location. What they never did was contact commercial real estate companies to market it. At the last Town Board meeting Mr Feiner accused residents of bid-rigging. This project is a blatant example of just that – not by residents, but by their elected officials! Could the reality be that Mr Feiner has made it so difficult to see the truth and requires so much in “pay to play” fees, that any legitimate developer interested in the property simply decided to pass on it?

The press conference got ugly when Mr Feiner made disparaging comments about the House of Sports, and their parent company Elm Street Sports, along with HelpBurstTheBubble.com and its owner Simon Cohen. Representatives from Elm Street Sports were present and challenged Mr Feiner’s allegations against them. Mr Feiner said he had court papers proving what he said. When pushed to read from them or produce them, Mr Feiner would not. Then he went after one of the principals of Elm Street Sports for comments he made over a year ago at a Town Board meeting. Elm Street Sports has offered $3.5M for the property and promised any and all remediation required before building. Their only condition was the Town provide the requirements to remediate the sight. Mr Feiner never returned or responded to their letters, phone calls or emails. There was no reason to – he never intended for anyone else to get the property than GameOn 365!

Mr Feiner is certainly not the paragon of truth or honesty. Time has proven this and two courts have validated this with guilty verdicts against him for destroying evidence, lying under oath and discriminating against an African American Church (with four additional counts). We found it incredulous when he had the audacity to say, “Finally, I’m troubled by House of Sports relationship with Burst The Bubble, which claimed to be a legitimate not for profit community organization opposing development for environmental reasons.” He’s troubled by a relationship of a private citizen and a private company? Greenburgh residents are all troubled by a relationship between Mr Feiner and GameOn 365’s Martin Hewitt as well as GameOn 365! The residents are troubled by Mr Feiner’s biased challenge of HelpBurstTheBubble.com’s environmental concerns. Had it not been for the residents and in particular HelpBurstTheBubble.com, Mr Feiner would have pushed an illegal lease deal through without regard to the contamination on the site. Now you can see why Mr Feiner is manipulating the press conference against Elm Street Sports and HelpBurstTheBubble.com and not talking about the sweetheart deal he has blessed onto GameOn 365 for practically no serious money and less money overall than originally promised! Mr Feiner had engaged into deflection mode but the residents in attendance weren’t accepting any of it.

Elm Street Sports has promised more litigation for this spurious and frankly, insulting, deal being perpetrated against the Town from within. As we study the contract, the Town plans to vote on this tomorrow night. We pray residents from Greenburgh come to speak out against this sham. GameOn 365 has previously brought in non-residents from outside the area to speak on their behalf, “supporting” this proposal. This is another example of government run amok because we lack term limits and checks and balances with single party control. After Mr Jones shouts down another resident lets see if Mr Feiner will shout out, “You can’t handle the truth!”

With the Democratic Nominating Convention taking place at Town Hall Tuesday night, which we “trust” they will be paying for, we hope the Democratic district leaders will use their better judgement to not nominate Mr Feiner as their top representative for the Town and hopes they’ll be doing the right thing. There’s an opportunity for real change to take place in Greenburgh tonight. Let’s hope they don’t blow it.

Feiner’s Bid-Rigging Finale Prevails

In a surprising announcement late on Friday afternoon when most residents are leaving work, thinking of their weekend plans, our Town Supervisor quietly slipped the announcement out through his blog that he and his Town Board awarded the sale of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery property to the “paper” corporation, GameOn 365, for $3M! No details of the contract were available as of this posting. Not-so-stunning was the amount of time Mr Feiner had to keep the opponents at bay while GameOn 365 struggled to find financing through outside investors. He has been stalling the sale of the property for over two years now, assisting with GameOn 365’s search for investors by contriving an illegal referendum to justify his illegal actions.

ABG has predicted all along that Mr. Feiner and his Board would disregard the more lucrative offer from the established and profitable House of Sports’ parent company, Elm Street Sports, or any others for that matter, and pretend to show interest in all offers and ultimately, painstakingly, and hesitantly accept the “best offer for the Town in his estimation” from GameOn 365. We cannot prove collusion but can certainly acknowledge facts about this transaction don’t sit well with most people. ABG believes this warrants an A.G. investigation but knows that probably won’t happen.

Months before the Town acquired the former Frank’s Nursery property through foreclosure, representatives from GameOn 365 met with Mr. Feiner regarding the property. Unbeknownst to most residents and Town employees, Mr. Feiner and crew continued to craft a deal with them. Having apparently promised the property to GameOn 365, Mr Feiner struggled to find a way to make this deal happen quickly and without much resistance. He offered to lease the property to GameOn 365 in what can only be described as a major sweetheart deal.

The original offer from GameOn 365 was a promised $5M to the Town over 15 years. Thinking residents are clueless, Mr. Feiner issued press release after press release touting the deal. The press was negligent in doing their duty and didn’t scrutinize the legality of what Mr. Feiner was proposing. But a community backed lawsuit put a stop to the lease. What to do? GameOn 365 was nervous – their too-good-to-be-true deal with Mr. Feiner was vaporizing before them. Mr Feiner, a shrewd and clever non-practicing lawyer finally got the answer from the lawsuit itself. The Town is required to sell any property acquired through foreclosure and it could be a private sale without an RFP. He would do just that.

Yet, Elm Street Sports still wanted in. They had the cash in hand and could make the purchase immediately as they are already operating a successful sports facility in Ardsley. GameOn 365 is a couple of stockbrokers with little or no cash at all. To consummate this sale quickly, Mr Feiner would need to step up his game (no pun intended) to keep them out. Elm Street Sports offered $3.5M and full coverage for remediation of the site. There were no strings attached with their offer. They only asked what would be required of them? Mr Feiner never responded to their queries knowing he never had any intention of selling to them. The deal with GameOn 365, found them offering to put up a percentage of the down payment and claimed to pay for some remediation with a total sale price of $1.2M that included rent reimbursements from the Town as well as the option to terminate the deal at any time. After residents hounded Mr Feiner that he was giving the highly valued property away for “a song”, Mr Feiner had an assessor come and look at the property for a valuation. The assessor returned an estimated value at, wait for it, $1.2M! Then, the Town put that same assessor on retainer for the Town!

Mr. Feiner’s latest accusations toward concerned residents at the last Town Board meeting were that they were bid-rigging. Now, Mr. Feiner announced a lease for the property between the Town and GameOn 365 without ever doing any real “due diligence” because he knew he was always going to give GameOn 365 the property. In the interim, Elm Street Sports doubled the original GameOn 365 sale price offer to $3.5M. Everyone spoke clearly and with conviction and said take the highest offer. Mr Sheehan insisted he didn’t believe the Elm Street Sports offer was sincere. One of the Elm Street Sports representatives said at a Town Board meeting, “When it comes to money, especially millions of dollars, I am always sincere.” Too bad our Town Board isn’t.

The Town Board has the ability to make this sale whether the public endorses it or not. The public asked for an RFP but was ignored. The public asked for answers and got none. The devil is always in the details and while no details were exposed for this new deal with GameOn 365, we’ll keep you posted as this story promises more dark roads ahead.

Greenburgh To Pay for Initial Remediation at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road

An admission was made in an email (shown below) to the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association President, indicating the Town of Greenburgh will probably pay for the remediation of the oil spill at the former Frank’s Nursery site at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. The contaminated property has languished  since before the Town acquired the property years ago. ABG has maintained throughout this boondoggle that ultimately it will be the Unincorporated portion of the Town, The Paul’s “whipping boy”, that will foot the bill for cleaning up this property. This letter from the New York State DEC’s Todd Ghiosay confirms what ABG has said all along.

Todd Ghiosay
NYSDEC
Division of Environmental Remediation
Spill Prevention and Response
100 Hillside Avenue - Suite 1W
White Plains, NY  10603-2860
Phone (914) 428-2505 ext. 361
Fax (914) 428-0323>>> 4/19/2013 4:15 PM >>>

Dear Todd,

Thank you for meeting with us on Wednesday, April 17th.

Do you have any information for us regarding the property we discussed?

Sincerely,

Dorrine Livson

REPLY:

Mrs Livson

Victor Carosi returned my call and informed me that his consultant did have an informal meeting with someone at DEC but he did have a name.  He also said that the town is evaluating whether the property will be sold "as is", leaving it up to the buyer to do the remediation or whether the Town should do the cleanup.

Victor did say the he believes that the town will be handling the oil spill cleanup to clear the spill number. 

The last line of his letter is the real indicator of the Town’s intent. ABG is not sure whose decision it was for the Town to pay for the cleanup but doubt it was Mr. Carosi’s. ABG wants to know when this decision made? There’ve been no open discussions about this at any public meetings that ABG is aware of. Was it made during another one of the now-routine Executive Sessions the Board has become so desperate of utilizing? The Paul and his Stepfords have no difficulty shoving their hands down our pants to get at our hard-earned money every time they get more proverbial egg hurled onto their faces due to an impending financial penalty, fine or judgement headed their way. Hold onto your wallets.

If you’ve watched any Town Board meetings within the last six months, you’ve noticed anytime a difficult question is asked or an embarrassing judgement/decision by the Board may be exposed, the secret signal (think The Sting) is given. The designated Board member makes the motion to adjourn to Executive Session, the others stumble over themselves to offer a second to the motion and keep the public from knowing what The Paul (Mr. Open Government) and his Stepford Board will soon discuss behind closed doors.

There are several issues at play here for the Town residents (and several Attorney Generals) that our loyal followers already know. First, The Paul entered into secret negotiations with GameOn 365’s principals long before the Town acquired this property through foreclosure. Can you say collusion? Second, after the Town had acquired the property, a discussion ensued about how the library construction would impede the public’s use of the library facility and the former Frank’s Nursery was proposed as a temporary library site. That suggestion quickly screeched to a halt once it was learned that carcinogens, a fuel oil leak, and the earlier use of the property was uncovered as a dump for White Plains’ Urban Renewal waste. Ironically, the overhead high tensions wires bordering the property seemed to be of little concern.

Third, collusion with GameOn 365 began the illegal scenario but was by no means the only misplay by The Paul and his Stepfords. Once GameOn 365 finalized their Sports Bubble plan, they needed investors to pull this pyramid-like scheme off as their organization is made up of a bunch of stock brokers without the funds to proceed. GameOn 365 needed the lease to promote the offering to potential investors. They winked and explained to The Paul of their plan to erect a gigantic, 8-story (83ft tall) inflatable bubble on the site, make a few outdoor fields and pay the Town $5M. They had him hooked once The Paul heard he could make $5M dollars. The Paul had lost so much money with his screw up of the WestHelp deal, Fortress Bible guilty verdict (and others) that he began salivating like a vampire at a blood bank. GameOn 365 went in front of the Town Board as a formality and officially pitched the plan. The Paul told them to love it, so they did! Shrewdly, The Paul offered to lease the property to them for 15 years for a total of $5M. That breaks down to about $300k per year – an amount The Paul was unwilling to accept for the WestHelp property that the Town doesn’t even own.

The Paul has been pushing sports bubbles in the Town for years but could not proceed because of a restriction through the Finneran law. What to do? Wait a minute... The Paul asked his buddies Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti, now a NYS Assemblyman and NYS Senator Andrea “Platitudes” Stewart-Cousins to railroad an amendment to the Finneran Law allowing bubbles through their respective chambers during the “it’s getting late and we have to hit the road” final minutes of their respective legislatures. Done (deal)! The Paul could proceed with his promises to illegally offer the lease.

The Paul even had one of our Recreation Commissioners (there are two – just like our magic tax-cap number), Gerry Bryne, speak to Greenburgh’s need for more sports fields. Rather than remediate the property and develop it as a sports field if we truly need more sports fields, The Paul sought this illegal lease. Then The Paul decided to add insult to injury and hold a referendum for the illegal lease deal, trying to validate his illegal deal. Knowing the public is clueless, he knew if he worded the referendum “properly”, adding in yard signs and newspaper ads, voters would read it for the first time at the voting “booth” and it would pass – which it did. But illegal is still illegal even though he successfully duped the majority of voters into approving it.

ABG readers also know that anytime someone disagrees with what The Paul is doing, his classic response, “If you don’t like what I’m doing, you can sue me.” So they did – again. Another sports-oriented company with a different clientele and business model, House of Sports of Ardsley, NY, initiated a lawsuit along with several others, to block the illegal lease. The premise for their lawsuit was that NY State and Westchester County law mandates any property acquired by a municipality must be sold or utilized by that municipality. GameOn 365 littered the landscape with yard signs claiming this deal would bring $5M to the Town. How could this be bad for the Town?

The saga continues, but is now on hold as The Paul claims the Town is doing its “due diligence” regarding the two offerings. Read: stalling. The Town Board members have been instructed to say the same thing, so they do. As they parrot what The Paul tells them to say, the property sits unremediated and unused. The site is about the size and scope of the WestHelp property that The Paul insisted should be used for the Ferncliff School for the Developmentally Disabled. And mysteriously, he has never suggested using 715 Dobbs Ferry Road for the Ferncliff School. Why not? ABG continues to insist the Town do the right thing and ask for a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the site and see what else we might get?

ABG has previously predicted the Town’s decision will be to sell the property to GameOn 365 – even though House of Sports has offered double the amount of what GameOn 365 has for the site and promised to pay for the remediation. The Paul and the Stepfords will site all kinds of excuses but they will be irrelevant. GameOn 365 can’t “up the ante” because they have no “ante”. House of Sports has cash in hand. ABG continues to predict the Town will wind up paying for remediation of the property either directly or through credits of some sort once GameOn 365 gets the property. ABG doesn’t really care what is built on the property but acknowledges it is zoned for residential housing and should remain that way. We can only hope.