Please feel free to post your comments about issues of concern.
VETERANS DAY TODAY
TOWN BOARD BUDGET REVIEW STARTS TOMORROW AFTERNOON 3:45 PM
HOW CAN WE CUT THE SIZE OF THE TAX HIKE?
WEDNESDAY EVENING, TOWN BOARD MEETING
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
37 comments:
"HOW CAN WE CUT THE SIZE OF THE TAX HIKE?"
No increases in staff and no overtime for the highway department (other than for emergency snow removal). The staffing and operations are so poorly supervised.
Let me get the ball rolling here. According to the JN the Valhalla Union Free School District has filed a notice of claim against the Town of Greenburgh. This is a precurser to a law suit. Didn't Valhalla indemnify Greenburgh? Wouldn't they be suing themselves?
if a lawsuit is brought the right move is to countersue for a return of all the illegally obtained funds with interest esp if the comptroller report says the funds were squandered on opera tickets and cruises.
Can we see the notice that Valhalla served on the Town? Is it on the website yet?
Feiner still thinks Valhalla should get the money. How are you going to get past that?
No overtime for the police dept.also.Every department should have the same rulings.
Too much money goes out for overtime this raises pensions at the time of retirement.
As one says it's good if you can get it.
You want to save money you have got to start with all overtime in all departments.
t
Is this expenditure of the funds to Valhalla in the budget? Where? Has Feiner said how it should be paid?
As stated in the JN,
The comptroller also said the town could give the money to Valhalla by changing the state law, through home rule legislation in the state Legislature, or by ensuring the money was used for recreation or school programming that benefits all town residents.
The comptroller also said WestHELP could give the funds directly to the school district.
Paul, it is time to put up or shut up. What is your suggestion? Will you go with one of these alternatives, and if so, which one, or another alternative. We want to know your suggestion. Exactly how do you want this paid.
Feiner's failure to act in accordance with the State Comptroller's ruling (which Feiner requested and promised to obey) will undoubtedly result in another lawsuit. We have returned to the bad old days where Feiner's response to every challenge was "If you don't like it, sue me."
Bernstein did, and he has won at every level - and he will again.
The difference this time is that everyone knows about the money. Everyone wants a slice of the pie. Greenburgh taxpayers (rightfully) think it is their money. Mt. Pleasant and North Castle taxpayers in Valhalla, want the money to reduce their taxes, if it goes to Valhalla. It appears, ironically, the only party left out with no legitimate claim is the Mayfair Knollwood Civic Associate who created the mess in the first place.
Who is this person who says that Bernstein has won on every level. It isn't so. Bernstein tried to stop the villages from filing a friend of the court brief in the Taxter Risge case and he was rebuffed by the court. The villages were given permission to file the brief. Then in his second lawsuit he tried to prevent the villages from intervening and becoming defendants in the lawsuit and the the appeals court sid nix to that. The villages will now be part of that lawsuit.
I think that Bernstein won early and he has been sliding downhill ever since.
Feiner said before the primary and election that he would ask the HELP organization to give the funds directly to the Valhalla school district, in compliance with the state comptroller's recommendations. No surprise here.
these issues of who can be in the lawsuit are political cover by the court if it rules that the villages have to pay for taxter ridge as well as all other town parks or facilites open to everyone in the town but now only billed to unincorporated. thats what counts, not these little skirmishes. so far, bernstein has won the tough cases.
Bernstein won the first round. So far he has lost the other rounds. Let's see who gets the knockout.
To anonymous at 3:54pm. I need to correct you. You said "Mt. Pleasant and North Castle taxpayers in Valhalla, want the money to reduce their taxes". None of the Westhelp money was used to reduce Valhalla's budget. Go to www.valhallavoice.com and find out what the money was spent on.
Westhelp isnt willing to give the money directly to VSD, unless TOG signs saying OK with them. State report says TOG must still get value for its lease.
To anonymous @ 5:15 PM, I meant now that they know they know how it was spent and that there were never any real restrictions on it, they expect it to go against the budget. Realize that virtually all the ligitimate "educational spending" in Westhelp has been asbsorbed into their budget this year. The illegitmate programs can't be funded any longer. What else would they expect the money to go for? It will end up reducing their taxes when it should pay for programs here in Greenburgh.
Interesting how noted Valhalla critics John Fitzgerald and Richard Panetta (North Castle Resident) are blogging here anonymously. C'mon, fellas. We know who you are.
Shame on them. Look at all the other bloggers who signed their names.
The voters spoke in the primary and in the election. They want the contract to be honored.
ok , easy as
ABC
an illegal contract is not a contract.
repeat for mr feiner - an illegal contract is not a contract.
Valhalla does nothing for Westhelp!
Why should they get this money?Just because Westhelp is in their district? none of those kids go to school there.
The County Police and Fairview Fd go there all the time
The people of Mayfair Knollwood accepted the homeless shelter near them and conditioned their OK on the WESTHELP contract. The contract provided that funds be given to the Valhalla Union Free school district annually. The NYS comptroller said this could be done provided that Greenburgh is not the middleman.
the money cannot go directly to valhalla school district - the town has to be paid rent for the facility - the town is facing a massive budget increase and needs every penny.
valhalla school district is not getting any more money for opera tickets, cruises and phony salaries.
in fact, the town should sue for a return of all the money illegally given to valhalla.
If you think the inclusion of the Villages was a defeat for Bernstein, so be it. But, by including the Villages, the Court has handed Bernstein an enormous win. When the Court asked to be briefed on the issue of whether Finneran was constitutional, it signaled an important decision was coming. By including the Villages as parties, the Court made it mandatory the Villages abide by the decision. If the Court decides Finneran is unconstitutional, the Villages will be included in the decision and Bernstein will not have to sue each Village to comply. The Villages will not be able to appeal on the grounds that they were not included as parties and shouldn't be bound by the decision. On the whole the Court significantly assisted Bernstein by broadening the defendants to include the Villages - a result Bernstein couldn't othgerwise have achieved.
Gee, if it was so wonderful for Bernstein, I wonder why he fought it so hard.
I don't see any blog topic on Westhelp. Is it somewhere and I just can't find it? It made the front page of the Journal News. I would think it deserves its own blog.
Paul you should create an incentive for retirement.
Tou have people working above the needed time for a pension.
With an incentive maybe they will retire and give a chance to others to work .
you can help out with some of the benefits,but many companies do not pay health benefits for their new hirers.
The longer one stays on a job the less work he or she will produce,
Look into retiring incentives ,maybe in the long run it will save the residents tax money that they cannot afford anymore.
Pensions for Greenburgh workers are getting out of hand.
There should be some study made by your legal dept. as to what could be done if anything.
You have to examine which dept has the most money going out each month.
Do your retirees receive,a town pension,union pension and social security?
Are health benefits paid in full after retiring with 20 years of service?
Check the contracts first and then see what has to be done.
REMEMBER WE HAVE REACHED A POINT THAT YOU CAN'T GET WATER FROM A ROCK.AND ALMOST ALL OF OUR WELLS ARE GETTING REAL LOW.
Hey Francis,
Are you enjoying your few remaining days in power??? How does it feel to be responsible for the defeat of your friends??? Control of Greenburgh has been wrested from you by the citizens. In two years you will go down to the greatest defeat in Greenburgh history. Why don't you resign now and avoid the inevitable? Don't forget, many investigations into your activities will begin come January. Resign now and spare yourself and your family embaresment.
If the police stopped writing tickets how much money in income would the town lose???
Town Board Meeting- November 14, 2007
As all of us know who are attending this meeting and those who have the pleasure of watching this on a cablecast, this past election has been now over for eight days. With regards to the subject of political signage, as of Monday, less than a week after the past election, the Feiner campaign has removed over 95% of it signs.
I have in these two bags approximately 120 signs that were salvaged from various poles and other venues for the re-cycle bin. But unfortunately the Feiner Campaign was forced to buy over 1000 of these type signs and the vast majority, now lie on the ground somewhere in the Town of Greenburgh. Of course the reason we had to buy this many signs, and I was only able to remove 120, was that over 800 had been removed illegally by vandals, in and out of our opponent’s campaign. Personally I have no clue why an ordinary citizen, without a political axe to grind would go around removing political signs. Of course, I could understand that if an errant sign had been place in front of one’s property, I could understand their angst. But I can assure this body and the listening audience that the vast amount of signs were placed away from homes, away from residential streets and at well-traveled intersections and cross streets.
Personally, in this climate of voter apathy, I can see no reason for having laws that prohibit the placing of signage on utility poles or on open land that is public property. In fact, any restrictions against this use would seem an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech. In fact, for the political wags who, claim that the poll is owned by the utilities, please remember that the poles are placed on public land, and the utilities, benefit greatly from their use of public land. I would not shed a tear for the utilities over the temporary use of their poll!
But, if one looked at any of these poles one would not be surprised by the thousands of old staples that adorn these poles from the constant placing of circulars, which announce yard sales, lost dogs, circus events, charity happenings, church/religious outings and fundraisings and every other type of temporary public activity. In fact, there are many commercial signs that remain as permanent reminders of their business activity.
But of course they should be removed in a timely matter. Again, I heard many empty threats from various sources about the illegality of posting signs on poles. Please note that every sitting judge, from Foster to Freidman to Nicolai, and all the others, winners and losers, incumbents and challengers, have their signs everywhere, and many are on poles. I note that only Walter Schwartz’s signs were removed after the primary. But, as of today, there are incredible amount of obsolete Barnes-Bass primary signs, both red and white, still stuck in the ground and on polls almost two months after the primary. They had lost the Democratic Primary and had not right to be posted with their continued claim of being Democratic designees. In the same way there are still many Berger signs from the primary, still in the ground around Greenburgh. In the case of Ms. Berger, she had claimed that she was out of the race, not actively campaigning, but ironically she has failed to remove many of her signs. As of today, there remains, almost all of the Barnes-Williams Row C signs hanging from every pole imaginable. So, I would say in the spirit of removing post-election visual pollution, those campaigns remove those signs or be fined.
There is nothing wrong with political signs. They should be encouraged to be placed on every lawn and any every pole. We need people to be aware of coming elections and the more informed the electorate is, the better we are off as a society. In this past election, only 20% of the public voted. That is almost understandable when and because most of the public thought that the election was over on September 18th. Maybe it should have been. I always believe that minor lines should be used as place for voters to cast their ballot, in the general election, for a candidate on a line they can accept. In other words, many Republicans, who crossover to vote for a Democrat would like a place to vote, rather than the Democratic line.
It is interesting, that in this past election, two Democrats, who lost in the primary, and had run previously as “real” Democrats, because of their party designation, sought support from the Republican Party, even though they serve as members of the Greenburgh Democratic Committee. They even received a letter of support to Republicans from the GOP party Chair, Mr. Myles Greenberg, (a different Greenburgh, by the way). Interestingly, they stayed on the ballot in November, which is their inherent right, they campaigned against the Democratic Party and its official nominees, they continued to claim they were “real” Democrats and they eventually lost in a landslide. Historically, in Westchester, in the 20th Century and beyond, outside of the villages, no minor line has ever defeated a Democrat or a Republican in a race for County Executive, Mayor, Supervisor, State Senator, Assemblyperson, County Legislator or Judge. That obviously is a futile and expensive exercise.
Richard J. Garfunkel
Anybody know why Steve Bass has left the last two Town Board meetings early (just after 11:00)?
The official line from the ballot challenged Town Council is that they have a job to do for the remainder of their term?
I don't know how they can perfrom this job if they aren't present to vote.
And it is not fair to have to keep waking up Diana Juettner in case her vote is needed.
The thrust of Reeking Carbuncles argument is that only major party candidates should be permitted. So, when are Fall Guy Whiner and his Paulitburo colleagues going to announce that they will never again accept a third party designation?
Anon 2:31
The question is not whether one has the opportunity or right to run on a second, third, fourth or fifth line, but what is it's real purpose? It's real purpose, I may reiterate, is to give people a place for a cross over vote in the general election. Again, all I stated, and will re- state for your thick dome, was that in the history of Westchester a minor party nominee cannot and has never won with a minor line alone. Not hard to understand, is it? Taking an extra line will always serve that purpose. But of course minor lines with alternative candidates often attract voters and can siphon off votes from weither party. Therefore, when the two major parties field candidates, minor lines, especially the Conservative line can determine the winner. Times have changed!
With regards to Williams and Barnes, their appeal was rejected wholeheartedly by the general electorate, and they were left with their core (anti-Feiner) voters from the primary. They were well-known, had 30 years of experience, and it seemed, adequate name recognition, so how come they were dispatched with such ease? The answer is simple, most of the people who vote in Greenburgh are Democrats. Therefore Democrats made their choice in September and reiterated in November, despite their zillion signs with their names along with Row C. In the head to head races, Feiner and Beville, crushed their opponents. Where was the support from Myles Greenberg's GOP minions? Where were the extra Democrats that didn't vote in the primary? Why didn't they rise in indignation over the miscarriage of justice through voter apathy in the Primary? The electorate increased by 100% and there were ample votes to reverse the so-called mistakes of September. How come Anon 2:31 they rejected that opportunity?
Please go back into your dark and anonymous hole and continue to weep bitter tears of defeat and rejection!
Richard J. Garfunkel
Can I ask a question ? Why are the taxes for the Hartsdale Fire Department so high ?
They dont even respond to EMS calls ???
Anyone ???
Salaries are hitting the sky in both the fire dept. and police depts. because of the unions.
Whatever the unions want their people to get they make sureit is granted.
Get rid of the unions and salaries will be at a good level.
They cant go on strike because they are civil service,so that can't be held over our heads.
The same goes for the DPW and the rest of the town workers they are protected by unions.
Post a Comment