Patronage Paul

ABG has written previously about The Paul’s latest patronage positions being meted out to his cronies. The last post was over his proposed appointment of convicted felon Alan Hochberg as some sort of fiscal oversight officer. We opposed it. In fact, many people who spoke at the Town Board meetings of late also opposed it. His total disregard of logical and intelligent decision-making never ceases to amaze us.

Feiner announced that he was considering his confidant Hochberg, as well as others, for this position. Knowing how often The Paul lies, ABG doesn’t believe there are any other candidates. Hochberg was the chairman for the citizens volunteer Budget Oversight Commission, which formulated this years budget. ABG also believes and has written that The Paul will use that fact to ensure deniability through deflection when the public complains about the budget. It will be up to the Hochberg Commission to fall on the sword for the Supervisor, a task Hochberg is all too willing to do.

Finally growing a set and attending the Work Session wearing a cup and supporter to protect himself, Town Council member Francis Sheehan publicly spoke up against the Paul, saying the proposed hires — a part-time budget officer and internal auditor — are unnecessary and "highly objectionable" since Supervisor Paul Feiner is proposing to lay off up to six employees in his $82.2 million spending plan for 2012. Sheehan said at the meeting, “I’m outraged that you would have deliberately and intentionally picked titles for these people that we can’t touch. Is this basically patronage?” Sheehan posing this as a question must have been his quick realization that he had screwed up and was being critical of his capo. ABG wonders if Sheehan had decided this would be his last term as a councilman and he might have had enough of The Paul?

It’s a shame only Councilwoman Brown stopped drinking the Feiner Kool-Aid this past year. Just look at what happened to her after leaving The Paul’s trough. Feiner had Councilman Morgan, who had his daughter (deniability through deflection) get Browns petition signatures to run for the supervisor position disqualified, torpedoing her run against The Paul. The previous election saw the same thing happen to Town resident and Feiner challenger Patricia Weems. In Feinerville, there are no penalties for low blows from those in power!

Under the guise of “spot checking” various Town departments, The Paul maintains his need for these positions, steadfastly insisting they are not patronage positions. It matters not whether spot checking is needed of our Town departments. The average person goes to work looking to do a fair days work for a fair days pay. We have a budget that will increase taxes but hangs the positions of some of our workers in jeopardy. This needn’t be the case. “I know in my heart that there’s waste," Feiner said. “With more eyes and scrutiny I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll be able to save hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars.” What?! If there’s waste, stop it! If we started by ceasing the incessant mailings from The Paul’s office, we sure to see a significant savings in money, refuse and recycling fees.

Council members Morgan and Juettner also expressed reservations about creating new positions while the town contemplates layoffs. Their position was certified public accountants Comptroller Bart Talamini and his deputy provide good financial oversight. We happen to agree with this.

Sheehan says he will vote against the budget if the positions remain. That's a pretty gutsy move for him if he plans to run again. Councilpersons Morgan and Juettner said they were undecided. We don’t believe them. They’ll vote with The Paul. Even though The Paul says he will create these positions as probationary and eliminate them if savings don’t materialize any savings. ABG is pretty sure that won’t happen. If they are created, they will stay for as long as The Paul does.

The only scenario that makes sense to ABG with this apparent stand on principles is that The Paul told them it would be okay to oppose him on these two appointments as they have no real value to him and he needs to appear willing to make concessions. The budget officer and internal auditor would be paid $45,000 and $35,000 a year, respectively. Many of our CSEA Town employees don’t make this much. 


ABG has heard numerous times that morale of Town employees is in the toilet. Why? Because they live under the impending threat of dismissal by The Paul - an unfortunate power he does yield. The only dismissals ABG believes would be good for the Town are five. You can guess who they might be. Things need to change for the better in the Town. We can only hope.

Paul Stresses, Hill Counters, Court Closed

The Journal News published a story entitled, “Administrator Quits, Cites Stress at Greenburgh Court”. While the headline said it all, it was from The Paul’s point of view. The article’s lead sentence is, “ The administrator of Greenburgh’s troubled Town Court is resigning after only 16 months on the job.” The article explained that Regina Hill, who would be leaving in the beginning of January, could not be reached for comment. 

It’s no secret that the Town of Greenburgh court system is in complete and utter disarray, mismanagement and legal standing. And hiring Regina Hill from the Port Chester courts as our Court Clerk/administrator seemed to be a good idea at the time. While on the job only a short time, she tackled clearing up a backlog of more than 80,000 unresolved traffic tickets going as far back as the 1990s.

The courts are besieged by poor record keeping, and infighting by the judges. Things are so bad that even the Greenburgh Democratic Party wanted to clean the judicial house, nominating 3 different candidates for the three judgeships that were “up” in this past election. While three weren’t exchanged as hoped, two sitting judges were replaced with new people. The democrats felt that was a substantive change.

In the first article about Hill’s resignation, Feiner stated and we quote, “ “She basically told me she was stepping down because the position was too stressful,” Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said Sunday night. “In terms of tightening up the court, making it more professional, she did a lot. Obviously, I’d prefer she stayed but she wanted a less stressful position.” ” 


The second article, titled, “Stress Not a Factor In Leaving, Court Administrator Says”, Hill stated that stress was not the reason for her departure. In a statement released by Hill, she didn’t mention the stress issue. She claimed that she resigned because it was time for her to move on after she had put a lot of effort in improving the courts. She felt with two new judges the Greenburgh Town Court will become more efficient and effective. Finally, she said, “It is my hope that the person who will replace me will be allowed to work with as little outside interference as possible.”

ABG believes Hill played Feiner like an easy mark, using him to get out from her position as Assistant Court Clerk in Port Chester to what she wanted it to be: Port Chester Court Clerk at $100k + benefits. She left the assistant clerks position and came to Greenburgh as Court Clerk for an initial salary of $75,000. We agree that Hill knows how to do her job and do it well. But ABG also believes she leveraged her Port Chester position against the Greenburgh position in between her and the Port Chester administration. Push came to shove and she left Port Chester for Greenburgh. Not happy about the move, she trudged on anyway. ABG assumes she voiced her displeasure about her salary to The Paul. What was The Paul’s reaction? He raised her paltry $75k + benefits salary to $100k + benefits. Didn’t she take the position knowing it would only pay $75k +? But even a $25k increase wasn’t enough to stay! What else did The Paul promise her? What didn’t The Paul tell us? Who’s lying to whom?

It’s been said that the “Greenburgh” reason Hill is leaving is the interference and lack of cooperation from the Paul. Part of that is probably true. According to a letter on the Edgemont Community Council website, Hill was fed up with The Paul’s interference with her job. For example, when she sought additional employees to attack the ticket backlog that seems to bother few residents, save the regulars at the Town Board meetings, The Paul gave her college interns – probably more qualified than The Paul with government administration. Any real-world manager knows when you have good employees you leave them alone and let them do what they do with minimal intervention.

But hold on, court’s not adjourned just yet! In a different twist of events, the Town’s drug Court also has problems. The purpose of a drug court is to settle nonviolent drug offenses with education, counseling and rehabilitation, rather than incarceration. Sounds easy enough. 

Judge Alan Scheinkman, the administrative judge for the 9th District, said he ordered the closure of he Town of Greenburgh Drug Court because Justices Sandra Forster and Doris Friedman are leaving the bench. They had both lost the Democratic primary and did not run in the general election. Scheinkman said he did have “some concerns” about how the drug court was operating, but the decision was primarily based on ensuring its smooth operation.

Judge Charles Apotheker, supervising judge of the 9th Judicial District, had shut down the town’s drug court as of Dec. 2. He said judges mishandled several cases and felt defendants rights were not being protected. The ten open cases in that court were transferred to White Plains’ courts in the interim.

Judge Apotheker said Town Justice Sandra Forster violated the rights of defendants on multiple occasions. In Greenburgh? Really? It’s not hard to believe giving the actions of The Paul and our Board. Why should judges be any different? Instances were cited but the damage was done. Judges Scheinkman and Apotheker were concerned about the courts operations and the way cases were being managed. As such, until the Greenburgh justices are properly trained in drug court operations, another Greenburgh court is adjourned.

The taxpaying residents and businesses of Greenburgh deserve better. For those who say they are not into politics, it’s why ABG urges you to be engaged and at least minimally involved. And while judges on the bench should not be legislating from the bench, its important for you to get to know the judges you are voting for. This isn’t a partisan issue, rather a civic one. The Town of Greenburgh is a sum of its parts. There are a lot of good parts to the Town. Admittedly, there are some not so good ones. Improvement must start from the top and filter down. We can only continue to hope to get to an improved “normal” for our Town, we can only hope..

“Build Here, Build Now, Build Big” – What’s a Consultant To Say?

A letter (posted below) dated November 28^th, the most recent publicity piece from Paul Feiner, comes to residents announcing what ABG believes is another waste of taxpayer dollars. While threatening to lay off Town employees – which ABG believes is nothing more that a publicity stunt, he’s hired yet another consultant! By the way, we’re sure whatever the CSEA agrees to at the bargaining table will not be enough for The Paul, whose ego is starting to outweigh the amount of the Town deficit.

This week he is writing to the neighborhood residents because they’ve experienced significant flooding in recent years. That much is true. Except for the typical environmental buzzwords and quotes about global warming, Indian Point, the Tappan Zee bridge walkway and dog park, he’s at a loss as to why this severe flooding is happening in our Town? Here’s why: over-development throughout the Town and the region. Can it really be that simple? Absolutely!

At the first Town Board meeting after Tropical Storm Irene punished the area with proof of the Supervisor’s disregard for his unbridled over-development of their locales, speaker after speaker went to the podium and discussed the individual impacts that the Town Board has created with it’s “build here, build now, build big” over-development mentality. In the neighborhood across the street from us is Fulton Park, a former gem of a little neighborhood nestled on the edge of the Town near the County Center. However, after Irene came through, it looked like a war zone, littered with sewage, debris, trees, downed wires and the like. It took over a week for residents to get back into their homes to begin cleanup.

The same took place in the now nationally famous Babbitt Court area of south Elmsford. It’s where every media outlet knows to go for pictures of devastation. The residents that spoke from there cited the over developed areas along the west side of Rt 9A, with Fairview Park growing from just Coca Cola to many more businesses, such as the skating rink, FedEx and other trucking companies. They all have massive buildings and large expanses of blacktop/impervious spaces. Farther up is Westy’s Storage, Grainger, Nextel, more buildings and parking in the Eastview Business complex, formerly Union Carbide. In addition, the Town has approved some 400+ condominiums on the former Union Carbide site. They’ve also approved 400+ additional condominiums at Avalon Greene off Taxter Road. Where do they think the water that used to go into the ground will go? Will it just evaporate? Not likely. No, it will go south as it always does and flood the lower lying regions again, such as Babbitt Court.

 The only differences between the Babbitt Court and Fulton Park areas is that FEMA has already raised some of the homes in Babbitt Court. The Town and the County cleaned out the Saw Mill River there, allowing for a more open flow of flood waters. That will help a bit. But on the other side of the Town are the Manhattan River and the Bronx River which need this same attention. Although, now that the media has left, so has the Town and County’s interest in helping. The Paul? Gone!

The next action step The Paul claims to be taking is, and we quote, “HIRING A CONSULTANT TO HELP US OBTAIN GRANTS”. If you follow this site at all, you know we highlight that The Paul is the master of deflection. Well, here he is at it again. Farther down in his letter, he states the consultant will be looking into drainage improvements, buyouts and funds to elevate homes. While this may be a good interim step, it does not address the real problem: over-development of the Town! We’re not saying we disagree with allowing people to build on their properties. Rather, we need realistic studies, including the oft-ignored infrastructure updates and improvements these developers should be making to handle the increased water runoff and to project and protect the impact it will have on nearby residents, neighborhoods, the Town and the Towns and Villages south of them to where the water flows.

When the ill-conceived Westhab project in Fulton Park was fast-tracked through the Planning Board (rejected), the Zoning Board (rejected) and finally the Town Board Lead Agency (approved) processes, the closest semblance to a flood impact study that the developer proposed was a green roof to allow and increased impervious space, basically building from curb to curb, claiming underground cisterns would capture the water and relieve the neighborhood from runoff. That is, as was pointed out by many non-engineer/residents, until they were quickly filled as Fulton Park is low in the water table. Therein lies the issue. 


Many common sense considerations were ignored because The Paul received or will receive something for rubber-stamping this and other developer projects. So flooding in this neighborhood will remain unchanged. Incredibly, our Town Board allowed the developer to write the bill/law for the Town’s Green Roof requirements. While ABG finds most of Councilman Sheehan’s bills generally sloppily written (and adopted), we have a building department, planning and zoning departments that should be able to craft a law. This responsibility should not be casually handed over to an applicant, no matter how convenient it may be for everyone involved.

When the consultant returns to the Town, after being handsomely paid and amid much anticipated hoopla, they’ll say buyouts can only happen with a pre-flood home assessment (too late for that), Town buy-in (laws, land acquisitions, money, commitments), neighborhood buy-in (everyone must agree), state buy-in (more money), and such. What will be the results of all of this? Buyouts will be dropped. They will propose an upgrade to the drainage infrastructure as to what is needed and it will cost x-amount of millions of dollars. Even with this, they’ll say it will not guarantee relief. The drainage plan will require floating (pun intended) a bond and an increase in taxes. Not happening in our lifetime unless the Lanza Foundation feels really generous. Finally, elevating homes will be the option of choice. But even after it’s completed, developers such as Westhab and the Feiners will ignore the symptoms and continue to over-develop every inch of open space in Greenburgh.

We should also add, as a minor point, that according to the letter from the Supervisor, the consultant they’ve hired is an engineering firm from Morris Plains, NJ. They created the Greater Greenburgh Planning Area All Hazards Mitigation Plan, which the Town adopted so they could apply for grant money from higher government agencies. Hmmm. As with the appointment of Alan Hochberg, whose committee recommended the position he’s being appointed to, this seems like companies purposefully creating more revenue for themselves without going through the bid process. Again, can someone say, “Conflict of interest?”

The Paul claims to be an environmental champion, talking against Indian Point, creating parks, riding his bicycle and renewable energy. But as the saying goes, talk is cheap. He shouldn’t say he’s all for protecting the environment out of one side of his mouth while making the Board the lead agency and approving oversized pet projects in the Town. It’s time for The Paul to go – downstream.

“Our People Are The Town’s Greatest Asset”

Every Town Board meeting promises more of the same theatrical performances by children, special recognition awards to select residents for un-extraordinary acts performed in the Town, and the like. The delays to the start of the regular meetings (contradiction of terms) have become the routine of marked inefficiency. Welcome to Feinerville, where The Paul and his Stepford Board campaign for their next election with patronization, platitudes and shameless purchasing of future votes and favors. One major omission with all of this rah, rah nonsense, effectively used to thin the Town Board crowds, was the financial acquisition of $1.2 million to the Town by Robert Bernstein and Herbert Rosenberg. It was their intervention with Feiner’s illegally executed WestHelp agreement that should bring this substantial amount of money back to where it belonged – the Town. Many residents that spoke publicly thanked both of these residents. Rosenberg was in the audience this evening.

After a laborious presentation of the Budget Blueprint for the Town of Greenburgh’ upcoming budget, by committee Chairman and formerly convicted felon Alan Hochberg, the Board arbitrarily decided to take an ‘invitation only’ celebratory break in the rear of the building to celebrate this great event. Did we miss something? Was there a tax decrease we didn’t hear in the presentation? Were there new jobs created? Hardly. In fact, the report stated there would be little if any impact in services to the residents with the impending layoffs of just over half a dozen Town employees. Not only was this celebration a slap in the face to everyone at the Town Board meeting, it was antagonistic, insulting and an unconscionable act to all the residents, businesses and especially employees in the Town!

Shirking his financial responsibilities as the “Treasurer” for the Town, Feiner appointed his parasitic disciple to this unnecessary commission to draft a budget, enabling the future deflection with which he is so masterful. When he implements the budget this year, and people complain, his predictable response will be it wasn’t “his” budget, but the impartial budget commission – blame them. The “Hochberg Commission” recommended creating a position of some sort of ‘Treasury Oversight Officer’, appointed by the authority of the Supervisor. The Paul has announced he is appointing said felon Hochberg to this position, adding another layer of insulation from the public he espouses concern. Previously, the budget was created by professionals like former Comptroller Mike Kolesar, an honest employee that had come forward with improprieties he found, for which he was subsequently fired. Why? He exposed The Paul’s wrongdoings! By the way, the salary for this PART-TIME position is $45k + benefits. But there will be a $7k buyout that Hochberg will receive for the medical benefits he won’t take from the Town because he already has health insurance. Can anyone say, “Conflict of interest?”

During the budget party in the back room, we imagine a lot of backslapping took place with Councilman Morgan, saying to the Paul, “Well done your eminence, you did it again.” To which The Paul responded, “No, WE did it. Aha ha ha!” And shortly after their exchange, Councilpersons Jeuttner and Sheehan came over to kiss The Paul’s, uh, ring, yeah ring, and asked, “We did what you asked, sire. Can we still stay and get paid if we continue to go along with you?” But alas, in the outside world, the game was still afoot.

As the Board’s band played on inside, the crowd was getting restless – and thinner – the ultimate goal of The Paul at every meeting. Packed with CSEA workers hoping to save their colleagues positions, many had to leave to address child-care issues as it was now about 10PM. Former Town Supervisor candidate Patricia Weems took to the microphone. No stranger to the room, she exclaimed she is tired of being limited to three minutes to speak at these Town Board meetings and was about to get her five minutes. She said it was insulting to the residents and people in this room that the Board would have the audacity to adjourn to a private, ticket only, party in a back room during a regular board meeting. Someone shouted out, “There’s nothing regular about it!” She responded, “Amen to that.” She pointed out that the Town was suspending services that we pay for in our taxes and there was no reason for it. She also mentioned a few regular attendees of the Board meetings by name, thanking them and thanking those in the crowd for taking the interest in the Town’s operation and coming to this meeting.

You no doubt know the expression ‘good news travels fast, bad news faster?’ Word must have gotten back to The Paul at the party that the hall was becoming a Zucotti Park. “What shall you have me do m’lord?” a stiffly bowing Morgan would ask. “Get out there and get that damn microphone away from her! The people can’t find out she’s right or our gig is up!” “What should WE do, Paul?” one of the other two domestics would ask. “Just get out there, dammit! I’ll come bumbling in, in a minute, doing my act, and look clueless.”

Morgan hurled the side entrance door open and saw several people at the podium. Sitting in the front row allowed us to see his rage. Controlled, but obviously flustered, he could do nothing to stop the revolution. In his police days, he could call for backup; but here he was impotent. As he stood there, his two underlings squeezed by, taking their positions on the dais. Crisis averted? Not really, as Weems’ tirade had struck a chord with the already upset crowd. Feiner’s house of cards was wobbling.

A woman from the neighborhood was the first speaker, there to complain about smoke coming from the nearby Westchester Nursery. Armed with a slide show presentation, she artfully tracked the recurring smoke issue, claiming that her infant child often coughs quite a bit from the smoke. She had petitioned the Town for help months ago and had received none. No surprise there. ABG is reasonably sure the nursery donates to the campaign war chest of The Paul. Feigning interest and concern, The Paul “asked” Councilmen Morgan and Sheehan to follow-up with this. Sheehan said his calendar was pretty busy but he would try to get to it soon. Another resident learns the game.

A Town Board meeting favorite was a north Elmsford resident who criticized The Paul’s arbitrary decision to cancel recycling pickups so the still-employed Town workers could pick up leaves instead. “My neighborhood looks like hell now that the papers have blown all over the place. And sending a notice via email only gets to a small portion of people assuming they read their email often. Shame on you, Paul.” She continued to admonish the Supervisor for not recognizing the work performed on behalf of the Town by Mr. Bernstein and Mr. Rosenberg at the beginning of the evenings presentation ceremonies. She turned and made a point to thank Herb Rosenberg during her three minutes. She said she would also thank Bob Berstein when she saw him.

Another gentleman got up joked that rigor mortis was setting in, an obvious reference to how long it took for him to get his turn at the podium (at about 11PM). He too, was there to complain about the lack of recycling pickup as well but said the previous speaker covered his point. He stated that he was not there about the CSEA protests to save positions but agreed with their position, saying, “Our people are the Town’s greatest asset.” ABG agrees. In fact, why didn’t any of the Board members say something to that effect? ABG is sure they were instructed not to.

Continuing, he referenced the Budget Blueprint and questioned if it was fact or fiction? Someone in the audience shouted it was fiction. “We have a ‘A’ and a ‘B’ budget and now we have a blue Alice in Wonderland book added to the mix,” he said holding the book up. He claimed he randomly looked at the first few pages and under the heading ‘Closing Projected Budget Deficit’, there were two amounts that needn’t be there if Feiner hadn’t broken the law. “The $1.6 and $10.2 million amounts are almost equal to the money both Bernstein and Rosenberg brokered back to the Town from the illegal WestHelp payoff deal and the $8 million in fines for the guilty verdict in the Fortress Bible decision against Paul Feiner and the Board.” You’ll recall Feiner and his Board were found guilty on seven counts, including destroying evidence and discrimination. Reduce this deficit amount from the total deficit in this section alone, and we’d be down from $11.8 to $2.6 million deficit. It’s still significant money but it may be more manageable and save some jobs.

If we had a Town Board and a Supervisor interested in doing the right thing, we would not have some of the waste that the Town has. We don’t need an Art Director to receive a salary of $60k to hang pictures in the Town Hall and to teach art appreciation. We don’t need a Treasury Oversight position for any reason for $45k. We don’t need a Town Clerk who has decorates her office like her home – no matter how cocksure she may feel about her own job security. It’s an office and should be treated as such. What we need is a staff that keeps the Town running on all cylinders and not more patronage positions; nor a Supervisor who is involved with repurposing a bridge. We need a dedicated staff to deal with Town issues. While ABG is not endorsing the CSEA, fortunately for us, the CSEA members are already doing this.

Greenburgh: Die Another Day

We recognize The Paul is the media darling of the leftist media to the point of disbelief and disgust. ABG made contact with a past candidate who was quoted as an anti-Feiner resident in an online post by on another (Gannett) site. The entire slant of the article was that Feiner was bulletproof and unbeatable. The former candidate didn’t think so nor does ABG. Greenburgh Republicans and Conservatives have been adrift in the sea of Westchester politics without real leadership.

So what’s the answer? We’ve seen several good candidates rise to the challenge of running for office in Greenburgh to no avail. It’s not that they’re unqualified, they are. Greenburgh will certainly not get better under their new stewardship . The Democratic faithful routinely come out and vote the party line, which is about six thousand or so votes. That means Paul Feiner, running unopposed, will get some six thousand votes - it is so sad.

In the last County Board election, Democrat Alfreda Williams won the County Legislative seat. Listening to her at forums has proven the democratic faithfuls put the lesser candidate in office. Williams offers little except to follow in lock-step her democratic handler’s instructions voting against anything republican and for everything democrat. That’s not the kind of representation the Town needs. There are no benefits for Greenburgh residents. Can anybody break this “Gimme more” mindset and help Greenburgh get good representation? While we can only hope, we’re not confident that Greenburgh will see any change from the Republican Party.

At the county level, Astorino’s talking heads are continuing the “poor-me” whipping boy facade. That performance would be masterfully played out in tandem with Westchester Republic Chairman Douglas Colety. His Democratic counterpart, Reginald Lafayette, has little need to flex his democratic muscles as the democrats, for the most part, are in control of the County, and especially the County Legislature. We’re not convinced campaigning as a fiscal conservative worked for Astorino, as much as Westchester may have simply been tired of the Spano tenure.

The Westchester County Association was backing Astorino and his efforts. Who are they, really? Well, they are backed by the über-connected lawfirm DelBello, Donnellan, Weingarten, Wise & Wiederkehr LLP, based in White Plains, New York. They tout themselves as “a highly successful law firm with a strong regional presence”. Their “regional presence” has produced the appointment of fellow attorney/employee Kevin Plunkett as Westchester County’s Deputy County Executive. Talk about the ability to influence the County Executive from the inside. And to ensure nothing inappropriate is going on, let’s have William Mooney, a Republican and former Democratic County Executive Alfred DelBello, a Democrat, be the figureheads. Mooney does the public appearances but DelBello is the behind the curtain wizard, occasionally out front, making sure his agenda plays out the way he wants.

The Republican Convention this year was a lot of rah, rah, rah, we’re going to take back the County, the State and the Federal seats in government everywhere. Douglas Colety will go to the microphone and start his Republican banter in front of the republican faithful of lower taxes, breaking the stronghold in the legislature, great candidates, yada yada yada, rule the world! But he won’t be doing any of it for Greenburgh. At the after-election “celebration”, there will be a lot of back-slapping of Chairman Colety, with the same old rhetoric of taking control in the next election, ousting the democrats and putting up great candidates. Most importantly to us, the cost to Greenburgh is immeasurable, but until the Republicans get off their butts and get in the game, Greenburgh loses. 

It’s time not only for new blood, but new thinking. The Republican Party continues to operate from a playbook that hasn’t been updated in decades. Part of the political game needs to include new players and jettisoning some of the existing ones. Only then can we expect to see better balance in government. Greenburgh, as well as we, can only hope.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The staff of ABG would like to wish our readers, 
residents, family and friends a very

Healthy and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. 

The Crisp Fall Air - Not in Greenburgh

Go outside during sunrise and you may encounter a few animals foraging for food or seeking cover as their nocturnal safety slowly ebbs. Inhale. The crisp fall air will thrill your olfactory senses and offer you the cleansed air of a new day. Except, that is, in the Town of Greenburgh, where we’re under constant assault by The Paul and his merry ‘Stepford’ Board. Whatever and whenever he wants them to do something, he snaps his fingers, they genuflect, bow their heads and loudly say, “Yes-sir!” It’s sad that these Board members are so desperate to stay in office they’ll sell their souls to the devil. The foul stench of wrong-doing just won’t end.

The Scarsdale Inquirer, a respectable newspaper that actually covers stories in-person, recently wrote about Paul Feiner’s hand-picked and anointed Greenburgh Zoning Board member Jordan Glass, who has finally stepped down after it was proven that he had violated the Town’s ethics code (yes, a contradiction of terms). ABG has maintained that Glass was “dirty” and his posturing was nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention away from his wrong doings. We’re glad to see the ‘Piper’ has finally gotten to the right neighborhood to get paid. Another disgraced Zoning Board member is Nicholas DeCicco, also found guilty of ethics violations. When someone The Paul has appointed gets caught violating the law, it becomes time to spin as much and as quickly as possible. Feiner is nothing if not spin. As a note, DeCicco stepped down and was recently appointed to the Planning Board. A fox in the henhouse is okay in Greenburgh.

We’ve also found Feiner’s politicization of the events with Glass as a campaign against Glass equally distasteful, saying that Glass was a victim of personal attacks and caused many to not volunteer for the Town. This reminded one staffer of Hillary’s “right-wing conspiracy” cries during former President Clinton’s philandering accusations. We think many people don’t volunteer for the Town because there is so much nepotism, back-room deals, secret handshakes and political back scratching, that they don’t want to be mired in the morass of undergrowth in Feinerville. After all, some of them have families and teach their children by example – good examples.

Feiner has always said what was expedient for the moment. We witnessed this recently as he offered flood victims relief by claiming the federal government’s FEMA would buy their flooded homes. After some basic research, we found, as we’re sure did others, that there are numerous steps that must be implemented by the Town, then by the County, and then the state and finally the feds before anyone’s home will be bought out by FEMA. It was a good sound-bite that got Feiner publicity. The Paul is the media-darling of the Journal News, which doesn’t actually fact check the blather he spews for accuracy, they just print it. Regardless, Feiner said he didn’t know Glass when he appointed him to the Zoning Board. And yet, in several correspondences and emails, he’s says he’s been receiving feedback from Glass for years! Next he’ll say that he misspoke. Get ready, it’s coming.

Some of the Zoning Board members do a credible job and make the effort to do the right thing for the residents and businesses. Unfortunately, a minority sullies the good work of the others. Greenburgh makes Chicago politics look like preschool. What The Town needs is people on committees, boards and related positions who practice honesty, integrity and values beyond a party-line, or simply, who do the right thing. Just telling the truth for a change could be infectious. Maybe if Feiner told the truth, it might be the start something completely different. It might, but this is Greenburgh. We won’t hold our breath.

Killing Greenburgh’s Businesses

The Town has continued on a markedly deceptive practice of tax increases beyond the normal yearly increases our incompetent Supervisor normally invokes with each year’s budget. Our Town has increased and established new and more business-punishing fees meeting after meeting. And the Stepford Board’s logic for this is that it would increase revenue for the Town. It is this type of parochial mindset that causes many businesses as well as residents to leave the Town.

One needn’t travel to any unique location to see that our Town’s business community is in decline. This is especially true of our small businesses. The “too big to fail” businesses continue to receive subsidies, grants and bailouts. On the other hand, our small businesses receive more of our Supervisors attention by being taxed, albeit with more and/or higher fees (hidden taxation). How does this help Greenburgh be attractive to business? It doesn’t.  Westchester and New York State aren’t known for being business friendly. They have their own taxes and fees. According to The Paul, we don’t need to do anything for business because our corporate tax rates are low. Given that sentiment, why do we see so many vacancies throughout the Town?

Westchester County, Greenburgh and other communities are continually offering “incentives” to new businesses to come to the area by reducing or waiving taxes. And, they continue to offer incentives to established businesses once they get wise and simply threaten to relocate. That’s what recently took place with Pepsi, when they threatened to leave, the County leaders fell all over themselves to offer tax concessions and tax discounts for them to remain in Somers. Then all the politicians stood in line at the press conferences waiting for their turn at the open-mike event, claiming they have miraculously saved local jobs, that they brokered the deal, that they have the Midas touch and without them Westchester would crumble. The reality is they increased our residents’ taxes, whom are now forced to make up the difference. ABG must have missed that press conference.

If the local, county, state and federal governments leaders are making tax concessions to businesses not to leave for greener pastures such as North Carolina, it highlights that our taxes are too high. As we see in Greenburgh, The Paul may not raise taxes specifically on business as a tax, but with all the permits, inspections, fees, etc., that must be met just to hold, say, a sidewalk sale, its understandable why businesses are leaving. It also explains why we have a “gray economy”. That’s where people operate a business with little or no overhead, such as out of the basement or garage, working in a cash only environment. They pay little, if any taxes; don’t pay into Social Security, FICA and/or the other normal (read: crippling) taxes at every level. Can you blame them?

What can we do to make business survive, even flourish in Greenburgh? Avoid the big box stores whenever possible when there is a smaller, locally owned business that can provide you with the goods and services you need. Usually, the small businesses will have lower prices to be as competitive as possible. Shopping locally will work. These businesses contribute to the local parades, put posters and flyers up in their businesses for your schools’ bake sales and donate to different school, charitable and social organizations that we all work with. Unfortunately, you may have to pay to park. This is a no-brainer. Its too bad it’s not that simple for The Paul.

When local small businesses succeed, our communities succeed. Our storefronts represent “Main Street USA”. They show outsiders why they need to come to our local events, shop in our communities and perhaps even move into them. The Paul, however, is nickel and diming them to death with more and more fees. When we have businesses that are thriving, they will be joined by other businesses that want to ride that wave. It helps increase our tax revenue, which makes taxes less of a burden for everyone. More businesses translates to residents paying less taxes. And then we can waive the fees that are hindering our growth. Perhaps we can even offer free parking.

It’s About Reelection

In our previous post ABG mentioned how the Republican Party, has abandoned the Republican electorate in Greenburgh. Many republicans of old have recounted how Greenburgh had been a very republican-oriented stronghold back in the day. My, how things change. Now, with The Paul, his Stepford Board, void of any original ideas, meekly follow along for fear of incurring his wrath and ultimately being dismissed from his Board and their “elected” position. Things in Greenburgh must change, but not until the “gimme more” electorate realizes how much better off they’d be without him and his payoff policies.


The County race seemingly had no change with the Democratic vs Republican ratio in the County Legislature immediately after the polls closed. Now, we see that challenger Republican Michael Smith may have moved ahead of incumbent Democrat John Nonna in District 3 and incumbent Republican Sheila Marcotte may have pulled ahead of challenger Democrat John Fitzpatrick in District 10. If these numbers remain intact, what does it mean for the electorate? Not much, really. While the democratic legislature loses their supermajority status, they still have the power and ability to thwart County Executive Astorino.

During the campaign cycle, Astorino and crew took a page out of the Westchester County Association and formed the Candidates For A Healthy Westchester initiative, stating “...where an affordable Westchester is a healthy Westchester”. But, only the republican candidates signed on! ABG believes it’s nothing more than a “gimmicky” catch-phrase akin to the old “Contract With America”. From a marketing perspective it could be a good idea but a) it has no teeth; b) only the republican candidates signed onto it; c) its more proof of the Astorino administration inability to do much as he and the party continues faltering; d) people are starting to tire of his poor-little-victim positioning. Because the Healthy Westchester initiative only had the Republican candidates sign on to it, it fosters more of the partisan “us vs them” mentality - only from the top down. The electorate hears it everyday with the Republican primary debates and frankly, are exhausted from it. And still, no one does anything about it. Astorino needs to be a leader. He must stop following the Republican Party’s stale and antiquated advice and offer real, creative solutions. ABG believes he has none. Prove us wrong. Please.


Greenburgh witnesses The Paul touting answers to questions and issues that are not his own, garnering the media exposure incumbents always seek. Astorino is doing the same thing. The talk of renovating or replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge is a simple example of this. Both are posturing about the fast-tracking plans but cannot do anything about them. Feiner favors the use of imminent domain in Tarrytown, Greenburgh, Elmsford and White Plains to get a new bridge. Build it with a bus and/or rail and/or dog park, with windmills, solar panels and probably a ferris wheel while keeping the old bridge as a park (never needing maintenance). 


While incorporating wind turbines may be interesting, he’s strictly seeking more publicity for himself. Astorino is complaining that building a new bridge is not enough, that Westchester needs a total transportation solution. Maybe we do. Why doesn’t he propose one? ABG believes the bridge is merely an Obama campaign purchase, void of substance in time for the national elections. Make a note: after the elections, the Tappan Zee might be on track, but there will be nothing fast, except rust, happening anywhere with it.


It’s easier to talk about something than to stick your neck out and offer a solution. It’s evident this is not about a bridge or our communities or affordability or a Healthy Westchester. It’s about reelection.

Greenburgh - Abandoned!

Finally, the elections are over. Very little has changed. Routes 119, 9 and 9A are still littered with campaign signs and Greenburgh is still wanting for real leadership. Yet, Greenburgh Republicans have been abandoned by the Westchester Republican Party and it’s Chairman, Douglas Colety. Directly, and even indirectly, he helped seal the Town’s fate with substandard leaders with his wholesale writing off of the Town. His and the Westchester Republican Party's rationale is that the Democrats have a stranglehold on the Town and it is not worth expending any money on any races there. We know it’s ridiculous but doubt the Greenburgh Republican leader will want to rock that boat.

If this wholesale disregard for election areas were carried over toward any other locale, Colety and the Westchester Republicans would not have sponsored Dr. Iris Pagan for County Legislator or the other White Plains Republican races for Common Council or Susan Konig of Peekskill for that matter. Each time the Westchester Republicans (ultimately Colety) pick a race they want to win, they dump most of their resources into it without regard to other candidates. By focusing on one or two races and ignoring the others, they limit their chances of success. But what do we know? Colety obviously knows what he’s doing.

In the last Westchester County legislative race, the Republicans financially backed several candidates while casting the rest aside. As a matter of course, Robert ‘Bob’ Hyland, somewhat a local celebrity, was on the receiving end of the Republican machine's help twice - first as a County Legislative candidate against incumbent Bill Ryan and then a year later as the Mayoral candidate for White Plains. Hyland put all his (lack of) political knowledge and faith in the Westchester Republican Party and the White Plains Republican Party for his campaigns. He claims he followed their instructions and management to the letter. He later recounted how he had to wait until almost the last month of the campaign cycle for his County Legislative campaign literature he was promised from the machine. As he went from event to event, he had nothing to hand out or leave behind. Bob Hyland is a class act and we admire what he tried to do. In the end, he didn’t lose by much, but like the saying says, close only counts in hand grenades and horseshoes.

A few seats here and there were picked up by the Republicans throughout the County at different levels of government. And, depending on the recount for the race in Westchester County’s District #3 between John Nonna and Michael Smith, the balance in the legislature of Republicans to Democrats may stay the same. We’re told County Executive Astorino was overheard in the Westchester Republican Party Headquarters complaining to Colety and other leaders that he can’t get anything accomplished in the legislature because there aren’t enough Republicans in it. We reached out to four former candidates, who lost, that ran when Astorino ran and won, three of whom talked to us and one who had no comment. The three who did speak to us confirmed Astorino’s reluctance to work with them and probably the other candidates when he ran for office. They claim Astorino didn’t want to include them in his issues as that was his race and their race was unrelated to his. It just didn’t make sense to him. That’s too bad because in the end, these other candidates were able to foresee exactly what is playing out now and had he helped them, he might have had some allies in the legislature. Live and learn, Rob, live and learn.

What kind of future support can we expect from the Westchester Republican Party in Greenburgh? Probably very little, but we’d at least like to see a punch or two thrown at Colety and try to get us some help. Their last nominee was Nicholas DeCicco, from Hartsdale, who was found guilty of ethics violations when he was a member of the Greenburgh Zoning Board and a candidate for County Legislator. We wrote extensively about that and don’t need to rehash old news. However, we will mention DeCicco’s was another selective campaign financed and run by the Westchester Republican Party, alas to no avail as DeCicco lost to MaryJane Shimsky, a Democrat from Hastings. As an aside, DeCicco left the Zoning Board and was recently appointed to the Planning Board.

We’ve seen some good Republican candidates rise to the occasion at each election, however this shouldn’t be a Republican vs Democratic issue. Rather, it’s a lack of good governance issue. Not having Boards anywhere with contrary opinions, different values and unique perspectives doesn’t allow us, the supposed “representees”, the best of anything. There lacks a well-rounded, comprehensive outlook as to what will improve and ultimately, sustain our Town. If all we have are the same opinions, we’ll wind up with the Stepford Town. Oops, wait a minute, we already have that with our Stepford Town Board. Fall in step and check your personality at the door. We have some agendas to get through.