School Board Terminates Superintendent Contract, Looks To Do More

The last five years in the Greenburgh Central School District (GCSD) have been extremely tumultuous under the failed leadership of Superintendent Tahira Chase. She was hired to replace her boss, Superintendent Ronald O Ross, after charges of racism, harassment and abuse forced his termination. It appears that Trustee Terry Williams intervened to help Superintendent Chase be recommended to the professional search firm hired by the Board. There may have been others participating as well. Superintendent Chase then pulled her ex-mentor out of retirement and hired him as our as Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction. All this set the stage for five years of “lipstick on a pig” programs and numerous sideshows, such as the Mansion “emergency” evacuation in August of 2019. Meanwhile, our buildings continued to crumble and our kids’ performance on standardized tests continued to be sub-standard.

 

Let us not forget that it was this Superintendent who also led a failed Consolidation Bond effort. The “Roadshow” to sell $200 million of debt to build new school buildings was publicly spearheaded by Superintendent Chase, Assistant Superintendent for Business Mary O’Neill, and Trustee Terry Williams. The resounding 2-to-1 defeat of the Consolidation Bond in 2019 awakened the stakeholder sleeping giant to send three very clear messages. First, running our school buildings into the ground and then asking for the largest bond in the history of Westchester County to build new ones is unacceptable. Second, student achievement should take precedence over new buildings and is a condition for stakeholder bond approvals. Third, the residents of GCSD are not interested in developing a brand or legacy for the Superintendent and a few long-serving Trustees!

 

The Board of Education election in 2019 brought two newcomers to the Board, Ashley Pineda and Tanya Dragic, finally ousting Lloyd Newman after 18 years on the Board. We are still “served” by Terry Williams who is in his 15^th year, and David Warner who is in his 13^th year on the Board. So much for term limits! However, it seems that the new faces were enough to bring about some change. The current Board President, Antoinette Darden-Cintron, recently sent out a message from the District stating, “The Superintendent's contract expires on June 30, 2021. The Board has determined not to extend that agreement or negotiate a successor agreement and we have begun the process of seeking a new Superintendent of Schools.” (See below document for the entire text). We applaud the Board for taking this action. We also applaud the Board’s hiring of Dr. Corey Reynolds as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum earlier this year. We believe that a new, professional and dedicated leadership is a first step to helping our kids learn.

 

HIGHLIGHTS OF SUPERINTENDENT CHASE’S PERFORMANCE:

 

The 2020/21 school budget:

The development of the 2020-2021 budget demonstrated that Superintendent Chase, supported by Terry Williams, remained deaf to the needs of the community, while trying to please a small group of supporters, such as the Friends of Greenburgh (FOG). The first draft of that budget started with an increase of over 4% from the previous year! Repeated pleas to curb the budget due to the economic devastation of COVID19 were ignored until a few days before the Board of Education had to vote to accept a budget. It was the behind-the-scenes intervention of certain community members with the Administration that brought the increase down to 1.3%. When asked about her personal salary increase in the budget, Superintendent Chase responded that it was “contractual”.  Same for the Assistant Superintendent for Business. Teachers, however, were asked to forego their contractual increases in order to save money for the district. What hypocrisy!

 

Wasteful Spending

In August of 2019, Superintendent Chase blindsided the Board at the beginning of their summer retreat by saying that the Mansion was unsafe and required immediate evacuation. The Board was not given ample time to react properly to this announcement. The Early Childhood Program (ECP) was promptly relocated to the Lee F Jackson school. The staff however, remained there for another month until the Superintendent’s new office suite was constructed in Woodlands MHS. The cost to move the administration from the mansion was over $250,000. Almost a year later, we learned from the condition report a month later that the mansion did not need a complete evacuation. Now the superintendent is trying again to manipulate a condemnation of this building by playing up the findings of an essentially benign air-quality report. Her shenanigans are a slap in the Board’s face and an affront to taxpayers. 

 

Where are the COVID 19 savings?

Everyone knows that the school year was truncated in March because of the COVID19 pandemic. What happened to unutilized funds for student transportation, after school programs, summer school and special programs from mid-March through August? Some transportation money, but not all, went for food distribution for eligible, needy students.  In addition, the district spent money for technology to support on-line instruction and for cleaning and disinfection, but where is the accounting for the money that was spent as well as the savings?

 

What about academic programs?

Multiple educational programs, such as iReady, Eureka Math, Science Fusion and Naviance have been purchased and then abandoned, wasting taxpayer dollars. Students did not have access to an advanced Physics Program during the 2019-2020 school year, and our very first cohort of IB kids was instructed to retake Chemistry! This glaring deficiency makes a mockery of our calling GCSD, “a world class school district” and undermines the alleged excellence conferred by participation in the International Baccalaureate program. 

 

Public allegations were anonymously raised in Fall 2019 regarding attendance problems and falsified grades of high school students. Results of the subsequent investigation have been withheld from the community. The excuse we're always told is, "This is a personnel issue and cannot be discussed publicly." Perhaps, but an outside agency was contracted to do this investigation for nearly $100,000 of our money. The taxpayers footing the bill have a right to know the results of an investigation that they paid for!

 

What about behavioral problems?

Are the schools, especially Woodlands MHS, a safe learning environment? Concerns have been raised by the community and parents about the lack of student discipline in the high school, including videotaped fights and violence against teachers. Questions have been raised about the accuracy of DASA reporting (Dignity for All Students) to the NYS Dept. of Education by the aforementioned anonymous allegations. There is no evidence that these concerns have been investigated and addressed.  

 

Teacher hiring, retention and morale 

During 2018/19, concerns were raised about the Early Childhood Program being a hostile work environment but the Director of that program remains in her position to this day. Highly qualified teachers are resigning from the district rather than enduring a hostile work environment. A large number of teaching staff have been mysteriously placed on “home assignment”, generating both staffing and supervision issues and fiscal concerns.

 

What’s our future?

The Board of Education must change! Those Trustees who have been in their positions for years are a big part of the problem. School Board elections will be coming around soon. It's time to clean house and elect more new blood, bringing in fresh thinking and fresh ideas to the Board. That’s how we'll get A Better Greenburgh School District.

GCSD Announcement: 

Impassioned Plea To Maintain Segregated Neighborhood

Several Planning Board meetings ago found a discussion on a proposal made by a family that is looking to combine three parcels of property into one and build a 2400 square foot home on it. The zoning for the neighborhood would allow for a 2800 square foot house. 2400 square feet is not an unwieldy, garish and/or oversized home as new homes go. This project would have most likely gone under the radar for approval except for one speaker. As the Board opened the “hearing” to the public to speak, the first speaker voiced their opinion against the proposal for several reasons which he proceeded to explain. Next up was Town Clerk Judith Beville.

She took to the microphone and speaking softly, introduced herself, stating that she was the Greenburgh Town Clerk. She began discussing “her” community and requested the Board “join” her in imagining going to her neighborhood and proceeded to ask the Board to envision how close her home was to the projected new home proposed across the street from hers. She stated that this was a woodlands, wetlands, nature preserve and protected environment that they would be allowing to to be disturbed. he left out wildlife preserve. The neighborhood is comprised of small colonial style houses. This home will stand out and not blend with the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. Living directly across the street from the proposed home, Ms Beville asked the Board, “ I want you to ask yourselves, ‘would you want this house built near you?’ ”

She proceeded with an impassioned plea saying this was a direct exploitation of this long-time African-American community.There it is. When all other arguments fail, bandy the race card to win the NIMBY argument. How disappointing it is to once again witness discrimination, this time in the form of racism through NIMBY-ism from another member of Mr Feiner's administration. Ms Beville has supported Mr Feiner and his Board's multiple construction projects against the wishes of many more people than the few in attendance this night. You may recall packed Town Hall meetings where neighborhoods protested Westhab, WestHelp, 88 North Rd, Frank's Nursery, Avalon Green, Toll Brothers, Dromore Road. The list goes on. What is different for her than what these other resident taxpayers were seeking to limit? Absolutely nothing!

Her claim was that this home shouldn’t be built because it would be a change to this long time African American community. Interpretation? Her racially segregated neighborhood should stay as it is. This is an example of reverse racism coming from another community leader and member of the Feiner administration. We’ve previously posted that the Feiner Administration condones racism from within and now it’s becoming more exposed. 

We invite you to watch these videos linked below from the meeting and ask you to decide. Here are two links we found on YouTube of her speaking at the Planning Board meeting. By the way, these are not videos that ABG produced or created. 

Watch her plea here:

TOGPB 04 16 2014 NIMBY Beville
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5a2n-AjUXY

The Board later detailed what constituted a wetland – this property was not. They explained a nature preserve – this property was not. They explained all of her other postulations only to summarize that the space she bemoaned as a waterway was determined to be a drainage ditch that occasionally collected water. They went through each of her points of objection and detailed how she was incorrect.

The Board’s response:

TOGPB 04 16 2014 NIMBY Beville QA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yHPu1HE-zw

It’s interesting to watch how the "Greenburgh elite", or "1%-ers", who are used to getting their way for what they want, react when something is going to affect them more directly. This time it is Ms Beville and a project across the street from her home. When Westhab was proposing their building in Fulton Park, the residents didn’t say “No” to the proposal. They only asked the Town Board to not change the zoning and keep its size within the confines of the existing zoning. They had worked with the homeless at that location for years while it was a homeless hotel. The Fulton Park Civic Association President, who lived directly across the street, just asked for a more reasonably sized building and a buffer. Ms Beville felt Westhab should be built regardless of the residents concerns and publicly stated as much. But Ms Beville is saying she doesn't want anything built there. That's just wrong.

When Mr Feiner decided that a new Stop and Shop on Rt 119 would be a good thing on Rt 119 and the Glenville Neighborhood objected, they were summarily dismissed. When the Parkway Homes neighborhood found out they were getting yet another group home at 88 North Road, there were two issues at play: the first was that Mr Feiner led the state to that piece of undeveloped property and second, Councilman Jones failed to inform his neighbors and former neighborhood association. When Mr Feiner realized he could get Valhalla votes by letting WestHelp rot, he instructed somebody at the Town to leave it open. Now it needs millions of dollars worth of repairs to be habitable. Why are Valhalla residents, who live at least one mile away from this facility against this affordable/low income housing?  
 

Some of the reasons people object to the developments throughout the Town are invariably told that it will raise our property values, increase diversity, increase tax income and make the Town more vibrant. The reality is usually not what we are told. Objections to the Dromore Road development is about overwhelming the school district, not about low income residents. Objections to the Comprehensive Plan's "nodes" is not about low income residents, but of urbanizing the Town and overwhelming the school system with more kids at an undervalued tax income as apartments pay less in taxes than single family homes. Of course, the elephant in the room is the continued racism emminating from our Town administration. Once this stops, we'll finally have A Better Greenburgh.

The Grand Plan (Part 4)

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.

Chief’s Wife Fights Back!

Our previous post discussed the most recently convened Fairview Fire Commissioner’s meeting. That meeting found a Board of Fire Commissioners armed and ready with facts and figures to counter a plethora of false information that originated from Town Hall and being propagandized at meetings and in the media by hand-picked operatives. At this same meeting, the Chief’s wife had signed up to speak. Since the attacks had been made against her husband, Chief Anthony LoGiudice, she had remained on the sidelines. But after a letter was sent by resident Milt Hoffman to the Civic Associations, she told ABG she felt compelled to act. She also stated that she was not a public speaker and asked another resident to read her letter, which he did. 

Immediately below is the letter Mr Hoffman sent out to Civic Associations and community groups. What we have intentionally omitted for privacy concerns is Mr Hoffman’s contact information. Following his letter is a letter from Kathy LoGiudice, wife of Fairview Fire Department Chief Anthony LoGiudice.

Mr Hoffman’s letter:
“Dear Neighborhood Assn. Leader: ).
I am one of the coordinators of the newly formed Fairview Monitors who are feed up with increasingly higher property taxes in the Fairview Fire District and want to take back control from the Fiefdom called the Fairview Fire Commission. To accomplish that, we need the help of all the neighborhood associations.

You may have heard about the latest attempt to create an unnecessary and costly position of executive deputy fire chief just as we were receiving our tax bills calling for a 5.7 % hike, atop the 6% last year, and 4.3% the year before. During the two-year period, our district taxes increased from $10,924,627 to $12,424,074, a gain of$1,499,447. During the same period, pension climbed $777,000. And we don't have enough firefighters. Costs soar because men are-brought back on overtime. We have the costliest independent fire district in the state due in part to past decisions to grant huge pensions and health care benefits, each now costing about $2 million a year and accounting for a total of 32 percent of all spending. (One commissioner, Michael Cotter, was on our side.)

What riled people just as much as the proposed new job: the son of a commissioner was among those in line for the position that would have cost us $200,000 a year. The threat of more spending and revelations of nepotism prompted about 70 of our residents to show up at a commission meeting and protest. Some of us created an alliance and quickly circulated a petition signed by 319 residents demanding that the commissioners scrap the proposal and take steps to reduce spending--for example by Fairview and Hartsdale fire departments share one chief for departments now with 45 and 39 men respectively. The chiefs now make over $200,000 a year, more than the chief of the New York City Fire Department with thousands of firefighters, and more than the governor. The three independent fire districts in Greenburgh spend almost as much as Greenburgh spends for police, public works, sanitation, library, parks and other services. 

The commissioners did shelve the executive deputy chief position. However, given the opportunity to join with Hartsdale with one chief for both departments because the Fairview chief was retiring after being criticized for profane and racist remarks and sued for discrimination in hiring, the Fairview commission quickly appointed a deputy as new chief and moved the son of the commissioner into the deputy's vacated slot.

For decades, the Fairview Fire Commission of five has kept our people in the dark, failing to let us know when elections for commissioner are held and raising and spending taxpayer money with impunity. One of our main goals is to elect a taxpayer-friendly commissioner or commissioners in December and keep the pressure on the commissioners by attending Commission meetings. We hope you and others from your association will join us this coming Thursday, May 15 at 7:30 p.m. at fire headquarters, 19 Rosemont Blvd.

In the meantime, please contact me by email or phone WE MUST BECOME UNITED OR OUR TAXES WILL CONTINUE TO SOAR.”

End of letter.

Ms LoGiudice’s letter:

I sat through last month’s meeting of the Board of Fire Commissioners in Fairview waiting for the Board of Fire Commissioners to correct a lot of misinformation that was being given out by audience members.  It never happened.

Milt Hoffman recently sent a letter to the Civic Associations.  Much of it was the same misinformation spouted at the last meeting.  Perhaps I can address some of the incorrect information in his letter.

First, there was no attempt to create an unnecessary and costly position of Executive Deputy.  That position already exists, it was just not currently filled.  Furthermore, when Tony held the position of Executive Deputy, he was the lowest paid officer in the dept., including Captains. There was one regular Deputy Chief one year that made almost double the Executive Deputy and even more than the Chief.  The Executive Deputy, like the Chief cannot make overtime unlike all the other officers.

As far as calling back guys on overtime when an emergency necessitates it…Greenburgh is a large town made up of mostly volunteer depts.  When one of them has a fire and calls Fairivew, Hartsdale, or Greenville, they show up.  And, yes, they do call people back on overtime if the emergency requires it for both themselves and other depts..

Michael Cotter may be on the taxpayers side but so are all the other commissioners, they all live here.  Michael Cotter is a retired firefighter and may hold some grudges against people still employed in the dept.  One must always be careful about other people’s agendas.  Where else can you retire from your job and get elected to be a boss?  Perhaps a better idea may be to see if there is a way to stop retirees from coming back to be commissioners in a dept. they were employed by.  Mike Cotter was never an officer in this dept. and had no idea what it entailed.

Next point was Eryk Simmons being promoted to Deputy.  When someone retires, they need to be replaced.  Eryk was number 1 on the list and had an impressive resume and had proven himself more than ready for the job in his performance as a Captain.

Milt also mentioned nepotism.  Let’s go there.  You are now concerned with a Commissioner’s son being promoted to deputy, even though that commissioner recused herself from voting.  For years, there was a Malone on the Board of Fire Commissioners.  First there was Gene Malone Jr., followed by his wife Marie.  I’m guessing they also recused themselves from voting when it came to their sons, son-in-law, daughter-in-law’s brothers, grandchildren, etc. being hired or promoted.  No one screamed nepotism then, so why now?  It was no secret.  For years Fairview was known as the Malone Fire Dept. because there were so many of them.  And now it’s a problem?  Generally speaking, the firefighting profession often attracts members of the same family.  Every candidate must take the Civil Service Exam and prove themselves.  Nepotism is not really an issue.

As to Milt’s remarks about Tony retiring after being criticized for profane and racist remarks and sued for discrimination in hiring, the timeline is correct.  Tony is retiring but it is not because of the above.  First let’s address the hiring.  The Chief does not hire.  The Board of Fire Commissioners hire.  So it doesn’t even make sense that the Chief is even named in the suit.  It’s actually unfathomable.  But, this is today’s America, anyone can sue anyone for pretty much anything.

There is no one that wants Tony to retire, especially right now, except perhaps Paul Feiner, Milt Hoffman, and Mike Cotter.  And, we did consider staying, however, if you read the other information I have provided*, you will see that firefighters don’t generally live very long after retiring.  Tony already has one of the cancers caused by 9/11.  It is generally a very slow-moving cancer except for in cases like the first responders down at the Twin Towers.  It moves very quickly so we saw no reason to stay longer than we had originally intended so we moved forward with our retirement plan.  Tony had informed the Board he would retire sometime this year but definitely by the end of the year because we were waiting to see what his health options were.

As to the Fire Dept. budget.  It is unfair of anyone to say anything at all about it with no information other than their own tax bill.  Also, it cannot be compared to the Police budget which is broken up and shared amongst other town expenses.

As to the Commissioner elections, it is always printed in the paper.  Not sure why Milt is trying to pretend now that it isn’t.  He’s brought lots of people to vote in the past.  Last year, someone at Town Hall had misinformed residents and told them it was a budget vote.  People were quite annoyed that they bothered to come out to vote for an unopposed commissioner. 

So the commissioners have not kept anyone in the dark.  They have been busy keeping the fire dept. out of Paul Feiner’s hands.  He wants to use the fire dept. budget for other town expenses.  He will cut our services.  Fairview does EMS.  Nine times out of ten they will respond much quicker than the police are able to.  Fairview’s response time is approx. 5 to 8 minutes from the time they are notified.  The police response is approx. 12 – 15 minutes.  If you have ever needed to call 911 in Fairview, you will generally have the fire dept. pull up first.  If you want to save money, they can discontinue being EMTs and leave that to the police but do you really want to take that risk?  The Fairview Fire Dept. has a long-standing history of supporting the town in EMS, Tech Rescue, and Code Enforcement.  The Town receives all the fine money from Code Enforcement, not the Fire Dept. The Fire Dept. is also not reimbursed for any training for these things and not reimbursed for supplies either.

Milt also mentioned dispatching by 60 Control.  This was already implemented.  As a matter of fact, Fairview was one of the first to be dispatched by 60 Control.  It was a disaster.  Only by the Grace of God, no one was killed or injured.  Also, Milt stated that the dept. dispatchers are paid overtime to handle the dispatching.  Not true.  This is handled by the duty crew for the most part.  Very often by someone who is on light duty.  The firefighters are put on light duty if they are injured.  They are going to be paid anyway, so instead of having them sit around the firehouse and do nothing, they cover the desk (dispatch). 

Someone also mentioned that the guys that went down to the World Trade Center for the 9/11 Tragedy were paid triple time.  That is ludicrous.  Many career firefighters volunteered to go down on their time off.  This was totally unpaid, hence the word volunteer.  I do not know about the NYC firefighters, I’m guessing they probably did get paid, as well they should have.

Milt also keeps mentioning the Chief of NYC and his pay.  I have printed out the organizational chart of the NYC Fire Dept.*  Please take a look at it.  Your Chief is in charge of almost every box on that chart and goes to every major call in Fairview 24 hours, 365 days a year.  He doesn’t  have a “staff”.  Take a look at the chart.  My goodness, your Chief is underpaid by Milt’s standards.

I ask you to support Chief Reiss and the Fairview Fire Dept.

End of letter

Providing bits and pieces of information or saying what people want to hear under the guise of informing the public or rallying the troops does not do anyone a service. It is nothing but propaganda for their own “end game”. ABG has continued to detail the specifics of the Fairview Fire District and the Fairview Fire Department directly, the fire service in general and numerous NY State laws that affect both the fire service and the taxpayer. No other media outlets are providing this information.

Many people have accused ABG of being against fire service consolidation, lower taxes, curbing of high salaries, high pension payouts and more. The reality is quite the contrary – we actually support real consolidation. But real consolidation can only work and work well if it will be implemented throughout a Town-wide level, inclusive of "cherry picked" departments and agencies in the Town. Real consolidation must not applied to just a few departments here and there. It can only succeed if the effort is applied equally, with an even implementation unencumbered or politicized by elected officials.

The taxpayers of Greenburgh deserve more honesty and real open government from our officials. We should seek term limits for all elected officials, and a process that invites and welcomes all legal residents to participate in the process. Greenburgh has yet to see any of this with the majority of our elected officials. Once we do, we’ll finally get A Better Greenburgh.

* Editor’s Note: ABG will be highlighting this information which was not included and will appear in an article currently in progress.

Fire Commissioners Fight Back!

Misinformation and deflection are the cornerstones of the Feiner Administration. Mr Feiner’s underlings know that they need to do several things to keep whatever position they occupy in the Town. First, always make sure to bail out Mr Feiner when he puts his foot in his mouth. Second, fall on the sword when a policy or decision he mandated gets exposed. This was last highlighted in our article posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, entitled Just Another Broken Law, where Town Comptroller Bart Talamini dove on the sword admitting that he and he alone violated NYS law and withheld the tax payments to the fire districts to the tune of $10M. Third, anytime there is an issue that could be interpreted as embarrassing to Mr Feiner in a meeting, a Town Board member is required to make a motion to hold it over, keep it open, pass it to a commissioner or say it will need to be investigated further. The list goes on but you get the point.

There is another group of “Feiner-ites” that also serve the master unconditionally. One example is a resident and convicted felon, appointed by Mr Feiner to the Deputy Town Supervisor position. There was no Civil Service exam that had to be taken for the position. There was no election for the position either. It was simply a nepotistic appointment arbitrarily made from one friend for another. This underscores the glaring lack of standards and abuse of positions and rank at Town Hall. More importantly, it reeks of the nepotism Mr Feiner himself has accused the fire district of practicing. Shame. On. Him. Why doesn’t the mainstream media report on any of this? We can only assume its because they share similar agendas.

Another “Feiner-maton” is also a resident with his own small cadre of drones that will say whatever they are instructed to say whenever and wherever they are needed. The one distinction between these two men is that this one was not appointed to any position by Mr Feiner. He just believes in the failed social engineering plan known as Westchester 2000. It was never adopted because it was too enormous, bureaucratic and costly to ever be implemented, run or successful. He continues to carry that torch while doing Mr Feiner’s dirty work. He’s also gotten quite a bit of media coverage himself by the Feiner-friendly media and with their complicity, helped him spread a good deal of the lies, misinformation and distrust being groomed from Town Hall. Being retired from the mainstream media guarantees a certain amount of cache with them and knows they will listen to him and print whatever he says. Fortunately for Greenburgh, he is selling his home to move out of Greenburgh – a telling gesture if there ever was one!

The Town of Greenburgh’s hiring policies leave a lot to be desired based on what we’ve witnessed by Mr Feiner cavalierly “appointing” people into positions of consequence. Claims by Mr Feiner and his minions of nepotism in the Fairview Fire District would almost be laughable if the mainstream media had not been so complicit with Mr Feiner’s ruse instead of honestly investigating the allegations. If nepotism exists, it can certainly be found with our own “Pinocchio Paul”. Much has been said about Fire Commissioner Vikki Simmons’ son being promoted to Deputy Chief. Much has also been said about retiring Chief Anthony LoGiudice. And most of what has been fabricated was done to further Mr Feiner’s agenda as well as deflect attention from the Town’s crippling financially-induced problems caused by Mr Feiner. 

What the media hasn’t reported is that everyone working in a firematic capacity for the fire department/fire district had to start the process by taking and passing a Civil Service exam, subsequently being put on a numeric list by score before the Fire Commissioners could even interview and/or hire them! This is the same exam that is used throughout the County by all other paid fire departments and fire districts. In fact, it’s known in firematic circles as the “County Test”. What also hasn’t been reported is that every firefighter who is promoted must also take and pass another Civil Service test just to be put on another numeric list by score before they could be interviewed and chosen for promotion.

Just passing either test and being on the list doesn’t guarantee being hired or promoted - it only opens the door. And, the lists have a finite life span. So passing and being on the list is a temporary opportunity. If and when the list expires and a civilian wants to be considered for a position or a firefighter for a promotion and didn’t get “made” the first time around, they must take a new test again and pass it to be placed on a new list. There is also no guarantee that they will pass the new Civil Service exam just because they passed it previously, nor any guarantee they'll get “made” this time around. 

Last night’s Fairview Fire Commissioner’s meeting saw a 180° turnaround from the previous meeting. Armed with handouts, information and facts, the Board was in control of this meeting! ABG has learned that before the previous meeting held in April, the Board had been instructed by the District’s attorneys not to comment on any of the accusations that were made, giving the false appearance that the Board of Commissioners had something to hide. Whether this was a good idea or not remains to be determined. Several opponents rallied around resident Milt Hoffman once again; although his entourage was significantly reduced to just a hand full of residents.

He made several comments, with some being good points: the fire departments website is lacking and needs to be improved to disseminate information to the public and the need to extend the voting hours for fire commissioner elections. He also stated that now that a new Chief has been appointed, they lose the ability to have the Hartsdale Chief take over command of the Fairview FD. Ms Simmons explained to Mr Hoffman that NY State law does not allow anyone to be a member of two or more fire departments and they are required to have a Chief officer. He looked stunned when she replied. For any officer to give an order to a Fairview firefighter and have it be followed, the superior officer would need to be a member first and then a ranking officer in the Fairview FD, unless they were operating in that departments jurisdiction under mutual aid.

Much had been said about Commissioner Simmons last month. This month she was having none of it, keeping Mr Hoffman in check and countering every one of his ramblings with real facts. When he tried to highlight the eight-year old Michaelian Report as an example, Ms Simmons held up her copy and promised to give it to anyone who wanted to see it and countered the information as Mr Hoffman tried to make it pertain to the Fairview Fire District. The highlight of the night came when "First Lady" Kathy LoGiudice, the outgoing Chief’s wife, was called on to speak. She rose and stated she was not a public speaker and had prepared a letter that another resident would read on her behalf. We will post her letter in our next post. In it she countered much of what had previously been said as the anti-Fire Department/District/Chief crowd were attacking everything and everybody with the Fairview Fire District and Department.

After the letter was read, one Commissioner felt the need to respond as his name was mentioned in her letter. Commissioner Simmons, with over 20 years of service as an unpaid commissioner, let him speak. When he was finished, Mr Hoffman said he wanted to respond to what had been said about him. She told him he had had plenty of time to speak tonight and they were going to move on with the meeting. As he began to protest, another commissioner stepped in and told him a resident gave an opinion and if he has an issue with that, he could take it up with her after the meeting. They proceeded with the regular order of business and adjourned to Executive Session to discuss personnel issues.

ABG and many of the residents wish Chief LoGiudice and his family well in his retirement. We hope the cancer he contracted at Ground Zero will be held in check and again thank him for his years of service to Fairview, Greenburgh and our respective communities throughout.

ABG also congratulates Chief Howard Reiss on his promotion to Chief of the Department. We know that with his firematic background, knowledge, history and compassion for others, he is the right choice for this job.

It seems as though the firestorm started by Mr Feiner for his own political benefit has been extinguished. Maybe things will change at Town Hall in the next election and we can stop these games and finally have A Better Greenburgh.

The Grand Plan: Ultimatums To Promote Ill-Conceived Consolidation (Part 3)

Lest anyone believe the talks of fire consolidation by Mr Feiner are genuine, please read the letters posted below, authored by Town Councilman Francis Sheehan. The first letter with the heading “Memo” is the letter Mr Sheehan sent to the 2008 Consolidation Board, Fire Districts and Board of Fire Commissioners, detailing why he resigned from the Consolidation Committee. When you read the body of the actual resignation letters, it becomes abundantly clear to all that Mr Feiner is acting consciously to coerce the direction of the vote endorsing fire consolidation with the Towns paid fire departments of Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville.

Mr Feiner has threatened and is proposing to push a referendum toward consolidating two of the Town’s three paid fire departments. Since his orginal proposal, Mr Feiner has jettisoned Greenville from the consolidation “mix”. We’ve already explained why he is no longer including the Greenville Fire Department, however we’ll quickly recount the reason. Simply, he cannot afford to upset the Edgemont community, already anxious to incorporate and become their own village, because he needs the revenue their taxes generate, the higher value homes and most importantly, the attractiveness of their school system to attract people to move to Greenburgh. Since Edgemont has been rather vociferous about Mr Feiner’s actions, opinions as to what they plan to do abound. Mr Feiner has good reason to adjust his takeover plans.

The Greenville Fire District, and the Greenville Fire Department has its fire station on Central Avenue near the A&P Supermarket and Curry Chevrolet businesses. Loosely speaking, they provide fire protection to the southern and eastern area of Greenburgh. Specifically, they provide fire protection for the relatively affluent portion of the Town known as Edgemont, among others. The moderately wealthy Hartsdale Fire District and Hartsdale Fire Department protects the correspondingly adjacent area mostly north and west of Greenville’s fire protection district. Finally, the balance of the Unincorporated area that is protected by a paid fire service is the heavily populated with low-income and 49% tax-exempted Fairview section of the Town, protected by the Fairview Fire District  and Fairview Fire Department.

Reading the resignation letter Mr Sheehan wrote and sent to the Consolidation Committee, Fire Districts and Board of Fire Commissioners is an eye opening tale of coercion, Tammany Hall politics, and political chicanery not seen or felt before this administration matured in the Town of Greenburgh or even Westchester County. In it Mr Sheehan touches on several points: what he has learned about firematics while on the committee, the distrust many have for him as a Town Councilman (with this undertaking) placed on this committee and the Town Board in general. He comments to Mr Feiner’s purposeful recruitment and placement with a committee comprised of individuals with no fire knowledge or background. 

On page one of the opening salvo to Mr Feiner, Mr Sheehan states he is resigning specifically to resolve the conflict which Mr Feiner created. This deal was a tit-for-tat, one hand washing the other, or more succinctly, politics at its worst. Mr Feiner was blackmailing Mr Sheehan into giving Mr Feiner the fire consolidation report findings he sought in return for approval to amendments to the antenna law Mr Sheehan was working on. Mr Feiner threatened that “Any recommendation other than the fire district consolidation could foster delay in the adoption of the proposed amendments to the antenna law or further retaliation against the Antenna Advisory Board, which would ultimately harm the community.”

During the time the Consolidation Committee was meeting, Mr Feiner was not getting the intended outcome from Mr Sheehan, et al, so Mr Feiner took it upon himself and “authorized Town staff to prepare a Request For Proposal (RFP) to hire consultants, not only to review the proposed amendments, but to assume all duties of the Antenna Advisory Board...” This move was a clear attempt by Mr Feiner to usurp Mr Sheehan and ensure the results he had tasked the committee to produce.

Throughout the two page resignation letter from the Consolidation Committee tendered by Mr Sheehan to Mr Feiner are references to arm-twisting by Mr Feiner. Mr Sheehan decided to step away from the Consolidation Committee to be able to pursue the best course of action for the Town with regards to antennas throughout our Town. Admirable. The Consolidation scam Mr Feiner is perpetuating against the Town will have dire financial consequences throughout the Unincorporated Town if allowed to happen. We must stop Mr Feiner's blatant toying with bits and pieces of the Greenburgh landscape with developers, spot-zoning, discrimination, and other deflections designed to position him as a leader. Real leaders don't need to play these games. Real leaders lead by setting good examples. Greenburgh needs real leaders. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

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.

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.

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.