Feiner-gate: Deleting Public Information!

One of ABG’s contributors pointed out that Theodore Young Community Center (TYCC) Commissioner William “Bill” Carter spoke at the November 26th Town Board work session. And then he didn’t. At the meeting, Mr Carter was critical of Mr Feiner’s insertion of the Xposure program, heavily subsidized by the Town, into his budget. The net amount proposed for the 2014 budget is $115K. The Xposure program is based out of Brooklyn, NY, and was foisted upon us by Mr Feiner in 2009 to teach the youngsters about finance, the stock market and more.

When Mr Feiner was first espousing the Xposure Plan and seeking to “sell it” to the community, and knowing his Town Board would rubber stamp whatever he instructed. He sidestepped the TYCC Advisory Board completely and never did any kind of Return On Investment (ROI) justification. Many residents questioned the cost, noting that the Xposure program was already offered in several other area schools and YM/YWCA’s at no cost, questioning why we would be paying for it? Mr Feiner simply pooh-poohed them and did what he always did with his bad ideas. He implemented it.

A visit to the Xposure website provided us with a variety of what’s offered by Xposure. We’re just not sure if all of these items are offered at the TYCC version of the program. We’ve condensed about three paragraphs into one to explain what they do. For learn more, you can visit their website at (www.xposurefoundationinc.org). Students learn the basics about savings and investment, deposits and withdrawals, checks, and interest and lending as they deposit their earnings into savings accounts on a regular basis. Students also learn fundamentals about the stock market, including ownership, stocks, research, and investing. They also learn about the scientific methods, the invention process, computers, the internet, and major office software skills, which are used in most jobs. In addition, students use SmartBoard technology, an interactive classroom tool that is used in many colleges and professional schools, to reinforce spelling, comprehension, and reading. An ABG staffer commented that this sounded like what you go to school to learn. Why are they getting this at the TYCC and not from their schools?

Mr Carter was openly critical of Mr Feiner and his budget as there have been cuts made to the TYCC operational budget. When Mr Feiner has a budget shortfall, he simply steals what he needs from the Fund Balance and raises taxes. This year’s tax increase is 3.44%, with Mr Feiner bragging that he stayed under the NYS 2% Tax Cap. Huh? Additionally, when Mr Feiner needs money for another harebrained campaign strategy germinating from the TYCC, he will contact the Lanza Foundation for a funding lifeline. The Lanza’s regularly sponsor/contribute/bail out Mr Feiner’s lack of management knowhow and quite often financially perpetuate his bad ideas year after year.

At the work session meeting, Mr Carter sat in the proverbial hot seat and was questioning the Xposure program as a line item in his budget as well as the needs of the TYCC. He stated that the program utilizes the TYCC space to operate, keeping him from offering other income-generating programs from the TYCC. Rather, could the program use the Greenburgh schools for its operation and free up the space in TYCC and the use of their first floor for their needs? They would actually be able to make money for the TYCC as well as staying within the mission of the TYCC.

Since Mr Carter made the mistake of openly criticizing Mr Feiner and his Board by telling the truth at the November 26th meeting (beginning of part 3) and not drinking the Feiner Koolaid, Mr Feiner needed to act swiftly. When Mr Carter arrived to the meeting being run by Councilman Sheehan, he sat down saying he had a few questions. Then there is an obvious jump in the online post and next see Mr Carter going through his portion of the Town’s proposed/tentative budget. Once the meeting ended, was the Town Video Department instructed to remove the beginning portion of Mr Carter’s meeting before posting it to the website as the official record? This might become known in Greenburgh history as the “missing 18-seconds” similar to what haunted President Nixon for the remainder of his tenure – before he finally stepped down from office. Wait a minute... this might work out for us. Mr Jones, defended the Xposure program saying the Xposure program was within the mission of the TYCC but didn’t comment about the Boards request for the TYCC to generate income. 

In the end, which apparently is nowhere in sight, the Town needs Commissioners and leaders who do the right thing, question what they don’t know and stand for what is right. Mr Feiner stands with four others, dauntless. Mr Carter did the right thing by questioning what he didn’t know. That entire portion of his visit to this meeting was deleted. When Mr Jones erupted in anger against community activist Hal Samis and hollered for him to, “Sit the F*** down!” the Town Video Department left the outburst on it’s website archive. They did later bleep the F-bomb out. While that too was disappointing, it seems censorship is becoming a hallmark of the untouchable Feiner administration. 

In a true open government, information provided by the people who run the various departments should be welcome. Whether the information is what you want to hear or not, it may be what we need to hear. ABG has stated before that having singular party representation in the Town will stunt growth, limit the good that can be done, different ideas, and in the end, fail its constituents by not having a give and take from different points of view. For those in office to blindly follow along with what they are told to do for their own political expediencies, they keep us from having A Better Greenburgh.

It’s Right Under Your Nose

Most people live in the moment; surrounded with their families and friends, usually in their own neighborhood. They rarely see what goes on in other parts of the community, municipality or even at the meetings of their elected politicians. ABG knows there is a lot going on throughout the Town of Greenburgh, and will touch on some in no particular order or importance. Actually, they’re all important because somebody always wins and somebody always loses. Traditionally, in Greenburgh, it’s the residents of the Unincorporated portion of the Town who always lose to developers, special interests and The Paul’s pet projects – which are often the same thing.

Greystone Developers has a project in the works to build 20 - 8,000 square foot homes on Route 9, across from the Kraft Foods site. There is already a small development adjacent to the location with some fairly large homes. In actuality, 8 of the new homes to be built will be in the Village of Tarrytown and 12 will be in the Town of Greenburgh. These new homes will make McMansions seem like bungalows. ABG is concerned about a couple of issues: increased flooding, subdivisions when the homes don’t sell, and an increase in traffic congestion. Before you say it’s only 20 homes and maybe 40 cars, each time we add to an already congested roadway, regardless of the negative impact comments the developer will make based on their traffic study, which is usually mythical to begin with, it only adds to the congestion problems our neighborhoods are currently overwhelmed with. The good news? These homeowners will cumulatively pay about a million dollars a year in taxes – until the certiorari adjustments.

The Dromore Road lawsuit case, which the Town just lost, allows a developer to take a parcel of land near the Greenburgh Nature Center that was thought to be residentially zoned for single family homes, and build 41 units of housing. The Edgemont Community, understandably, is against this. The developer contends the zoning map allows them to build a large development. A judge agreed and awarded the victory to the developer. The Edgemont community disagrees and has the financial resources and talent to challenge the decision. While it is no surprise for the Town to lose a court case with The Paul at the helm, ABG believes Greenburgh might have won if the judge evaluated the whole picture and not just a technicality. Unfortunately, the Town’s loss was based on outdated and faulty zoning maps. Another developer, Westhab, was able to succeed with their oversized project in Fulton Park through similarly faulted mapping. Only that community doesn’t have the resources to fight back.

Homeland Towers, a cell tower company, intends to erect two 108 foot cell towers in the Town. The proposed locations are one on Taxter Road and one on Tarrytown Road. If you want to know what it might look like, look near the service station going southbound on the Hutchinson River Parkway from Westchester Avenue eastbound. ABG understands that there will be at least three companies utilizing these towers. There was another company, looking to put cell towers on existing utility poles. The Stepford Board, will not make a decision on the company's request to install these cell towers. We believe they are hesitant to do any real work and make any kind of decision as it might go against The Paul’s wishes or offend a developer; especially a developer that may donate to The Paul’s campaign fund! It’s actually one of The Paul’s most clever tactics being artfully executed by his Stepford Board.

The well-publicized screw-up of The Paul with the WestHelp organization and the County has cost the Town $1.2 million per year. When WestHelp finally closed down because their services to house the homeless was no longer necessary or needed, his incompetence not only became glaringly apparent, but he reacted as he always does. He began to throw spaghetti (ideas) against the wall in hopes that something might stick and get him out from under his fiasco. Not only did that not work, but two residents sued Valhalla to get money returned to the Town that the Town had illegally paid to the Valhalla School District as a payoff deal to let the WestHelp residents’ kids attend the Valhalla schools. Their lawsuit was successful. The Town’s legal department still refuses to recognize or understand the illegality – probably because The Paul instructed them not to. There is now a plan on the table by The Paul to lease the property to a handicap school for 50 years for $900k per year. However, they wish to demolish the three buildings on the property to proceed. The biggest problem with this offer is that the Town doesn’t own this property, the County does! Consequently, The Paul cannot make any contractual deals regarding it.

There’s a new dance studio looking to open in the site of a former gas station on Central Avenue. It’s tough enough being a gas station in Greenburgh but simply purchasing the gas station property will invariably require contaminated soil remediation along with other cleanup costs. It could be thousands of dollars before the first pirouette is performed.

The Town has also proposed that we do away with leaf collection and either mulch our leaves or bag them for pickup. ABG doesn’t mind doing away with the pickup since the only time the leaves were removed were after the first snowfall by the snowplows clearing more than just the snow from our streets. So, the reality of this move will allow The Paul to tout how he reduced our highway department costs by eliminating leaf pickups. Are they going to sell the vacuum equipment? ABG doubts it. That would actually save us money.

The Theodore Young Center was a victim of Tropical Storm Irene. The difference between the TYC and our neighbors that were also flooded was that The Paul sprung into action to get the TYC monies to make repairs caused by the flood. If you go into the gymnasium at the TYC, you’re see the damaged wood floor as it undulates throughout the large room. Many neighborhoods were severely inundated and overwhelmed with water from Irene. What did The Paul do for them? He contacted every other politician and asked them to do something and then amazingly told flooded homeowners that he would contact FEMA to have them buy these same homeowners’ homes from them. Research proved that there were many steps the Town, County, State and Federal governments would have to perform before any offer of purchase would be made. Is this a sincere offer or more of The Paul’s snake oil doublespeak?

Assisted Living Centers are all the rage across the country as our baby-boomer society ages. And, while the cost of real estate is extremely prohibitive to many throughout Westchester, it is not a problem to secure and develop in Greenburgh if you “know someone”. ABG is all for assisted living and knows of one facility in Valhalla near Westchester Community College that does quite well. There is a small parcel of land, roughly where Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue intersect, immediately behind the gas station at the beginning of Benedict Avenue that is planning (still unofficial) to appear before an upcoming Town Board meeting to expose the proposal. We’re sure The Paul will make the Stepford Board the lead agency, ignore the traffic studies, SEQR, etc., and most importantly, the neighborhoods’ concerns as they fast track this project through the Towns normal maze of regulations.

Another recent court decision against the Town happened with little fanfare in the media. While we understand what happened, it’s a pretty involved case that affects one family, their neighborhood and us, The Paul’s personal ATM resource. Dominick Caratozzolo approached the Town Board in 2005 and explained how he and his neighborhood were being overcharged on their sewer tax. He and his family had paid under protest all the while pleading with the Board to address this travesty. They would not, following The Paul’s mantra, “Sue me”. While there are a lot more details to this, we’ve elected to skirt those and focus on the outcome. Mr. Caratozzolo did sue, and won the lawsuit against The Paul and the Town Board, proving the Town was in fact overcharging everyone in the neighborhood. The judge also found that while the Town was guilty, he refused to refund the difference back to the homeowners. While we believe this is mostly because of some sort of sympathy from the judge toward The Paul, it still vindicates Mr. Caratozzolo and the others. Unfortunately, we pay for The Paul’s arrogance and non-existing management skills.

The “happenings” in the Town of Greenburgh suggests a never-ending stream of ill-conceived concepts, projects fraught with collusion, campaign donations, coercion, back room deals, payback and more dark venues than a proctologist will ever see. We have suggested the NYS Attorney General investigate the shady events happening in the Town, but The Paul has a spousal lock to keep that from happening. Someday we may see an investigation happen, exposing more under one overturned rock than even ABG cares to believe. We can only hope.

“Drowning” in Taxes

We’ve previously posted* about the proposed and now voted upon water rate increase for the Unincorporated Town residents. At Tuesday’s work session, The Paul’s newest tax sailed right through, pretending the process is painful but necessary. The Paul has the chutzpah to actually say, “We have to bite the bullet and be responsible”. Responsible? Really, Paul? The audacity exhibited by The Paul never ceases to amaze the entire staff at ABG. We’d like to see The Paul follow the law so we don’t have a dozen or so lawsuits pending against the Town? We’d like him to not lie under oath or destroy evidence (Fortress Bible). The list seems endless.

While claims to increase the water bills for the average Greenburgh residents by 24% is a significant one, it must be said that his false statement of achieving the NYS 2% tax cap simply doesn’t hold water. Yes, it’s a bad play on words but ABG staffer Christina insisted on using it. At the end of the day, between last years 72% increase and now this 24% increase, it’s impossible for The Paul to say he adhered to the tax cap! ABG understands there are numerous ways to “achieve” compliance and still have a significant tax increase. He’s come up with another.

The Paul has been making the residents “bite” many bullets repeatedly during his twenty-plus years in office. Seniors who supported him when he first ran for Town Supervisor are finding they are unable to continue living in their homes within the Town under his administrations. One widow told an ABG staffer that her social security benefits check totalled $14k a year. Having raised her family in the house she was born in, she was forced to finally sell her home once her taxes reached the same amount. Eventually, she wound up in a (DSS) subsidized apartment on Manhattan Avenue. She used to enjoy sitting outside on summer evenings but can no longer do that as she fears for her safety and feels alone with no family nearby. What a far cry from how she had planned to spend her final years.

“Rising expenses, repayment of past obligations and future projects demand the board act immediately, Feiner said. “If we don’t raise rates today the water district will see its debt increase and it’s going to be worse,” Worse? Again, really? We sincerely wonder what new projects there are that warrant this high an increase? It cannot be to repair or increase the infrastructure as that hasn’t happened since he’s taken office. The flooding caused by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee proved throughout the Town that we are inadequately served, in disrepair or frankly, in an almost hopeless condition. In typical form, he fired off letters to every legislator he could find requesting something be done by everyone but himself. Former Elmsford Trustee William Zimkin proffered a marginal solution for the Saw Mill River flooding along the 9A corridor. The Paul latched onto this stopgap as if it were his own panacea. Ideas abound, just not the The Paul or his administration.

The Paul promises another increase of at least 10% in 2013. The undeniable issue is that he doesn’t have a clue as to what he’s doing at the helm of this rudderless ship. The Stepford Board just goes along with what he instructs them to do, occasionally offering a rebuke when there’s the unwritten guarantee of passage or he’s prearranged their objections with them. They stay in line to ensure being reelected, lest they suffer the fate of the last casualty, Sonya Brown. While we had high hopes for Ken Jones, he’s fallen in lockstep with the Board faster than water floods into Babbitt Court. Greenburgh needs a change. We can only hope.

*http://abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2012/02/Unconscionable-102-Rate-Increase.html

Stop and Shop or Stop and Steal?

The new 67,500 square foot Stop and Shop Super Center store will be opening this week. The location of the new supermarket is actually where the old Premier Theater had been located many years ago. The difference today is when the theater had been there, with the amount of impervious space it had, there weren't any other buildings in the area. Water drainage was not a problem back then! According to The Paul, and we quote, “Unlike many development application projects that experience significant opposition from the community - this supermarket had an enthusiastic group of immediate residents behind it from day one. I received many calls and e mails from residents expressing a desire for a quality new supermarket.” It's only a true statement when you study how the question of the new Stop and Shop was posed. 


When asked if people would favor a new supermarket offering? The answer was usually yes. Would you be in favor of a new super center style supermarket with a larger variety? Larger variety? The answer was yes. So, as people were polled about a new supermarket, the carefully asked questions guaranteed certain positive answers. No one was asked if closing the existing Stop and Shop would impact the neighborhood negatively. No one was asked about the amount of impervious space that would be created, affecting the water runoff in the already saturated and heavily flooded areas – except the Glenville Community Association, the Babbitt Court Residents and the business and home owners along the 9A and Rt 9 flood zones along with the G-8. 


Many in Tarrytown’s Rt 9 and surrounding area who were able to walk or bike or take a bus  to the existing Stop and Shop (formerly First National, and then Finast) were vociferously against the new Stop and Shop! The Paul prefers to ignore this in his post. Once the existing Stop and Shop closes, the space will be used for yet another CVS. Apparently, we don't have enough drug stores in the area. We have nothing against CVS, but there is a claim that they will have an “expanded convenience food department”. What, more Twinkies?


Also in the mix, as part of Thomas Madden’s job security initiative, are plans to create an assisted living facility nearby. This effort, along with The Paul’s devaluing of the Unincorporated Town space, has been proposed to create multiple apartment buildings, actually twelve, along the Rt 119 corridor. This all dovetails into the proposed train, bus, car corridor they plan to develop Rt 119 into with the expansion of the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement.


An issue ABG has with this expansion is not to utilize mass transit in the area, but we are a suburban area they are trying to develop into a more urban setting. There will condemnations and eminent domain utilized to take over homes and businesses properties to make this happen. The goal of the  separate elevated bus route is to have a bus stop for pickup/drop offs at all of the bus stops every five minutes and then have the buses all exit (near exit five of I-287) onto Rt 119 and proceed to the White Plains Transit Center. After this visit, it starts all over again. If you think there’s congestion on Route 119 now, just wait!


The Paul has assisted in closing two major supermarket outlets. While we recognize he didn’t do it alone, the soon-to-open HMart in the old Pathmark location will serve a limited clientele. That’s okay. But the A&P that closed in the Crossroads Shopping Center is continuing to devalue that neighborhood. As the store stands vacant, and falls into disrepair, fewer new tenants will be interested in revitalizing this store or the neighborhood. Unfortunately, it’s the neighborhood’s residents that suffer. Since The Paul and his Stepford Board have declared the Manhattan Avenue area low income in perpetuity, ABG believes little will be done by the Town to improve this area - stealing it’s future. We can only hope!