No Change In The Status Quo

The elections are finally over. Enough money was spent on advertising the candidates to balance many local budgets. In Greenburgh, we could pay off all the guilty verdicts brought upon us by Mr Feiner's illegal activities. Accusations flew and junk mailings found postal employees lining up at chiropractic offices in droves. Let's hope the candidates will pick up and properly dispose of all of their yard signs. literature and assorted paraphernalia. In the end though, nothing really changed.
 
The governor's race found Cuomo defeating challenger Astorino. The voting percentage was 55% to 42%. The television and political pundits all said Cuomo handily took this (re)election. But did he? Cuomo received 114,533 votes and Astorino received 86,493. The numbers don't lie but they do tell a story. Given the roughly two to one ratio of Democrats to Republicans in the state, the numbers tell us that Astorino crossed party lines and was attractive enough to some Democrats that they voted for him; or that some Democrats were dissatisfied or mad at Cuomo (and others) and simply voted against the status quo.
 
Yes, Astorino still lost. But did he? As we just said, the numbers don't lie and Cuomo did win. However, this election wasn't as much about Astorino winning as it was to position himself for the next gubernatorial election. Compared to New York's last election's upstate Republican candidate Carl Paladino, Astorino has that Richie Cunningham, aw-shucks demeanor and is very likeable. Having his adorable family in tow doesn't hurt either. He's comfortable with a variety of media and he is fluent in Spanish. He now has name recognition throughout the state, a cadre of people who are willing to stump for him the next time around, greater statewide awareness of state-wide issues and ties to the big money donors. Ultimately, he now has a wider breadth of supporters than he had before.

Locally, we saw sitting Democratic Assemblyman Tom Abinanti, sponsored in part by big Pharma, defeat Republican challenger Mike Duffy. The tally was 62% to 38% (20,765 to 12,787 respectively). In this race, the numbers are pretty much what they were when Thomas Bock challenged Abinanti in 2010, telling us two things: Abinanti has a Greenburgh Democratic base willing to vote the party line regardless of any wrong-doing or lack of knowledge on the issues. Or, simply, the democrats vote for their own and the Republicans do the same. Everyone continues to try to figure out how to capture the Independents and undecided voters to side with them without much success.

In other races, there were a few close calls but nothing radically different. We were watching the Attorney General race because the outcome could have been important for Greenburgh taxpayers. There have been several attempts by different organization to have our Supervisor investigated for multiple wrong-doings with little success. Had incumbent Attorney General Eric Schneiderman lost, we may have been more likely to finally make some headway than previously attempted. 

Propositions 1, 2, and 3 all passed - no surprise there. Each time propositions are put forth, the media blitz to convince the electorate to support them on behalf of the incumbents is untiring and often bereft of information that presents both sides of the argument. ABG wrote about the three Propositions and tried to give the counter-points to make the case to the voters to really think about not voting in favor of them. 

Overwhelmingly, the votes for either status quo or a populace that is unhappy with the dysfunction of government proves at all levels that people want change and deserve better .The northeast seemed to be entrenched and a bit immune to the wave across the nation for change. With Democrats holding onto their seats but spending much more money than ever before to do so, this should be a wake up call for many of them. Contrary to Mr Cuomo's ads, NY and New Yorkers are not doing better and people are still leaving. Now that the shift in the US and NY Senates has happened, our leaders may really be forced to cross the aisle and actually work together. Isn't that what they all tout before they get elected? Let's hope they do. Then, maybe we'll see A Better Greenburgh.

Quid Pro Quo: A Learned Skill

Which politician made this statement:

“This legislation will eliminate big money from campaigns and make local residents the sole concern of local candidates for offices. It will make it clear to local residents that their participation really matters.”

One would naturally believe it’s our Town Supervisor as this is Greenburgh, where Mr Feiner knows what to say to the press but does not have the ability to practice what he preaches. No, this statement is from another politician who actually got his start in Greenburgh, moved up the food chain as a County Legislator and is now the sitting Democratic NYS Assemblyman. That’s right, this statement is from Tom Abinanti, regarding campaign financing for political candidates.

Why is this important? Because Mr Abinanti just imposed another NY State unfunded mandate upon us via our school taxes. Second, because on October 30, 2014, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo signed into law two bills that New York State Assemblyman Tom Abinanti (D-Greenburgh/Mt. Pleasant) sponsored/co-sponsored. The first bill is the one we are taking issue with. It's not because of what is accomplished with this unfunded mandate of helping students in need of this medical treatment. Rather, because it reeks of Quid Pro Quo in a Town that sees approvals passed for fire truck donations and lawsuits when the approvals are denied because a donation is refused.

The first bill (A.7791) authorizes schools to stock and administer EpiPens to any student in an emergency even if the student doesn’t have a prescription. Assemblyman Abinanti drafted, sponsored and pursued this legislation in response to increasing reports of deaths in schools due to anaphylactic reactions. 

As we were looking into the financial records of Mr Abinanti during this election, we were stunned to find that he may be receiving payments in the form of campaign contributions from the drug company Pfizer to introduce legislation that could financially benefit their company. Knowing the inculcation of how things get done in Greenburgh, we thought we would take a look and see what else we could find.

We took a look at the Pfizer website and found that not only do they donate a lot of money to a lot of people on both sides of the aisle, they even have a political PAC set up to do so. They claim it is set up so their employees can help their local politicians. We did a search of 2014 and lo and behold, there is Mr Abinanti’s name with a $1000 donation from the Pfizer drug company (see picture below). 

 

Before we made a judgement, we went to the Campaign Financial Disclosure of the New York State Board of Elections Contribution web page and sought Mr Abinanti’s donation information. Not surprisingly, it listed the donations from Pfizer along with other businesses, PAC’s and individuals (see picture below).

Further investigation to previous election filings showed many of the same supporters routinely coughing up donation money to Mr Abinanti. But not the drug company Pfizer. Here’s the rub: Pfizer pays Mr Abinanti $1,000 through his campaign finance account in two increments of $500. Mr Abinanti sponsors and get passed a bill requiring schools to purchase EPI-Pens from a drug supplier. The drug supplier may or may not be Pfizer. Of course, many will champion that this is acceptable because after all, “it’s for the children.”

ABG cannot prove an ulterior motive between the financial payments made to Mr Abinanti and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer. But there is certainly a link that exists between the two! There's no two ways about it, the legislation he sponsored and got passed will benefit big drug companies such as Pfizer. Quid pro quo? In an economic climate as bad as what we have, shouldn’t Mr Abinanti be trying to help small businesses prosper instead of creating legislation guaranteeing humongous drug companies even more money?  Of course he should. But, if he’s obligated to Pfizer and any other companies, can we really expect anything else?

He also sponsored campaign finance legislation that would allow incumbents a gold-mine of money for campaigning if passed. This year Mr Abinanti showed that he raised $49,201.01 as of his last campaign finance filing with the Board of Elections. His legislation, if passed, promises to give him a lot more of our money so he can continue to run for office and find new and improved ways to waste our money. Would he stop taking payments from drug companies if the bill were passed into law? There's no way to tell. However, while past performance is no guarantee of future results, we think the results are kind of easy to guess. Mr Abinanti should be trying to curb taxes for the everyday person instead of trying to find new ways to waste our money for his benefit?

This Tuesday is your opportunity to make some of this right. Mr Abinanti has spent 24 years in public office and is a career politician whose primary interest has been proven to be Mr Abinanti. It's apparent he's gotten very comfortable in office. It's time to think differently. Make the right decision and maybe we can start to see A Better Greenburgh.

92nd District Candidate Responds Addendum

We've previously posted several positions that Mike Duffy, Candidate for the 92nd Assembly District had made to ABG. Here is one more that he wished to add to what he had already given us:

How I would handle tax incentives:

I've already been instrumental in obtaining tax incentives. I am a member of the Mount Pleasant Industrial Development Agency. Recently, we approved the Regeneron project in Eastview, which provided for tax incentives for Regeneron to stay in the Greenburgh-Mount Pleasant area, and greatly expand their facilities. There was a strong possibility that they would relocate out of the area.

Greenburgh, Mount Pleasant, Elmsford and Tarrytown, which are within the 92nd Assembly District, will benefit directly from the project. Approximately 400 additional jobs will be created with the expansion. Local businesses will benefit from the new employees who patronize those businesses, in addition to increased sales tax revenue.

Click the link to see the lohud article on the Regeneron project:

http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2013/04/04/regeneron-to-expand-create-400-jobs-in-mount-pleasant/

92nd District Candidate Responds

In a previous post, we discussed some of 92nd District Candidate Mike Duffy's Campaign platform. A reader posed a few questions and Mr Duffy's response is below:

Unfunded Mandates
With regards to unfunded mandates in general, I will propose legislation that mandates if the state passes the law mandating local and/or county compliance, the state pays for it. It would not be allowed to pass the costs down to county or local governments.

Medicaid
Medicaid is a federal program foisted on the states. The states' issue with Medicaid is that the 62 counties administer the program - this is unnecessary! The state should administer the program, allowing for uniform administration and a freeing up of county resources. A secondary major issue regarding Medicaid is that there is a tremendous amount of fraud in the system. Fraud raises the cost of Medicaid exponentially. Again, if the state administered the program, it would be in a better position to investigate and combat fraud. Most counties in NY have relatively small governments and the administration of Medicaid is a costly burden that needs to end.

Pensions
Public pensions are tied to collective bargaining agreements. However, often the high cost of pensions occurs due to the padding of overtime. Legislation could be enacted that would comport with the cba's (collective bargaining agreements), and fight overtime abuse.

Valhalla & the Kensico Dam
The roadway to the Kensico Dam is administered by the county, and the dam infrastructure belongs to the NYC DEP. You also have the towns of Mount Pleasant and North Castle involved. Having said all that, I would contact all the parties involved and work towards opening the dam by being persistent with all necessary individuals. I'm not saying it would be easy. What I am saying is that sitting back and nothing will accomplish nothing. I believe that intelligent persistence will result in the roadway bring opened, thus allowing a quicker commute, and relief to the traffic choked village of Valhalla.

Candidate Mike Duffy for 92nd Assembly Seat Receives Governor Pataki’s Endorsement

In a statement just released by former New York State Governor George Pataki, he had these comments to say of 92nd Assembly District candidate Mike Duffy:

“I am pleased to endorse Mike Duffy for the 92nd Assembly district in Westchester County. 

Now more than ever, New Yorkers need a representative who has the courage and integrity to take a stand against the business-as-usual Albany cronies and their failed policies. 

For three decades, Mike has served the people of Westchester County in a distinguished career in law enforcement.  

From a police officer in White Plains to Chief Investigator for the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, Mike has protected the rights and lives of New Yorkers.

As Chief Investigator for the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office, Mike Duffy and his investigators worked shoulder-to-shoulder with NYPD to keep New Yorkers safe and secure in the aftermath of terrorist attack of 9/11. 

Mike will protect our rights, ensure taxpayer dollars are spent in pursuit of improving the lives of all New Yorkers, not just a select few, and demand integrity and transparency. 

As Assemblyman, Mike will continue his public service. He will make sure that New York is working for its people, and that all voices are heard.

I endorse Mike Duffy for 92nd Assembly and I urge you to vote for him.

George E. Pataki”

“Like Mike” Duffy for 92nd Assembly District

ABG staffers recently had an opportunity to sit down with New York Assembly Candidate for the 92th District, Mike Duffy, to discuss some of the issues and reasons he is running for office against 24-year-long professional politician, Tom Abinanti.

The 92nd NYS Assembly District, which is comprised of the Towns of Greenburgh and Mount Pleasant, also includes the villages contained within those two towns. Currently, the only time you'll see current representative Abinanti is when he is hopping from one event dinner to the next, dishing out NYS Proclamations worth the paper they’re printed on. In fact, Abinanti has done this during his entire 24 years as a legislator and even garnered the nickname Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti.

Mike Duffy is a life-long resident of Westchester County, growing up in White Plains and attending St. John the Evangelist School on Hamilton Avenue and Archbishop Stepinac High School. Following high school he went on to graduate from the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a B.S. in Criminal Justice. Soon after that he joined the White Plains Police Department, as a member of the Patrol and Detective Divisions, being assigned to the Street Crime Unit and Vice Control Unit. He has received 33 awards for excellent and meritorious police work, including lifesaving. Respectfully, we restrained from asking him if Abinanti ever presented him with a Proclamation.

Mike then went on to receive his Juris Doctor degree from Pace University School of Law. He retired from the DA’s office in 2004, and went to work as an associate attorney in a White Plains. In 2006, Mike began a private practice, focusing on criminal defense and general litigation. He donates his time doing work as a pro bono arbitrator for the City Court of White Plains.

There are numerous points Mike discussed with ABG as to his platform, and we’ll highlight just a few. First is about our Infrastructure. Mike favors opening the top roadway on the Kensico Dam to passenger vehicles. The Village of Vahalla is being choked to death by the excessive traffic that this long-time closure is causing. It is having a negative affect on the small businesses in town and contributing to empty storefronts. Why hasn’t 24-year politician Tom Abinanti done something about this? Obviously, because he doesn’t care.

Mike Duffy is looking to maintain and/or reduce property taxes by addressing unfunded mandates from Albany. Tom Abinanti has penned several laws that have increased our taxes! Mike Duffy says he knows its easy to spend other people’s money but he will spend our money like its his own. Mike Duffy will look to give small businesses tax incentives to allow them to prosper. Mr Abinanti has not done anything to help small business but has partnered with big business. In fact, Mr Abinanti has moved out of Greenburgh probably because of the illegal and costly actions taken by the Town administration. When things get difficult it seems Mr Abinanti runs away. Is this the kind of leaders we want in Albany? Of course not. Elect Mike Duffy in the upcoming election and send a message to our overpaid, ineffective incumbent politicos. Tell them we’ve had enough! Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

A Questionable Appraisal

ABG was finally able to find and review the appraisal for the former Frank’s Nursery site at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Our findings, while not revolutionary, raise a few questions as to what instructions the appraisal company and their appraiser were given toward the property. During the entire period of this fiasco induced by The Paul, which has been going along for about two years now, there have been numerous “plays” by The Paul, his Town “Go Along” Board, and Tim “Remediation” Lewis. Ironically, the appraisal uses some of the same language as GameOn 365’s website.

This whole debacle began with The Paul secretly meeting with the owners of the GameOn 365, who convinced The Paul to let them “have” this property for basically a monthly maintenance fee under the guise of a deflated “rent”. He agreed. Next, he enlisted his buddies Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti and Andrea “Platitudes” Stewart-Cousins, to submit an amendment to the Finneran Law during the wee morning hours of their respective Albany legislatures immediately prior to their end-of-year recess. This practice has been performed traditionally in Albany for years. Apparently, Abinanti who insisted he was not a career politician when he originally ran for State Assembly after his 20-year tenure as a County Legislator, knew all about this maneuver and jumped right onto it when The Paul beckoned. Stewart-Cousins obligingly followed suit. It’s disappointing that they would just go along with The Paul’s request and not ask any residents’ from the neighborhood they’re supposed to represent for an opinion.

Knowing his Board would vote through any scheme he asks for, The Paul fabricated a pretext of needing only a lease with this piece of property exclusively with GameOn 365, without putting the property up for sale as required by law or offering it to the public for a Request For Proposal (RFP). Once he made the illegal misstep of not selling the property as mandated by law and promising GameOn 365 sole participation for the property, GameOn 365 was able to solicit investors for their Sports Bubble idea. Notwithstanding that the property reverted back to Residential Zoning after six months of being foreclosed upon and unused by the Town, The Paul skirted the zoning issue each time it was raised. A fervent proponent of spot-zoning, The Paul isn’t worried about zoning restrictions.

To add insult to injury, The Paul needed another diversion away from this illegal deal – and quickly. Planning ahead to the 2013 election, The Paul knew he had upset a lot of tried-and-true supporters and needed to make up lost votes. So he casually allowed the lease with WestHelp and the County of Westchester lapse, claiming then County Executive Andrew Spano was the one who didn’t renew the lease. When proof substantiated that it was The Paul, not Spano, who didn’t renew the lease, The Paul fabricated emails he supposedly sent to Spano requesting renewal. Again, these were proven to be falsified emails. During that same time frame, the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit was adjudicated against The Paul, current Councilwoman Diana Juettner and the Town, citing they lied under oath, discriminated against the African American Church and destroyed evidence. It is a well publicized fact that The Paul has experience with evidence tampering. An Appeals Court denied the Towns appeal of the decision, determining the guilt of The Paul, Juettner and the Town! We await the judgement which many say could go as high as $8M!

Simon Cohen, a nearby resident to the affected area, started a website called HelpBurstTheBubble.com and did a mailing throughout portions of the Town attempting to stop the GameOn 365 proposal. His contentions were numerous as he was against the size, use of the property, the illegal lease deal, the favoritism practiced by The Paul and his Board. He quickly gained a foothold and many rallied with him in an attempt to halt this out-of-control, illegal and improper “done-deal”!

During the summer months, The Paul, ever-shrewd and manipulating, offered an outdoor Town Hall style meeting on the property to answer residents questions and concerns. He canceled the first meeting although about 100 residents are said to have shown up. The following night there was the actual,  official meeting. ABG witnessed the condescending attitude that owner Martin Hewitt had that evening as he was given the microphone and stated to the crowd, “Here’s how this is going to work. You raise your hand, I’ll call on you, you can ask your question and I’ll answer it. I won’t answer questions that we’ve already covered.” This understandably irritated a large portion of the crowd seeking answers. And when questions were repeatedly not answered in lieu of softball questions, the meeting quickly devolved. Plus, GameOn 365’s bussed-in supporters tried to shout down residents as they spoke.

Many residents, including the G10, repeatedly suggested to The Paul and his Board that a fair market appraisal be performed. There were many numbers continually tossed about and many insisted a real number be had. The Paul refused, knowing that without having an accurate number, it would be difficult to makle a case against his illegal plan. After Town Assessor Edye McCarthy insisted that the property values The Paul was using were inaccurate, she refused to answer when pushed for an approximate value of the property either “as is” or remediated, saying once a structure was placed on the property, the value would change. Everyone understood that. This just seemed to be more obfuscation by The Paul’s administration.

The Paul was forced into a corner with his new offer to sell the property to GameOn 365 in a number of ways. Stall as much as he might, GameOn 365 doesn’t have the money to purchase the property and is solely relying on investors to cough up the money. But he also couldn’t sell without an appraisal of the property so he finally, and begrudgingly, had an appraisal done. As you can see in the last line of the picture below, the appraisal states that the property value is based on remediation. We find it difficult to believe that an appraiser would give a valuation of a property on a possible future condition, or a guess, which is what this appears to be. It is also questionable that the appraiser came in with a valuation at the same amount as GameOn 365 offered for the property. Hmmm?

HelpBurstTheBubble took the next step and initiated a community supported lawsuit against The Paul, his Town Board and GameOn 365 to stop the madness. No stranger to lawsuits, The Paul dug his heels in even more. As the court date approached, The Paul no doubt saw the light or received some real legal advice, invariably from someone other than the Town’s legal department who told him he would lose – again. So he decided to “sort of” follow the law, which basically states that any foreclosed property the Town acquires must be sold. So, The Paul announced the sale of 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to GameOn 365. This was simply a deftly executed move by The Paul. House of Sports’ owners decided enough was enough! They went public with an offer to the Town for the property of about twice as much as GameOn 365, for $3.5M for the property!

This new dilemma for The Paul and the Town Board presents uncharted territory for them: it’s an ethical and even a moral choice they must make to do the right thing. Since they are representatives of the residential and business residents of the Town, it is incumbent upon them to do what is in the best interest of the Town and our finances. Since The Paul has cost the Town approximately $12M this last year, the House of Sports offer is major bailout compared to the GameOn 365 offer. Since he refuses to put it out for an RFP, we urge him to take the highest offer for the property. Tim “Remediation” Lewis has stated they gave their word to GameOn 365 for the property to develop. Lewis also gave his word to the public that the remediation would not cost more than $100K. Just the testing went beyond that! That they gave their word based on an illegal deal makes this a no-brainer for any of us with a conscience. As such, we think the best course of action for the Town is to finally do the right thing and either sell the property to House of Sports or advertise it for RFPs.

Another point that is critical with this property is that The Paul has only entertained building another business at this location to replace Frank’s Nursery. The property has reverted back to residential zoning and the neighborhoods in the area would like to see it remain residential. ABG agrees. There are too few opportunities to create or expand new or existing neighborhoods that provide various types of housing in our Town once a business leaves. This is a golden opportunity for the Town to expand our residential tax base.

The Town should get as much as we possibly can for this property to help offset the financial plight The Paul has forced us into. The Town Board must accept House of Sports’ offer if they refuse to put this out for RFP. We can only hope.