Town Crippled With Supervisor Gone

There’s quite a bit that must happen for a neighborhood in our Town, such as this one known as Edgemont (Greenville by some), to ultimately want to incorporate into a Village within the Town. The steps taken so far are moving that goal closer to fruition. To be candid, not everyone is a fan of the Edgemont incorporation move. Many of those opponents include Mr Feiner, and probably his Town Board – mostly because we believe he told them to be against it.

Others who have doubts have called a meeting for tonight at the Highview School, off of Central Avenue, at 7:30pm. They might have wanted the meeting at Town Hall, but you’ll recall Mr Feiner and his Town Board decided to forbid any taxpayer the use of their own taxpayer building after he allowed a Hamas organization to use it and the police had to be called in to address a Feiner-created near riot situation! What a shame that residents are treated so poorly by Mr Feiner until a reporter is nearby and he can spout his phony “open government” mantra.

Whether or not you are for the Edgemont incorporation, you can find out more information by attending the meeting to be held tonight. Ironically, Mr Feiner was away on vacation when Jeff Sherwin of the Edgemont Incorporation Committee arrived at Town Hall loaded with a 1400 signature petition and a $6,000 filing fee to initiate the incorporation process. Bereft of any real legal talent at Town Hall, many, including the legal department, chose to misinterpret the law and not allow Mr Sherwin his right of filing his petition or paying the required fee. Under the rouse of ignorance, legal technicalities or simply ineptness, the Deputy Town Supervisor, in this case Councilman Jones, was claimed to not be able to accept the petitions or fee. Town Attorney Tim Lewis said he was unable to accept them, stating it had to go to the Supervisor. And, finally, the Town Clerk, the official keeper of all documents, was supposedly unable to accept them as well. To make a play on a line in My Cousin Vinny, “Do the laws of operation cease to exist at Town Hall when the Supervisor is away?”

What this clearly demonstrates is several things. First, our Town's operation will grind to a halt if the Supervisor is out of Town, ill and not in the office, or worse. Second, if the first assumption is not correct, does Mr Feiner have his administration so well-trained (scared) that they refuse to act in his absence for fear of repercussions or retribution (read: be Sonya’d)? Third, is there no other legal recourse that this administration's minions can seek guidance from in Mr Feiner's absence should our second scenario be incorrect? With all of the back-and-forth, their refusals lessened the amount of time Mr Feiner needs to validate the signatures. And, we all know that Mr Feiner is one of the best at disqualifying petition signatures.

The last municipality to incorporate was Rye Brook in 1982. It’s not a question of why did it take so long since then? Rather, why is this happening at all? Edgemont is the wealthiest community in the Unincorporated Town of Greenburgh. For years they have butted proverbial heads with Mr Feiner and iterations of his Town Boards about how their community was treated. Or, more importantly, mistreated. They have asked for zoning considerations during stressful zoning changes and been ignored. They asked for sidewalks and were ignored - at least until Mr Feiner realized they were serious about incorporation. They asked the Town not to add a tax, oops, fee to service stations on Central Avenue and were ignored. Wait a minute... he’s done this to every community except the Manhattan Avenue section of Fairview. The difference is Edgemont has the money, talent and resources others do not have to fight him. And fight him they are!

No neighborhood should have to feel or pursue the need to incorporate to protect its residents from the politicians in charge. And yet, this is Greenburgh; often described as Bizarro Greenburgh. This helps us to understand why a neighborhood such as Edgemont would want to incorporate and get out from under the bad and costly decisions of this administration. We're sure there are other communities that feel the same way but don’t have near the resources of an Edgemont to get “out from under”. It’s too bad that any neighborhood is driven to feel this way. This must end. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

The Town's Largess Is Costing All of Us

There are several bulk mailing rates that the Town uses for their snail-mail mailings. One piece of mail in a business envelope goes for $.23; another goes for $.46.5. This costs all tax payers a lot of money during the course of a year each time a mailing is done. Why are these mailings done and why so often you may ask? Simply, it’s politics. It’s a cost free way for Mr Feiner, albeit the Town Board, to campaign without using his/their own money, campaign funds or donations. As long as it can be done under the pretext of providing information to the public, there are no campaign finance laws broken nor are any election bank accounts emptied, drained or depleted.

When there is an issue Mr Feiner wishes to promote, you might receive almost daily mailings arriving to you at either rate. We witnessed this numerous times in the past. One recent proposal has been Mr Feiner’s push for the ill-conceived and zoning deficient assisted living facility by the Formation Shelbourne organization where the current Sprainbrook Nursery sits. They are seeking to build a four-story, 94-bed facility on less than four acres of property and roughly 6,000 feet from a County of State right-of-way roadway – requirements under the two-year old zoning law recently adopted by Mr Feiner and his Town Board.

Mr Feiner has taken to endorsing projects that are primarily commercial by nature, regardless of whether they are built in a commercial or residentially zoned area. There are several examples that come to mind. The first was Westhab which he suggested to then County Legislator Lois Bronz be built on the former Kings Inn Motel site in Fulton Park. That was a transition parcel of land that was zoned half commercial and half residential.  But he didn’t care about zoning. By making the Town Board the lead agency for the project, they were able to disregard any and all legal standings previously maintained and allowed building to proceed. Mailings were done throughout the Town seeking support of this project. People sympathetic to Mr Feiner in the neighborhood also received these mailings. The rest did not. However, the multiple mailings cost us a significant chuck of money. Shouldn’t the Supervisor remain neutral about any projects?

Another project was the GameOn 365 proposal in the former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road. Emails acquired under the Freedom of Information Law confirmed Mr Feiner promised in private meetings with the GameOn 365 principals that he’d push the project through. When the area neighborhoods learned of the proposal, they revived their civic association to fight the 8-story sports bubble Mr Feiner felt was okay to build in this residential neighborhood. You see, the zoning had been allowed for a commercial establishment years ago. When Frank’s Nursery defaulted on the mortgage, they went into foreclosure and the Town acquired the property. Instead of selling it within the first 6-months of acquisition, as required by County and State law, Mr Feiner decided to hold onto it. Consequently, the zoning for the land reverted back to residential zoning. Had he not begun playing politics with the property and simply sold it, it would have been “grandfathered” to remain commercial. Not only were there multiple mailings supporting this project, he did separate mailings about holding a referendum, poorly written by his administration, in hopes of getting a passing vote. It worked but he ultimately lost because all of the neighborhoods stood united to only have residential housing built there. There were so many mailings for this project it’s actually hard to tally it all up.

Next up was the Brightview Assisted Living facility at Rt 119 and Benedict Avenue in the Glenville section of Unincorporated Greenburgh. This small tight knit neighborhood would soon be overwhelmed with a building that a) doesn’t fit the neighborhood; b) looms over Rt 119 and the beginning of Benedict Avenue; c) does not allow the average Greenburgh senior citizen on Medicare to live there; and d) could wind up following suit as so many other assisted living facilities and go bankrupt and need to repurpose itself into a condominium or co-operative apartment. Could this entire assisted living facility be a pretense to build an assisted living facility where apartment buildings would not be allowed due to zoning? We don’t know but wonder. There were numerous mailings from the Supervisor pushing the Brightview project. All we wonder is at what cost was all of this done and why was the Supervisor so invested in promoting it?

Beyond the major projects such as mentioned above, and there are more, he goes out of his way to do mailings vis-à-vis advertising for private companies and corporations. The latest recipient of Mr Feiner’s largess is the Hartsdale Kumon Center. While this may be a terrific business doing great work with kids needing additional help with their schoolwork for a fee, it is not the job of the Town to do a mailing or advertising blitz throughout the Town for private, for profit businesses. At $.46 per piece mailed, this is an unnecessary expense for taxpayers to bear and must stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Illegal Sale From Town Board Thwarted

Being forced to limit themselves to the law can certainly put a crimp in Mr Feiner and his Town Board’s actions. As we’ve mentioned numerous times, if Mr Feiner doesn’t like a law, he simply ignores it and asks forgiveness when challenged. Case in point was seen again just two Town Board meetings ago. Mr Feiner did a mailing to residents along with the requisite email blast, both of which ABG regards as campaign mailings. Once again, the Town Board was derailed by not only the ever-vigilant G10, but also by residents who had never before come to a Town Board meeting. You see, Mr Feiner had scheduled a vote for the sale of property belonging to the Town in the Village of Hastings on Hudson.

The headline read, “Hastings On Hudson Resident Purchasing Land From Town So Children Can Walk Safely To School” with a brief paragraph describing that a resident, Hallie Anderson is a role model, purchasing the property to create a path to enable kids walking to school a path to travel, away from the Tomkins Avenue roadway that the students are apparently forced to walk on to school. However, he also states later, “The children of Marianna Drive have used these woods as a way to school for 60 years, and she just wants to enable them to safely do so in the future. The Town Board will sell her the property for $2000 at our meeting on Monday night at 7:30 PM.” While Ms Anderson may be a role model, Mr Feiner and his Board are not. What he fails to mention is that the Town cannot legally sell the property without performing a number of requisite steps.

The Town has a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpaying residents of the Town to get the highest amount possible for any real estate transaction the Town undertakes. Once Ms Anderson apparently made the secret deal with Mr Feiner, he more than likely invited her to explain her position to his Town Board at a work session. She did just that. In fact she brought several neighbors who all espoused the value of this project. But that’s when Mr Feiner’s newest scheme began to unravel.

At the subsequent Town Board meeting, Brendan Maney, accompanied by others, spoke from the podium during the public comment session of the sale Mr Feiner had initiated with Ms Anderson. During Mr Maney’s time at the microphone, he stated that there had been no survey which are required for land sales, trees were removed without permits, a 15’ divide was created with about 18” depth of mulch. There was never an appraisal of the strip of land in question, no contract drawn, no title search completed nor a public auction held for the land. Mr Maney offered double the amount, $4,000, for the tract of land. He also stated that because of the work already performed, the property has become a hangout area and a problem with noise, littering etc.

The Town Board realized once again the hot water Mr Feiner put them in when he created this secret deal that had now been exposed. Papers shuffled on the dais without much comment. It reminds us of the GameOn 365 debacle created by Mr Feiner for his friends from GameOn 365 with the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. You’ll recall the Town acquired that property through foreclosure and learned of the site’s contamination when they tried to relocate the Town Library there during the library’s construction. Mr Feiner first tried to illegally lease the property to them and then sell it to them for less than the property was worth. There was a lot of back and forth and scheming to make the deal happen. The G10 and others threatened a lawsuit to stop the sweetheart deal from moving forward. That seemed to work, at least temporarily.

Also entered into that fray was Ardsley’s House of Sports, who offered to purchase the property for double what GameOn 365 was offering to pay for it. Mr Feiner refused. Sound familiar? Then House of Sports upped the ante and offered to pay for all remediation necessary for the property. GameOn 365 would not pay for remediation as they have no money and Mr Feiner said the Town would pay. But he only said the Town would pay for some of the applicants. 

Town Attorney Tim Lewis, apparently a little-to-unknown hazardous materials remediation expert, repeatedly stated the cleanup would cost no more than $100,000. The study for the remediation just about cost that. Regardless, Mr Feiner refused the offer from House of Sports with the cleanup included. It now appears that the Town will be selling the Dobbs Ferry Road property for an Assisted Living facility and the Unincorporated taxpayers will pay for remediation costs up to $2 million dollars. But there is no mention what it will cost the Unincorporated taxpayers should the cleanup go beyond $2 million. We believe the if the cost goes above two million, which is likely, the Town will wind up giving the developer the property, at a loss, and the only income the property will generate will be tax revenue.

The Hastings property sale was another questionable (as opposed to shady) deal that took place in the corner office. We’re not saying, however, that Ms Anderson is acting anyway but openly and honestly. We are saying that Mr Feiner’s actions are suspect. And even if he were finally operating on the up-and-up, which we find almost impossible to believe, past performance is the definitive guarantee that tells us he’s probably acting questionably.

After the last Town Board meeting, Councilman Morgan approached the Maney’s and we overheard a portion of that conversation. We believe he told them that he had been in contact with the Hastings on Hudson Mayor about either donating or deeding the property from the Town to the Village, who could then sell it or do whatever they want with it. It remains to be seen how this will play out. But it seems for now, the Town Board may have deflected another bullet fired by Mr Feiner again. It remains to be seen. This Town Board rarely does the right thing, just the right thing for themselves. This time seems to be the exception. They need to make the exception be the rule. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.