Sunday, November 15, 2009

JUST RAN THE ANNUAL TERRY RYAN 6.2 MILE RACE IN HASTINGS

Just completed the annual Terry Ryan 10K (6.2 mile) run sponsored by the Hastings Recreation Department. I ran the race in one hour and 48 seconds. Slower than most, faster than some. The race was fun and the wather was perfect. The Hastings recreation dept did a great job organizing the race --over 200 runners participated.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paul did you mean rather was perfect or weather was perfect. You write as well as you talk at Town Board Meetings

Anonymous said...

Glad the town supervisor participates in different community activities. The Ryan race pays tribute to a young man who died prematurely.

Anonymous said...

good job!

Michael Kolesar said...

I think that we have to cut the Supervisor some slack as to what he does with his own time. That he chooses to start his next campaign just a week after being returned to office is smart politics. Good move.

However, there will be a communication in the Supervisor's email by Monday morning with questions about the tentative 2010 budget from Ardsley, since he offered to meet with residents from Ardsley over the weekend. Let's see if we get answers in one hour and 48 seconds.

Anonymous said...

You should have kept running.......right out of Town

Anonymous said...

Does Hastings have 2 rec depts also?

Anonymous said...

Mike: When you were town comptroller did you answer questions in one hour and 48 seconds? Or did you complain about 'lack of resources' and fail to respond?

Michael Kolesar said...

If the information was available, I answered them in minutes and you can check certain FOIL requests that were turned around in just that fast. Here the Supervisor has published a budget. Does he know what's in it? He should as the CFO of the Town. You haven't seen the questions yet, so how do you know it can't be done in a timelt manner. The Town hasn't responded to my FOIL request from March 27, 2009 yet. Timely? Must be setting a New York State record. What is the Twon afraid of - that citizens might learn something?

How much time do you want to give him - two years?

hal samis said...

Thanks to 5:46 on 11/15, I know something about Terry Ryan, his name not being as widely known as the Supervisor's.

However, what obviously is the importance of the event is that the Supervisor participated.

Maybe in his next political race there will be a competitor who will come in ahead.

Anonymous said...

And who's head will THAT be Hal? YOURS? Hopefully under a rock somewhere.

Anonymous said...

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hal samis said...

no kidding? We've got the Town Supervisor now. Do I have your permission to forward this to the NYS Attorney General?

Feiner fails the test of leadership said...

from today's lohud:

In Greenburgh, the uber-equitable supervisor, Paul Feiner, spread out the cuts across many departments, eliminating a few positions from parks and recreation, a few from public works and some positions and services from the library and the community center. But a 41 percent decrease in mortgage tax revenue and $700,000 dip in sales tax revenue means Greenburgh needs to raise the property tax rate by 6.9 percent to balance the proposed $64.2 million budget."

This is not leadership. This is failing to prioritize and focus on what is essential. Instead of cutting the froth and the frills, we get a nibble here and tuck there.

Greenburgh needs new blood to take on the sacred cows like the arts council and other nonsense.

Impressed said...

I am impressed with your time.Thanks for sharing it with us. Did the wather affect your run?

Anonymous said...

3:57, what do you think leadership is in a recession? Pray that sales and mortgage taxes will go up? You are probably one of the NIMBYs that opposed developments within the Town.

Michael Kolesar said...

Under the "fine" fiscal leadership of Paul Feiner, total Town wide assessables have declined from $649.2 million to an estimated $572.1 million for the 2010 tax rate or a decline of 11.9%. If you are lucky enough to own property in unincorporated Greenburgh, total assessables for that part of Town have declined from $371.8 million to an estimated $308.9 million for 2010 or a decline of 16.9%. What does this mean? As assessables go down, if you aren't one whose assessed value also went down, it means higher property taxes. Combine this with an ever increasing size of Town government and if you are lucky enough to own property in unincorporated Greenburgh, since Paul took office, your tax rate has increased from $64.50 per thousand to this year's budgeted rate of $167.66 or an increase of 160.1 % while the inflation rate for the New York Metro area as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics has risen about 58.5%. Do you feel a higher and higher portion of you income going to pay taxes? Some leadership.

hal samis said...

3:57,

"some positions and services from the library"?

All is see from the budget is that the dollar amount allocated to some part-time positions was reduced. Given that the payroll in these areas was already bloated, this represents a return to reason. And while this was underway, please take note that a new part-time position, special events coordinator, was quietly ADDED in 2009 and the amount provided for this position was bumped up to $25,945 in 2010. Or, comparing this new PART TIME slot to the private sector, this is the ANNUAL compensation paid to a FULL TIME worker at the rate of $500 a week.

Question: How does any "civilian" know how much money is actually needed year in and year out to purchase books and dvds. When you see these line items reduced, do you know for certain what this means or are you assuming that it must be bad? Given that the Library belongs to the WLS whose member libraries also buy books and dvds, is it still necessary for Greenburgh to buy four or five copies of new items? Next time you're in the Library, take a look at the older titles (books and dvds) which no longer circulate as often and see for yourself the number of multiple copies cluttering up the shelves for no other reason than to make it look as though all the shelf space and the building to hold the shelves were really necessary.

And for laughs, take a look at the Library "L" fund balance and you will have a clue where the dollars to buy more books and dvds can be found. In case you still don't get it, the L fund comes from the money that the Library said they needed but didn't spend. After all, what's wrong with cutting services and locking the front door to preserve the L Fund.

I'd like to write more but I have to ask the kid outside crying "wolf" to shut up.

Anonymous said...

Mike. Can you list all your accomplishments during your tenure as Comptroller? What savings did you recommend? What savings took place on your watch? How did the town benefit during the year or so that you were comptroller?

Anonymous said...

Mike: When you were comptroller you were in charge of the budget office. Compare your spending in your department with your predecessors?

Michael Kolesart said...

Dear Anonymice 9:56 PM and 11:15 PM:

Identify yourselves and I'd be happy to respond. I will however need access to my electronic files which I FOILed for on March 27 and which the Town and especially Councilman Sheehan are blocking.

hal samis said...

Although there were those that wanted the Comptroller, Mike Kolesar, to run the Town, there were others, the Town Board, that did not. Funny how when Kolesar started calling around to determine what traction he had in the villages to run for Town Supervisor, the Town Board panicked and fired him.

So it is nettlesome to see two kindred anonymous comments raising questions regarding what did Kolesar, the Comptroller, accomplish. Last time I looked, the Comptroller's office is not a policy making role but rather one providing the raw data to the Town Board for their rightful choice of whether to adopt or reject the Comptroller's advice. Kind of like the Town Board gets input from a smorgasbord of outside consultants hired to produce costly reports which are then ignored.

However, Mr. Kolesar in trying to make the point that he has been denied access to his files, even through proper FOIL channels, has done himself a disservice by not even reminding readers that he submitted an open project list of over 50 items to the Town Board; a checklist proposing ways to save money; a checklist discussed in work sessions and a checklist that no longer served a purpose when the Town Board dismissed Kolesar.

I could stop here but I feel bound to respond to one particular point. But I'm going to set the rules of play. The question was asked whether the Comptroller's Department under Kolesar spent less than his predecessors. What I want from anonymous is how many people are in the Comptroller's Department vs other Departments, Parks, Police, DPW, TDYCC etc. and their respective budgets. When it exists as a throwaway question, I'm sure that readers will assume the the Comptroller's Department is playing in the same big leagues by staffing and dollars. So if readers were meant to get the impression that Kolesar didn't run his own taut ship, I say let's go to the videotape. But anonymous has to have some "skin" in the game. What he provides will only serve to be the basis for mopping the floor with him.

Did I say "him"? Then that must mean I'm limiting the field to the three males on the Town Board.

And for those that can't wait for what will not happen, the answer is the 10 person department while operating under budget did not spend less -- unlike the Police Department which can function without 6 officers, the Town's financial affairs; the Town's payroll processing, the Town's human resources, etc. are working with minimal staffing. In fact, the Citizens Budget Committee recommended that the Department's staff be increased.

Is it any wonder then that snide comments are delivered by anonymous poseurs.

edgemint - whats the delay? said...

what is wrong with edgemint? dont they want to get away from the dysfunctional, divisive and out of touch town board?

edgemint - save greenburgh. save yourself. incorporate!!!

Anonymous said...

I knew you couldn't list your accomplishments. Nice job blaming Feiner for the decline in assessables, Mike. I guess in your world everyone's assessables have gone up. Don't believe this guy folks. He complains but he hasn't cited one thing he would have done other than fire police to lower the tax rate.

hal samis said...

New questions for 6:56.

Feiner has been Town Supervisor for how many years?

McCarthy has been the Assessor for how many months?

Kolesar had been the Comptroller for how many months?

minty fresh said...

6:56 is a dumb azz.
Edgeminty! What IS the holdup? Pull the trigger already! The mints have been talking this up for decades!

Michael Kolesar said...

Dear Anonymous 6:56PM:

Still don't know your own name? Too embarrassed to post under it?

You probably weren't around when the bright fresh Supervisor rode into "Town" in the early 1990 and held a Town meeting oN reassessment.

I was there.

Once again the challenge - do you know your own name?

You obviously weren't at the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations meeting last night or your would have gotten a taste of what's going on. I'm fairly sure those who did attend are happy they went, but shocked or saddened by what they heard.

Anonymous said...

Do tell Mike. What shocked and saddened the crowd?

Anonymous said...

Paul, stop the police camp, cops in ambulances and wasting our money on tech rescue. If you take all of those officers and put them on the street, maybe just maybe they will solve or prevent some of these crimes. How many cops work inside at deak jobs on a weekday ????????????????? Get them on the street. Why don't you look into the State Police and County PD taking over and close the police dept. I bet the crimes would be the same for a lot less money. Lets here an answer. Stop worring about the fire depts and the County Goverment and worry about what you are in charge of.
Merge the Parks and Rec with TDYCC, privitize sanitation and close the PD

Anonymous said...

Paul
Please send the Arts Counselor over to 7-11 this weekend so there is a tangible benefit to the town expense of her salary. She can defend the store with her picture frames.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why I should care about Paul Feiner's running this race. He doesn't seem to care about anyone else's race to get a job, survive the "recession" with some money in his or her pockets, or to deal with high taxes and fewer services. Yes, he posts jobs here but he doesn't seem to do much else. Oh, he does write letters to TJN or the Enterprise that are always published.

Do we need his position? Do we need him?

Anonymous said...

There should have been a cliff at the end of the race for Feiner to continue his run downhill the exact way that he drove this town to the ground.

Anonymous said...

When is the next meeting of the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations? Please let us know when, where and time they are meeting.