New Deflection Tactic: It’s Not Me, It’s Them!

ABG has bemoaned The Paul’s deflection tactics quite often. The latest “game” is his tactical switch regarding The Paul’s abandoning of the WestHelp property and contract. The contract would have generated a guaranteed $1.2 million in revenue if The Paul had simply signed the renewal contract between the County and the Town. Traction of The Paul’s inaction is spreading, and even The Paul’s allies in the lamestream media are now starting to say he cost the Town $1.2 million a year. Imagine how different the stories might have been had The Pauls’s media cohorts actually reported instead of regurgitating his press releases?

The Paul’s newest tact is that Westchester County is not moving fast enough for The Paul and his Stepford Board in making a decision with possible usage of the former WestHelp site on the Westchester Community College campus. So now, instead of recognizing and being associated with inaction to the loss of $1.2 million in contracts with the County, The Paul wants to be seen as trying to use that property right away, that it is languishing even though he has a prospective tenant for it. Apparently, his lead agency mentality with the ability to ramrod through any he decision he desires has taken hold. ABG believes if feels if he can deflect the conversation away from his inaction about not signing the contract to making the issue about the County Executive’s inaction with the property, he’ll shine again, the clouds will part and everyone will forget his bungling of the no-brainer contract. ABG will not let that happen.

He’d like us to forget that the facility is vacant and falling into disrepair because of his refusal to renew that contract. He’d like us to think then County Executive Andy Spano’s office delayed the contract to renew and it’s because of them the facility is vacant (its always someone else’s fault). He’d like to convince us that the Spano administration was seeking to repurpose the property anyway and his inaction was not the reason Greenburgh no longer is being paid for a contract he chose to abandon.

The contract with the County-owned property was to manage the facility for low income people. ABG is not concerned with who specifically lives there, rather, that qualified and/or deserving and people needing housing are provided help. The Town’s Greenburgh Housing Authority has a waiting list of about 250 people seeking low income housing. The amount of homes this could provide to some of those people could reduce that number by 108, the amount of units at the facility. ABG feels The Paul should bite the ego-bullet, admit he screwed up – again – and take real action providing homes for those on the waiting list. ABG doesn’t want to see more press releases about building a new school for a Yonkers school when Greenburgh residents need a place to live! The needs of our own should be what is motivating The Paul. Unfortunately, they’re not!

The Town officials may be tired of waiting for the Astorino administration to submit legislation to change the venue of the property. Too bad. The Paul and his Stepfords can solicit proposals all day long. There is a contract in place that says Greenburgh, through the Greenburgh Housing Authority, shall run this facility for it’s intended purpose - housing. The Town is breaking the lease by not providing low income housing at this site. Stop making up numbers about how much the property could generate with a school versus affordable housing and put those in need under a roof. ABG realizes The Paul has lost the $1.2 million for this year and should move on. Literally. Just go. 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