Mr Feiner has Thomas Madden, his favored planning and expansion employee, on the Town’s Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee to ensure control. He used to rely on Town Councilman Francis Sheehan until Mr Feiner threw him under the bus during the Democratic Primary campaign last year. Mr Madden operates not out of a love for Greenburgh (he does not live in Greenburgh), but out of a love for his meal-ticket, Mr Feiner, and of course his own job security. The more building and development that takes place in the Town, the more work he has to do and the more secure he is in his job and Mr Feiner’s good graces. Apparently its okay to congest Greenburgh with more and more projects, its just not okay to live in it?
When we listen to him present developer’s plans on their behalf, he seems to get more and more excited with his voice becoming softer and softer, almost to a whisper. When this was originally pointed out from an audience member, she suggested he was becoming flushed with excitement. Be that as it may, Mr Madden has repeatedly disclosed confidential information to “Feiner-friendly” developers while claiming the lack of confidentiality is nothing more than “planners talking”. This is hardly the case as his “talking” supplies them with insider information, akin to insider trading and aids them to craft their projects for future compliance with the yet to be proposed or adopted Town Comprehensive Plan! This insider trading is just another notch on the Feiner Administration’s developer approval chalkboard.
Now that the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee is having public outreach meetings, more and more people are focusing, even highlighting the over-development being proposed for the three major roadways in our Town: Saw Mill River Road (Route 9A), Tarrytown Road (Rt 119) and Central Avenue (Rt 100). The intersections with 4-corners will be developed with what is referred to as “nodes”. Travel any of these major arteries in Town and start paying attention when you sit at a traffic light. The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee believes this “design of the future” (our words) and urbanization (others’ words) will be good for the Town. It has been stated by many speakers at the two Comprehensive Plan Community Outreach sessions (so far) that they want less of what the Comp Plan is foisting upon us as “progress”. Several from the Comp Plan Steering Committee have said there were numerous common themes when they went into the communities during the first phase of evaluations with the neighbors and neighborhoods.
Some themes were to preserve open space, have more sidewalks and bike paths, not have bigger buildings and have less impervious space. Crowds of people listened in packed venues to hear what the Comp Plan architects sought and provided PostIt notes suggestions on big sheets of paper. This input would provide them critical neighborhood information and be the guide for the development of the Comprehensive Plan. Somewhere in the process, the politically correct members lost sight of what the people asked for and decided to go with a more extensive social engineering. One of the ideas is to have “nodes” throughout the Town on major arteries such as Central Avenue, Rt 119, and Rt 9A, to name a few. Nodes will consist of city-like four story buildings that do not follow our current set-back distances of space from the curb, include grass in-between and are built right to the edge of the sidewalk! It’s been referred to by many as the urbanization of Greenburgh. Mr Sheehan asked community leader Bob Bernstein for a definition of urbanization, which was provided.
The first floor will consist of a retail business because apparently the Town lacks enough unoccupied stores in the Town. The second, third and fourth floors will be residential units. The plan/goal of these, as we so often hear in developer proposals, is that these will be affordable housing units. We’re told these people will not have cars and will rely on a new and improved public transportation system of buses, so appropriate parking will not be necessary. But what if they do have cars, what then? No provisions have been made to accommodate them. Interestingly, we've repeatedly witnessed the BeeLine Express Bus and the local bus system in Rye have service reduced by the County because they, and really we, cannot afford to run them. Since this Comp Plan is a plan for the next twenty years, each intersection with four corners and a traffic light is on the chopping block. Urbanization? Your call. One point to note is that there are no requirements for these nodes to maintain a certain look or feel as they are constructed. And, when they cannot be rented, what happens? The property owners will go for Section 8 housing, which requires the tenant to pay 30% of their income toward the rent. Yes, they become subsidized housing, just like most Westhab facilities throughout the County. Is this the plan we want for the next twenty or more years?
Corner nodes are... hey,wait a minute... You don’t think Mr Feiner is pushing fire consolidation to get a jump on building a new Node at the four corners in Hartsdale, do you? Is he looking to close the Hartsdale Fire station near the four-corners to facilitate the reconstruction of Central Avenue with Nodes? Absolutely! The portion of the Comp Plan to construct nodes at corners such as the four-corners in Hartsdale, is exactly why Mr Feiner seeks to have a partial fire department consolidation. As he pushes his agenda of creating a new level of urbanization throughout our suburban Town, he violates the trust and wishes of the neighborhood who participated in ernest with the pre-Comp Plan meetings. This is not in keeping with Greenburgh’s history, culture, desires or residents’ requests and wishes. Nor do they approve of Mr Feiner and the Town Board’s history of continued spot-zoning.
We have just witnessed the affects of the Town Board’s gas-station tax on Central Avenue, a precursor to the Comp Plan changes in store. On Central Avenue, by Scarsdale Ford, a long-time gas station was recently closed as Mr Feiner and his Town Board tilted the playing field by literally driving an owner out of business with unnecessary fees that were really taxes. The G10 fought this move for months on end, trying to explain to the non-business savvy Board of the outcome that would be had if they enacted the tax. They would not listen, as usual, and proceeded to adopt this Central Avenue service-station only fee. Unfortunately, the G10 position was validated once again.
While service is really the mainstay of most service stations, the company funded Cumberland Farms gas station that was reopened after being closed for several years was given preferred treatment after losing their special zoning. Forget that the big company was underselling gasoline below what the "mom and pop" stations could purchase it for. Consequently, when the Town forced this new tax upon them, they were crushed. What’s next for that site? ABG has learned that through the new Comprehensive Plan (here it is again) information possibly leaked by Thomas Madden to the developer as simply "talk", the Central Avenue corridor will be changed to be more New York City-like. On the corners now are mostly single-story buildings of small retail businesses. What will be built on this small parcel promises to be the forebearer of things to come. This must be changed before the proposal is given to the Town Board for a hearing. Residents must get involved to slow this train wreck from changing the flavor of our Town. Only when this happens will we begin to see A Better Greenburgh.
Showing posts with label Vicki Simmons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vicki Simmons. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Monday, May 5, 2014
Feiner Wins, Fairview and Hartsdale Lose: The Grand Plan (Part 2)
Our previous post explored the antics and lies of Mr Feiner regarding the career(paid) fire service in the Town of Greenburgh. So what is the Grand Plan? It’s simple, really. But to figure this all out, you’ll need to read and/or understand the Comprehensive Plan (remember this as it will be mentioned again), the budget shortfalls caused by Mr Feiner and the reshaping of our Town he seeks to destroy. Conspiracy theorists will do well to pull up a chair to this table as they are about to learn quite a bit.
Mr Feiner is pushing several seemingly unrelated issues throughout the Town. The mainstream media will publish what he provides, crafted well enough to appear to be standalone initiatives that are unrelated and innocuous directives for the Town. The fact that the media is abdicating its role as the public’s watchdog is not only sad, but one of the reasons sites like ours and others exist. It’s also why crooked politicians are able to scam their constituency and push their own agendas.
The first issue for Mr Feiner is to push a merger of only the Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Departments. When his handpicked Consolidation Committee was first tasked with developing a plan that would validate his predestined need for consolidation, all three paid fire departments in the Town were included, Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville. Why limit the consolidation now to only the two? The report, committee and information has not changed since the original report was contrived. What changed?
Originally, Mr Feiner was touting a consolidation of the three paid fire departments, Fairview (the poorest), Hartsdale (reasonably affluent) and Greenville (affluent). Each time one of Mr Feiner’s illegal moves costs the Town more money in guilty verdict payments, the Edgemont section of Town, covered by the Greenville Fire District (affluent), protest and threaten to secede and incorporate as a Village. They have the money and expertise to do so. This would severely and negatively impact the Unincorporated Town’s finances and attractiveness for those financially able to move to Greenburgh. You’ll recall that Villages are for the most part immune to Mr Feiner’s illegal and bonehead behavior as they have a Mayor and Village Board of Trustees protecting them. We have Mr Feiner and his “gore-some foursome” hammering the Unincorporated taxpayers.
If Mr Feiner leaves the Greenville Fire Department out of the consolidation mix, he appears to be playing nice with Edgemont. But, beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. While Mr Feiner will not admit it, the Greenville FD has more resources, vis a vis Edgemont, than Hartsdale and certainly Fairview. In fact, Fairview maintains a staggering 49% of tax-exempt properties like a proverbial noose around their neck, forcing homeowners and other business owners to make up the difference in funds. Couple this with the money lost through the Fortress Bible Church multiple guilty verdicts settlement for $6.5 million (10 yrs of payments), the WestHelp affordable housing debacle for $3.6 million so far ($1.2M lost yearly), the failed Frank’s Nursery sale for $3.5+ million and remediation, the millions of dollars the Town and other taxing entities are forced to return to businesses through tax certiorari challenges each month. The list is long – too long and expensive to keep Mr Feiner in office. With all of his illegal, unethical and costly blunders, he knows the mainstream media will choose to follow his finger pointing and not his soiled path.
Mr Feiner has gone out of his way to attack many good, conscientious public servants, such as Chief LoGuidice, Fire Commissioner Simmons, her son Captain Simmons and others. While Commissioner Simmons was not required to recuse herself for the promotion of her son, she did abstain from the voting to promote him to Deputy Chief! Interestingly, Captain Simmons did recently pass the Civil Service exam for Deputy Chief and scored the highest score out of all of the candidates! Unlike Mr Feiner, unpaid Commissioner Simmons understands what doing the right thing means and recused herself although she was not required to do so. Ironically, Mr Feiner’s $140+ thousand dollar salary would be a better place to begin a consolidation effort instead of the Fire Districts. After all, we have Commissioners running each of the Towns Departments who routinely recognize the handicap of having Mr Feiner at the helm and interfere with their operations. In reality, Mr Feiner is nothing more than a talking head that we simply do not need. Those readers old enough to remember might make the comparison of Mr Feiner to Jerry Mahoney: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJdMuOAZkw).
If Mr Feiner pushes the consolidation proposal through with a referendum, which he has the power and funds to do, things will change for the worse for Fairview residents first and Hartsdale residents next. While they'll appear to improve for Mr Feiner as he assumes control of the newly formed Greenburgh Fire Department, similar to the Greenburgh Police Department, They won't. Mr Feiner will have control and access to, and be able to screw up, the fire budget and funds as he has done with the Town for the last 22 years. But his real end-game will be to close the Hartsdale Fire station on Central Avenue near the four-corners. This will result in an opening of the space for affordable housing "nodes" per the Comprehensive Plan. This administration has mapped out their plan for themselves behind closed doors, without written correspondence to ensure no information “gets out” through the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests via concerned and informed citizens.
Rather than focus on one central avenue (pun intended) of change for the Town, Mr Feiner is juggling multiple schemes to reach his end goal. ABG doesn’t know why he is doing this but can see what is happening and will continue to expose it. Fire consolidation could be viable if an honest and truly independent study was done. Unfortunately, interested and informed residents will never know because of Mr Feiner’s agenda. Town-wide consolidation would also be a more viable option and is actually under the purview of Mr Feiner and his Board, so we know this will never happen!
There are many games being played throughout our Town and they are costing the taxpayers millions of dollars every year. They are the culmination of illegal actions taken by Mr Feiner as well as others in his administration. The unfettered internal “pay to play” schemes Mr Feiner has fostered in Town Hall has killed the morale of Town employees. It's also affecting the residents beyond just their wallets. It’s time for a change. Only then we we get A Better Greenburgh.
Mr Feiner is pushing several seemingly unrelated issues throughout the Town. The mainstream media will publish what he provides, crafted well enough to appear to be standalone initiatives that are unrelated and innocuous directives for the Town. The fact that the media is abdicating its role as the public’s watchdog is not only sad, but one of the reasons sites like ours and others exist. It’s also why crooked politicians are able to scam their constituency and push their own agendas.
The first issue for Mr Feiner is to push a merger of only the Fairview and Hartsdale Fire Departments. When his handpicked Consolidation Committee was first tasked with developing a plan that would validate his predestined need for consolidation, all three paid fire departments in the Town were included, Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville. Why limit the consolidation now to only the two? The report, committee and information has not changed since the original report was contrived. What changed?
Originally, Mr Feiner was touting a consolidation of the three paid fire departments, Fairview (the poorest), Hartsdale (reasonably affluent) and Greenville (affluent). Each time one of Mr Feiner’s illegal moves costs the Town more money in guilty verdict payments, the Edgemont section of Town, covered by the Greenville Fire District (affluent), protest and threaten to secede and incorporate as a Village. They have the money and expertise to do so. This would severely and negatively impact the Unincorporated Town’s finances and attractiveness for those financially able to move to Greenburgh. You’ll recall that Villages are for the most part immune to Mr Feiner’s illegal and bonehead behavior as they have a Mayor and Village Board of Trustees protecting them. We have Mr Feiner and his “gore-some foursome” hammering the Unincorporated taxpayers.
If Mr Feiner leaves the Greenville Fire Department out of the consolidation mix, he appears to be playing nice with Edgemont. But, beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. While Mr Feiner will not admit it, the Greenville FD has more resources, vis a vis Edgemont, than Hartsdale and certainly Fairview. In fact, Fairview maintains a staggering 49% of tax-exempt properties like a proverbial noose around their neck, forcing homeowners and other business owners to make up the difference in funds. Couple this with the money lost through the Fortress Bible Church multiple guilty verdicts settlement for $6.5 million (10 yrs of payments), the WestHelp affordable housing debacle for $3.6 million so far ($1.2M lost yearly), the failed Frank’s Nursery sale for $3.5+ million and remediation, the millions of dollars the Town and other taxing entities are forced to return to businesses through tax certiorari challenges each month. The list is long – too long and expensive to keep Mr Feiner in office. With all of his illegal, unethical and costly blunders, he knows the mainstream media will choose to follow his finger pointing and not his soiled path.
Mr Feiner has gone out of his way to attack many good, conscientious public servants, such as Chief LoGuidice, Fire Commissioner Simmons, her son Captain Simmons and others. While Commissioner Simmons was not required to recuse herself for the promotion of her son, she did abstain from the voting to promote him to Deputy Chief! Interestingly, Captain Simmons did recently pass the Civil Service exam for Deputy Chief and scored the highest score out of all of the candidates! Unlike Mr Feiner, unpaid Commissioner Simmons understands what doing the right thing means and recused herself although she was not required to do so. Ironically, Mr Feiner’s $140+ thousand dollar salary would be a better place to begin a consolidation effort instead of the Fire Districts. After all, we have Commissioners running each of the Towns Departments who routinely recognize the handicap of having Mr Feiner at the helm and interfere with their operations. In reality, Mr Feiner is nothing more than a talking head that we simply do not need. Those readers old enough to remember might make the comparison of Mr Feiner to Jerry Mahoney: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeJdMuOAZkw).
If Mr Feiner pushes the consolidation proposal through with a referendum, which he has the power and funds to do, things will change for the worse for Fairview residents first and Hartsdale residents next. While they'll appear to improve for Mr Feiner as he assumes control of the newly formed Greenburgh Fire Department, similar to the Greenburgh Police Department, They won't. Mr Feiner will have control and access to, and be able to screw up, the fire budget and funds as he has done with the Town for the last 22 years. But his real end-game will be to close the Hartsdale Fire station on Central Avenue near the four-corners. This will result in an opening of the space for affordable housing "nodes" per the Comprehensive Plan. This administration has mapped out their plan for themselves behind closed doors, without written correspondence to ensure no information “gets out” through the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests via concerned and informed citizens.
Rather than focus on one central avenue (pun intended) of change for the Town, Mr Feiner is juggling multiple schemes to reach his end goal. ABG doesn’t know why he is doing this but can see what is happening and will continue to expose it. Fire consolidation could be viable if an honest and truly independent study was done. Unfortunately, interested and informed residents will never know because of Mr Feiner’s agenda. Town-wide consolidation would also be a more viable option and is actually under the purview of Mr Feiner and his Board, so we know this will never happen!
There are many games being played throughout our Town and they are costing the taxpayers millions of dollars every year. They are the culmination of illegal actions taken by Mr Feiner as well as others in his administration. The unfettered internal “pay to play” schemes Mr Feiner has fostered in Town Hall has killed the morale of Town employees. It's also affecting the residents beyond just their wallets. It’s time for a change. Only then we we get A Better Greenburgh.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
The Grand Plan: Feiner Wins, Fairview Loses (Part 1)
When we learned that Fairview Fire Chief Anthony LoGuidice had stepped down from his position of Chief, which he has held for three years, we were saddened because Mr Feiner, his media machine and his faux-concern for the Fairview residents have again triumphed through his willingness to exploit our willfully ignorant Greenburgh voters. The Fairview community in general will suffer with the loss of expertise and knowledge Chief LoGuidice offered.
Mr Feiner has spread copious amounts of false information about the Chief, the Fire District, Commissioners and its members. Mr Feiner, et al, have continued to maintain their adherence to an ill-conceived, outdated, intellectually flawed and unauthorized consolidation study. The consensus in the fire service and from community leaders is that Chief LoGuidice should not have received the treatment he did from Mr Feiner or the media. Mr Feiner consolidation talks is simply more of his deflection tactics to shield the public from his administrative inaccuracies, failures and guilty criminal behavior.
Ironically, the same transition issue that started with Chief Robert Mauro getting ill and retiring with then-Deputy Chief LoGuidice being appointed Chief and thrust into the position is precisely what Chief LoGuidice was trying to avoid with his successor. Chief LoGuidice explained to ABG that when he took over, he really could have used some help getting up to speed with what needed to be done; he figured it out eventually but the learning curve would have been quicker if he had had time to work with Chief Mauro.
Mr Feiner illegally used the Town's confidential email list to mount a personal vendetta against the Chief and the Board of Fire Commissioners, even though he has no jurisdictional involvement, control or say in the Fairview Fire District. That's exactly what he is looking to change and why he is mounting these attacks. Not able to act heroically himself, he must be content to resorting to attacks using his bully pulpit as Supervisor! It's similar to when he runs for office and has an opponent. The first thing he says is he welcomes the competition and then instructs others to get his opponent disqualified! Mr Feiner doesn't live in the Fairview Fire District and his gated-community home is protected by an all-volunteer department. The difference in cost for him compared to being served by a career fire department is about $150/thousand (career) as opposed to roughly $15/thousand (volunteer). And with a million dollar home in a gated community, well, you do the math.
Chief LoGuidice is suffering from cancer incurred while working at the 9-1-1 Ground Zero site and has experienced complications from his numerous medications along with a continued debilitating change in his health. Consequently, he has decided to leave his position before he becomes incapable of properly performing his job. Chief LoGuidice's actions to do what is best for the Department, District and taxpayers is something Mr Feiner has never done for the taxpayers. We wish the best for Chief LoGuidice in his retirement and hope his health will maintain long enough for him to enjoy a long retirement. Perhaps some day we’ll witness a heroic act performed by Mr Feiner. Until then, we’ll let Chief LoGuidice, a real hero, hold that torch.
Now that Chief LoGuidice has stepped down, Deputy Chief Howard Reiss has been appointed acting Chief of the Fire Department. Chief Reiss began his early firematic career with the neighboring Elmsford Fire Department, an all-volunteer department. He took the fire test, passed and was subsequently hired by then-Chief Robert Mauro for the Fairview FD. ABG also recognizes this as to be a positive sign that the volunteer members of the Fairview Fire Department will continue to flourish as they did with Chief LoGuidice. We also hope their Explorer/Venture Post program of junior firefighters continues as well. ABG endorses the Fire Districts decision with this appointment and congratulates longtime public servant Chief Howard Reiss as probably the best candidate for this position.
Speaking of volunteers in the Fairview Fire Department, the small group of critics of the Fairview Fire District bemoaned the high salaries of the officers and chiefs several meetings ago and yet continue to say they “support” the firefighters. Sorry, but they can’t have it both ways. These same detractors do nothing to help the fire district except to criticize it at Mr Feiner's behest, but never step up to be part of the solution. What they could do is become a volunteer member in the fire department and help to control their taxes first hand. They could "put their money where their mouth is" - but they haven't and probably never will. In point of fact, Mr Feiner has never volunteered in his Village's fire department or ambulance corps. He will however, volunteer to ride his bicycle to Albany. We just wish he would stay there.
Mr Feiner has gone out of his way to attack many good, conscientious public servants, such as Chief LoGuidice, Fire Commissioner Simmons, her son Captain Simmons and others. When asked at a Commissioner's meeting if she should recuse herself from voting to promote her son from Captain to Deputy Chief, Commissioner Simmons said she was only one vote on the Board and not required to recuse herself. It was asked if her son could run for the Chief's position by people who don't understand how the Civil Service system works. She explained that he did not qualify to run for the position as it requires a certain amount of time served as Deputy Chief or Executive Deputy Chief and is required to take and pass a Civil Service exam to qualify for either. Captain Simmons recently did pass the Civil Service exam for Deputy Chief and scored the highest score out of all of the candidates! Most importantly, Commissioner Simmons abstained from the vote to promote Captain Simmons to the position of Deputy Chief. Unlike Mr Feiner, unpaid Commissioner Simmons understands what doing the right thing means and did it. Ironically, his $140+ thousand dollar salary would be a better place to begin a consolidation effort instead of the Fire District.
The Town has had its share of costly and unnecessary blunders by Mr Feiner and his Board. Rather than address these self-induced and crippling problems, which cost the Unincorporated taxpayer millions of dollars every year, he's chosen, as he usually does, to go after others that he has no control or involvement over. His deflection tactics work because the populace in Greenburgh, along with his Town Board, allow him to. His talk of consolidation cannot work for numerous reasons but more importantly will never be implemented where it should be – at Town Hall. Why would that be? Because Mr Feiner has his own agenda that doesn't include actually helping the taxpayer. This must stop. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.
Mr Feiner has spread copious amounts of false information about the Chief, the Fire District, Commissioners and its members. Mr Feiner, et al, have continued to maintain their adherence to an ill-conceived, outdated, intellectually flawed and unauthorized consolidation study. The consensus in the fire service and from community leaders is that Chief LoGuidice should not have received the treatment he did from Mr Feiner or the media. Mr Feiner consolidation talks is simply more of his deflection tactics to shield the public from his administrative inaccuracies, failures and guilty criminal behavior.
Ironically, the same transition issue that started with Chief Robert Mauro getting ill and retiring with then-Deputy Chief LoGuidice being appointed Chief and thrust into the position is precisely what Chief LoGuidice was trying to avoid with his successor. Chief LoGuidice explained to ABG that when he took over, he really could have used some help getting up to speed with what needed to be done; he figured it out eventually but the learning curve would have been quicker if he had had time to work with Chief Mauro.
Mr Feiner illegally used the Town's confidential email list to mount a personal vendetta against the Chief and the Board of Fire Commissioners, even though he has no jurisdictional involvement, control or say in the Fairview Fire District. That's exactly what he is looking to change and why he is mounting these attacks. Not able to act heroically himself, he must be content to resorting to attacks using his bully pulpit as Supervisor! It's similar to when he runs for office and has an opponent. The first thing he says is he welcomes the competition and then instructs others to get his opponent disqualified! Mr Feiner doesn't live in the Fairview Fire District and his gated-community home is protected by an all-volunteer department. The difference in cost for him compared to being served by a career fire department is about $150/thousand (career) as opposed to roughly $15/thousand (volunteer). And with a million dollar home in a gated community, well, you do the math.
Chief LoGuidice is suffering from cancer incurred while working at the 9-1-1 Ground Zero site and has experienced complications from his numerous medications along with a continued debilitating change in his health. Consequently, he has decided to leave his position before he becomes incapable of properly performing his job. Chief LoGuidice's actions to do what is best for the Department, District and taxpayers is something Mr Feiner has never done for the taxpayers. We wish the best for Chief LoGuidice in his retirement and hope his health will maintain long enough for him to enjoy a long retirement. Perhaps some day we’ll witness a heroic act performed by Mr Feiner. Until then, we’ll let Chief LoGuidice, a real hero, hold that torch.
Now that Chief LoGuidice has stepped down, Deputy Chief Howard Reiss has been appointed acting Chief of the Fire Department. Chief Reiss began his early firematic career with the neighboring Elmsford Fire Department, an all-volunteer department. He took the fire test, passed and was subsequently hired by then-Chief Robert Mauro for the Fairview FD. ABG also recognizes this as to be a positive sign that the volunteer members of the Fairview Fire Department will continue to flourish as they did with Chief LoGuidice. We also hope their Explorer/Venture Post program of junior firefighters continues as well. ABG endorses the Fire Districts decision with this appointment and congratulates longtime public servant Chief Howard Reiss as probably the best candidate for this position.
Speaking of volunteers in the Fairview Fire Department, the small group of critics of the Fairview Fire District bemoaned the high salaries of the officers and chiefs several meetings ago and yet continue to say they “support” the firefighters. Sorry, but they can’t have it both ways. These same detractors do nothing to help the fire district except to criticize it at Mr Feiner's behest, but never step up to be part of the solution. What they could do is become a volunteer member in the fire department and help to control their taxes first hand. They could "put their money where their mouth is" - but they haven't and probably never will. In point of fact, Mr Feiner has never volunteered in his Village's fire department or ambulance corps. He will however, volunteer to ride his bicycle to Albany. We just wish he would stay there.
Mr Feiner has gone out of his way to attack many good, conscientious public servants, such as Chief LoGuidice, Fire Commissioner Simmons, her son Captain Simmons and others. When asked at a Commissioner's meeting if she should recuse herself from voting to promote her son from Captain to Deputy Chief, Commissioner Simmons said she was only one vote on the Board and not required to recuse herself. It was asked if her son could run for the Chief's position by people who don't understand how the Civil Service system works. She explained that he did not qualify to run for the position as it requires a certain amount of time served as Deputy Chief or Executive Deputy Chief and is required to take and pass a Civil Service exam to qualify for either. Captain Simmons recently did pass the Civil Service exam for Deputy Chief and scored the highest score out of all of the candidates! Most importantly, Commissioner Simmons abstained from the vote to promote Captain Simmons to the position of Deputy Chief. Unlike Mr Feiner, unpaid Commissioner Simmons understands what doing the right thing means and did it. Ironically, his $140+ thousand dollar salary would be a better place to begin a consolidation effort instead of the Fire District.
The Town has had its share of costly and unnecessary blunders by Mr Feiner and his Board. Rather than address these self-induced and crippling problems, which cost the Unincorporated taxpayer millions of dollars every year, he's chosen, as he usually does, to go after others that he has no control or involvement over. His deflection tactics work because the populace in Greenburgh, along with his Town Board, allow him to. His talk of consolidation cannot work for numerous reasons but more importantly will never be implemented where it should be – at Town Hall. Why would that be? Because Mr Feiner has his own agenda that doesn't include actually helping the taxpayer. This must stop. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Willful Ignorance Allows Public To Be Duped
The Fairview Fire Department’s Board of Fire Commissioners held their monthly meeting at Fairview Fire Headquarters at 19 Rosemont Boulevard. The room was not packed but certainly had more in attendance than their meetings usually do. According to one resident, only 13 people voted in the last election! The room was split into thirds with the crowd that was there. One third was there to protest anything and everything, one third was there to support the fire department and the other third were firefighters either there to support their Chief and/or to learn what would happen in what has turned into another Feiner induced trial by media.
For those in attendance, there simply to protest, they were armed with faulty information and hysterical statements from a select few of Mr Feiner’s “co-conspirators”. One of those in attendance was a former opinion editor who brags of and routinely refers to the committees report he helped generate. He was appointed to be part of this flawed committee by our Supervisor to “evaluate” consolidation of the Town’s three career fire departments, Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville and provide a pre-ordained outcome. They did. This “study” for the fire service was something else outside of Mr Feiner purview. His position as Supervisor or with the Town Board has no say, control over or business dealings over the fire service as each fire department is controlled separately by their own fire districts and not the Town. Fire districts have independent taxing authority and are not under the control of the Town. This was another grandstanding abuse of power as Supervisor foisted upon the willfully ignorant. This tactic was again intended to deflect attention away from his double-digit tax increases, guilty verdicts, costly decisions and general mismanagement of our Town and its finances to the overall tune of about $40 MILLION! ABG is convinced this latest deflection was to continue shifting focus away from ABG’s exposure of his condoned racism with his appointed Department Head in Town Hall!
ABG exposed with documents acquired by us in our previous post, that Town Assessor Edye McCarthy had used derogatory, inflammatory and racist language with another Town employee in her department that has still not been addressed by Mr Feiner. The employee was upset and sent a letter to that employee’s manager, Ms McCarthy, and cc’d the Union President and Supervisor Feiner. It’s ironic that Mr Feiner would complain about the Fire Chief’s language and apology as “a good first step”, when Mr Feiner has never apologized to the Fortress Bible Church (or Town residents) for the discrimination he and his Town Board perpetrated on the church when they sought to build on the Greenburgh property they had purchased. In fact, Mr Feiner was found guilty in Federal court of discrimination, lying under oath and destroying evidence and fined $6.5 MILLION that the Unincorporated resident taxpayers will be forced to pay. There’s where your tax increases are going; its for something he never should have done.
It hasn’t been lost on many residents that Mr Feiner demanded an apology for a slur that was made about him years ago. He received the apology and then refused to accept it. He needed more traction so he said he wanted more. The paradox is he did much worse with his actions against the church and yet he gets a pass? Why should the residents and taxpayers allow this? ABG believes it is because the electorate is willfully ignorant and keeps their heads in the sand until something happens in their backyard or to them. We call them OIMBY’s (Only In My BackYard). Mr Feiner should resign immediately!
Last nights fire commissioner’s meeting was a sad commentary as most of the residents there were misinformed and seemingly bragged about what they didn’t know. They complained that they didn’t know there was a Board of Fire Commissioners, when they met, that there was a fire department website, the salaries of the fire department members and more. In an incredible display of ignorance, anti-fire department proponents repeatedly rose or just interrupted the speakers who had the floor and decried, “We didn’t know. You need to do a better job of informing us.” They played right into Mr Feiner’s hands again. To be fair to the audience, the Board of Fire Commissioners did a terrible job of running the meeting and seemed ill-prepared for the dogged questioning from them. The Commissioner running the meeting, Ms Vicki Simmons, seems to be on defense the entire night and did poorly each time she she attempted to answer any questions. The rest of the Board appeared content to allow her to be pummeled the entire evening and remained silent. We should mention that the commissioner’s positions are all unpaid.
One commissioner, Michael Cotter stood up and said he was against the Executive Deputy Chief position, drawing applause from the “anti”-side-of-the-room crowd. The position had been occupied by Chief LoGuidice prior to his being appointed Chief and has remained unfilled since then. Now that he will be retiring, he had suggested it be filled to begin training his successor. The structure of the fire department was clearly not understood by most of this crowd nor did they seem interested in trying to understand it. Again, Ms Simmon and the rest of the Board did nothing to explain the value or need for the position and that it would be left vacant as a temporary one once the Chief retired and the person filling it was promoted to Chief. With a $12.5 million budget, surely there is room to negotiate other savings to offset this position. That was never discussed.
Explanations about what is going on in the Fairview Fire Department need to be forthcoming. Even though the flawed consolidation report insists on an increase of taxpayer volunteerism, none of the audience members who have been duped by this same report have signed up and joined the department. In fact, many said this was the first time they had come to a fire commission meeting. That’s sad. As to not knowing about the fire department, residents can always stop by and ask questions of any of the fire fighters and receive answers. Mr Feiner’s next ploy is to try to consolidate only the Fairview and Hartsdale fire departments. He has purposely (and cowardly) taken the Greenville fire district out of these discussions for several reasons. He knows if he includes Greenville, he will take on the wrath of the Edgemont community and force their hand to incorporate into their own village. That would be a disaster for him and the Unincorporated Town taxpayers.
Mr Feiner’s consolidation hijinks would cripple his budget – the real issue for all of these smoke and mirror discussions of consolidation. With the guilty verdicts (Fortress Bible), lawsuit losses (NextG), certiorari adjustments ($100K - $3.5M at each Town Board meeting), lost revenue (WestHelp, Frank’s Nursery) and, well, the list is almost endless, he desperately needs the Edgemont community to remain in the Unincorporated Town. Taxes have continually risen under Mr Feiner’s tenure in office. Usually, the increases have been double-digit increases. Where were the people attending this meeting and why were they not complaining when the Town budget was being discussed and adopted? Because the same persons leading the charge for fire consolidation want increased taxes and spending and not real consolidation, cost-effectiveness and/or financial savings. The lack of revaluation by Mr Feiner’s administration for the past twenty-two years he has been in office is causing the hemorrhaging of tax dollars by every department, especially our fire department and punishing tax-beleaguered residents. Couple this with about 49% of tax-exempt entities in Fairview and its a recipe for disaster!
There are a tremendous amount of issues going on in the Town that have mostly be foisted upon the willfully ignorant taxpaying OIMBYs by Mr Feiner and his phony and carefully crafted committee appointments. What remains to be seen is how many of these concerned citizens will show up and participate in next month’s Board of Fire Commissioner meetings or if they will go to the Hartsdale and Greenville meetings and complain as vocally? We hope they become regular fixtures at these meetings, but don’t have high hopes for this to happen. Will they start to regularly attend Town Board meetings? Probably not. They’re content to complain and hope someone such as the G10 will continue to be their watchdogs, but prefer to sit back, complain and hope others will fight their fight.
ABG supports consolidation if it is town-wide and includes every department and portion of Town government. But it cannot be isolated consolidation that picks and chooses when and where its convenient to utilize. We need an independent study, not controlled by Mr Feiner, with subpoena power so they can get answers that will aid in providing an honest assessment of what we have, if its working and how it can benefit by a Town-wide consolidation. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Statement by the Fairview Board of Fire Commissioners
Fairview Fire District
19 Rosernont Boulevard
White Plains, NY 10602-1680
(914) 949-2828
Website: www.fairviewfire.org
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/FairviewFire
Thursday, 27 March 2014
Statement by the Board of Fire Commissioners
A recent news report has noted a wholly inappropriate and embarrassing utterance by Chief Anthony LoGiudice which is completely unrelated to a meritless lawsuit presently being defended by the Fairview Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners and Chief LoGindice. The words do not reflect Chief LoGiudice's true feelings. The words were spoken in an angry moment when Supervisor Feiner and the Chief were at odds over political issues related to Supervisor Feiner's efforts to consolidate local fire districts with the Fairview Fire District. For reasons publicly outlined by Chief LoGiudice and earlier by the late Chief Mauro, Chief LoGiudice has very strong feelings of disagreement with Supervisor Feiner. Rather than eloquently address these disagreements, Chief LoGiudice inappropriately used words which do not - and never did -reflect his true beliefs of compassion and respect for people of all religions.
As to the lawsuit, we believe it is fair to note that this board and the Fairview Fire District have a long history and tradition of diversity in our hiring and other employment practices. Age discrimination was not in any way the cause of our decision to hire persons other than David Hecht. The Fairview Board has always hired irrespective of age and in fact, firefighters employed by the fire district over the last seven years have ranged in age from 19 to 44 at the time of hire. We were and are fortunate to have had several better candidates. Mr. Hecht may wage his lawsuit as he and his lawyer see fit; we, however, will not succumb to reportage since it is in court that these claims must be adjudicated. We are confident that a fair adjudication will prove Mr. Hecht's claims to be without basis in law or in fact. The Board will not publicize the reasoning behind its decision to hire other candidates, as there is an obligation to protect the privacy of all concerned as well as the integrity ofthe case.
19 Rosernont Boulevard
White Plains, NY 10602-1680
(914) 949-2828
Website: www.fairviewfire.org
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/FairviewFire
Thursday, 27 March 2014
Statement by the Board of Fire Commissioners
A recent news report has noted a wholly inappropriate and embarrassing utterance by Chief Anthony LoGiudice which is completely unrelated to a meritless lawsuit presently being defended by the Fairview Fire District Board of Fire Commissioners and Chief LoGindice. The words do not reflect Chief LoGiudice's true feelings. The words were spoken in an angry moment when Supervisor Feiner and the Chief were at odds over political issues related to Supervisor Feiner's efforts to consolidate local fire districts with the Fairview Fire District. For reasons publicly outlined by Chief LoGiudice and earlier by the late Chief Mauro, Chief LoGiudice has very strong feelings of disagreement with Supervisor Feiner. Rather than eloquently address these disagreements, Chief LoGiudice inappropriately used words which do not - and never did -reflect his true beliefs of compassion and respect for people of all religions.
As to the lawsuit, we believe it is fair to note that this board and the Fairview Fire District have a long history and tradition of diversity in our hiring and other employment practices. Age discrimination was not in any way the cause of our decision to hire persons other than David Hecht. The Fairview Board has always hired irrespective of age and in fact, firefighters employed by the fire district over the last seven years have ranged in age from 19 to 44 at the time of hire. We were and are fortunate to have had several better candidates. Mr. Hecht may wage his lawsuit as he and his lawyer see fit; we, however, will not succumb to reportage since it is in court that these claims must be adjudicated. We are confident that a fair adjudication will prove Mr. Hecht's claims to be without basis in law or in fact. The Board will not publicize the reasoning behind its decision to hire other candidates, as there is an obligation to protect the privacy of all concerned as well as the integrity ofthe case.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Fire Position Addendum
We recently posted two points in our post under the story Feiner Lies About Fire Department that were wrong. We still acknowledge that Mr Feiner not only lies for his convenience and at his convenience, but that with the email he sent out, he was in full deflection mode. He’s trying to take focus off of his illegal actions with GameOn 365.
We posted that the position has always existed, and even highlighted the word always. The way it was explained to us when we were gathering information for the story was that the position has always existed. ABG has since come to learn that the position was created in 2005 and first filled in 2006 by our current Chief, Anthony LoGiudice. What we should have said was that the position has existed, unfilled, for some time. The rest of the information as to whether it is justified and how it is intended to be used remains.
The second point we seek to correct is that of the NYS 2% Tax. We said the position would not affect the tax cap or refunds. We had reached out to the NYS Budget office but were unable to speak with someone willing to answer our questions. Please do not misunderstand this. The person we spoke with was not the correct person to provide an answer and the people she thought would be, were unavailable. Apparently, the filling of the position and the subsequent benefits that go along with it may be an increase to the budget and push the district toward violating the 2% Tax Cap. However, with a $12M budget, we’re suspect if $140k (+ benefits) will really impact the Fire District’s NYS tax status?
Another point we were unaware of that seemed to not be publicly known or openly discussed until recently is that the chairperson of the Fairview Fire District is Vicki Simmons, who has held this position for some time and her son, a Captain in the Fairview Fire Department is up for a promotion and this currently unfilled position! Ms Simmons has been pushing this move for the position. Dare we say, now we know why!
The Fairview FD members are an exceptionally talented and extremely well paid group. Our firefighters do not do without anything. They get guaranteed call back hours when a fire is declared bad enough to warrant extra personnel. They get station uniforms (which is fine) as well as exercise gear paid for by the taxpayer, just to name a few expenses. The district’s volunteer firefighters are not utilized to their fullest and they are taxpayers as well as volunteers for their community. Many of the paid staff do not live in the district or the Town. As for nepotism, there are many related members in the department. Is it a conflict of interest that a commissioner’s son works for his mother? Coincidence? You decide.
The information we originally received was truthfully provided. The additional information that has become uncovered as the onion gets peeled back is sadly troubling. Having spent some 40 years in the fire service in Greenburgh, we are sure Chief LoGiudice has the best of intentions for the Department and District. But since this position will cause a hiring ripple effect for the taxpayers, we urge he and the commissioners to seek an alternative method to bring the current deputy chiefs into the grooming process and do what they can to not increase costs. Or, if they feel this is a necessary step, do away with something else of equal or greater value. It will be these kinds of efforts that will bring the taxpayers relief and make for a Better Greenburgh!
We posted that the position has always existed, and even highlighted the word always. The way it was explained to us when we were gathering information for the story was that the position has always existed. ABG has since come to learn that the position was created in 2005 and first filled in 2006 by our current Chief, Anthony LoGiudice. What we should have said was that the position has existed, unfilled, for some time. The rest of the information as to whether it is justified and how it is intended to be used remains.
The second point we seek to correct is that of the NYS 2% Tax. We said the position would not affect the tax cap or refunds. We had reached out to the NYS Budget office but were unable to speak with someone willing to answer our questions. Please do not misunderstand this. The person we spoke with was not the correct person to provide an answer and the people she thought would be, were unavailable. Apparently, the filling of the position and the subsequent benefits that go along with it may be an increase to the budget and push the district toward violating the 2% Tax Cap. However, with a $12M budget, we’re suspect if $140k (+ benefits) will really impact the Fire District’s NYS tax status?
Another point we were unaware of that seemed to not be publicly known or openly discussed until recently is that the chairperson of the Fairview Fire District is Vicki Simmons, who has held this position for some time and her son, a Captain in the Fairview Fire Department is up for a promotion and this currently unfilled position! Ms Simmons has been pushing this move for the position. Dare we say, now we know why!
The Fairview FD members are an exceptionally talented and extremely well paid group. Our firefighters do not do without anything. They get guaranteed call back hours when a fire is declared bad enough to warrant extra personnel. They get station uniforms (which is fine) as well as exercise gear paid for by the taxpayer, just to name a few expenses. The district’s volunteer firefighters are not utilized to their fullest and they are taxpayers as well as volunteers for their community. Many of the paid staff do not live in the district or the Town. As for nepotism, there are many related members in the department. Is it a conflict of interest that a commissioner’s son works for his mother? Coincidence? You decide.
The information we originally received was truthfully provided. The additional information that has become uncovered as the onion gets peeled back is sadly troubling. Having spent some 40 years in the fire service in Greenburgh, we are sure Chief LoGiudice has the best of intentions for the Department and District. But since this position will cause a hiring ripple effect for the taxpayers, we urge he and the commissioners to seek an alternative method to bring the current deputy chiefs into the grooming process and do what they can to not increase costs. Or, if they feel this is a necessary step, do away with something else of equal or greater value. It will be these kinds of efforts that will bring the taxpayers relief and make for a Better Greenburgh!
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