Work Session Agenda of the Greenburgh Town Board Tuesday – March 17, 2009 – 2:00PM
(All Work Sessions are Televised Live on Cablevision Channel 76, Verizon 35 and are streamed live. Work Sessions and Town Board Meetings will be aired each Friday, Saturday and Sunday starting at 7:02am and 4:45pm. Each segment will run for approximately 6 to 7 hours, depending upon the length of the two meetings.)
2:00p.m. Greenburgh Housing Authority
2:30p.m. Handscanning – Town Comptroller
3:30p.m. WestHelp – Status of Letter to state Comptroller
3:45p.m. Executive Session – Evaluations, Board/Commissions/Interviews
5:30p.m. Adjourn
I have been in contact with the NYS Department of Transportation re: condition of the entrance to the Sprain Brook Parkway. The NYS DOT is using this location as a staging area for a tree removal contract. Upon completition of the contract, the area will be returned to its original condition, according to Joan Dupont, Regional Director of the NYS DOT. I have expressed my concern about the Sprain Parkway (off of Dobbs Ferry Road) being used as a dumping ground.
PAUL FEINER
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26 comments:
Paul took you long enough. I had expressed my concern sometime ago. it's about time something is being done. The area looks like a commercial DUMP. Paul is that how our town should look ?
I have no control over the state. I contacted the state immediately after residents expressed concern and just received a response. I communicated our concerns to the Governor's regional representation, State Senator, Assemblyman and NYS DOT. PAUL FEINER
What I'm curious about is, if what is referenced on this blog elsewhere, is true.
That the Town Board is going to approve a new dental plan for the Police.
I think that even the possibility of this being true is something that the Town should not be discussing in private, especially when an expired contract with the CSEA remains unsigned.
Again this too is something that residents have to "learn" from anonymous on this blog.
One union faces threats of loss of jobs if they don't fall into line regarding already promised but unrealized raises and another union in the same harsh economic climate is able to increase its catalogue of perks.
And what I don't get even beyond this is that DPW managers who resign can return and earn more, also in the same economic climate.
It is no wonder that these discussions occur in secrecy, not to protect the employees but to protect the Town's managers.
It is getting really hard to observe open government when no one cares to clean the windows.
Hal this is not a new contract. The town has just not been paying for the past few years! They do as they please contract or not. Their word means nothing!
what about --
No bid contracts --given to guys without even resumes?
Purportedly non-profit groups using the pool -- does anyone know if they have paid?
Only the Town Board can commit to raises. Union negotiations are subject to Town Board and union membership endorsements.
Paul as far as the work session went yesterday with the representatives of Valhalla YOU SHOULD STAND UP AND TRY TO BE A MAN AND SAY ......
Listen to the rest of the residents that abide by the State Comptrollers srtatemnet that the money should be used town wide.
This is NOT the way to get votes.
You had every opportunity to back up Sheehan BUT you took the easy way out.For this you should loose the election big time.
You have lost what is necessary to run a town big time.
The money that the fire dept.received should be stopped also.
How many fire dept. do you have town wide volunteered or paid.
Does the letter sent by the State Comptroller have to be written in another language to make you understand that it was an illegal contract.
As far as your town attorney goes maybe there is another town that needs not a lead attorney but an associate he should think about the position.
I have never seen two people passing the buck as you and lEWIS.
aRE YOU MEN OR MOUSES.
I very seldon go along with Sheehan and his thoughts on matters, but this time he was right on.
You all voted not to give this money to Valhalla some time ago is that not enough.
Why do you keep overturning all the decisions voted upon in previous meetings just to satisfy a chosen few.
WAKE UP PAUL You sold us down the river with your poor managing skills .We the residents need a big break to stay in this town.
You said yourself yesterday that we will be looking at a big tax hike next year just remember this is all your pussy footing arround to make yourself look good [for some]in the up coming election.
Sheehan it's up to you to teach the two newcomers how to follow laws that were voted upon in previous meetings.
You cannot make changes mid stream to get votes.
Feiner enough is enough.
When it come to town wide aid you constantly bake away WHY.
Stop the BS and do the right thing which is SAY NO TO VALHALLA.
Once again, Paul Feiner is censoring opinions critical of his administration of the town. Today he chose to censor a comment that was posted online in the Journal News in response to a letter from one of his political supporters touting an April 25 "demonstration" against county government.
Readers should judge for themselves what to make of Feiner's effort here to censor his supposedly "open" forum. Here is what Feiner deleted:
"The Town of Greenburgh would have been far better off had it elected Tolchin over Feiner. Perhaps Mr. Russo doesn't seem to mind, but unincorporated Greenburgh residents have experienced a town tax increase of more than 31% in the past two years. And to make matters worse, the Town this year budgeted more than $5 million in fund balance money to keep the tax hike at 8% when it otherwise would have been more than 13%. On top of that, the Town Comptroller reports that not only is the Greenburgh Court without any internal financial controls, but so too are all the Town departments that receive money from the public, including the Theodore Young Community Center, the Parks & Rec Department (whose services largely duplicate those at the community center), and the Building Department. That means there's no independent accountability for the millions of dollars that these departments receive each year from the Town and from the public. How did we get into this mess? By electing Feiner, a gadfly with no administrative experience or apparent interest in the nuts and bolts of municipal government. We may have gotten by in good financial times with Feiner at the helm. But now, maybe Feiner apologist Russo may not mind, but we've seen Feiner make cuts in essential town services, such as police, garbage pickup, snow removal and leaf pickup, while expanding such non-essential services as Xposure, a no-bid highly controversial after school program costing town taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to serve less than a 100 kids from the Greenburgh Central school district at a cost per year of more than $3000 a child. Even worse, Feiner just recently disbursed as a gift $200,000 in town funds to the Fairview Fire District, while other fire districts in the town got nothing. And to make matters even worse for Greenburgh taxpayers, Feiner's irresponsible actions in preventing the Fortress Bible Church from building a sanctuary in the town may end up costing us millions of dollars in damages for which, because the conduct involves a violation of federal law, there is no insurance.
Sorry Mr. Russo, Mr. Feiner is not even a gadfly -- in these times of fiscal austerity, Feiner's a municipal menace.
3/18/2009 11:02:17 AM"
What's Russo's first name please.
Where can I read the entire article.
plEASE PRINT ON THE BLOG.
John Russo
if i were in edgemont or hartsdale, i would try to get out of greenburgh by incorporating into a village
If Paul was censoring nasty comments, he would be censoring almost all the posts on this blog. It's probably coming from the same 6 or 7 people anyway.
The Town Board has always welcomed internal controls being implemented in every department. I have asked the comptroller to meet with me every Monday morning to discuss implementation of internal control improvements.
If the town comptroller is telling us that there are no internal controls in the town departments that accept money from the public, such as the community center, parks & rec and the building department, then Feiner's a day late and a dollar short telling us he's just "asked" the comptroller to meet with him every Monday morning to discuss "implementation of internal control improvements."
Anyone who knows anything about internal controls knows that the only meaningful controls are those implemented from outside the departments in questions. That means the comptroller's office has to be able to exercise independent control over the money being taken in by these departments. That means additional personnel are needed. That Feiner thinks he can "solve" this problem by having a casual chat with the comptroller every Monday morning shows just how out of touch he is with the day-to-day management of the Town he's supposed to be responsible for supervising.
The people really getting hosed here are the taxpayers of unincorporated Greenburgh.
Why the need for internal controls if Feiner himself gives the farm away.
He thinks everyone outside of Fairview are so wealthy, they can afford to support a whole part of town that is more than capable of supporting itself.
Feiner has been pushing for additional internal controls for many years. He has been asking the comptrollers office to implement internal controls (hand scanning) for over a year. Glad it's finally happening.
Dear Paul @ 6:54,
Hand-scanning is not internal control. Your department heads need to manage & supervise their staff. You have managers that do not know how to manage or supervise. You have managers that do not understand simple accounting.
hand scan all you like but counselors will be sitting under trees, talking on their cell phones while on the job, staff will think it's a super idea to spend 10K on trips to Playland, and the commissioner will still tells us how much revenue programs generate never taking into account overhead.
Internal controls go far beyond a machine and you have no intention on correcting the real problems.
Chat away with Mike every Monday but I still can't understand how someone at TDYCC decided to change a program fee from what was resolved at a recent meeting and that's all okie dokie with you.
Internal controls my tuchus.
and BTW, here's something interesting; we can all go to this Xposure School Greenburgh website and buy an Xposure 2009 Science Book, "Xposure Foundation Inc.'s very own science book created by 4th-8th grade students. Filled with experiment ideas, mind blowing facts and info on minority scientists." Written by " "Professor" Chelsea Schinker
Xposure Science "Doctors"(our kids?)
Cost $30.60
Promoted at the Greenburgh Xposure website:
http://www.xposureschools.com/greenburgh/home_news.php?id=23
AND, it appears that Xposure now refers to our program as a "school" for the economically disadvantaged in Greenburgh that sells books about miniority scientists. It's nice to know that we gave them the money to ramp up thier business. The business that serves every single child in Greenburgh!
http://www.xposureschools.com/greenburgh/schools.php
Chat away with Mike every Monday but I still can't understand how someone at TDYCC decided to change a program fee from what was resolved at a recent meeting and that's all okie dokie with you.
the purpose of the meeting with the comptroller each week should be to identify areas such as the above that need tightening and controls. All unnecessary spending needs to be brought to the attention of the Town Board.
Meeting with the Comptroller is good - taking his thoughtful, ethical and accurate advice would actually be better.
That area looks horrible
Kind of hard for the town comptroller to know if there are any controls when he doesn't go out of his office to visit the other departments to see what they are doing.
Say, "NO TO VALHALLA," is not enough.
If the original agreement to give Valhalla approximately $650,000/year for 10 years was illegal, then the approximately $2,000,000 given to them to date, should be returned.
I'm not aware of ANY action taken by our Board and/or the Town Attorney to recoop the ill gotten money.
I'll say this for Valhalla, they sure have "onions" to DEMAND more. And our Dudley Do-wrong Supervisor doesn't cut them off at the pass.They shouldn't be permitted to be on the agenda...oh I forgot, Greenburgh practices "OPEN GOVERNMENT." Maybe the definition of ILLEGAL should be remediated to the Board.
BTW, 6:54 PM, 3/18, please show me some evidence that Feiner has been "pushing for internal controls for years." My take on his confusing hand-held scanning devices with internal controls is that he is CLUELESS about what internal controls are. So, how could he be "pushing for" that which he is ignorant about, for "years."
PS $2,000,000 = approximately SIX percentage points of tax relief, and since the FUND BALANCE is virtually gone the board now has a NEW source of revenue to raid...if they do the right thing.
If we had internal controls we would never be in the fix that we are in now.
This comptroller is doing the right thing in bringing to light the goings on here in Greenburgh.
Could things be adjusted according to the law I don't think so when you have the supervisor and a few board members blocking the comptrollers findigs.
This board was so silent with how two comptrollers' [not mentioing names]ran their investigations that many coverups and changes were made to make things look as though the town was running great.
Yes the town was running downhill all the way.
All this has happened during this present administration.
Sorry Paul you started real good but some where along the way you lost what was right and what was wrong.
The comptroller cannot work miracles.
With exception of the two new board members you all have to say mia culpa mia culpa.
The town attorneys office is for the birds.
How about making changes from the top with anyone who has knowledge of the laws that were initiated many years ago in this town.
Between you and me Lewis knows nothing about law.
At this point it is too late for him to learn. Show him the door.
So now we have a dump on the Sprain Parkway here in Greenburgh.Is the state telling you Paul what is happening here in the 80th best place to live.
The state has promised to remove the tree logs on the sprain.
Paul is it ok for the contractor who is removing the logs from the Sprain area to be backing down the on ramp to the south bound Sprianon a Sunday at 7 pm ?
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