The Real 2015 Year In Review

Each year Mr Feiner  continues campaigning with his one-sided year in review mailing/email blast/press releases. According to this, a lot has been accomplished. ABG would like to offer a counter-balance and tell you what he will not. His comments are in black and ours are in blue - play on words intended.

Have a healthy and happy 2016. And - A BIG THANK YOU for your help in making 2015 a successful year. Here is a review of some of our accomplishments! Please e-mail me your goals for 2016.
• Town budget complies with tax cap --- lowest tax hike in years. NYS is requiring communities to comply with the tax cap if they want residents to receive a bonus check from NYS. We also had to highlight sharing/consolidation efficiencies.
This is simply a false statement for political expediency. NYS state does not require any community to adhere to the tax cap, and is an incentive only if they want to receive these rebate checks. Nor do they mandate the calculation for the actual tax increase to be stated. So while this year’s increase will be 0.73%, it is achieved by drawing down the Town’s Fund Balance, a trick Mr Feiner and his Board have done since slamming the taxpayers with a 23% tax hike in 2008. Robbing Peter to, ahem, pay Paul. 

• Town built or is close to building 1.6 miles of new sidewalks around Greenburgh. New sidewalk in front of Greenburgh Health Center complete in December. Sidewalk built on Benedict Avenue this fall. 
This is another false statement from Mr Feiner. The Town has not built any sidewalks anywhere in the Town in years! Usually when a sidewalk has been built, it was the fulfillment of the contractual mandate from the Town to build a sidewalk in front of a new project. One exception was the brokered “sidewalk to nowhere” in Tarrytown at Benedict Avenue and Rt 119, which was the construction of a limited sidewalk near the then unknown, unbuilt, unfavorable, unpublicized, except to Mr Feiner and his Board, only now constructed Brightview Assisted Living facility. 

• Signed agreement to sell Frank’s Nursery for 3.52 million to Capital Senior Housing (Valterra). 90-100 units of housing on Dobbs Ferry Road. Town responsible for cleanup.
This is true. However, before Mr Feiner acquiesced to the Worthington Woodlands, Secor Homes and Fulton Park Civic Associations as well as the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, he was hell-bent to sell the property to GameOn 365 for a commercial enterprise. With the property zoned for residential use, everyone weighed in that this 8-story commercial monstrosity did not belong in this or any other residential neighborhood. With everyone united, an “Abutters Petition” that went beyond the required 20% opposition, never had to be used. This change being trumpeted by Mr Feiner would have then opened any neighborhood up to the same change.

    

Don’t let Mr Feiner simply gloss over the last sentence, “Town responsible for cleanup.” This is important - which is why he is downplaying it. While Mr Feiner was trying to illegally lease and then sell the former Frank’s Nursery property to his friends from GameOn 365, a counter offer from Ardsley’s House of Sports for twice the dollar amount PLUS full remediation costs for the property was turned down by Mr Feiner and his Board! The only caveat House of Sports insisted on was a full study of the property be conducted so they would know what the cleanup would entail. Still, he said, “No!” 

• Greenburgh-School Partnership - a new playground at the Lee Jackson School. Town used non taxpayer dollars to help fund playground (developer escrow funds). Working with the Greenburgh School District.  Initiated a mentoring program for architects/engineers. Working on a technology initiative - training students to learn jobs that will be needed for 21st century careers, especially in high wage, high demand careers including computer coding and programming, applications development, network management and data analysis, robotics. We want our students to learn about cutting edge technologies. 
These are two completely different and separate issues. As for the playground, we think this is a good thing. As for mentoring with any of our schools, ABG believes Mr Feiner should extend to all students in all schools throughout the Town access to these cutting edge technologies, not just one school or neighborhood. Like the fire districts, he has no input or control over the schools or school districts.

• Town maintained, in 2015, our Aaa bond rating from Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Taxpayers to save about $300,000 in borrowing costs because we have the highest bond rating possible (only 1% of communities in the nation have an Aaa rating). 
A good bond rating is a good thing – if we take advantage of it. But, sadly, Mr Feiner and his Board would rather talk about the rating than put it to good use. Our infrastructure is collapsing from at least 24-years of neglect (Mr Feiner's tenure). The Town should look at several capital projects that can be initiated and begun immediately, such as constructing sidewalks throughout the Town. Have you ever noticed that Mr Feiner is the first to say residents should use alternative means to get to and fro but offers no solutions unless someone else will be paying for it? It's political pandering. The Town should undertake building sidewalks and not wait until a developer has plans to overdevelop a speck of land and be required to build them in front of that property. This logic, while effective some thirty-plus years ago, is no longer germane and needs to be revamped. Flood mitigation, sewer and water piping upgrades are also needed.

• Police start using body cameras.
ABG does not know how many complaints have been lodged against any of our police officers, but believe this can be a good thing. 

• Town and civic groups working more closely. We approved legislation endorsed by the Edgemont Community Council to license massage establishments---giving police the tools to shut down illegal massage facilities that had been used for prostitution and other improper activities. We are working closely with three different Edgemont civic associations on a plan to build sidewalks near Edgemont schools (this school district does not have busing).
This is pure pandering. Mr Feiner has gone out of his way to not work with Civic Associations or their members - as witnessed at most Town Board meetings. As for working with Edgemont, what he says is true. However, he is only doing this because Edgemont has repeatedly threatened to secede from the Town, incorporate and become its own Village to get away from Mr Feiner’s bad management. Mr Feiner cannot afford to lose that portion of the tax revenue, which would significantly and negatively affect the Town’s Unincorporated and overall budget revenues.

• The New York State Senate and Assembly approved a law that enables the town and villages within the town to charge guests a 3% hotel tax. The revenues could generate as much as a million dollars a year to the town. The Governor has not yet indicated whether he will sign or veto the legislation. Should know shortly!
ABG believes in this fiscally challenging time for corporations, corporate travel and such, most hotels/motels make the bulk of their income from corporate travelers. As the “bean counters” begin to scrutinize their colleagues travel costs, it will contribute to a lessening of corporate travel to our area. That will impact not only the hotels/motels, but the car rental businesses, food establishments, trade show participation and more. In fact, it’s such a bad idea, as we were writing this, Governor Cuomo just vetoed the bill!

• Worked with the Greenburgh Nature center on our town wide initiative, working with schools and businesses to introduce and develop conservation/sustainable practices, including food waste management. Introduced community to organic recycling at AF Veteran Town Park this summer.
The fact that the Greenburgh Nature Center is a tenant of the Town, and while these ideas are good ones, they do not originate from the Town Hall corner office, get implemented by the Town or financed by the Town.

• Student intern organized a series of self-defense seminars for college students. One in five girls who attend college are victims of sexual assaults.

As always, Mr Feiner neglects to say how many participants took part in this. Frankly, we wonder why interns need to do this when we have very capable police officers, karate schools, defensive arts teachers that Mr Feiner could have arranged to do this. Regardless, kudos to the interns.

• Town Board approves contract to replace town street lights with LED energy efficient lights in 2015.

ABG is all for using LED lights. In fact, we’ve replaced almost all of our florescent bulbs with LEDs as they fail. This is the problem with Mr Feiner’s approach. He is spending half a million dollars changing light bulbs throughout the Town, incurring more of an expense by throwing away good light bulbs the taxpayers have already paid for and still have more usable life. When bulbs fail, or the fixtures need replacing, that is the time to change out the bulbs.

• Town Board approves using non taxpayer dollars (escrow funds) so that DeSanti Park can be turned into a beautiful new Veteran's Memorial Park in 2016.  We created an index of the names of the approximately 150 veterans who had been interviewed as part of the veterans living history initiative.

While we support recognition of our veterans, we wonder what else those funds might be used for? We also wonder why Mr Feiner would not push a public/private initiative to have private funds pay for this?

• Quick replacement for supermarkets going out of business: Best Markets replaced Mrs. Greens; Acme replaced A & P on Knollwood Road. We still need to encourage a new supermarket to replace the Scarsdale & Hastings A & P.

The supermarket debacle was out of Mr Feiner’s control. Although, when he and his Town Board found out about the first A&P, Pathmark and Waldbaums stores that would be closing, it was former Councilwoman Sonya Brown who held community meetings to try to save those stores. Her reward for that was to be ousted by Mr Feiner. Hence, the term we often use when other Town Board members refuse to oppose Mr Feiner: “Sonya’d.”

• Visits by United States Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and New York State Lt. Governor Kathy Hocul to East Hartsdale Ave.

Really? Every politician will go to any location, meet with any group and press the flesh at any time in hopes they will get a vote.

• Comprehensive Plan Committee presented the Town Board with their draft plan, which will be voted on in 2016 by the Town Board. We currently have no comprehensive plan for the town.

This is not entirely true. There is a Comprehensive Plan for the Town that was adopted in 2003. It just was not a all-encompassing as this latest one.

• Enactment of legislation to reduce Con Ed bills by a few hundred dollars a year. Working with a number of other communities in Westchester on this pilot project that was approved by the NYS Public Service Commission.

Again, this is not entirely true. Yes, there was legislation enacted which forces ConEd to turn your energy information over to an Energy Service Company (ESCO) which will automatically be signing you up to participate in this experiment. 

  

• Town Board formed a Human Rights Advisory Committee in 2015.

ABG believes this was done strictly because it will garner publicity for Mr Feiner. Sadly the federal government, state government and county government Human Rights Commissions weren't enough for Mr Feiner, who continually bemoans government consolidation.

• Nassau County anti-corruption panel cites Greenburgh's strong Ethics laws as a model for the county to enact.

How interesting that they would adopt the Greenburgh law. Strong ethics laws are only of value if they are followed and enforced. Will Nassau officials ignore and trample their law as our Town leaders have?

• The Town Board authorized the Greenburgh Nature Center to build butterfly arbor at the Nature Center - using private dollars.

As the landlord, the Town must review their request to build on Town property. Otherwise, there is nothing from the Town involved in this.

• To slow down traffic and avoid accidents, new stop sign on South and North Roads.

Sadly, ABG admits that while this is good, it’s too bad someone had to die to get these installed. It’s also sad that when neighborhoods ask for solutions to speeding, they are told that stop signs cannot be installed to control traffic. Huh? Isn’t that what this just did?

• Purchase of digital sign board. Police department use the board to inform residents of number of speeding tickets issued on different streets around town. Hopefully, the digital board will motivate people to be more careful motorists. We also purchased rapid flashing high visibility crosswalk light on East Hartsdale Ave. to advise motorists of pedestrians crossing.

Rather than put more police officers and patrol cars on the roads to enforce existing traffic laws or put officers with radar guns in areas where they can effect a slowdown of traffic infractions, Mr Feiner heralds the use of a speeding sign that indicates how many tickets have been written in that particular location. He doesn’t see how it also advertises to speeders that there are no cops here to catch you, just this sign. Once the motorists have figured this out, the sign will prove to be another unnecessary expense.

• We installed a new supplemental boiler at the Greenburgh Library (the library was closed several days over a year ago due to lack of heat).

The Town Board was the lead agency for the library construction project numerous years ago. They had heat pumps that were to be installed on one side of the property, but the Mr Feiner and the Town Board had them installed on the opposite side. They also only went down half the required depth to be effective, so, they don’t work. The boiler they purchased has been plagued with failures, the roof leaked, as did the windows. In the winter they have heating issues, with the sprinkler pipes bursting more than once due to a lack of insulation in the ceiling area. And, in the summer there is not enough air conditioning forcing the use of huge fans to keep people cool. The only good thing was the designer of the building won an award for it! 

   

•  Revitalization of Central Ave. - approving zone change to allow car dealerships on Central Ave. Starbucks to come to Central Ave. - to occupy vacant pea pod across from Hartsdale diner. Best Market replaces Mrs. Greens.
It’s been said that the changes Mr Feiner and his Board made concerning car dealerships borders on anti-trust legislation. And, numerous civic associations and their members suggested Mr Feiner and his Board not do this. While Mr Feiner claims he wants to work more closely with civic associations, this is but one more example where he talks the talk but never walks the walk.

• Comptroller Bart Talamini retires. Town looking for new comptroller.[sic]
Mr Talamini retiring is not an accomplishment of the Town or Mr Feiner. We’re sorry to see Mr Talamini go. Our guess is, he knows where some of the bodies are buried and doesn’t want to be around when they get dug up.

•  Student interns worked with the Greenburgh Nature Center promoting organic recycling this past summer.

 Already mentioned this above. 

• Gigi's Playhouse opens in Ardsley - helping families who have family members with Down Syndrome.

This is a good thing, but did the Town do this? Again, there was no Town involvement.

• Initiating program - barber in training program. Training people who are out of work how to be barbers. Program is now located in Tarrytown.
Interesting that schools teaching hair care must be licensed and meet copious health standards. But those standards are not required in the mystical world of Greenburgh. Mr Feiner must have waved his hands and “poof!” those requirements were gone.

• We continued to proceed with the reassessment of town properties around town. The reassessment process should be completed in 2016 and should stop the bleeding of certiorari actions (tax refunds). Similar properties will be assessed fairly for the first time in 60 years.
Yes, we need to have a revaluation to “stop the bleeding of certiorari actions”. But, don’t be fooled by his statement. Mr Feiner is the one who made the conscious decision during his 24-year tenure to not do a reassessment throughout the Town and not enforce delinquent tax collections (millions of dollars).

• 10 year olds are reporters - new radio station sponsored by Xposure. 10 year old students enrolled in the after school program learn how to become journalists. They interview officials, community members weekly!
We wish them well.

  

•  Using Ridge Hill settlement funds to make safety improvements in downtown Ardsley.
There is a small strip of land being used to “straighten” a short portion of a curve at Jackson Avenue in Yonkers, not in Ardsley. 

• Regeneron purchases land at Eastview. They continue to expand.
This is not entirely true. Regeneron is expanding, just not that much in Greenburgh. The expansion is actually in Mt Pleasant. The piece of property that is in Greenburgh is the parking lot for the actual buildings in Mt Pleasant. Those are different taxation fees. 

• Pet’s Alive shut down their no kill animal shelter. They tried selling the former Elmsford Animal Shelter. Issued an RFP to other animal shelters in the area. No success. They will be turning over the property to the town in 2016 and we will be turning over the property to Paws Crossed, a nonprofit animal rights group that will be operating the shelter as a no kill animal shelter.

The building would probably be cheaper to have torn down and rebuilt based on what the public was told. Mr Feiner had said it needed to be torn down. John Lucido, the Town Building Inspector says it can be made habitable for about $1.2 million dollars – the amount we lose yearly by Mr Feiner deciding not to renew the WestHelp contract with the County. 

• Greenburgh police successful in locating two missing Greenburgh children who ran away from home.

Great job! 

• Appointed new Veterans Advisory Committee to identify resources for military veterans encompassing Veterans benefits, education and networking.
Doesn't the Federal, State and County governments offer this kind of service? Can you say streamlining government? Mr Feiner is the one who wanted to do away with County government because of the redundancy. So, what changed? Of course, publicity and an appearance of doing something.

•  Formed Health Care Advisory Board to provide residents with information about health care services people are entitled to and to help residents with individual problems. They could discuss problems with other neighbors who experienced similar health scares and help people cut through red tape.

See above.

• We expanded the one arm garbage sanitation truck to other sections of the town. A second truck is now serving the community. And, a third truck is on order. Uses one employee instead of three. And, reduces worker’s compensation claims.
This appears to us as a way for Mr Feiner to “get back” at the unions for resisting him in the past. So, for the last year, there have been two garbage collections - the regular/traditional truck and then a second pass by the one-arm bandit trucks later in the day. BTW, how are we going to pick up recyclables with these one arm bandits that can only use the special garbage cans?

• We hired a firm to conduct a management and operations review of the Department of Public Works. Will review recommendations in 2016. Last year we conducted a similar review of the courts and implemented most of their recommendations.

Good. 

The above are just a few of the many exciting new initiatives that have been taken since last Thanksgiving to be thankful for.  Would like to also thank the members of the Town Board – Diana Juettner, Francis Sheehan, Kevin Morgan and Ken Jones, the department heads, town employees, volunteers, civic association leadership and appointees to the Boards and Commissions for your advice and help during the year.  It’s a team effort! 

You’re welcome. While we would all like to feel valued and appreciated, there is a lot of mistrust in our Town brought upon us by our leadership’s actions, some legal, much illegal. We want it to be a team effort, but it’s not. While there is no “I” in Team, there’s also no “We,” “Me” or “Us”. That needs to change. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.

Addendum to Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pretending To Be Honest, Open and Transparent

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mr Feiner’s 2014 Initiatives - Reality Check #2

Mr Feiner wasted no time in sending out his list of (tattered) initiatives as the clock struck midnight on New Years Eve. As usual, there was much that wasn’t correct about Mr Feiner’s posturing (aka campaigning). Many of his “initiatives” are simply previously incompleted or screwed up deals he had tried to pull-off during 2013. Thankfully, there is an ever-vigilant group of residents (we aptly refer to as the G10) fighting to keep the Town leaders on the right track. We’d have said honest, but we’re way past that point.

Below is Mr Feiner’s list for 2014, not necessarily in its entirety. Our Reality Check responses follow in hopes of presenting a more accurate account of what is actually going on. We’ve italicized each of his initiatives followed by our Reality Check response in bold.

Mr Feiner’s email:

Subject: 22 GOALS/INITIATIVES FOR 2014 --happy new year!

A few minutes ago I began my 12th term of office as Greenburgh Town Supervisor. I'm very appreciative to you, the voters, for re-electing me as the chief elected official of the town. It's exciting and rewarding to have the opportunity to work with many terrific employees and department heads, Town Board members who work hard to make you happy.  It's great living in a town with outstanding services and a community that is diverse, with lots of fantastic people living here...   

The one prediction that I can make with certainty is that it's impossible to predict what the key controversies and issues will be. These are some of the goals/initiatives that I anticipate working on during the coming months.

NO TIME TO WASTE STARTING TO WORK ON 2014 INITIATIVES....

Reality Check: No expense is too great, regardless of the impact, cost or liability upon the Unincorporated taxpayers that will invariably experience no benefit. So, it’s time to begin. Mr Feiner has learned how to ensure votes by pandering to groups through “gifts” and “programs” they are interested in.

1) FRANK'S NURSERY SALE-- The Town Board is planning to sell Frank's nursery later this winter (probably in March). We hope to generate over $3.5 million from the property.

Reality Check: There isn’t much left of this can for Mr Feiner to kick farther down the road. Mr Feiner secretly met behind closed doors with Martin Hewitt of GameOn 365 to broker an illegal lease for an extremely undervalued amount of money which would be costly to the Town at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road (Frank’s Nursery). Mr Feiner was engaged in an obvious attempt to hide the multiple contamination issues on the property from the public and the purchasers, not making known the assorted remediations that would be necessary to make the property usable. When the public caught wind of his deal and cried foul, he backpedaled and said he would sell, then auction and finally have a bid for the property. To continue letting Mr Hewitt and GameOn 365 maintain favored and preferred access to the property, Mr Feiner and his Board fabricated more lies to keep a real bid from being accepted. G10 investigations continued and uncovered that GameOn 365 was a “paper company” without the resources to purchase the land, remediated or not. 

Elm Street Sports (ESS), owner/operator of Ardsley’s House of Sports, made a cash offer of $3.5 million. This was twice the amount offered by Mr Feiner’s favored and unproven startup pals, GameOn 365. What should have been a no-brainer for the Town officials was rejected. Mr Feiner lied and stated ESS had too many conditions attached to the $3.5 million offer. What were the conditions you ask? ESS wanted to know the level of contamination/remediation for the property and what zoning would be applied as it was originally zoned residential and had been changed to commercial for the host of nurseries that resided there, with Frank’s Nursery being the last one. Properties in the Town that have variances made to their zoning revert back to that property’s original zoning if unoccupied for six months. Such is the case here, explaining why ESS questioned what the zoning would be. Neither the Town Board, nor Mr Feiner, nor the Town Attorney, nor the Zoning, Planning or Building Departments would provide them or anyone else an answer. Mr Feiner had effectively stopped GameOn 365’s only opposition to the purchase. 

Soon after, Mr Feiner began publicly lying that the Elm Street Sports’ offer was not a serious one and they had too many conditions. How did he determine it was not a serious offer? And, you just counted all of the conditions – only one! Mr Feiner’s purported reasons were lame and preposterous, constructed purely to benefit one bidder, GameOn 365. He instructed his Town Board to start pushing the phrase, “We want to do our due diligence before we act.” They did. We guess there’s a first time for everything, but what has been done since then? Nothing except Mr Feiner has postponed the sale numerous times to aid GameOn 365 and hurt the Town. The latest issue regarding this is next – see #2 below.

2) THREE MEMBERS OF THE TOWN BOARD HAVE ASKED THE COMMISSIONER OF PLANNING TO INITIATE REZONING OF DOBBS FERRY ROAD for recreation uses.    A rezone could happen in 2014.

Reality Check: Remember that can he’s tried to kick farther down the road? It’s caught in a pothole due to lack of infrastructure maintenance. At a recent Town Board meeting while Mr Feiner was throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what would stick, he suggested the Dobbs Ferry Road stretch be turned into a recreational corridor. He wanted the Town Planning Commissioner, who never says no to any project and even tries to beef them up, will also never say no to Mr Feiner. With his Board right where he needs them, Mr Feiner and his two Councilmen Morgan and Jones, voted to have Mr Madden research establishing a Recreational Zone for the Town, with the other two Council representatives, Juettner and Sheehan, voting against the proposal. 

This isn’t about recreation, residential housing (which is the current zoning) or income for the Town. If it were, the property would have been sold long ago. No, this is about Mr Feiner controlling who will bid for and ultimately receive the property. He claims there have been several other people/companies that have expressed interest in the property but refuses to identify them. This tells us Mr Feiner is lying again and only interested in controlling the playing field for his intended outcome: completing the deal he started with GameOn 365.

3) LEASE OF WESTHELP FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING--We hope to persuade the County Executive and Legislature to authorize the town to lease the abandoned WESTHELP property for affordable housing.  Disappointed that the county was not cooperative in 2013.

Reality Check: Reading this blurb on face value, once again written very carefully by Mr Feiner, suggests the County government is the root of the problem with WestHelp. They most certainly are not! The property is abandoned because Mr Feiner chose to not renew the contract the Town had with the County to operate the property. Mr Feiner made the decision to leave the windows of the facility opened inviting ruination, pillaging and causing millions of dollars in renovations to make the facility habitable again. He’s disappointed that the County was not cooperative because he wanted to tear the intended homeless facility down to have a developmentally handicapped school be built in its place. Why? Valhalla votes. He sought to remove the affordable housing element now that he lost another court case for illegally giving the Valhalla School Board millions of dollars in payoffs to stop fighting the homeless residence. Mr Feiner’s racism is becoming more and more apparent every day. What is disappointing is that there is no major news media, the Attorney General’s office, or County Government willing to investigate his illegal actions. This is not the County’s fault, it’s another one clearly created and perpetuated by Mr Feiner and his Board.

4) RELEASE OF HUD FUNDS FOR MANHATTTAN AVE BEAUTIFICATION/9A SIDEWALKS --The Town has lost some federal funds for the Manhattan Ave beautification and 9A sidewalks because of a HUD/County Executive dispute over compliance with an affordable housing lawsuit. The town has complied with federal affordable housing laws. We are exempt from having to build additional housing. We're innocent victims. I would like the federal government to release funding that had been promised to us and to let the town find a state or other local agency to administer CDBG funds. Union Baptist Church will be celebrating their 100th birthday in May. It would be nice if Manhattan Ave could be beautified in 2014.

Reality Check: The North Elmsford Civic Associations have been asking for sidewalks since cars and trucks have travelled up and down Rt 9A. They asked for a traffic light at the then-Masters Discount Department and Grand Union stores’ intersection that is now a movie theatre. It wasn’t until there was a traffic accident related death that a traffic light was installed. Several people have been killed walking along 9A, usually in the darkness when visibility is at its worst. Somehow, we’re sure the 9A corridor as well as other dangerous streets in need of sidewalks for pedestrian safety will not be addressed, but Manhattan Avenue will be, even though they already have sidewalks and can be beautified without CDBG funds.

Mr Feiner continues to say we are exempt from building affordable housing. This is simply not true. All communities were included in the settlement. Several were not required to build  more because they already had enough. This is very different from being exempt. Had Mr Feiner not oversaturated Fairview with affordable housing, we would be building even more subsidized housing in an already over-congested low income area.

5) INITIATING REVALUATION PROCESS--In 2013 the Town Board appropriated funds for the first revaluation in over 60 years. The actual process begins in 2014. Revaluation will take a few years and should reduce certiorari/tax refunds --and provide residents with more stability and predictability.

Reality Check: Yes, it’s been 60 years, the last 20 under Mr Feiner’s watch! The only reason Mr Feiner is even moving forward with initiating revaluation is during the Democratic Primary debates he was forced to confront his mulish negligence of the last 20 years by his challenger, Robert Bernstein. Only then did Mr Feiner acquiesce and begrudgingly admit it should be done. Why does this matter? The Town cannot realistically refuse a certiorari challenge adjustment because revaluations have not been done in such a long period of time. Their lack of action makes the arguing in defense to the challenge incontrovertible. The Town’s minimum certiorari adjustment payouts at each Town Board meeting (twice a month) averages $100,000. The highest adjustment in one recent meeting was just over $3,000,000! We’re seeing higher and higher numbers at each meeting, which may be why Mr Feiner cancels so many meetings.

6) ROLLOUT OF NEW SANITATION TRUCK THAT USES ONE EMPLOYEE INSTEAD OF THREE- We authorized the purchase of the one arm bandit sanitation truck in 2013. The truck should arrive in 2014. We need to make sure that the neighborhoods where the truck will be used will continue to be able to rely on efficient service. A smooth transition.

Reality Check: Nothing smooth about it. It should come as no surprise that Mr Feiner is seeking to reduce the Town’s workforce. Mr Feiner has maintained a contentious relationship with the Town employees/unions, rarely bargaining at the table fairly and openly. Just ask any Town employee and see what you learn. But more importantly, the one-arm bandit did not work as promised during their demonstration, embarrassingly witnessed by numerous residents and officials. So much so, that Mr Feiner deleted the failing performance section from the video about it he posted online! 

Whether or not the one-arm bandit is viable for the Town or not is unknown. There have been no studies or any proof to determine if these trucks or this change will benefit the Town. We’ve only gotten the typical knee-jerk reaction from the Supervisor and his Board that we need this and it will reduce employees and take my word for it. What are the cost savings or increases to the Town to go down this road and the positive or negative impact on the taxpayer? In fact, the only proven aspect to purchasing this truck is that if it doesn’t work or we don’t change the sanitation fleet, Mr Feiner is throwing our taxpayer money away. We will now have one truck with specific garbage cans that can only be used in one area of the Town. As usual, we’re being forced to accept his and his Town Board’s one-sided opinion.

7) BACK TAXES COLLECTION PROCESS--Earlier this year over 23 million dollars was owed to the town in back taxes. We initiated an aggressive effort to collect back taxes. The effort seems to be working. As of the end of the December the amount owed has gone down to just over $18 million. We will continue to aggressively collect back taxes owed.  This will be a continuing initiative.

Reality Check: The Town’s back-taxes revelation was uncovered by a G10/resident and it was a major surprise that not only did Mr Feiner not want found out, let alone publicized, but continued to be kept under wraps even after exposure! Once this information went public, Mr Feiner began his spin/solution by offering tax amnesty. We should note that this $23 million deficit happened only during Mr Feiner’s tenure! It was he and his assorted administrations, along with his complicit Town Boards, made up of current and past Town Council representatives, which allowed this to perpetuate. During a portion of this time, Mr Feiner received much news from then-Town Comptroller Michael Kolesar, about numerous problems with Town finances. Could this be why Feiner fired Mr Kolesar? You bet it is! To date, how much in interest and penalties were waived to collect the $5 million the Town has received so far? We’re now beyond the amnesty grace period provided to taxpayers. When and what will be done to collect the remaining $18 million? Silence from that corner office.

8) COMPREHENSIVE PLAN--The Town Board will review a draft comprehensive plan that will be released early in 2014. The plan will address land use/planning issues.

Reality Check: The Town has undertaken developing a Comprehensive Plan since roughly 2009. The committee, chaired by Town Councilman Francis Sheehan, has made progress but can’t seem to make it to the finish line. Each time they get close to rounding the final curve and come into the homestretch, Mr Feiner tasks them with something else to do/investigate/stall. There are also several members of the committee that refuse to allow the committee to use the vague and open-ended verbiage that allows multiple interpretations without conclusion on issues. We applaud them. In the meantime, over these many years, Mr Feiner has continued his zoning-change extravaganza (read: spot zoning) for his developer friends. With all the spot zoning Mr Feiner and his Board have done, we again question why bother having zoning laws? Could the amount of changes in the Town zoning and the amount of new tasks for the Comprehensive Steering Committee be a coincidence? You decide.

9) COURT AUDIT RECOMMENDATIONS---Last year the Town Board retained the services of an independent auditor to address internal control issues at the Town Court. We don't want the study to gather dust. In 2014 we need to follow up on the recommendations and implementation plans.

Reality Check: This audit was merely another deflection to mask Mr Feiner’s less than desirable hiring practices along with a significant lack of management that again, was only during Mr Feiner’s 20+ years tenure. We are still waiting to know how many of the tens of thousands of tickets, lost revenue and court backlog has been cleared up? Conterminously, how much work was performed by our salaried staff and how much by unpaid interns? Finally, if our paid staff cannot perform the work, it might seem more judicious for us to call for an evaluation of staffing in the courts and possible outsourcing.

10) SMOOTH IMPLEMENTATION OF INFRASTRUCTURE INITIATIVES--We will start installing new water meters, LED lights around town.

Reality Check: There is little if anything done smoothly in this Town unless we’re discussing the abuse of the Unincorporated taxpayers. When Mr Feiner wants something to happen quickly he instructs his Board to make it so. The water meters project is less of an infrastructure improvement than it is a scramble to increase Town income to offset the financial disasters caused by Mr Feiner. In the end however, residents will have new water meters, new rate hikes and be paying more for water without any infrastructure improvements. The installation of the new water meters were supposed to start being installed this past October according to a Feiner mailing/campaign piece. As far as our staff has been able to find out, no meters have been installed. Surprised?

Similarly, the “scheduled” three-year LED light replacement program may or may not move forward, depending on any new expenses taxpayers are hit with. ABG has said this before, The Town should slowly replace failing lights and ones that either have increased usage or excessive maintenance with new, energy efficient ones in a systematic, scheduled approach. Spending a lot “up front” to save a little to remove light fixtures and bulbs we have already paid for is not a judicious use of our resources and doesn’t make sense. 

11) LIBRARY BOILER-- Last year the library was closed when the heating system broke down. To reduce that possibility a new boiler should be installed.

Reality Check: It’s always interesting to hear about the problems at the library. You may recall who the über-construction-qualified “lead agency” was? That’s right, it was our Town Board. There have been a host of problems with the library and the heating system because it wasn’t installed correctly to specifications. There are other HVAC issues beyond the boiler. This past year also found the fire sprinkler system compromised with broken pipes because those pipes run in an uninsulated, unheated area of the ceiling area. This design flaw should have been caught by someone with building and construction, inspection knowledge. Hey wait a minute; don’t we have a Building Department, Zoning Board of Appeals, Planning Commissioner, Planning Board with a host of inspectors? Of course we do. Maybe the Town Board should have conferred with them?

Similarly, when Theodore Young Community Center Commissioner William Carter attended the Town Board work session to review his budget, he was grilled about numerous line items. One of those line items was $10k for boiler maintenance and upgrades. As he said then, if we spend a little now on maintenance, we may be able to avoid spending a lot later on. What was he thinking? Did he not see the can in front of him waiting to be kicked?

It’s difficult to know if installing a new boiler is needed or not. With this Town Board so often operating behind closed doors and adjourning to executive sessions, while continuing to say they endorse open government, it’s difficult to get solid information for evaluation. What the Town Board should be doing is a needs assessment. Then they can objectively (ha!) decide to keep the existing boiler, upgrade the existing one if it’s cost effective/feasible, and replacement as the final choice.

12)  STUDY--SHOULD THE LIBRARY BE INDEPENDENT OF THE TOWN GOVERNMENT?  The Greenburgh Library is always packed with appreciative residents who love the services being offered.  Should the library be independent of politicians --have their own independent elected Board? Should the budget of the library be approved by taxpayers and not be part of the town budget deliberations?  We should study this option- independent library boards exist in other communities.

Reality Check: Mr Feiner knows this is a red herring and throws it out there so he can beat his chest later and say, “Um, I, um, tried to help you be independent so I couldn’t hold you hostage again during budget times. You declined my offer. So, now you have to do what I want.” It’s a setup. If the Library becomes its own entity as Mr Feiner suggests, it would require becoming a Library Taxing District, adding another taxing district. Mr Feiner knows that taxpayers are taxed enough already (sorry: T.E.A.) and would probably not go for creating another taxing agency when we already have so many others. It plays into his hand and forces the Library to capitulate.

13) GREENBURGH NATURE CENTER WOULD LIKE DEVELOPER ESCROW FUNDS (NOT TAXPAYER DOLLARS) TO BE USED TO BUILD CHILDREN'S TRAIL AND DISABLED TRAILS.- GNC Children's Wing, introducing early education and hands on learning in conservation education..

Greenburgh Nature Center - GNC Sensory Trail for the disabled population which would widen the scope of nature's landscape

Reality Check: If the Nature Center, which is a private entity and only leasing the space from the Town, wants to build children’s trails, let them raise the funds themselves. The escrow funds are earmarked for other purposes and when Mr Feiner discussed this at a recent Town Board work session, even Town Attorney Tim Lewis informed Mr Feiner that the escrow funds could not be used that way. To say this won’t be taxpayer dollars is disingenuous because that money is not available or allowable by law for his pleasure or campaign promises. And while no one wants to say “No” to any segment of our population, in this case the disabled, perhaps the GNC can get private donations (i.e., the Lanza Foundation) to do the work they seek. Had Mr Feiner not broken the law and been found guilty to the tune of $6,500,000, we might have had a different position.

14) INITIATION OF YOU TUBE NEIGHBORHOOD VIDEO'S ABOUT DIFFERENT NEIGHBORHOODS IN TOWN--HIGHLIGHTING WHY GREENBURGH IS GREAT PLACE TO LIVE. You tube neighborhood video's will help realtors get top dollars for homes. We're going to highlight the best that the town has to offer.

Reality Check: The first video was poorly done and inadequate. That’s not to say don’t do them, but some real direction is needed to make this work. Whoever did the first one tried to do everything in one attempt and it needs to show individual topics in about one to one and half minutes. Otherwise, people will go to something else instead of watching the entire piece. Real Estate agents may like having the video, but they would be better served with lower taxes, a balanced budget without raiding the fund balance and less lawsuits and guilty verdicts. 

15) PAVILIONS AT VETERAN POOL (PING PONG, SHUFFLEBOARD, MINIATURE GOLF A POSSIBILITY)...  Secure parkland funds (NON TAX DOLLARS) to build pavilions for AFV Park Pool Complex and Secor Woods Park and install by fall of 2014.

Reality Check: ABG has always been amazed at everything the Town will do around the pools but never to the pools themselves. Also note the coded message in this initiative: “Secure parkland funds (NON TAX DOLLARS) to build…” What this really means is Mr Feiner would like to build these things but doesn’t have the money in the budget to do so and must get grant money, developer sponsors or private donations to do this. Without these monies none of these items can happen, especially using NON TAX DOLLARS!

16)  AN UPGRADED MASSARO PARK WITH WATER SPRAY PAD    Secure parkland funds (NON TAXPAYER DOLLARS) to build a water spray pad at Massaro Park to be opened for the 2015 season.

Reality Check: You’ll see the misnomer: “Secure parkland funds (NON TAX DOLLARS) to build…” often, in Mr Feiner’s initiatives. That’s because it’s a pipe dream to make the willfully ignorant voter think he’s doing a lot for them. What’s a lot is the $6,500,000 million that the Unincorporated taxpayers will be paying out for the Fortress Bible Church guilty verdict. Or, the $1,200,000 million per year the Town is losing because Mr Feiner’s decided not to renew the WestHelp affordable housing for Valhalla votes? Massaro Park is an underutilized park that doesn’t warrant major improvements unless an increased user base can be created. It can’t because the facility is maxed out. This is about pandering for votes.

17) Secure parkland funds  (NON TAXPAYER DOLLARS) to build new tennis surfaces for tennis courts at AFV Park (3) and Massaro Park (1).

Reality Check: There’s that pesky NON TAXPAYER DOLLARS again. Mr Feiner promised the Payne Street Civic Association security video cameras and even openly discussed it with then Police Chief DeCarlo. The fact that he openly discussed it is a telltale sign of things not to come. Chief DeCarlo has since retired and cannot be held responsible for Mr Feiner’s lies. NON TAXPAYER DOLLARS really means it probably will not happen. 

In addition, Mr Feiner raced to have his “best buds” Assemblyman Tom Abinanti and Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins introduce legislation before they adjourned for the year (last year) to allow the Town to ignore the Finneran law and contract with Sportime, a private, for profit company, to install tennis bubbles at Veteran Park and resurface the same courts. What happened with that scheme? There are no bubbles, no refinished courts and no private contractors to be found. The reason? Mr Feiner demanded so much in return for awarding the contract that they simply couldn’t afford it and walked away. Perhaps if they donated a fire truck...

18) OUTDOOR FITNESS STATIONS     Purchase and install 4 outdoor fitness stations at Travis Hill Park for teenagers and adults.

Reality Check: This is an existing project that was undertaken by a private citizen and already slated to happen. Isn’t it nice how Mr Feiner will take credit for something he didn’t do? And, he’ll issue numerous press releases, hold a press conference and take full credit for someone else’s efforts. In school we used to call this cheating.

19) BACKGROUND CHECKS      Pass a town board resolution requiring background checks for all town seasonal and part-time available employees (annually) and for new fulltime hires only during the screening process.

Reality Check: Frankly, ABG staffers were shocked that this wasn’t already being done. The liability ramifications are huge. Then a staffer made the comment that just because Mr Feiner put it on his list doesn’t mean is isn’t already being done. Ah, she learns fast. Let’s hope it is being done.

 20) DISABLED PARKING   Build additional handicapped parking for the AFV Park Multipurpose Center by June, 2014.

Reality Check: Getting a can of paint, a roller or sprayer, with the handicap parking space template should have aleady been a done deal. Why is this an initiative and not completed already?

  21) REDUCED RATES FOR LATE HOURS AT POOL  Establish twilight rate for general admission to the Anthony F. Veteran Park Pool Complex in 2014.

Reality Check: How about a reduced rate or better yet, no rate for residents – period? Why should residents pay more to use their pool during the day? Why should they pay at all? It’s typical of Mr Feiner to want to treat people differently and this is just one more example of that. He’s making the taxpayers who own the pool pay to use it. Isn’t this double taxation?

  22) TIGHTENING UP INTERNAL CONTROLS, LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MANAGE YOUR TAX DOLLARS MORE EFFICIENTLY -- Last, but definitely not least, will work hard to tighten up internal controls. And, to look for ways to manage your tax dollars more efficiently.

Reality Check: The best way to tighten up internal controls is multilayered. First, Mr Feiner should resign. Since we aren’t sure if that will happen, we feel there should be several Review Boards that have authority to override/undo decisions made by other Town leaders. Most of the current Boards are impotent figurehead-types that cannot actually implement change or improvements. They can only make recommendations. 

What have we left out of the list? Let me know.

Reality Check: How about ethical behavior? In Greenburgh, however, Mr Feiner has situated himself in such a way that ethics, the Ethics Board and the media cannot affect his bad and often illegal behavior. Did he leave anything out of the list. Sure he did, but we won’t say what. He needs things he can claim as accomplishments if any of these don’t come to fruition. Email him with your points and he will use that as one of his accomplishments at the end of the year. Rest assured, if you email him and he cannot control the outcome, he’ll acknowledge your email and the response will be shuffled to someone else. Mr Feiner will not be sucked into having to perform for you, the lowly taxpayer. And if you try to follow up with Mr Feiner, you will simply be referred to the person whose lap Mr Feiner has dumped the issue, all via email. Ah yes, the Problem Solver.

The Town taxpayers, both residential and commercial, hunger for relief. The Town Board just voted themselves a 10% salary hike for their already well-paid positions. When residents complain about our elected officials’ behavior, we hear with a resigned bitterness, “That’s government,” or, “You can’t fight city hall.” Maybe, but they don’t even try. It doesn’t have to be this way and it needs to change. It’s time for A Better Greenburgh.