Sustainable Energy ESCO Finally Loses Power

Greenburgh residents received an email from Mr Feiner about one month ago stating that Sustainable Westchester, an Energy Service Company (ESCO) was shutting down – finally! Here's what he said:

Westchester Power will discontinue providing residents with renewable energy at the end of the year

Sustainable Westchester has informed us that the Westchester Power renewable energy program will be discontinued at the end of this year. This decision results from practical implementation challenges associated with recently-adopted State outreach and education mandates. Sustainable Westchester has concluded that these regulatory requirements cannot be met on a schedule consistent with the program’s continued operation.

Starting with this December’s utility bill, customers who take no action will be returned to [Con Edison/NYSEG] as their default supplier of electricity.

As an alternative, customers may select another Energy Services Company (“ESCO”) for electricity supply. 

We originally reported on this apparent scheme being pushed, no, rammed down our throats, without regard to what residents wanted or would actually save. In fact, Mr Feiner knowingly lied about the amounts that could be saved, saying residents could save upwards of "$400 – $600 per month! The reality however was far from that. Most months saw that the Sustainable Power ESCO was not saving residents money. Rather they were higher than ConEd's rates. Once we learned that we had been opted IN to the program, many residents went through the process of opting OUT, then contacted ConEd to put a lock on their accounts so operatives like Mr Feiner and others could not do this to us again.

Here's a few excerpts in blue from an earlier February 2, 2016 article:

He also recounts, “the Town Board unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the Town Supervisor to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") affirming that the Town and Sustainable Westchester, Inc. agree to participate in a Community Choice Aggregation program ("CCA") to procure energy supply from one or more Energy Service Companies ("ESCOs") for the residents of the Town of Greenburgh.” Not only did this not happen, but it was reported in the Rye Record newspaper that they failed to do this, stating, “Failure to observe even the minimum outreach requirements imposed by the commission results in an inadequately informed customer base.”

In Mr Feiner’s email he repeats the same information multiple times, almost trying to convince everyone that this is a good deal. In fact, Ken Stahn of the Ardsley Road Civic Association, met with, studied, and presented his findings to the civic associations’ umbrella organization, the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, the Town Board and others. However, despite Mr Stahn’s pleas to slow down the process to acquire answers before jumping into this, he was summarily thanked and dismissed by the Town leaders. So while residents were sincerely trying to provide validation and correct the misinformation and contradictions, Town Hall was not listening – again! 

Sustainable Westchester has a cool sounding, environmentally friendly name that would evoke a feeling of energy conservation and environmental friendliness, the reality is that this is an experimental program being run by a group of attorneys from a hedge fund group looking to initially do their testing as a non-profit and if they are successful, change to a for-profit venue. With Mr Feiner and other elected leaders blessing this operation without answers to important questions, people may be lulled into a false sense of security. In fact, one of the active participants in this Opt IN scheme was former New Rochelle Mayor, Noam Bramson. He was mayor of New Rochelle until he retired from New Roc and joined Sustainable Power as their Westchester Executive Director. Nice gig if you can get it! Apparently, they decided to terminate this program due to new outreach and education requirements from the State Public Service Commission.

ABG, Ken Stahn and others have all questioned the logic of people having to opt-OUT of this scheme because Mr Feiner and his Town Board want it that way. What we and many others have been saying is that residents and taxpayers should have to opt-IN to this experiment. After all, government should not have the right to decide on what and how you spend your money. Opt-IN, not OUT should be the standard. Many of the community leaders that Mr Feiner has referenced that are participating in this experiment have been appointed to Board of Director positions on the Sustainable Westchester Board of Directors. Does this sound like a conflict of interest to you?

Mr Feiner stated that Sustainable Westchester is “leading the way...” and “Their application to form the first pilot community aggregation program has been granted, and the rest of the state is watching and waiting.” Mr Stahn had expressed reservations about being the first and that we have the ability and luxury of waiting until this model is proven and can supply real numbers instead of projected ones. He also stated that the falling costs of energy around the world is making the entire project even more suspect and asked Mr Feiner and the Board to not rush into anything. A three year minimum commitment is required of all residents. ALL residents, you may ask? Yes, Mr Feiner had signed up all residents in the Town to participate. They must opt-OUT to be excluded. How will you know?

Others continued to monitor and prove that Sustainable Westchester was a flop. The unfortunate result of this is that while Mr Feiner is quick to point at President Trump and the Republicans for rising prices, our own home-grown democrats have forced residents to pay more than they should have by being forced into this scheme! Just remember, the entire Town Board members ALWAYS voted in favor of having Greenburgh residents/taxpayers participate in this fiasco. Not one of them ever questioned the stupidity of this type of program. Thankfully, after ten years it'll finally go away – for now. It needs to stay away and stay out of our resident's way. If they want an ESCO, they can get it on their own. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh!

A Memo from The Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations

Starting January 2019, the Greenburgh Town Board enrolled all residential and small business owners for a two year contract with the ESCO Constellation at a cost of 7.709 cents per kWh of electricity.  Meanwhile, Con Edison variable rates have been at historic lows over the life of this contract to date.  

The Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations has been keeping track of the cost per kWh of some residents who “Opted Out” of this contract.  They have been saving money each month.  Visit the CGCA website and view the posting of July 27th which includes a table showing the cost per kWh that these “Opted Out” residents have been paying. https://cgca.info/news

Contact the CGCA if you need help understanding your Con Edison bill.

cgca1955@gmail.com

Watching Your Rights Zoom Away

During the C-19 pandemic, more and more organizations have resorted to using conferencing applications such as GoToMeeting, WebEx, Skype, HangOuts, FaceTime or Zoom. Regardless of which one you’ve been forced to utilize whether for work, an organization you belong to or hanging out with friends and loved ones, the first broadcast usually starts with the moderator saying something akin to, “This is a new experience for most of us as we try to maintain some normalcy.”

The question that has arisen is to what extent should we, or could we, use these meetings (we’ll use Zoom as the defacto app) and how legal and binding are any decisions made during their use? Keep in mind we are not talking about family members or friends speaking amongst themselves. Fraternal organizations that hold Zoom meetings are able to discuss pertinent or time sensitive issues such as paying bills or taking actions that assist others in the community, such as checking up on elderly members, delivery of food and/or supplies to home-bound members.

But what of the Town Board or the School Board (or any official governmental Boards) using Zoom to make decisions. How binding are those decisions that are being rendered given the lack of community participation via online participation? While it’s certainly seductive for these conference call neophytes to use a new and unproven tool, is this really reliable or secure? For instance, in the part of Greenburgh that is referred to as North Elmsford, the Town Board is routinely green-lighting the desires of developers seeking to build a new ShopRite on the former Grand Union/Masters/UA Cinema location. They’ve already given enough of a nod to the developer to have them force all the tenants to vacate the shopping center space.

Still the bigger issue is that meetings held via Zoom, tremendously limits public participation in the requisite approval/disapproval process. Make no mistake, the Town Board has already decided to allow the project under threat from the developer that they will walk if they don’t get what they want! What? We are the residents, taxpayers and community. And, while we welcome a ShopRite in the community, we welcome it within the parameters that we want, what the community wants. At hand is the insistence by ShopRite to create/open an entrance off of Old Country Road, which parallels Orchard Lane, for tractor-trailer and smaller truck deliveries. This curb cut and traffic increase will definitively alter the traffic flow, congestion and quality of life for the residents already negatively impacted by 9A traffic at all hours of the day and night.

The issue warrants everyone who a) has an opinion about this significant change and b) would want to be heard regarding this, to be summarily disregarded, dismissed and disenfranchised by Mr Feiner and his Board as they choose to move the project forward via computer users only. This is illegal if the current laws mandate that the public participate with a Public Hearing which must be held for this proposal for everyone. Holding a Zoom public meeting illegally limits the decision to a handful of people who have computers and may know about this shifty and suspect move. We already know that Mr Feiner and his rubber stamp Board are always looking for ways to remove the residents from participation in Town events, but this gives them and entirely new and unencumbered way to do so!

The Town Board has already moved the ShopRite proposal forward, certified by the Town Board having already voted to approve a SEQRA Negative Declaration that indicates the ShopRite proposal will not have a negative environmental impact. Proof positive this is a done deal. The Sam’s Club fueling stations request is meeting a modicum amount of resistance. These two projects should be evaluated in tandem with each other as they flank both sides of 9A at a most congested area and promise to do more damage to an F-rated traffic zone!

Holding Zoom meetings or utilizing any other conferencing program during this pandemic can serve a purpose in the short-term. Taking advantage of a difficult situation to achieve an agenda does not. These actions to move Mr Feiner’s friends projects forward should not happen. But it will because this is Greenburgh. It’s time to get back to normal, but until we can, moratoriums should be placed on all projects whether underway or not. Salaries for all politicians should be reduced to $0, and not resumed until the public is back to work, at which point they be resumed, and not retroactively. We need the politicians to try to do the right thing by their constituents no matter how contemptuously they're being treated by them. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Letter To The Editor

To A Better Greenburgh,

A Scarsdale Inquirer article of 8/10/18, concerning the proposed development of the former Elmwood Country Club by the New Jersey based company, Ridgewood Realty, contained mis-information and omissions.

The “pre-submission conference” with the Planning Board that was requested by Ridgewood should NOT have been granted because there is no provision in NYS Town law enabling legislation or the Code of the Town of Greenburgh that allows an applicant seeking a map change and proposed rezoning to bypass the normal procedure of first going to the Town Board. According to the Code of the Town of Greenburgh, this type of meeting is allowed for site plan or sub-division approval only. It is not allowed for projects that require changes of zoning. All zoning changes must be approved by the Town Board.

In a July 3rd letter to the Planning Board, Ridgewood blames the Town Board for delaying action on their application. The problem of the delay is not the fault of the Town Board. At a Town Board Work Session, a request was made to Ridgewood to submit their plans (site plans, landscaping, water course, steep slopes, utilities, roads, etc.) for the as-of-right 119 Single Family Homes development. To date, they have only submitted an engineer's rendering of the Single Family Homes. Ridgewood is the problem for the delay, not the Town Board.

In the article, Ridgewood claims that the Town House Condo proposal, an Adult 55+ Community, will generate $350,000 more tax revenue (Town, School, Fire District, etc.) than the Single Family Homes proposal. That statement is incorrect because of the fact that Town House Condo units are assessed at between 50-60% of their value as compared to 100% assessment of Single Family Homes. At comparable selling prices, the 119 Single Family Homes will generate more tax revenue than the 175 Town Houses.

Ridgewood also states that their traffic engineer says that “the traffic generated from the 175 unit development proved to be less than the traffic generated from the as-of-right 119 unit single family home plan”. At our Civic Association meeting, the Ridgewood CEO, made the statement that people over 55 do not go to work. That claim was strongly disputed by the association members. If that assumption is being used as a criteria for the traffic study, there is a major problem.

Our community strongly believes that a full comprehensive SEQRA review of the project should be conducted by an outside, independent consulting firm to study all the issues concerning this development: financial, density, environmental, traffic, alternative development options, etc., as has been done previously by the Town for major projects such as The Jefferson (JPI) and Regeneron.

Dorrine Livson
President
Worthington-Woodlands Civic Assoc.

The Scam Continues...

Once the inflated and oft-failed 2014 report from Mr Feiner was distributed (see our previous post), it was time for him to circulate his phony agenda for "improvement and change" for 2015. Year after year finds Mr Feiner regurgitating the same propaganda as part of his “good news only” campaign from Greenburgh Town Hall. The sad part is that a) it’s more of the same in the guise of campaigning; b) most of it will never come to fruition, giving him more opportunities to campaign; and c) it is not improving Greenburgh and d) we pay for it all in more ways than one. We remember when Mr Feiner would return some of his salary if he failed to fulfill his initiatives. That ship has long since sunk.

Here’s his “new” 2015 list. As is our policy, we have not edited Mr Feiner’s text, but have provided our commentary to his bold and numbered points are in italics below each:

The following is our Agenda for Improvement and Change 2015

MAJOR MATTERS TO BE BROUGHT TO CONCLUSION IN 2015

1.    Complete environmental review of Frank’s Nursery which could ease concerns of potential purchasers.  
ABG: Residents requested the property have testing done to find out what contaminants were on the property. Playing games with semantics, a popular pasttime of Mr Feiner, he instructed a testing company to focus on a limited area of the site for testing, ignoring the rest of the property’s space that was used as a dump by the City of White Plains Urban Renewal. The debris from these old buildings classically used what we now know are carcinogenic materials such as asbestos, lead and more. Mr Feiner ignored everyone’s pleas to clean up the site before trying to do anything with it. ABG believes his ultimate goal is to gift the property to his friends and their “paper” company, GameOn 365.

2.    Schedule, hold auction and sell Frank’s Nursery.
ABG: The scheduling and auctioning of the property has been postponed numerous times by Mr Feiner while we believe he tried to finagle a way to gift the property to GameOn 365. Once the town hired GA Keen Realty Advisors as an auctioneer for the property, they informed the Town that without remediation per additional environmental reviews, potential purchasers would not bid on the property for the amounts being suggested. They mandated knowing how much environmental cleanup work and costs will be required before building on the property.  Sadly, the property could have been sold with full remediation performed by  House of Sports in Ardsley. It was Mr Feiner who said no to their offer of $3.5 million plus remediation.

3.    Obtain county approvals for rental of WestHELP complex and convert abandoned units into affordable senior citizen housing. 
ABG: It was Mr Feiner who decided the Town would break the lease with then County Executive Andrew Spano and now Rob Astorino. It was Mr Feiner who insisted on leaving the building open to be ravaged by pilfering, animals and mold and more to cause its intended decline and ultimately its condemnation. This was done to seek more votes from the Valhalla community. In the meantime, roughly 250 residents were awaiting housing through the Greenburgh Housing Authority that might have been halved had the property been converted as originally intended. This was and still is solely Mr Feiner and his Town Board’s fault. Currently, the County is working toward reclaiming the property.

4.    Schedule community outreach meetings and then a public hearing on Draft Comprehensive Plan after it is released. Adopt a Comprehensive Plan for the unincorporated area of the town.
ABG: There were numerous sessions held at Town Hall. Mr Feiner insisted the committee travel about the Town and have the discussions. One issue the committee had with this is the lack of ability to record the proceedings. Now that Mr Feiner’s “go to” guy, former Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden, has left, Mr Feiner appears bent on subverting the committee for his own means.

5.    Install new boiler at indoor pool at Theodore Young Community Center. 
ABG: For years Mr Feiner has been saying the Town will sue the vendor for repairs and/or replacement for both the TYCC and the Library. This year the Town has adopted the new slogan, "Why fix it when we can talk about it." That's what has transpired here. After too many years of inaction, this will become a capital expense for the taxpayers when it might have simply been a maintenance expense earlier on.
 

6.    Install supplemental boiler at Library. (Library closed several days over a year ago due to lack of heat.)  
ABG: One of the problems of the Town Board being the Lead Agency on any project is their lack of knowledge at so many levels and general disinterest in most projects. In fact, an ABG staffer overheard two different Board members on two different occasions say they still hadn't reviewed plans because they have too much to do. Yet, instead of abstaining from voting on the project in question, the Councilmen voted in favor of approval without having reviewed the plans! Finally, with regards to the library, it was Mr Feiner and his Board who moved the location of the geothermal heat pump system from its original location to the other side of the property. And, it was they who compromised it by only drilling down half of the required depth necessary for it to work. Without the proper depth, geothermal heat will not work. BTW, frozen sprinkler pipes just burst again in the children's section of the library.

7.    Expand one arm garbage sanitation truck to other neighborhoods.
ABG: They anticipate savings but refuse to provide any figures. This is one of Mr Feiner’s well-developed scams. Now he is saying they will expand this program even before any conclusive performance metrics can be provided to substantiate its value.

8.    Make traffic safety improvements in Ardsley and on Jackson Avenue using funds from a settlement regarding the Ridge Hill development.  
ABG: This money has existed for years and had it not been pushed by residents, ABG is convinced Mr Feiner would be content to continue to ignore this issue.

IMPORTANT INITIATIVES ALREADY UNDER WAY

1.    Comply with tax cap when adopting 2016 budget and continue to look for new sources of revenue and efficiencies as well as new shared service opportunities.  (For residents to receive a check from the state, NYS is requiring communities to comply with the tax cap and initiate sharing/consolidation efficiencies.
ABG: Receive a check? Is that why Mr Feiner touts staying below the NYS Tax Cap? Hardly! This is nothing more than a campaign initiative by Mr Feiner to be able to brag about staying under the cap. What he should be saying, and what the mainstream media ignores is that he he raided $4 MILLION (a 40% decrease) from the Reserve Funds, putting us in jeopardy of defaulting on certiorari challenge refunds.

2.    Hire firm to conduct a comprehensive review of the Town of Greenburgh Department of Public Works.  (This is part of the Town’s ongoing initiative of having town departments examined by external reviewers.  We recently had an external review conducted of Town Court operations.)
ABG: First, having the review is fine except that the reviewers are impotent to make any changes. This responsibility falls back to, you guessed it, the Town Board. The problems in the Court still exist so the logical conclusion is a similar fate after the study is done. Mr Feiner hired a new Court Clerk from Port Chester to run the Town Court Department. She was there only briefly when Mr Feiner announced to the Town Board he needed to almost double her salary. ABG believes he told the Board to vote in favor of her salary increase or be “Sonya’d”. After increasing her salary as instructed the newly appointed and extremely well-paid Court Clerk bolted back to Port Chester, able to parlay her higher Greenburgh salary to a comparable one in Port Chester. Once gone, we learned she provided the Greenburgh Courts with little or no relief other than a higher Greenburgh Court Clerk salary for the next person and we still don't know how many tickets remain unpaid!

3.    Continue oversight of reassessment process and hold information meetings around town as needed.
ABG: This is another one of Mr Feiner's empty sound-byte campaign promise with no substance. Reassessment hasn’t been done since 1956. This should have been a priority when he took office in 1978 and every year since. Even the Town Assessor has stated publicly the reason the cost of reassessment is so high (over $3 million) is because it hasn’t been performed for so long.

4.    Apply for federal and/or state funds for sidewalk construction, especially near schools, to address pedestrian safety concerns.
ABG: Unfortunately, we've heard this promise every year and repeatedly at Town Board meetings as promises to various neighborhood groups begging for sidewalks and improved safety for pedestrians.
 

5.    Finalize plans and funding for Veterans Memorial at DeSanti Plaza, East Hartsdale Ave. Encourage parkland funds (non-tax dollars) be used to reduce costs.
ABG: Any outside funds can be applied for but has no guarantee of fulfillment. Consequently, we may never see a Veterans memorial. Another empty promise.

6.    Initiate mentoring program for architects/engineers in cooperation with Greenburgh Central School District.  
ABG: We want to encourage all students, not just engineering students, to find mentors and for all of our schools, not just Greenburgh Central 7. If we did that, even kids in Mr Feiner's neighborhood might get mentoring. 

7.    Resolve heating/air-conditioning issues at Town Hall.  
ABG: See #5 under Major Matters. It's obvious there is a costly theme here.

8.    Use electric car for the Department of Public Works. 
ABG: Ironically, Mr Feiner couldn't wait to install an electric car charger at the library, eating up one or more precious parking spaces from an under-sized parking lot. That was another empty promise made in the heat of a campaign. All Town cars should be replaced through attrition with electric cars except emergency response vehicles.

9.    Secure funding for building a new playground at the Lee F. Jackson Elementary School on surplus school property, advocating for use of parkland funds (non-tax payers’ dollars).
ABG: See #5 above.
 

10. Demolish the old kiddy pool at Massaro and replace it with a new spray pad. (Funding was secured using parkland funds - non-tax dollars last year.) 
ABG: Non-tax dollars? Really? All of the money, regardless of how it is acquired is ultimately taxpayer dollars.

11. Work 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. 
 ABG: Funny, we thought this was already happening according to Mr Feiner.

12. Lobby NYS to approve a 9A bypass.  (The town has been working with the business community, neighboring villages and the county on a plan to reduce traffic congestion on 9A in the vicinity of 119 and north of 119.) 
ABG: Lobby? Really? When Mr Feiner really wants something, such as the Finneran Law to be changed for his friend's benefit, he simply calls his best-buds Tom Abinanti and Andrea Stewart Cousins, snap his fingers and they do it for him. Since he hasn't addressed traffic congestion, and in fact added to it through over-development, it’s obvious this is just more rhetoric.

13. Finalize and approve a plan for and begin implementation of infrastructure improvements for the Greenburgh Consolidated Water District.  (Significant costly infrastructure improvements have been identified as needed in capital budgets/plans for 2014 to 2016, as explained in a report prepared by the town’s Water Advisory Board (WAB), and submitted for discussion with the Town Board mid-2014. 
ABG: Mr Feiner has ignored Town infrastructure for his entire career in Greenburgh. Most politicians know they can kick the can down the road because they won't be around to have to deal with it. Mr Feiner screwed up by ignoring and staying longer than he should have.

14. Create an index of names of the more than 125 veterans who have been interviewed as part of the veterans living history initiative and submit updated tapes and listings to United States Library of Congress for archiving. 
ABG: We have no issue with this as long as convicted felon and Deputy Town Supervisor Alan Hochberg stays out of it.

15. Lobby the State to do maintenance on the Saw Mill River and demonstrate that an ongoing river maintenance program is in place.  (If that doesn’t happen, the Town and the Villages, probably at our cost, will need to perform crisis management remediation of the river flooding problems.) 
ABG: This is the job of local politicians. And while they are at it, why won't he do the same for the Bronx River? Mr Feiner has done nothing to help the residents along the Bronx River corridor.

16. Increase diversity of programs (Educational, Cultural, Social, and Recreational) within the Department of Community Resources (TDYCC), strengthen existing programs and create partnerships with faith based, volunteer, and corporate entities to maximize community outreach. 
ABG: Mr Carter is doing a fine job administering the TYCC and will do even better if Mr Feiner refrains from interfering with his operation.
 

17. Address Cable Access TV audio issues. 
ABG: We're told at each Town Board meeting by Ms Beville who is in charge of the video department, that they are working with the vendor on this problem. Apparently, nothing is being done and it seems to be another ploy from Town Hall to keep all information from being heard and disseminated by the public.

18. Formalize Board Oversight of Town Courts. 
ABG: They've had 22 years to do this. Why wasn't it done already?
 

19. Conduct quarterly reviews of Budget vs. Actual Expenditures.
ABG: Isn't this why we have department heads and commissioners? The public should be able to ask on any day what the ratio of Budget vs. Expenditures are and receive an answer. This is pure politics.

20. Continue cooperative relationships with villages to reduce paving costs and repave more roads.  
ABG: The Villages within the Town have maintained a purchasing consortium for about the last ten years. Mr Feiner made the decision to not participate and pay higher prices than they did for all materials.

NEW INITIATIVES

1.    Implement online payment of Greenburgh Consolidated Water District water bills.
ABG: Amazingly, this requires so little to do and yet it is made out to be a major project.
 

2.    Allow Greenburgh Consolidated Water District customers to track their own water usage online, enabling users to quickly spot any irregularities, leakage, etc.
ABG: Mr Feiner has been promising this for years and never delivers. 
  

3.    Exploring feasibility of installing solar panels on town buildings/facilities.
ABG: While the Return on Investment (ROI) may or may not support doing this, and there are a number of different plans to choose from, we're confident that Mr Feiner will soon just announce we're getting solar panels, like it or not.

4.    Continue oversight of reassessment process and hold information meetings around town as needed. 
ABG: See # 3 earlier.

5.    Work with Friends of Library and Library to open up a free book exchange on East Hartsdale Avenue.
ABG: I don't think the Friends of the Greenburgh Library really need Mr Feiner.

6.    Develop a plan to address the outdated and inadequate Police Headquarters and Courthouse site.  Discuss a plan for constructing a new Police Headquarters and Courthouse. (The town will study rezoning and selling the current site on 119 to determine how much that would offset the cost.  Are there grant opportunities?
ABG: Again, more hot air. This has been discussed for years and years now. They were originally going to use the former Frank's Nursery property for the Police station and also the library. But it's too contaminated.

7.    Launch a new recreation and facility software program for the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Community Resources (TDYCC) that includes online registration, a feature not previously available.  
ABG: Adding a feature into the software is something the Recreation Department should have been addressing for a long time now. 
 

8.    Secure capital funding to dredge Crane Pond in Edgemont as a means of alleviating the algae problem and to repoint the spillway wall that is presently leaking.  
ABG: Again? 

9.    Work with the Greenburgh Nature Center to create a Children's Wing and a site plan for our building and grounds to reflect our growing needs and continued community outreach.
ABG: As a business leasing space from the Town, what does this mean for taxpayers? Almost all of what the GNC does is geared mostly to children. Is building on this space environmentally healthy? After all, many in the area are clamoring against building on Dromore Road.

10. Pursue plans to establish an organic recycling location in Greenburgh. 
ABG: Isn't this already on the list elsewhere?
 

11. Promote yearlong recognition and celebration during 2015 of the Greenburgh Nature Center’s 40th Anniversary, and our role as community ambassadors.
ABG: Again, a private company should be responsible for their own recognition and celebration issues. Focus on running the Town.

12. Create a New Residents’ Club.
ABG: Will they pay for membership or will their tax increases cover membership? This doesn't mean anything. After the newness of being a member wears off, they'll be able to join the rest of us in the Beleagured Taxpayer Club.

13. Support a commercial vehicle enforcement detail by the Greenburgh Police Department using non-taxpayer funds to purchase the vehicle scales.  (This enforcement will help protect and preserve the town’s roadway infrastructure and the significant fines for serious infractions serve as a deterrent.) 
ABG: It will never happen.

14. Encourage and promote the Police Department’s use of social media with the goal of getting timely information to residents quickly. 
ABG: If this isn't already happening, it should be.

15. Develop a policy for water rate increases to be implemented in 2015 to address infrastructure issues, a need highlighted by the town’s Water Advisory Board (WAB) in mid-2014. 
ABG: Will the water policy be administered by Mr Feiner and the Board or an independent agency? Mr Feiner is the one wreaking havoc with our water bills and related increases.

16. Form a citizen’s advocacy group to help lobby state and federal lawmakers for funds and legislation that will benefit the town.
ABG: We wonder who will be included in this group? Mr Feiner's friends, convicted or otherwise?
 

17. Explore with state representatives the feasibility of affordable assisted living facilities or of requiring a certain number of units in yet to be approved assisted living facilities to be affordable for the less rich.
ABG: This is rich! It was Mr Feiner who canceled the contract with the County to shutter the WestHelp facility in Valhalla seeking votes from that constituency. The taxpayers are losing $1.2 Million per year and about 100 or so families don't have a place to live.
 

18. The Office of the Town Clerk and the Cable Access Television Department intend to explore the feasibility of upgrading the television studio to create greater potential for generating revenue. 
ABG: They just did an upgrade and its terrible! Again, why fix it when we can talk about it?

19. Formalize Board Oversight of Town Courts.
ABG: See #18 in previous list of Important Initiatives Already Underway. 

20. Conduct quarterly reviews of Budget vs. Actual Expenditures.
ABG: See #19 in previous list of Important Initiatives Already Underway. 

21. In 2015, we anticipate reviewing the water rate development process. We need to develop a procedure to calculate water rate changes and implement this process in 2015.  This issue was also highlighted to the Town Board in mid-2014.
 ABG: See #15. Shouldn't all of this happen together as a concerted effort?

22. Seeking hotel tax for town and villages from state legislation.
ABG: Like his friend Mr Abinanti who believes raising the tolls on the New Tappan Zee Bridge will not create a hardship, Mr Feiner incorrectly believes taxing visitors to our area who stay at our hotels is not a hardship. Here's a fact from the real world: most hotels rely on business travelers for the bulk of their income. Some have restaurants and some don't. If corporations see the costs are too high in one area they will either stop coming to the area or tell their employees to stay somewhere else nearby and drive to where they have to go a little more than they may have wanted. It happens all the time. And to Mr Abinanti, who has two well-paying jobs, ten dollars a week more in tolls on top of the twenty five is a tank of gas, groceries or maybe pizza for a struggling family. Get off your high horse and represent the people, not your own interests.

The electorate must start paying more attention to what they are being fed from the elected officials. They must insist on being heard by our elected officials. Its time to think differently. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Why Fix It When We Can Talk About It

Making sure he appears concerned with what residents of Edgemont want, Mr Feiner placated them by sending out a GBList email stating the Town Board will vote on a resolution on a sidewalk feasibility study near the Edgemont Schools. This move on his part is ludicrous, while the need for sidewalks and safety is paramount. We're concerned of the many areas throughout the town where children, as well as adults, are forced to walk in our streets and put themselves at increased risk. Why only have a pinpointed effort for such a vital and necessary safety issue?

Having the Greenburgh Town Board vote on Wednesday evening on a resolution authorizing the Commissioner of Public Works to issue a request for proposals (RFP) for a traffic study to determine whether sidewalks should be built along portions of Seely Place, Ardsley Road and Fort Hill Road is a waste of time. It's a waste because the need exists and this is another deflection by the Supervisor. Because these streets lead to schools is no reason to segregate the rest of the Town from any study, let alone this one! Once again ABG believes Mr Feiner is reacting for his fear of the wrath of Edgemont and their stated desire to incorporate as a Village. Please don't misinterpret what we are saying. We endorse sidewalks near the schools but there are many other areas that need them as well throughout the Town.

Mr Feiner claims, "over the years a number of parents have called for sidewalks at these locations so children can walk more safely to school." Again, another unsubstantiated "factoid" from the corner office. "In addition to this action step the town has been in contact with federal and state officials to review grant opportunities. Recently, the village of Ardsley built a sidewalk on Heatherdell Road -leading to the Ardsley High School using federal dollars." What Mr Feiner fails to mention is that only Ardsley's elected officials secured the funds without Mr Feiner or the Town's involvement and built their sidewalks in record time. Mr Feiner has never "stepped up" to secure funds for sidewalks in any portion of the Town. Why the sudden interest? Edgemont spoke and Mr Feiner cannot afford to have them incorporate and secede from the Town as a Village.

"If other neighborhoods near schools are interested in having the town review the feasibility of building sidewalks near schools please advise. This can be an ongoing initiative for the town." This is pandering at its best, by the best. He will ask for anybody to submit their request for sidewalks and depending on whether they are an affluent or poor neighborhood will determine the level of participation by the Town. Ultimately, we don't believe other neighborhoods in need of sidewalks will ever see them, money will not be secured for Edgemont but will be diverted from other budget needs to deliver a bone to Edgemont. 

"This is a link to an organization promoting safe routes to schools. http://saferoutesinfo.org/funding-portal/federal-funding-101" Mr Feiner can certainly provide all the links and informational resources he wants. This is just more deflection by the master. There is no intent to fulfill any neighborhood's request for a safer environment for our kids and our neighbors. Otherwise we would have already seen sidewalks on Old Kensico Road, Hillside Avenue, Knollwood Road by the Community College and Knollwood Road by the Mount Vernon Health Center doing business as the Greenburgh Health Center. We'd have seen sidewalks on 9A where two pedestrian deaths have already taken place. We'd have already seen sidewalks on Dobbs Ferry Road as well as 9A from Ardsley to Elmsford, and from Elmsford north to the Eastview area.

This is nothing more than a campaign effort to fool people into believing something is being done in the name of safety and "the children." Sadly, if someone gets hit by a car, he'll be able to say they were trying to address it. It's another open-ended empty promise. The reality is this is simply more of the same rhetoric from Town Hall and Mr Feiner. When the willfully ignorant taxpaying residents start paying attention, they'll see it's time for a change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

Loehmann’s Files Third Bankruptcy, Plans To Liquidate

ABG is a strong supporter of businesses in our Town and is always saddened to learn of any which are forced to close their doors. Such was the case when we learned the A&P on Central Avenue would soon be closing. We’ve posted previously about Mr Feiner’s Supermarket-Free Zones throughout the Town. Amazingly, most of the Villages in the Town have a supermarket. Gee, how do they do it? 

We’ve learned that Loehmann’s in the shopping center they’ve shared with White Plains Bowl and Apple Farm on Rt 119 for years will be closing as they’ve filed for their third bankruptcy, with plans to liquidate. Loehmann’s was known for its deep discounts on designer fashions, but will now join a list of other low-price apparel retailers such as Filene’s Basement that have closed their doors. The company, which has 1,600 employees, said its assets are worth between $50 million and $100 million. 

The store chain was founded in 1921 by Frieda Loehmann and her son, Charles, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Loehmann’s has about 40 stores and competes with chains like Ross and TJ Maxx. Interestingly, the CEO was recently on the popular CBS television show Undercover Boss, going under cover to see how to help improve his company. Loehmann’s, now based in the Bronx, has filed for the third time for bankruptcy protection and plans to shut down its business. Loehmann’s first declared bankruptcy in 1999, closing 25 stores in the process. The company then filed again for bankruptcy in 2010, shutting nine more stores. 

We’re sorry to see all of these employees lose their jobs and income as well as having to say goodbye to another long-time retail resident that has been a part of our community. Depending on when the store is rented, if its rented, the shared parking nightmare patrons are forced to endure will be temporarily eased. What an unfortunate way to accomplish this. We wish those affiliated with Loehmann’s the best of luck.

Greenburgh To Pay for Initial Remediation at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road

An admission was made in an email (shown below) to the Worthington-Woodlands Civic Association President, indicating the Town of Greenburgh will probably pay for the remediation of the oil spill at the former Frank’s Nursery site at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. The contaminated property has languished  since before the Town acquired the property years ago. ABG has maintained throughout this boondoggle that ultimately it will be the Unincorporated portion of the Town, The Paul’s “whipping boy”, that will foot the bill for cleaning up this property. This letter from the New York State DEC’s Todd Ghiosay confirms what ABG has said all along.

Todd Ghiosay
NYSDEC
Division of Environmental Remediation
Spill Prevention and Response
100 Hillside Avenue - Suite 1W
White Plains, NY  10603-2860
Phone (914) 428-2505 ext. 361
Fax (914) 428-0323>>> 4/19/2013 4:15 PM >>>

Dear Todd,

Thank you for meeting with us on Wednesday, April 17th.

Do you have any information for us regarding the property we discussed?

Sincerely,

Dorrine Livson

REPLY:

Mrs Livson

Victor Carosi returned my call and informed me that his consultant did have an informal meeting with someone at DEC but he did have a name.  He also said that the town is evaluating whether the property will be sold "as is", leaving it up to the buyer to do the remediation or whether the Town should do the cleanup.

Victor did say the he believes that the town will be handling the oil spill cleanup to clear the spill number. 

The last line of his letter is the real indicator of the Town’s intent. ABG is not sure whose decision it was for the Town to pay for the cleanup but doubt it was Mr. Carosi’s. ABG wants to know when this decision made? There’ve been no open discussions about this at any public meetings that ABG is aware of. Was it made during another one of the now-routine Executive Sessions the Board has become so desperate of utilizing? The Paul and his Stepfords have no difficulty shoving their hands down our pants to get at our hard-earned money every time they get more proverbial egg hurled onto their faces due to an impending financial penalty, fine or judgement headed their way. Hold onto your wallets.

If you’ve watched any Town Board meetings within the last six months, you’ve noticed anytime a difficult question is asked or an embarrassing judgement/decision by the Board may be exposed, the secret signal (think The Sting) is given. The designated Board member makes the motion to adjourn to Executive Session, the others stumble over themselves to offer a second to the motion and keep the public from knowing what The Paul (Mr. Open Government) and his Stepford Board will soon discuss behind closed doors.

There are several issues at play here for the Town residents (and several Attorney Generals) that our loyal followers already know. First, The Paul entered into secret negotiations with GameOn 365’s principals long before the Town acquired this property through foreclosure. Can you say collusion? Second, after the Town had acquired the property, a discussion ensued about how the library construction would impede the public’s use of the library facility and the former Frank’s Nursery was proposed as a temporary library site. That suggestion quickly screeched to a halt once it was learned that carcinogens, a fuel oil leak, and the earlier use of the property was uncovered as a dump for White Plains’ Urban Renewal waste. Ironically, the overhead high tensions wires bordering the property seemed to be of little concern.

Third, collusion with GameOn 365 began the illegal scenario but was by no means the only misplay by The Paul and his Stepfords. Once GameOn 365 finalized their Sports Bubble plan, they needed investors to pull this pyramid-like scheme off as their organization is made up of a bunch of stock brokers without the funds to proceed. GameOn 365 needed the lease to promote the offering to potential investors. They winked and explained to The Paul of their plan to erect a gigantic, 8-story (83ft tall) inflatable bubble on the site, make a few outdoor fields and pay the Town $5M. They had him hooked once The Paul heard he could make $5M dollars. The Paul had lost so much money with his screw up of the WestHelp deal, Fortress Bible guilty verdict (and others) that he began salivating like a vampire at a blood bank. GameOn 365 went in front of the Town Board as a formality and officially pitched the plan. The Paul told them to love it, so they did! Shrewdly, The Paul offered to lease the property to them for 15 years for a total of $5M. That breaks down to about $300k per year – an amount The Paul was unwilling to accept for the WestHelp property that the Town doesn’t even own.

The Paul has been pushing sports bubbles in the Town for years but could not proceed because of a restriction through the Finneran law. What to do? Wait a minute... The Paul asked his buddies Tom “Proclamation” Abinanti, now a NYS Assemblyman and NYS Senator Andrea “Platitudes” Stewart-Cousins to railroad an amendment to the Finneran Law allowing bubbles through their respective chambers during the “it’s getting late and we have to hit the road” final minutes of their respective legislatures. Done (deal)! The Paul could proceed with his promises to illegally offer the lease.

The Paul even had one of our Recreation Commissioners (there are two – just like our magic tax-cap number), Gerry Bryne, speak to Greenburgh’s need for more sports fields. Rather than remediate the property and develop it as a sports field if we truly need more sports fields, The Paul sought this illegal lease. Then The Paul decided to add insult to injury and hold a referendum for the illegal lease deal, trying to validate his illegal deal. Knowing the public is clueless, he knew if he worded the referendum “properly”, adding in yard signs and newspaper ads, voters would read it for the first time at the voting “booth” and it would pass – which it did. But illegal is still illegal even though he successfully duped the majority of voters into approving it.

ABG readers also know that anytime someone disagrees with what The Paul is doing, his classic response, “If you don’t like what I’m doing, you can sue me.” So they did – again. Another sports-oriented company with a different clientele and business model, House of Sports of Ardsley, NY, initiated a lawsuit along with several others, to block the illegal lease. The premise for their lawsuit was that NY State and Westchester County law mandates any property acquired by a municipality must be sold or utilized by that municipality. GameOn 365 littered the landscape with yard signs claiming this deal would bring $5M to the Town. How could this be bad for the Town?

The saga continues, but is now on hold as The Paul claims the Town is doing its “due diligence” regarding the two offerings. Read: stalling. The Town Board members have been instructed to say the same thing, so they do. As they parrot what The Paul tells them to say, the property sits unremediated and unused. The site is about the size and scope of the WestHelp property that The Paul insisted should be used for the Ferncliff School for the Developmentally Disabled. And mysteriously, he has never suggested using 715 Dobbs Ferry Road for the Ferncliff School. Why not? ABG continues to insist the Town do the right thing and ask for a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the site and see what else we might get?

ABG has previously predicted the Town’s decision will be to sell the property to GameOn 365 – even though House of Sports has offered double the amount of what GameOn 365 has for the site and promised to pay for the remediation. The Paul and the Stepfords will site all kinds of excuses but they will be irrelevant. GameOn 365 can’t “up the ante” because they have no “ante”. House of Sports has cash in hand. ABG continues to predict the Town will wind up paying for remediation of the property either directly or through credits of some sort once GameOn 365 gets the property. ABG doesn’t really care what is built on the property but acknowledges it is zoned for residential housing and should remain that way. We can only hope.

Town Approves Assisted Living Zoning Change; Disregards Residents Input – Again!

In an unsurprising and calculated move to assist yet another developer, the Town Board ignored countless amounts of input by residents warning of the numerous pitfalls of adopting the proposed zoning law change written by the developer, to assist them in building the Brightview Assisted Living Center. The developer apparently wrote the zoning amendment and gave it to the Board to vote upon. Can anyone say collusion? Also apparent is that the Town’s Legal, Planning and Building Departments are collectively incapable of working with our Zoning Board or crafting an addition to our Zoning Laws and thus left the “heavy lifting” to the developer’s attorneys. The facility will be a 3-story building off of Tarrytown Road, opposite the Sheraton Hotel at Benedict Ave with a Tarrytown mailing address in the Unincorporated Greenburgh. Now that the Town has approved the law, Brightview will be unimpeded to proceed with their project. Let the variances begin!

By the Town Board approving and amending this local law at the Town Board meeting on February 13, the zoning ordinance for the town was changed by adding a definition of assisted living facilities. It also creates a special permit criteria for such facilities. The problem with allowing the zoning change is that it will carry throughout the Town and allow buildings that would otherwise be inappropriate for residential neighborhoods. While the zoning map has already been amended to reflect the change, the result of this zoning change is that it will allow up to 100 bedrooms to be constructed in an “assisted living facility” on four acre sites within 200 feet of a state or county road. This should not be confused with a Senior Living Center or Senior Assisted Living Center.

Brightview will not accept those on Medicaid needing an assisted living center’s help. To cover that blunder that went unnoticed by Town Board members until residents pointed it out at one of the hearings, the town altered the conditions that will allow them to issue permits for facilities that accept medicaid. This was the Town Board’s appearance of being concerned that they want to help the poor. But those Greenburgh residents who are either poor or on Medicaid will never see the inside of Brightview unless they are going to visit someone there. We’re sure The Paul will have a bus readied at the Theodore Young Community Center for any seniors, poor or Medicaid recipients wishing to tour what they cannot afford.

The Board also factored in their right to deny permits to facilities if they will have an adverse impact upon the town. This is the “scapegoat clause” they put in place to placate everyone who objected to this zoning change that has now became Town-wide. Since we have yet to see The Paul say no to any developer, we doubt there will ever be any activity with this clause. It’s only there so they can say, “Look, we have the right to say no to any project.” Like that’ll ever happen.

Brightview, an assisted living facility, is going to overwhelm the small little neighborhood in the Glenville section of the Town because the zoning law The Paul and the Brightview developer crafted allows it. The Paul doesn’t care. The Town Board had many public discussions/hearings on the proposed zoning change before the new law was adopted. They’ve ignored every point that was made and passed the law the developer needed to proceed.

This was never about protecting a neighborhood for The Paul. It was never about creating a Town-wide assisted living provision in the zoning law for The Paul. It was never about trying to house our aging, less fortunate residents in a facility that can help them for The Paul. It was only about The Paul getting past any restrictions, limitations or laws that would keep one of his developer friends from getting to build what they wanted. They got it! This must change. We can only hope.

The Scent of Blood

There was a palpable tension in the air. The crowd entering Town Hall was angry. Everyone in this crowd was upset from being disrespected and bypassed. This crowd wanted answers. No, this crowd demanded answers. This time the crowd was not in the mood to let The Paul or his Stepford Board off the hook. The Town Board Work Session had spilled over from earlier in the day to a night-time continuation with every seat in the audience filled. The scent of blood was unmistakable. The Paul had done it to another neighborhood again.

The carryover meeting was to discuss the group home proposed to be built on 88 North Road on a now vacant lot. The Paul had been informed of New York State’s intent to build a home there. But The Paul refused to inform the neighborhood. Neither did newly elected Town Councilman Ken Jones, an officer with the Parkway Homes Civic Association! This is a project that The Paul wants built and he made no bones at the work session stating such. He had Tim “Remediation” Lewis even hand out a list of group homes in the Greenburgh area. Ironically, there were no group homes in Boulder Ridge. Know who lives in Boulder Ridge?

The Paul yielded the floor to the two representatives from the State, who laid out their plans. There were several audience members who shouted out comments of displeasure as these two arrogantly stated that New York State can do what they want based on NY law, regardless of what the neighborhoods want or say. It sounded just like The Paul with his pet projects. But the male representative said that even though Towns, Villages and neighborhoods protest, the State agency always wins the case because the New York State law trumps local law. The woman representative said they don’t need to follow local codes and then contradicted that statement later by saying they follow local codes. They tried to say anything to confuse the audience or simply will say what they think people want to hear.

Speaker after speaker took to the podium to explain why they didn’t feel this project should be built at this location. Several speakers asked why some group homes already in the area were not on the list? They were told by these state representatives that sometimes they might miss one. Might miss one? How can that be? But, there seems to be more group homes in the area than the NYS representatives would have us believe. One reason they can get away with this, beyond the reason that they “might have missed one” is semantics. These people were here to build a group home for developmentally disabled men with The Paul’s blessing. That’s considered different than a group home for mentally handicapped or physically disabled men – even though they can be interchangeably defined based on what you need the cause to be. It’s like numbers. You can always manipulate your numbers to give the result you want based on semantics. It’s how The Paul justifies his illegal actions for  the $12M in losses the Town has experienced in the last year, beyond certiorari refunds.

The entire two and a half hours of this meeting found everyone in agreement and not wanting this group home. Everyone. While numerous valid reasons were stated, The Paul insisted that the neighborhood association have a few people sit down with the Town Board, whom we know will feign concern for the neighborhood and then go along with The Paul’s desire to have this built. The fact is, this is a Done Deal! The Paul purposely neglected to inform the neighborhood until it was too late for them to stop this from happening! The decision must be rendered by the Town to the State to accept or reject the proposal by February 1! The Paul wants it and he was doing everything he could to block the public from standing in his way of making it happen. Could he be doing this to placate Governor Cuomo after requesting Governor Cuomo’s HUD housing project WestHelp, be torn down?

The Paul unsuccessfully continued to convince this packed room to compromise with the State representatives and to meet again privately with the Board and the State representatives to come up with an acceptable solution for both the State and the neighborhood. The Paul’s insistence on making this happen, trying to schedule more meetings and run down the clock is conclusive proof that this group home has been preordained and he is going to make this happen. Occasionally, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan would add a comment, Diana “Sleepy” Juettner just sat there and Ken “Newby” Jones mostly sat there, probably realizing he betrayed his neighborhood for the ultimate aphrodisiac – political power. No matter, the neighborhood will forget this in a few months and he’ll be re-elected.

The Board adjoined to Executive Session after abusing the audience to discuss and make decisions they are too embarrassed to have the public witness. Once in the back room for their Executive Meeting ABG can only wonder the verbal beating the Board received from The Paul.

The Paul sent an email out today:

The Greenburgh Town Board met last night with representatives of Richmond Community Services and the community to discuss a proposed group home for six developmentally disabled individuals, some wheelchair confined, others with limited mobility.  The home is proposed to be located at 88 North Road. According to NYS law the Town Board has a specific number of days to determine if the Board wants to object. After listening to community concerns the agency has agreed to a one week extension of the Padavan notification timetable till February 8th, 2013.  They will be meeting with their architects to discuss the size of the proposed home and landscaping issues. Some of the Board members expressed concern about saturation of group homes/non profits in the Fairview section of town.

What this email says is what the neighborhood of over a hundred residents wants doesn’t matter. The Paul has decided that this is a done deal because he wants this group home built here. There is no doubt that The Paul pointed this piece of property to the bloodhounds at the Richmond Community Services and said, “Go for it! I'll make sure nothing gets in our way.” His email says “the Town Board has a specific number of days to determine if the Board wants to object.” There is no need for the neighborhood to meet with The Paul and his Board again. They were definitive during the meeting as to what they want the Town Board to do: OBJECT! He continues, “After listening to community concerns the agency has agreed to a one week extension of the Padavan notification timetable till February 8th, 2013.”  After listening? They didn’t listen. If they did, they would not have to ask for an extension, they would just OBJECT! “They will be meeting with their architects to discuss the size of the proposed home and landscaping issues.” This again indicates that The Paul isn’t interested in saying, “NO!” to the State, simply finding a way to get what he wants.

The issue at hand is not whether the group home has value. The issue is that The Paul and his Board, and specifically Councilman Ken Jones, predetermined what should happen in the Parkway Homes neighborhood, didn’t inform or include the neighborhood in the decision-making process, made a deal with the state agency and disrespected an entire community. Frankly, ABG is not surprised at The Paul and his Stepford Board’s behavior or decision to circumvent the neighborhood. While not surprised, we are nevertheless disappointed. The residents in Greenburgh are owed, deserve and should receive better from the elected officials. We can only hope.

Densification

The last several years have proven that The Paul is not interested in preserving the “green” in Greenburgh. He’s not alone. The County has a master plan that incorporates an increased densification of the southern portion of the county as well as the Unincorporated sections of Greenburgh, especially on Rt 119. Regrettably, The Paul and his cohorts, from his Stepford Board to the developers to other politicians, all believe in a master plan that includes blacktopping our green space.

Many projects throughout the Town exemplify this endorsed densification. Planning Commissioner Thomas Madden, knows where his “bread is buttered”. Not only does he go along with The Paul’s plans, he goes beyond them. He pursues every avenue to help create larger and more grandiose plans throughout the Town. Residents will find Madden routinely endorsing plans that will add to his job security and eliminate our suburban Greenburgh into a more urban one. Stop and Shop on Rt 119 and Brightview Assisted Living in Glenville are obvious ones that come to mind.

Changing the zoning in the Town at the whim of a developer’s request has allowed The Paul to give away our green space, congest our neighborhoods, lessen the attractiveness of purchasing a home in the Town, increase traffic, flooding and overwhelm an outdated and beleaguered infrastructure. The latest example of this is the zoning change requested by the Brightview Assisted Living Center in the Glenville Neighborhood. ABG has previously written about this particular issue. In short, Brightview is utilizing a lack of definition in our zoning code for Assisted Living in hopes of getting a “custom made” zoning change that will benefit them.

There are several issues at stake with this. First, the Comprehensive Planning Committee, which was tasked for developing a Town Comprehensive Plan, continually has new requests asked of it, forcing their Comprehensive Plan to be delayed for submission and adoption by the Town. Second, each time another task is requested, the Town Board proceeds with any changes it pleases to keep the developers happy. This thwarts any benefit we might get if our Comprehensive Plan was presented and approved. Third, it’s currently overdue with no visible submission date on the horizon.

Spot-zoning is illegal. Simply, spot-zoning is when the Town Board changes the zoning for a particular project, developer, neighborhood or parcel of land. This is routinely done throughout the Town by The Paul and his Stepford Board. Again, it is illegal. We’ve witnessed spot zoning for numerous projects such as for Stop & Shop in Glenville, Westhab in Fulton Park, Dromore Road and Central Avenue in Edgemont, soon-to-be for sports bubbles in Veteran Park and at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road and Assisted Living Centers in Glenville. If The Paul wants it, it will happen. ABG recognizes the need for some change and the right for property owners to do what they desire with their property. But there needs to be a balance of uniformity and conformity within Town guidelines when this is done to maintain a level of attractiveness and functionality within the Town. That’s what our planning and zoning regulations should do. Yet, with The Paul and the Stepford Board subverting them, the planning and zoning boards are impotent to stop them.

With the Town zoning in place, when an owner/landlord/developer wishes to use the property for a proposal the zoning does not allow, property owners and/or developers are required to go to the Zoning and Planning Boards and request a variance or change. Most often, this is exactly what happens for an owner or landlord. And, depending on the proposal, they may rightly be refused their request until concessions and accommodations are made to conform with the zoning. There are many reasons for refusal by numerous Boards. Sometimes, the refusal is based on size (too large), style (doesn’t blend), traffic (increases/hinderances/flow) and the like.

When it’s for an individual homeowner, or small landlord, they are tasked with redoing their plans and proposals at their own additional expense and re-applying to that particular Board. When it is a developer asking, and they are refused, they simply confer with The Paul behind closed doors. When they emerge with their marching orders, they’ll all dance the dance as required by The Paul and present their proposal to the Board with soft, attractive water color renditions with the lovely landscapes to his “go-along” Board. From there, the developer’s game is in play. The Board will vote to become the lead agency and begin the sham approval process – regardless of what’s wrong with the project.

As was done with the Hebrew Hospital Home of Westchester, at 61 Grasslands Road, The Paul told them they could receive site approval to add buildings to their site if they donated a fire truck to the Fairview Fire Department. Once Rescue 3 was ordered and delivered (since replaced), site approvals sailed through the Town Board like beer flows at an Octoberfest! When The Paul told the Fortress Bible Church to donate a fire truck to the Fairview Fire Department, they said, “No!” Not surprisingly, Fortress Bible Church began receiving no site approvals and the internal departmental run-arounds that residents are so used to. Ultimately, with no additional fire apparatus in the offing, no site approvals took place and nothing could be built. Fortress Bible Church refused to play “FeinerBall” and sued the Town on seven counts AND WON! The Town went to an Appeals Court and again Fortress Bible Church WON! One of the reasons The Paul claimed against the Church was the increased traffic and safety issues it would cause on Dobbs Ferry Road. If this was an issue then, why did he not see it as an issue for the proposed GameOn 365 property across the street which promised more traffic?

The Town’s Zoning and Planning Boards are appointed positions by The Paul. Perhaps this would be okay if The Paul and his Stepford Board were not part of the process. The Zoning and Planning Boards can only make recommendations to the Town Board as the lead agency. Subsequently, when the Zoning or Planning Boards make a recommendation to the Town Board, it is just that, a recommendation and no matter how competent, correct, caring or pellucid either of these Boards are with their information, the Town Board is not bound by it. Whether it involves receiving a piece of fire apparatus or not, the lead agency moves ahead with more developments throughout the Town. The increased densification of the Town needs to stop. Projects that increase our impervious space are not helping the Town’s residents who routinely get flooded in normal rain storms. The aging infrastructure, ignored by The Paul for his entire 20-plus years tenure have left the Town residents hurting. The illegal actions of The Paul and his Board have taken it’s toll. It has to change. We can only hope.

Calling In The Troops

As usual, the evenings Town Board meeting started out with about an hours and a half’s worth of wasted time. Patience exhausted, even Mother Theresa might have snapped. The first presentation was from a small group of students from the Xposure program of the Theodore Young Community Center. Their’s killed a half an hour. The Convicted criminal Alan Hochberg and his Citizen’s Committee  members each got up and hammered The Paul’s financial failures, with Hochberg returning to the microphone after each speaker to give a synopsis about that person. The mutual admiration society would have been proud.

Speaker after speaker got up and found fault with the financial operations of The Paul and the Town. As has been said, The Paul lacks the “shame gene” and while he should have been embarrassed that “his” committee ripped his policies apart, he just thanked them. After an hour of this, the Board might not have been ready to move on but the audience certainly was ready to get down to the real business at hand. There were two hearings: one for a Town-wide zoning change to allow Independent or Assisted Living Facilities and while removed from the agenda at the last minute, the GameOn 365 referendum/proposal/“done-deal” brokered behind closed doors by The Paul and his Stepford Board.

Several issues with the Brightview Senior Living Center start with a play on words as to what type of facility they plan to be. Then will they have kitchettes, or a communal dining room; will they accept Medicaid or not? If they do not accept Medicaid patients, will it really be low cost, and will poorer people will effectively be barred from this particular facility? Any future facility built under this zoning code will also be able to block Medicaid recipients, ultimately making these facilities only for the wealthy or those with assets that can be used to purchase entry.

Another issue is the size of not only the Brightview facility in particular but the future commercial structures to be allowed in any tiny residential neighborhood through this zoning change. Since the Town’s Legal and Building departments are incapable of writing a law, and The Paul will not utilize the expertise on his appointed Zoning Board, the Town always counts on the developer’s attorneys to craft and propose the law. The repeatedly experienced problem with this is that the law serves the developer better than it winds up serving the Town. Our Town Board, reliant on Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan’s pseudo-legal abilities, usually produces sloppy, incomplete and inadequate Town laws. Whenever Sheehan writes proposed legislation for the Town, the G10 typically points out it’s flaws and then in their act of defiance, the Board passes it anyway.

Resident after resident got up to speak against the zoning proposal change mostly for three reasons: 1) it allowed structures to be four stories in the middle of residential neighborhoods throughout the Town; 2) it had setback allowances that would effectively let a parking lot be created to within feet of a private home; and 3) it utilizes state and county roads as a necessary access/egress to the facility. Two Edgemont residents suggested utilizing just a state road instead. Another consensus was that most people favored having assisted living facilities but were against such a liberal granting of neighborhoods to the developers, especially in residential neighborhoods. As Greenburgh becomes more and more congested with structures throughout the Town, we need tighter controls as to how we parcel our land away. We also feel that any structures created should incorporate flood, traffic and infrastructure alleviation since our current administration seems incapable and unwilling to do so.

The other hearing, pulled from the agenda at the last minute, was to be for the GameOn 365’s 83-ft tall sports bubble proposal for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Scan back through the ABG site and you can read in detail all the issues with this “done-deal”. Simply, a group of uninvested investors struck an apparent back room deal with The Paul to lease the property before it was acquired by the Town through foreclosure. Several plaintiffs sought a legal solution to this questionable and costly-to-the-Town deal, so The Paul turned around and decided to put the lease on the referendum. Both the proponents and opponents each posted a video on the Town website explaining their positions. The  supporters posted a slick 10-minute commercial. The opponents posted their positions and highlighted why this deal should not be done. The referendum, which was penned to favor approval by stretching the truth, passed. The Paul would go on to say that the people spoke. Actually, about 1% of the Town’s registered voters voted in the election and about two-thirds of them voted in favor of the proposal.

The room was literally split in two: GameOn 365’s supporters on one side and the Woodlands-Worthington neighborhood, the G10 and others sat on the opposite side. Even though the hearing had been removed from the agenda, both sides spoke passionately as to why they were for or against the proposal. The Paul continues to claim this is about one established company trying to stymie competition. The Paul has repeatedly pushed the GameOn 365 proposal after brokering what has been called a back-room, sweetheart, done, under-handed and under the table deal. It will require a zoning change after the property reverted back to residential six months after the foreclosure. The Paul will propose the change without reservation and mandate his Stepford Board to vote it through. They will comply without hesitation.

All the points as to why the proposal should not be allowed were not only impassioned, but logical. The GameOn 365 supporters were struggling to make their case. After all, we have the desire to build a superstructure to play kids games versus homeowners whom have invested in the homes, the neighborhood and the Town trying to save their largest investments. Game on stands to make a proposed $55M through the course of the fifteen-year rent-controled project. But wait, there’s more!

Once The Paul finally realized he would lose the lawsuit on all counts listed in it, he decided to change the deal to a sale, circumventing the court case. But the public voted in a referendum to support a lease, not a sale. No matter, The Paul could legally do this based on the legal requirements for foreclosed property. But wait, there’s more! Since The Paul decided to make this a sale, the House of Sports, located in Ardsley, the supposed “competitor” for GameOn 365, publicly announced they were offering $3.5M for the property! This is twice the money the Town would make from the GameOn 365 proposal! But wait, there’s more. House of Sports also said they would pay for the remediation of the property.

The Paul, never one to accept defeat quietly, did what he always does, he tried to level the playing field (no pun intended) and insist that House of Sports’ offer was not sincere. One of the House of Sports owners got up and said, “I am always serious about business.” Then another House of Sports owner got up and she questioned why the conditions The Paul was saddling on them was not done to GameOn 365? Everybody knows why, but the Board members won’t admit it’s because the House of Sports proposal was not the deal The Paul wanted. Fortunately for the House of Sports, they can meet with all the conditions The Paul throws in their path. During the night, The Paul could feel his grip slipping away. He began texting furiously to have supporters come to the meeting and speak for the proposal. They did. In fact, Town Clerk Beville pushed them to the top of the pile, forcing those who signed up earlier to speak to wait further into the night. That was wrong. Several residents protested. No matter for The Paul, the damage was done.

In the end, the neighborhood and the residents are the ones who will suffer. They will suffer with a bubble the is over eight stories tall. It will increase traffic congestion which will be compounded by additional traffic congestion from the Fortress Bible Church and School once it finally gets built nearby. The glaring issues of The Paul picking and choosing projects he favors, laws being broken, spot-zoning being done all pale to the bad shape the Town is spiraling into. It’s time for a change. We can only hope.