Town Board Appoints New Police Chief

The Greenburgh Town Board unanimously voted to appoint  GPD Captain Kobie Powell to assume the critical position of Chief of Police of the Greenburgh Police Department. Chief Powell enjoys an extremely close bond and long history with Greenburgh, as he resides in Greenburgh, was raised in our Town, educated within the Greenburgh School System, and has worked tirelessly for our community for the entirety of his life.  

Chief Powell’s story of “ascending through the ranks,” during his nearly 25-year tenure with the GPD, to ultimately oversee our PD, staffed by 115 sworn officers and 42 civilian members and with an annual budget of $25.5 million, reflects our new Chief’s perseverance and his dedication to Greenburgh and its residents. Chief Powell’s drive and commitment to law enforcement and personal/professional excellence has been the hallmark of his success.

Chief Powell enjoys strong educational and employment credentials. He has earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Mercy College, Summa Cum Laude, and served honorably on the GPD for nearly 25 years, in nearly every line and supervisory position:

Police Officer, Patrol Sergeant, Detective Sergeant, Police Lieutenant-Commanding Officer Special Investigation Unit, Police Captain-Commanding Officer Professional Standards Division.

It is important and significant to state that Chief Powell will be the first African American person chosen to serve in the role of Greenburgh Chief of Police, as he was the first to serve as a Captain within its ranks.

Chief Powell will replace former Chief, Chris McNerney who resigned to become the Police Chief of Larchmont, and Interim Chief George Longworth, former Police Chief of Dobbs Ferry and Westchester County Commissioner of Public Safety , who graciously took a leave from his position in a prestigious law firm to oversee our force until the rigorous Civil Service procedure for the hiring of a new Chief could be concluded. We are grateful to both Chiefs McNerney and Longworth for their service and commitment to the safety of our residents.

Chief Powell will assume the position on August 22, 2022.  There will be a formal ceremony at our September 14, 2022 Town Board meeting.

Supervisor Says Death May Be Murder

Town police are investigating what Supervisor Paul Feiner called "a possible homicide" after a man's body was found late Dec. 28 behind a deli on Russell Street. See the official Greenburgh Police Department press release below.

Snow Clearing Operations

While our local Snow Ordinance ended on March 15th, we are asking for the public’s assistance during this upcoming late season snow storm. Snow is expected to start during tonight’s overnight hours and continue until approximately11:00pm Wednesday night. Please make all efforts to keep cars off town roads to expedite snow clearing operations. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
Respectfully,
Chief Chris McNerney
Chief of Police
Town of Greenburgh Police Department
(914)989-1740

Dancing With The Devil in Oakland or Greenburgh

Whether it’s an Oakland-size warehouse fire or a house fire in Scarsdale, the tragedy that has just taken place in both has many people stunned, questioning how something like this could happen. And more importantly, could an Oakland size fire happen here?

All accounts thus far have determined that the building was being used improperly given its zoning of record. Equally important was the fact that the building did not have sprinklers. Would sprinklers have saved the people that were killed? It’s difficult to predict with certainty, but statistics indicate that the odds would have been greatly increased toward survival. Regardless, the warehouse’s owner, Chor Ng, through his daughter, Eva Ng, says he didn’t know that people were living there. But the leaseholder, Derick Ion Almena, has said he resides in the 4,000 square foot space with his wife, three children, and other artists.

Almena appeared contrite on the Today Show on Dec. 6. “I’m only here to say one thing: that I’m incredibly sorry and that everything that I did was to make this a stronger and more beautiful community and to bring people together.” When asked about criminal negligence charges he might face for the building conditions, Almena got angry and refused to address known dangers in the warehouse. “I signed a lease and I got a building that was to city standards supposedly … I don’t want to talk about me. I don’t want to talk about profiting …This is not profit. This is a mass grave,” he said. What he stated was partially correct; the building was to city standards when he signed the lease. But, as the tenant, he either made or condoned illegal changes and later sublet spaces to others who may not have known what was being done was illegal or unsafe.

Could the same occurrence happen here? It’s difficult to say, but we believe so. Given the liberal acceptance of many in Greenburgh and their willingness to allow illegal residential usage and be a “sanctuary” town, the probability exists. Talk to any firefighter in Greenburgh or its villages, or any community in Westchester, and they can point out houses and small apartment buildings that are over-crowded and being used beyond the intent of the community’s zoning code. Ask them if they have ever responded to a call where modifications have been done and the answer will be a resounding, “Yes!” Most can also cite numerous building, zoning and safety codes that are being violated. But, in Greenburgh as well as New York, any questions of illegalities can and will be ignored simply because inspectors must receive permission to gain access to a residence to do an inspection. Mr Feiner has also instructed the Police and Building Departments to look the other way when they come upon illegal conversions. The resident’s right-of-refusal of entry to both leaves perilous situations unchanged!

We need Mr Feiner and his Board to stop pandering to everybody simply for their own agenda: votes. We need politicians to stop coming to Fire Department Inspection Dinners, presenting a proclamation or espousing how great the firefighters are and saying they appreciate and value the job they do for our communities. What we need them to do is show our communities how much they value what the fire service does by crafting laws that allow access for life safety reasons, code violation reasons and dangerous living conditions. We need Mr Feiner to not perpetuate a sanctuary Greenburgh on every level in the town. Only then will residents be safer. Only then will firefighters, already dancing with the devil given what they do, be safer. It’s time for everyone to stop talking about safety and do something about it so that we don’t have another Oakland size tragedy, especially and unnecessarily in Greenburgh!

Greenburgh Police Department's Review Class

The Town of Greenburgh Police Department is conducting a review class for all town residents that have registered for the November 19, 2016 Police Officer Entrance Exam. The review class will begin Wednesday, October 26th, 2016 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm and will continue each Wednesday evening through November 16th, 2016. Classes will be held at the Theodore D. Young Community Center- 32 Manhattan Avenue, White Plains, New York 10607, and is free to all town residents. If you have not reserved a seat in the class, please do so by e-mailing Sergeant Norman Hall at nhall@greenburghny.com.

Chris T. McNerney
Chief of Police
Town of Greenburgh Police Department
(914)989-1740

Break-Ins Surge According to Email

 Even without receiving campaign emails from the corner office about what’s going on around Town, it’s no longer a secret that the Greenburgh Police Department has lessened their traffic control presence throughout the Town. It was most notably observed in several neighborhoods that used to have an officer in either a marked, unmarked or “shadow” vehicle sitting with a radar gun monitoring traffic, speeders and issuing tickets. The officers doing this have apparently been removed from these locations and either reassigned or perhaps even retired. While we don’t have a reason for this, we know the lack of traffic policing has not gone unnoticed.

Many residents have reached out to their civic associations to complain and find out why. The police department has admitted they are short-staffed. Quite possibly a personnel shortage might, in fact, be the reason. But we also read that the police department decided not to fill a vacant position to purchase several motorcycles. Clearly, this move would indicate the position that was open was not necessarily impactful or critical to the police on patrol. Or was it?

In one of his recent daily email campaign blasts, Mr Feiner wrote to residents that “Over a dozen unlocked vehicles were entered last night in the Joyce Road section of Hartsdale and property was stolen from within the cars. Additionally, one unlocked vehicle with a key left inside was stolen.  If each of these cars was locked this email would not have been written!” We doubt that. In fact, he would simply discuss something else. Such as, since the professionals he hired to repair the 9-11 memorial wall at Presser Park (formerly Webb Field) failed with their last attempt, he has enlisted the help of students to repair the wall and try to keep the individual tiles from falling off again.

He continues, “We are stepping up patrols and asking residents to help protect themselves by locking their vehicles at night. This crime of opportunity is plaguing many communities in Westchester and we believe the Greenburgh police have previously arrested the subjects responsible for last night’s crimes. Our officers have been in the Bronx most of the day following up.” What it sounds like is that a lack of patrols by our police might be what’s missing. Perhaps one of the new motorcycle police officers could do the patrol more stealthily than a regular patrol car?

Finally, he says, “The Greenburgh police department also has a neighborhood watch program. Neighbors who participate in the neighborhood watch efforts help the police look for suspicious activity. Let us know if you're interested in setting up a neighborhood watch program on your street. We can have a police officer meet with you and your neighbors at someone's home, provide neighbors with safety tips and advise you what action steps you could take to help us keep your neighborhood very safe.”

We are all for Neighborhood Watch programs and encourage the public to report any suspicious activity, regardless of a Neighborhood Watch or not. But Mr Feiner has cleverly switched the subject from a lack of action with the thefts in the Hartsdale neighborhood away from the real issue, that of a lack of police presence in all of our neighborhoods. Our police department is one of the best to be found anywhere. Sadly, the police chief answers to, and the department falls under Mr Feiner’s purview. 

While all of the rhetoric from the corner office will no doubt change the subject, Mr Feiner will offer to meet with anyone who is willing to talk to him. If he hadn’t already changed the subject prior to his arrival, he will do so once he is there. Then he will try to enlist the help of that person to assist him in creating a program to... We need a more visible police presence in all of our neighborhoods to thwart crime. We need speed monitoring and ticketing of those offenders who violate the law. If we have the police in our neighborhoods instead of in the Bronx or riding motorcycles, maybe we can prevent more crime here as get to know our police officers better. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Town of Greenburgh's National Night Out

The Town of Greenburgh Police Department is proud to announce the hosting of this year’s Town Of Greenburgh National Night Out 2016 on Tuesday, August 2nd, starting at 6:00 pm and ending at 9:00 pm. We encourage you to come out to our Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Avenue, White Plains, NY and join your neighbors in participating in this community partnership about crime and drug prevention event.

National Night Out involves over 15,325 communities from all 50 states, U.S. territories, Canadian cities and military bases around the world. In all over 37.1 million people are expected to participate in this year’s National Night Out.

National Night Out is designed to:
- Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships;
- Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;
- Generate support for, and participation in, local anti-crime programs; and
- Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Along with the traditional display of outdoor lights on front porches, cities, towns and neighborhoods 'celebrate' NNO with a variety of events and activities such as: Cookouts - Parades - Youth Programs - Vehicle Larceny Prevention- Burglary Prevention - Fire Prevention. There will be local vendors donating food and activities for children.

During the event, residents in neighborhoods throughout the Town of Greenburgh and across the nation are asked to turn on their porch lights, lock their doors and spend the evening outside with your neighbors, police officers, firefighters and paramedics.

National Night Out is a great crime prevention tool that encourages you and your neighbors to get together. When neighbors know each other and pay attention to their surroundings, they are more likely to recognize and report suspicious people or vehicles to law enforcement. The more you know about your neighborhood, the more you can do to keep it safe.

A Different Type of Memorial Day

The Elmsford Fire Department, led by Chief David Signor, participated in church services, a parade followed by a ceremony held at Village Hall to honor our fallen heroes. Numerous groups were in attendance and everyone seemed to be enjoying the festivities. Except one couple. They were busy in a different way.

At approximately 1:30PM, after the last hot dog was consumed and the tables and chairs put away, the Elmsford Fire Department received a call for an ambulance to respond to Ichi Riki’s Japanese Restaurant for a woman in labor. Upon arrival, firefighters and police officers found a young woman, who works at the restaurant, moaning with labor pains. Paramedics arrived shortly after and assisted as firefighters put the young woman onto the stretcher and wheeled her into the fire department’s new ambulance, which was recently just put into service.

As the young woman’s labor pains increased she became quite loud. Instructions from the paramedics could be heard between her breathing and screaming. The father who also works at the restaurant, had pulled his car behind the ambulance prepared to follow them to the hospital. Assistant Chief Nelson Diaz suggested he turn off the van and join his wife in the back of the ambulance. Protocol and safety reasons warrant letting the child be born in a stationary vehicle. Since this was her third child, it was assumed that labor might be swift. Just as the husband had gotten into the ambulance and joined his wife, she gave birth to a boy. This is the first birth in the Elmsford Fire Department’s new ambulance and truly a Memorial Day for at least one growing family. Best of luck to them all.

Wake The Sleeping Giant

Meeting after meeting systematically finds The Paul, whom I’ve dubbed “The Paul” because he acts as though he is the “King” of Greenburgh, brazenly and openly lying to the public for his own goals. Unfortunately, he is  supported by an equally inept and complicit media. I’ve dubbed the Town Board the “Stepford” Board because they show up like automatons and vote ‘yes’ to anything The Paul tells them to. A recent statement at a Town Board meeting by Councilman Sheehan where he says the Board members were independent thinkers was almost laughable. 

I’ve developed nicknames for all the Board members too. Kevin Morgan, a former Greenburgh police officer, who held real promise when first elected has probably been the biggest disappointment. He has been dubbed “The Henchman” because it seems he does all of The Paul’s dirtiest work. One example I was told of by a resident was that he made an alleged private phone call one evening to have some buddies on the Greenburgh Police force arrive at Town Hall parking lot to intimidate former Councilwoman Sonya Brown and another resident. As the two stood under the canopy and talked, a police SUV positioned itself in the parking lot’s north side and watched them from a distance. When the resident approached the police car to see who was driving, the car took off. As Brown and the resident left in separate cars to Brown’s home, stopping for gas first, there were two other Greenburgh police cars following them the entire way. Another was recently publicized by former Councilwoman Sonya Brown, that he “went after” her and had his daughter challenge Brown’s petition signatures, ultimately disqualifying her petitions.

Diana Juettner, recently convicted of complicity of the same charges as The Paul in the Fortress Bible discrimination case, sits on the Board for almost as long as The Paul and hardly says “Boo!” Another attorney/academic, she comes from Ardsley and apparently has the support of that village’s voters as she is always reelected. She may actually spend most of her evenings on the dais without saying any more than, “Yes” to The Paul’s every motion. 

I’ve dubbed professor Francis Sheehan, “Back Pocket” because we believe he is in The Paul’s back pocket, penning most of the Boards ridiculous bills into the laws The Paul requests. I believe most of them are sloppily written and are nothing more than a form of taxation disguised as fees and registrations. 

Ken “Newbie” Jones was a breathe of fresh air that we have quickly begun choking on. Another attorney, Jones neglected to inform his Parkway Homes neighborhood that The Paul was giving up 88 North Road for a group home when the area is saturated with them The Wyndover Woods apartments is a veritable enclave of group home residents. 

During a recent Town Board meeting, Jones told a resident to “Sit down! Sit the f*** down!” He has also accused the resident of being dangerous and out of control. While this resident’s only danger to the Board is the information he wields against them, he deserves two apologies. One for being spoken to like that and the other for the comments about him Jones irresponsibly made to the Journal News.  

As a life-long democrat, I’ve never been more disappointed. I was hopeful when Suzanne Berger ran against him and even when Bill Greenawalt ran against him twice that the Town might see an elevation in integrity. I was saddened too when The Paul, who knows how to keep his hands clean, had “his people” go after Patricia Weems’ ballot signatures when she was trying to run against The Paul. Weems, a small business owner didn’t have the resources to fight back. After all, incumbents have stacked the system in their favor.

I’ve dubbed a group of concerned citizens the G10, which originally started out as the G8, a loosely based of ten or so people that faithfully show up to Town Board meetings and are critical of The Paul’s actions, illegal or otherwise. Yet, he continues to win re-election with a core group of voters who vote for him regardless of his performance. And as a shrewd politician, he knows how to say what people will (mis)interpret as his being concerned about them. We also hear him repeatedly lie to residents to appear as though he cares but in realty he’s going to do what he pleases. He did just this with at Mazzaro Park, promising to install security cameras that will never materialize.

It’s time the residents of Greenburgh wake up! It’s time they stop ignoring The Paul’s illegal actions, the guilty verdicts rendered against him by the courts, the wholesaling of every available piece of undeveloped property in the Unincorporated Town and after 22 years initiate a change. We need a Greenburgh Republican Party not chaired by a RINO, insulated from The Paul by a Village, and offer other candidates to challenge the machine The Paul has crafted for his benefit, not ours. It’s time for the voters to make a change for the better. If the Democrat’s Robert Bernstein, cannot win the endorsement in their upcoming primary, the Democrats will have little choice but to award their endorsement to The Paul. ABG hopes the voting democrats will rally behind Bernstein and somehow wake the sleeping giant for a positive change in Greenburgh.

-Bill
Note: Bill is the founder of ABG and now a contributing writer from afar.

Urban, Suburban, Exurban

Thomas Madden, our Town Planning Commissioner/Commissioner of Community Development, and Chief Bottle-Washer for Anything Planning, was recently interviewed about Greenburgh’s participation in a mid-Hudson sustainability planning consortium made up of Greenburgh and Orange County. Yes, that’s right, Orange County. It seems like another scheme that he, along with The Paul, will be participating in to be able to say the Town is concerned about sustainability.

This move reminds ABG of when the Town investigated combining the Town’s Police Department with the Dobbs Ferry Police Department. It makes no sense to combine these two departments. The only reason it had been done was because there was funding money made available for this specific study. A more realistic study for a combination of police departments would be of the Hudson River towns into one department, or all of the Village police departments joining the Greenburgh Police Department. Regardless of the best departmental combination plans, these obscure studies are thought to be “free” because it’s either state or federal grant money. And who pays the state and federal taxes that fund these wastes of time?

Madden said that, “The diverse geography and topography made it a unique model for sustainability studies. It has urban, suburban and exurban areas, open space, agriculture, mountains, river valleys and coastal regions.” For those of you who don’t what ‘exurban’ is, two definitions explain it as “A region lying beyond the suburbs of a city, especially one inhabited principally by wealthy people,” or “A region or settlement that lies outside a city and usually beyond its suburbs and that often is inhabited chiefly by well-to-do families.”

ABG wonders if the city Madden would be referencing could be White Plains or Yonkers for suburbs beyond the city? But what of the rest of Madden’s definition? Greenburgh is not an urban town or region, in spite of his and The Paul’s best efforts to overdevelop every square inch of it and turn it into an urban area. We no longer have agriculture in the Town as a “sustainable” business model. Open space in Greenburgh has become a thing of the past. As for the well-to-do-families, would he be referring to the people in the Villages or in other areas such as Boulder Ridge?

Yes, there are mountains, river valleys and “coastal” regions (Hudson?). Unfortunately, The Paul has relinquished most of this formerly open space to developers who routinely request spot-zoning changes, which he and his Board routinely grant, and then move forward by building oversized developments where they shouldn’t be. The Brightview Assisted Living Center in Glenville is another glaring example in this long list of abuses! There is also severe flooding throughout areas in Greenburgh that had never experienced any water problems until The Paul’s wholesale overdevelopment of Unincorporated Greenburgh took place.

The Town Board has made sure that there are regulations and fees for just about every little thing any business might want to do, discouraging business growth or even inception in our Town. Now Madden is endorsing a plan of proactive environmental initiatives promoted in the region, saying, “ No population should be disproportionately burdened by impacts of pollution.” Translation? He and The Paul will be looking for ways to fine businesses under the guise of environmental correctness whenever and wherever they can. This is nothing more than a smokescreen to try to raise more money in the Town instead of correcting the problems The Paul has created for taxpayers.

This Sustainability Consortium, created by Thomas Madden with his friend from Orange County, also touched superficially on how “climate change” has contributed to rising flood plains. Flood levels predicted for 2050 are happening now. Local governments would use zoning laws to prevent residential and commercial construction near flood prone areas and require that building be done at higher ground levels. Storm water runoff can be alleviated by efforts to propagate more permeable surfaces where it accumulates. Translation? Nothing will be done in Greenburgh under The Paul’s administration! The Town has stalled every effort to move forward with a Comprehensive Plan, which would fix current zoning in place and stop The Paul from his routine spot-zoning changes developers have come to rely upon. Most of the flooding has been created by The Paul and his Board’s disregard for the current zoning and the reasoning behind it, their lack of infrastructure maintenance and improvements, and The Paul and his Board’s unyielding and blatant disregard to the communities and taxpayers they are supposed to serve.

The Sustainability Consortium that Madden has created by utilizing $865,000 acquired from power companies’ cap and trade fund is nothing more than a spending spree to favored vendors. $780,000 of the $865,000 went to Ecology and Environment, Incorporated, headquartered in Lancaster, NY, to create this sustainability study and consortium. That left about $85k for the Consortium to utilize for environmental purposes. It’s enough money for Madden to get more pet projects that secure his planning position and get his consortium off the ground. Then he’ll need to have more government funds allocated to keep it “sustainable”. Pun intended. He and The Paul will use this consortium to pander to a few and validate changes they wish to control throughout the Town as the Comprhensive Plan makes their spot-zoning increasingly difficult. We don’t need our planning department going after The Paul-like slights-of-hand. There’s been enough Three-Card-Monty’s played by The Paul and his Board. This consortium must be stopped before the residents and businesses are required to pay for it after the funding ends. We can only hope.