Daily Voice: Rest in Peace May 2013 View Comment

The very first person that should be sending questions to the Town Board is the one who is trying to pass himself as even a reporter, certainly not as a journalist. Imagine describing one plan as $350,000 (annual rent in each of 18 years) and another as $2,000,000 which is the entire rent for 18 years. Clearly there are answers that this staffer was too busy to ask about or even to go to the website and read the proposals himself OR even to read the detailed emails explaining the differences -- sent to him by yours truly. I give up. Mr. Feiner has won; he has the Daily Voice all to himself and readers can continue to suffer from its lack of interest. When an online publication starts putting obits on the front page, it is a sure sign that its own will follow. I shall not return. Hal Samis View Comment

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So here we have a settlement that shouldn't be a settlement and, to make sure that everyone concerned is aware that Westchester doesn't mean what it agrees to, the County is going sue the Federal Government? Let's get beyond the fairness or non-fairness, applicability, practicality, etc. of the terms and envision what traveling this new toll road entails. First of all, there is no EZ Pass and this route is not a 8 lane super highway. This is going to tie the County Executive and County staff up for years. Secondly, this is going to be costly. Probably far more than the cost of acquiring a few parcels of land in the "forbidden zones". Third, this is going to end up in the Supreme Court as a test of whether or not local governments have the right to exclude affordable housing within their borders. Lastly (in terms of gut reaction), this is going to focus national media attention on Westchester County as the new "South" populated by nouveau riche suburban style plantation owners fighting to keep the "lower" classes from using sacred schools to gain a foothold out of the educational ghettos that contain the less well-off in the poorer parts of the County. What's next? Gates at County borders to ward off immigrants? View Comment

One would think that on such a controversial issue, an issue dating back two years (19 months without revenue to the Town) that the Town Supervisor would go beyond his cover story that he is merely conducting "due diligence". The current round featured "questions" asked of applicants; the answers tendered last Friday. The Public knows neither the "questions" nor the questions NOT ASKED. The answers? Again, only the Town Board knows. From Feiner's comment here, it appears that a new round is in store. A new round which will again feature "questions" unknown to the public and again "answers" unknown to the public. And, more predictably, the public won't know what is often the more telling: the questions not asked. All of this secrecy in an atmosphere already polluted by the knowledge that all Feiner really wants to do is that which Mayfair-Knollwood wants -- and he, Feiner, is willing to subordinate the use and diminish revenue to the Town in allegiance to this pursuit. It doesn't help the situation knowing that Town Clerk Judith Beville, former member of the Valhalla School Board, is likely adding her "opinions" under the covers of Executive Session. Furthermore, with the root doubt that none of this is REQUIRED as privileged Executive Session discussion (there are no trade secrets herein, especially when the applicants have already submitted detailed proposals by a deadline, one can only imagine the worst as the likely result. But there's more and that has to do with the typical Feiner person and his predeliction to avoiding the truth at all cost: never tell the truth when a lie will suffice. Read his comment again: he "anticipates no vote (today)"; why can't he just say "there will be no vote today"? Then, "there are some additional questions we will be asking applicants". How so, Mr. Feiner, you neither released information to the public beforehand and thus ruled out any help from the public (inviting the inevitable "gotcha") and you also failed to anticipate the need for the Town to do its portion of the homework obtaining information that was not available in any definitive form by a mere phone call. Questions and answers that should have been available before the RFP went out but you were so cocksure that Ferncliff would be the one that you never even started the Town's exploration of how to market the property. And despite your earlier assurance to departing Feiner followers that you were now on track to bring home the bacon to needy Greenburgh breakfasters, you first threw up a roadblock with an "on call" bidder and thereafter, after his hasty departure on the early stage outta Greenburgh, you made the first of thereafter postponed "pledges" to get a tenant signed up. March 30 was your first pledge date and now we witness, as of this comment" that "we HOPE to be able to make a decision next week" which residents have already heard weekly since. Were this merely your commitment to undertake due diligence, I would be sympathetic as the idea of doing such (in other hands) is admirable. However in your presence, due diligence only masks your incompetence in not even knowing the right questions to ask and not having answers to the applicants' questions already available in-house. This is why the Work Session discussions are now held in Executive Session: so as not to expose your ignorance and obfuscation to the viewing public. Two weeks ago, the Work Session revealed that you had no idea of how to go about the process; that the Town had not done its share of the prep work and now this impression is even more fixed. Whatever happened to your protestations that yours was an "open" government? On the other hand, given your earliest resolve to see no affordable housing return to this site, it is not out of the questions to see this matter drag on until the November balloting result and reduce further the Lease remainder. Not so? Residents need only compare the WESTHelp situation to the lack of progress and the attending news blackout regarding the former Frank's Nursery parcel. Or, for that matter, the three years+ oft delayed closing of the former Water Wheel property in Ardsley. How say you, Mr. Town Supervisor? Hal Samis View Comment

And not one word from this reporter that the Town Board has refused to share with the public the reasons they have selected one company over another. There was no basis to hold this discussion in Executive Session: the answers, indeed even the questions, are not shielded information. A closed government can operate when the media fail in their responsibilities to provide readers with any background beyond that which come to them via a press release from Feiner. All sunshine, lollipops and rainbows on this website. Hal Samis View Comment

another weekly story just about the week's stories and setting the stage for the month's top stories, the year's top stories and the story about the top weekly stories. all the result of a predisposition to avoid serious topics Hal Samis View Comment

Still waiting for an explanation in public of why the Library was closed Sundays for four years when now it is open at a cost of only $15,000. The Library should not get a free ride for this and not have to account for their negligence. Unfortunately, this is not what the Daily Voice is about. Fans of the Library should be aware that at one point the Library had over $450,000 of excess funds; claimed poverty and remained closed on Sunday. Isn't anyone just the slightest bit curious? Hal Samis View Comment

The Town Announcement (below sent April 12 and "reported" (above) by Danny LoPriore. The Greenburgh Water Department announces the annual maintenance program to operate and flush fire hydrants for the week beginning Tuesday, April 23, 2013 thru Friday, May 10, 2013. This action is necessary to make sure the fire hydrants are in good working order in case of emergencies and to help flush sediment out of the distribution system. The hydrant flushing and operating action will take place during the day from 9:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. Greenburgh Water District Customers in the neighborhoods listed and the immediate vicinity should expect temporary periods of discolored water and lowered pressure resulting from this maintenance operation. This discoloration consists primarily of harmless silt and air and does not affect the safety of the water. For further information, customers may contact the Greenburgh Water Department at 914-993-1592 or visit the Town website www.greenburghny.com. KNOLLWOOD AREA MAYFAIR ACRES, including roads near Knollwood Road, Manor Drive, Buena Vista Drive and Chelsea Road. PARKWAY HOME S, including roads near Hillside Avenue, Old Tarrytown Road, North Road, South Road, Maryton Road, Lawrence Drive, Virginia Road. VALIMAR WYNDOVER PARK, including roads near Old Kensico Road, County Center Road, Winnetou Road, and The Woodlands. View Comment

sunshine possible later this week snow possible later this week hurricane possible later this week sandstorm possible later this week real news possible later this week View Comment

"It's a start'? "Startling" would be the correct term to describe a negotiation that commenced in 2010 and yields this result. How many decades does the Town Supervisor anticipate at this rate to get to what he implies would be the "finish". And for starters (taxpayer's view), please tell us who on the Town Board is participating in the insurance buyout and who on the Town Board is enrolled in the Town Plan while their it is their spouses (out of the limelight) who have accepted buyouts from their employment. Who on the Town Board is already getting a free ride: buyout AND free health insurance? I know you'll be back to see any replies. Be sure to return with the answers on your next visit. Hal Samis View Comment

How interesting. Every past budget season Town Supervisor Feiner was quick to point out that there was a wage freeze in effect. This said knowing that promotions to a higher pay grade and step increases were still inviolate. But what readers see here is the obligation of town employees to pay toward the cost of their health care (family plans included) at the rate of 1% of their salary. So for argument sake if a family plan were to cost the Town say $15,000 or perhaps more, then an employee earning $50,000 would contribute 1% of his salary or $500. Not a bad deal. And the good news is that absent a salary increase in 2010, employees will not be asked to contribute to their health insurance (1%) until 2011 when a 1.5% pay increase kicks in. A net gain of at least $250 in 2011. A net gain of $825 in 2012 etc. This is admittedly inaccurate in favor of the CSEA in that I have held the salary at $50,000 which if the salary plus current year increase taking place as of January 1 is matched against the health care 1% computed on the prior year's salary the situation is even better for employees. In other words while starting January 1 they are entitled to their higher salary of the new year while their health insurance premium is calculated on the lower earnings of the previous year. Tough bargainer that Feiner. And slipped in quietly and available to all employees because of matching requirements is the insurance buyout increasing from 40% to 50% which means that for a family plan costing the Town, say, $15,000, the buyout went from $6000 to $7500 a 25% increase. Does this matter, why would anyone choose the buyout? Anyone, say certain members of the Town Board, who have spouses eligible for the same plan (perhaps one offered by NYS) and thus anyone not needing redundant coverage or anyone already eligible for free lifetime coverage would benefit by taking the buyout. Or anyone on the Town Board who was already receiving free lifetime health insurance from prior employment with the Town. Now I'm not going to reveal names but readers are free to ask them directly or even FOIL for the information if they doubt the answer they are given. Say wasn't it an earlier Town Council which voted to make themselves eligible for these goodies even though their part-time positions average but 10 yours a week. Less when the Town Board meeting only lasts 7 minutes for the three members present from the start. Yeah, the remuneration for the Town Council is already munificent so why am I even taking notice of the CSEA contract. Given the meager salaries of most civil service positions I have no problem with their getting raises but perhaps these raises should be conditioned on a known index like the CPI or the same measure that Social Security uses. Why would I suggest this? Because that would take all the fun away from Town Supervisor who gets to preach the austerity of a salary freeze and then restores it retroactively. And for all the oomph and ahs of working without a contract and the emotional hardships it invokes, in the end it all comes out just the same and everyone goes home to their little boxes. Meanwhile, here we have a new contract (applause) one which expires in less than two years and in less time than it took to negotiate. How so, Mr. Feiner. And can we expect a similar showtime for 2015 and beyond? Meanwhile less obvious is that Department Heads, not themselves CSEA members, also get to the same raises, fair is fare when their ride is picked up by taxpayers. Here a 1.5% increase on say $130,000 yields real money $1950 which won't change anyone's life already earning $130,000, now just under $132,000 but a heck of a lot better than $50,000 increasing to $50,500. Oh yes, elected officials are not participating in these raises but they have their own roads to enrichment absent an Ethics Board with a pulse and b---s. Of course with a 7 minute Town Board meeting, none of this was revealed. And I'm not about to spoil the party with a discussion of pension benefits or how many work days in a work year or even how much wood can a woodchuck chuck. Hal Samis View Comment

Since the Voice is cooking with leftovers, my original comment from the first story applies here as well: There's never a time when commissioned sales agents discourage transactions. Their logic born of need is: the seller should never wait for a higher price while the buyer should buy now before prices go higher. Yes sales do occur and for every buyer there is a seller and for every seller there is a buyer: otherwise there would not be a sale, or a purchase. Thus all these false scientific portrayals of activity serve one purpose only: to generate commissions. Seldom is one transaction a direct comparison with another. Likewise, it would seem that if interest rates are low, as they are, that prices are what they are because of low rates; hence if rates move higher (little room to go down), prices will come down and if prices come down, then higher interest rates on the need for fewer borrowed dollars should complete the picture. Forget the so-called "market" as told to you by commission hungry sales agents. Instead make your decision as a buyer on what you can afford and how it solves your needs or as a seller what your needs are and whether offers received will solve them. The "market" at any point in time is only the meeting of the minds -- the minds that are meeting (in agreement) over one specific property. This scenario never changes; wishes don't become horses and no one can put humpty dumpty back together again. Your only concern as buyer and seller is what someone is willing to pay -- that's the only market that counts. In a more liquid market, the price is what someone will wlling to pay; if no buyers at that price, maybe the price will come down or not. But for certain, last year's price, last month's price, an hour ago price has absolutely no relevance. In illiquid markets like residential real estate which generally are not income producing purchases but rather shelter, sales agents lack a plausible explanation for events so they resort to meaningless conversational but useless chatter to hide that their industry is based upon perceived rather than objective values. Everything else (woulda.shoulda) is noise. Don't pay the pipers for playing their song. View Comment

There's never a time when commissioned sales agents discourage transactions. Their logic born of need is: the seller should never wait for a higher price while the buyer should buy now before prices go higher. Yes sales do occur and for every buyer there is a seller and for every seller there is a buyer: otherwise there would not be a sale, or a purchase. Thus all these false scientific portrayals of activity serve one purpose only: to generate commissions. Seldom is one transaction a direct comparison with another. Likewise, it would seem that if interest rates are low, as they are, that prices are what they are because of low rates; hence if rates move higher (little room to go down), prices will come down and if prices come down, then higher interest rates on the need for fewer borrowed dollars should complete the picture. Forget the so-called "market" as told to you by commission hungry sales agents. Instead make your decision as a buyer on what you can afford and how it solves your needs or as a seller what your needs are and whether offers received will solve them. The "market" at any point in time is only the meeting of the minds -- the minds that are meeting (in agreement) over one specific property. This scenario never changes; wishes don't become horses and no one can put humpty dumpty back together again. Your only concern as buyer and seller is what someone is willing to pay -- that's the only market that counts. In a more liquid market, the price is what someone will wlling to pay; if no buyers at that price, maybe the price will come down or not. But for certain, last year's price, last month's price, an hour ago price has absolutely no relevance. In illiquid markets like residential real estate which generally are not income producing purchases but rather shelter, sales agents lack a plausible explanation for events so they resort to meaningless conversational but useless chatter to hide that their industry is based upon perceived rather than objective values. Everything else (woulda.shoulda) is noise. Don't pay the pipers for playing their song. View Comment

Today's date is April 11. How professional to provide readers with a headline about a story that wasn't and a stale story as well, one dating back to April 6. Darn that Police public relations staff -- can't they get the "news" out faster so lazy reporters won't look stupid. This is what passes as news for Greenburgh? Hal Samis View Comment

First God created the press release and then the reporter printed it. from the town: OUTDOOR TENNIS CLINICS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS This spring, the Greenburgh Parks and Recreation Department will be offering an outdoor tennis clinic for Senior Citizens. Learn or brush up on basic tennis skills. The focus will be on warm-up exercises, forehand and backhand strokes, serving and rallying. Equipment will be provided. Little or no experience is required. Fee: $20 for Residents Time: 10:30am-11:30am 6 Week Spring Clinic: Tuesday, April 24th- May 29th Location: Anthony F. Veteran Park 11 Olympic Lane Ardsley, NY 10502 Instructor: Janet Lefkowitz, Tennis Director For more information, please contact PJ Murphy at 693-8985, x.116, or by email her at Of course the story not reported (since it doesn't appear on the press release) is that this is only justification for Feiner supporter Janet Lefkowitz to retain her seasonal job as part-time Tennis Director at the hosting unincorporated cost to taxpayers of $30,302 plus presumed benefits. And yes, there is also an Assistant Tennis Director @ $11,229 and 16 tennis instructors @ $50,000 (total) and 11 Private Tennis Instructors @ $5200 (total). Think about that when you visit and see empty tennis courts at a location unserved by public transportation. Hal Samis View Comment

This may be a first for Mercy College but it is by no means the first Health expo in southern Westchester. Will the last expo please remember to turn off the lights when exiting the Daily Voice offices? I'm sure that there will be numerous new opportunities for me to repeat this comment. Hal Samis View Comment

It is so sad how this reporter works a dumb phone. For starters and representative of how readers are being badly served when the blind lead the deaf and blind that I don't have the heart to lead interested parties sentence by sentence through the full gamut of misinformation. It isn't bad enough that the original source, Feiner, practices misdirection and deflection but now Greenburgh residents are plagued by a writer who can't even read a press release. Read the last sentence. "Town officials are considering several bids on the property for affordable housing..." Actually the Town Board is considering the bids; there are employees assisting in the process Dead Wrong: "including a $350,000 plan to renovate the 108 rooms" Right: a bid to pay $350,000 in annual rent (there is no plan offering only $350,000 for renovations)/108 units with an undetermined room count More Right: there are currently no bids to pay $350,000 rent" however there are two bids of $375,000 annual rent. "and a $2.2 million proposal to turn the property into affordable housing for senior citizens." So simple yet so complicated. The $2.2 million "proposal" (they are all proposals) is an offer to pay the entire rent due for the 19 years remaining -- all in one upfront payment. This, apart from the reinvestment value of having the all the rent money in hand from the start, translates into paying roughly $116,000 annual rent for each of the 19 years. Compared to bids of $375,000 annual rent, this means a loss to the town for its peace of mind (which in no way guarantees the bidder will be a good landlord only that the discounted rent has been paid) of $259,000 a year for each of the 19 remaining years (19 x $259,000) of $4,921,000. Needless? to point out that to the same Town Board which is still mulling over the sale of the Frank's Nursery property forced to choose between selling it for $1,650,000 or $3,500,000 (both bidders intending a sports facility) that wooing an tenant for almost $5 million less in rent is the classic business as usual for the Greenburgh Town Board. But enough from me. Readers are invited to add to comments by listing the other errors in this story. However, if you are really interested in what's going in that matters in Greenburgh, Voice readers should instead head over to the Edgemont Community Council's Facebook page. That's where the party is being held. "Tell em Groucho sent you". Hal Samis View Comment

The press release from Feiner: Compare it to the news story. "Crossroads Shopping Center, home of Kmart and Modell’s (on Route 119) will undergo a façade upgrade. The project cost is in the neighborhood of $3.5 to 4 million and expected to begin shortly. This is good news for the town!" This is a very important story; dwarfing the Town Board Work Session and the meeting with affordable housing developers. Note that the reporter substituted Home Goods for Modell's. Proof that she is entirely independent of Feiner. And, wouldn't a call to the Shopping Center owner be a more accurate source of the renovations (as if anyone cared) than Feiner's estimate. Greenburgh residents, most of whom have heads buried in the sand, deserve the quality of journalism they get. View Comment

Still no useful rewrite. Let's have those concerned acknowledge that this is the outcome they wished for. That having a State Agency make the problem go away and Feiner and friends can get back to business of making a silk purse into a sow's ear. This problem is and never was about what the State will or will not fund. It was, from the beginning, a Landlord (County) and Tenant (Greenburgh) manufactured dispute over an existing, executed and binding Lease that certain parties (Mayfair-Knollwood elitists Ned McCormack and Michael Smith), having no legal standing to intervene, saw as the opportunity to enlist an always willing lapdog (Feiner in exchange for their support) to carry their message to the County -- we don't want poor people in our neighborhood. A coded message that the NAACP understood to be more targeted. Feiner, Town Supervisor represents Greenburgh, the Tenant in the Lease, did everything he could to muddy the waters and move the issue off point (the Lease conditions) and onto the affordable housing vs. aid developmentally disabled children housed in a for-profit vehicle, Ferncliff "Manor" for the Retarded (yes, that's what they named themselves) Inc. The Lease clearly states that the property is to be used for affordable housing. The Lease clearly states that Greenburgh is responsible to maintain these units in rentable condition. To neither of these terms was Feiner willing to abide. And thus the year long battle in the media with Ferncliff seeking exoneration for its own failure to find any other location in Westchester that would be suitable for their needs. Needs, which really came down to finding a landlord willing to accept their promise to pay rent despite their financial inability to pay this rent. In these circumstances they could name any rent amount knowing that they could not pay whatever amount they stated -- a fact known to Feiner. The confirmation of this fact is today's headline. But this merely gives Feiner and Mayfair-Knollwood their face-saving way out. It saves them the problem of a smart and tougher County Board of Legislators determined to do their job which includes protecting County residents: 1) preventing the willful and wanton destruction of a valuable asset paid for by taxpayers: 108 housing units having a market value upwards of $15,000,000 to make way for Ferncliff's construction plan (this also without funding). 2) putting an end to Greenburgh willfully violating and therefore in default of an existing Lease with written and agreed to lawful conditions: a Lease which gave Greenburgh $12,000,000 in a 10 year period ending September 30, 2011 and, a Lease which cost Greenburgh but $10 in rent to the County in the same period (talk about gratitude). 3) a year long disagreement which cost Greenburgh taxpayers at least $500,000 in lost revenue over an 18 month period while Feiner purposefully allowed the 108 units to remain vacant during which time he performed his juggling act in full view of an appreciative media spotlight and allowed the unmaintained premises to deteriorate further to make a better case for their demolition 4) and now when time has run out and the County Board has signaled that they would be ready to terminate the Lease for cause and thus remove all opportunities for Greenburgh to receive revenue from any use of the property. ONLY NOW, is Feiner acting eager to do what was always available to him (and required of him) from 2011 onwards -- to do not just the right thing but what he is obligated to do and is only now agreeing to because he knows the County will pull the rug out from under him and then who has he left to pass the buck? new boy on the block, Ken Jones, Greenburgh Town Councilman? Finally, given that the proof that $500,000 rent is someone's dream (as was a similarly fictional earlier representation of $980,000 in rent -- this higher amount offered solely to defuse the knowledge that Feiner allowed the annual $1,200,000 rent payment to the Town to evaporate because he took no action to renew the WESTHelp lease even though asked three years before its expiration. Yes Paul Feiner is anything but that sincere schlub he pretends to be. He is, in fact, a hired gun who works for anyone who can help HIM, not the Town; be it Mayfair-Knollwood civic association, GameOn 365 or a handful of local law firms. Astute readers may be curious as the process whereby Feiner attaches himself to the cause de jour: be it a bike lane on a bridge, the disease of the week, atrocities in Darfur, a moratorium on the death penalty, his biggest public relations coup -- banning exotic animal exhibitors from using town parkland, shutting down Indian Point...all issues tugging at the heart strings but all issues except the save the animals (actually not to save but not allowing them to be displayed) and save the planet (two demo only solar panels displayed atop Town Hall to promote 30% energy savings but none deployed for that purpose on Town buildings) that the Town of Greenburgh (Feiner's only power base) has any control over. Which leads me to continually inquire why has Feiner taken no position on...gun control. The answer is obvious: some voters are for it and some voters are against it and he fears alienating anyone Thus Feiner, even when running unopposed, has no position. So when he mumbles at Town Board get togethers "off the top of my head" that is the true Feiner speaking; he lacks both heart and soul and, the shame gene or anything below. If only those "action steps" he refers to would lead him to a one-way road headed out of Town. Hal Samis View Comment