An Excuse to Perpetuate Illegal Offers

ABG has just acquired two letters (below) delivered to the Town of Greenburgh in advance of the impending Town Board Work Session slated to be held on Tuesday at 9:30AM. The scheduled meeting would invariably not start on time as the audience members, applicants and viewers would be forced to wait until the Board finally shows up. The work session meetings, which typically never start on time, would have included several topics that are generically listed on the posted agenda on the Towns website. But the waters had gotten even murkier for The Paul in short time. Subsequently, while the Elm Street Sports proposal for double the amount GameOn 365 offered, was slated to be discussed, The Paul was running scared and eliminated it by canceling the meeting!

Because Councilman Morgan had a funeral to attend, The Paul thought it appropriate that Town business be halted and foregone because one Board member would not be present. While we appreciate the sentiment, the Board should meet and carry on the Town’s business – less one. It didn’t seem to stop them at all when rookie Councilman Ken Jones was sick for several meetings that were slated to contain votes on the GameOn 365 proposal. ABG believes Jones decided to take some “sick time” to avoid having to take a position on the various GameOn 365 votes, which we hope he, along with many others of the public, recognized as illegal and more importantly, unethical. Too bad he wasn’t there to vote his conscious – something this Town has been missing for numerous years under The Paul’s rule.

If you have followed the GameOn 365 debacle for the last two years or so, you know that The Paul was exposed to having secretly met with GameOn 365 owners to broker a secret back-room deal for the former Frank’s Nursery property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. During this time, the Elm Street Sports Group, owners of the House of Sports Facility of Ardsley, NY, had purchased the property at 2 Elm Street, in Ardsley. This had been a former tennis facility and the home of Selecto, a food distribution warehouse which suffered a catastrophic fire years ago and the death of an employee. Selecto would never return to the location. With the purchase, renovation and opening of House of Sports, they have added to the Ardsley landscape, infused the tax base and vitality of an otherwise languishing local economy.

To ensure GameOn 365 every advantage and unfair “edge” they might need to build their proposed “sports bubble”, The Paul stacked the deck in GameOn 365’s favor. He agreed to a proposed fifteen year lease for the knowingly contaminated site, aware it was the acknowledged White Plains Urban Renewal dumping site! When area residents contested The Paul’s strategy with a lawsuit, following his own advice (“If you don’t like what I’m doing, sue me!”), he changed tactics and finally decided to follow the law. Simply, the law states that the supervisor must sell any land acquired through foreclosure, or use it for Town purposes if they decide to keep it. Morally bereft and challenged, our Town Board decided their spines, and political careers, should remain out-of-play. So they went along with The Paul to get along and not be “Sonya’d” out of their generous part-time jobs.

Interestingly, the Town had a property appraisal recently performed for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road and the amount of the appraisal was the amount that GameOn 365 was offering! Hey, wait a minute... is it possible to to stack the deck any more than it already is? Well, The Paul tried. Since The Paul’s illegal actions were bad enough, Elm Street Sports decided to up the ante, so to speak, and took a page out of The Paul’s playbook. They made an public offer to the Town to also purchase 715 Dobbs Ferry Road for roughly double what the GameOn 365 organization offered the Town! The difference between the “real business” that Elm Street Sports operates versus the “paper business” GameOn 365 talks about, is that GameOn 365 is still searching for investors for business model that GameOn 365 hopes to operate with someone else’s money. Elm Street Sports has the capital to purchase and remediate the site now. GameOn 365 is a pyramid scheme designed to operate only after they raise the money necessary to purchase for their possible business.

While the choice over which proposal should be accepted is obvious to the vast majority of people, one speaker at the last Town Board public session stated that he overheard a conversation where Town Attorney Tim “Remediation” Lewis stated to the effect that while the Elm Street Sports proposal might be better for the Town, they gave their word to GameOn 365. While giving and sticking to one’s word is laudable, this was one wrong, illegal and unethical move after another for a project destined for failure under the law.

This new opportunity affords the Town Board a facility to right many wrongs, whether intentional or not (ABG is being generous). The Town has lost about $1.5M in taxes on that property. The offer for $1.5M in total from Game On 365 only negates back taxes. In effect, the Town is giving them use of the land for free. The proposal from Elm Street Sports pays the $1.5M in back taxes and gives the Town a profit of $1.5M. And, while GameOn 365 was positioned to appear to pay for remediation of the property, they simply do not have the money to do so, cannot raise what will be needed, and have the opportunity to exit the deal when things get too problematic for them. All of the money that will be needed for the remediation will be provided by Elm Street Sports, something GameOn 365 won’t agree to. This is a no-brainer – even in Greenburgh.

It is incumbent on the Town to accept the best offer for the residents of the Town, regardless of how much “keeping your word” can be used as an excuse to perpetuate illegal offers. Elm Street Sports’ offer is in the best financial, ethical, zoning, planning and neighborhood-centric interests of the Town and the community. Another obvious solution out of this predicament is a legitimate sale process with a new RFP. ABG urges the public to contact The Paul and the Town Board with phone calls, letters and such to let them know you support Elm Street Sports’ proposal or a new RFP. Giving and keeping one’s word is only important when the word is for something legal and morally just. Let’s hope the Town Board understands the difference. We can only hope.

Letter from Elm Street Sports:

Letter from the Elm Street Sports attorneys:

WestHelp As A Loss Leader

There are numerous years still left in the WestHelp lease between the Town and the County. The openly professed NIMBY’s of the Valhalla section of Town, are the Mayfair-Knollwood group, lead by The Paul and propped up by County Legislator Michael Smith (R-Valhalla). In a Town Board work session Tuesday morning, the Greenburgh Town Board collectively fell on the sword for their leader. They voted to continue pushing for the County to accept their “sham” deal with the Ferncliff School, making them the official tenant for the now-vacant property. In any other Town, these people would be recognized as racists and run out of Town!

We’ve previously written about the apparent links to the County Executive, the County Legislature, The County Executive’s Communications Director, The Valhalla School District and of course, The Paul. In a concerted effort to drive the unwanted homeless element out of Valhalla, whether combined or singularly, The Paul let the $1.2 million lease with Westchester County lapse, claiming, as he is doing again, that it’s the County’s fault the lease wasn’t renewed. Then to prove his virtue, he manufactured two emails that he claimed were emails he had sent to then County Executive Spano stating he wanted to renew the lease. Everyone who saw the emails said the same thing: they were phonies. 

Monday night The Paul released the RFP’s (request for proposals) submitted to the Town for the County’s former WestHelp property. There were six submissions:

Ferncliff Manor, Inc. 
$500,000 per year to the Town until the year 2031 to operate a residential school for 74 developmentally disabled children. 70% of the children come from families with incomes below $50,000 annually.

Group MRH, LLC & The Richman Group Affordable Housing Organization
$100,000 per year to the Town until the year 2032 to operate an affordable rental housing pursuant to a triple Net sublease agreement with the Town for the remaining 20-year Master Lease term.

HarborView Properties
$125,000 to 165,000 per year to the Town until the year 2032 to operate property as an eighty percent (80%) Market Rate Apartment Rental Community with twenty percent (20%) of Units set aside and designated as ¨Affordable Housing Units.¨

Marathon Development Group
$200,000 initial lease payment and lump sum $2,000,000 at contract closing representing the net present value of 20 year payment streams to the Town until the year 2032 to convert the existing shelter apartments into 80 units of affordable senior housing (55 and older), with a preference for veterans.

Community Housing Innovations
$350,000 per year to the Town until the year 2032 to develop the former WestHELP site for use as affordable housing, primarily for seniors and the existing administration/school building for a community use such as relocation of the Lois Bronz Children’s Center or Ferncliff Manor, Inc.’s. temporary use for a disabled school facility.

WestHAB
$200,000 per year to the Town ($600,000 up front) until the year 2064 to operate affordable housing pursuant to a tri-party lease between WestHAB, the Town and the County using Low Income Housing Tax Credit Equity for 50 years. 

The first proposal is his proposal of choice. It’s the reason he has let the WestHelp facility deteriorate with plans of tearing it down once he finally exhausts the County Legislature with his incessant posturing. His deflection campaign of trying to foist his failure to renew the contract as their fault is not working. Fortunately, the majority of legislators are not buying into his convoluted scheme. Is The Paul simply using Ferncliff as a loss-leader or is it just another deflection, cooked up long before this year’s budget debacle and would begin to take attention off of this year’s budget? He couldn’t know a hurricane would strike, bailing him out of another laser-focused critique of his poorly executed budget. In The Paul’s classic form, he just shrugs off the criticisms.

Interestingly, the WestHelp complex of 108 apartments was built under the authority of the United States Housing and Urban Development. That organization was run by then HUD Housing Secretary and current NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo. ABG believes Cuomo will be running for president in the next election, or at least vice-president. Regardless of his future plans, ABG doesn’t seriously believe that Westchester’s lack of affordable housing would find Cuomo endorsing the demolition of these same apartments after championing their creation. Why should that matter?

First, the state has it’s own budget problems and is unlikely and unwilling to come up with to remove affordable housing. Second, Ferncliff Manor is only offering $500,000 with the proviso that New York State pay for what will happen with the property for them. Without the state’s assistance, it is unlikely that the Ferncliff deal can happen nor would the Town actually be making $500k per year. Undaunted, that didn’t stop the Town Board from supporting The Paul’s harebrained idea – no surprise there! Somewhat sheepishly, Tim “Remediation” Lewis, coming off his major mishandling of the toxic site cleanup costs for the GameOn 365 proposal site, cautiously seemed to offer The Paul an “out” stating they should look at all the offers equally. The Paul barreled on.

The County Legislature, and it’s chair Legislator Ken Jenkins, have repeatedly told The Paul and the Town Board they must abide by the contractual obligations of the existing lease. They are not in favor of repurposing the site and giving up much needed affordable housing in Westchester especially in view of the housing desegregation settlement. While The Paul usually can’t wait to install affordable housing in the most inappropriate places, it begs the question of why he would be so adamantly against maintaining the 108 apartments in Valhalla and keeping the affordable housing? In fact, he’s been on record saying there is a glut of affordable housing in Greenburgh! So, what’s in it for him? 

ABG maintains votes as well as county support for The Paul is his motivation since this appeases Astorino, McCormack, Smith et al. This entire episode is loaded with ethical dilemmas, illegal actions and simply more lies. One of these RFP’s might very well be the one the Town signs on with, regardless of the superficial date The Paul has created for a final decision. These games have to stop. We can only hope.