Greenburgh Town Clerk Judith Beville will be organizing the free East Hartsdale Ave summer music concert series. The concerts will be held at the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings in June, July, August & September between the hours of 10 AM to 2 PM.
This is the third year that E Hartsdale Ave will have a concert series. When the program was first started a bank had sponsored the event. Last year we failed to obtain funding for the concert series. Sixteen concerts were held in 2008—twice as many as the year before. Town Clerk Judith Beville invited local musicians to perform. The musicians have been donating their time –and the program has continued at no cost to the taxpayers.
If you have a band or would like to showcase your talent –please contact Town Clerk Judith Beville at 993-1504 or townclerk@greenburghny.com. Who knows…you could be discovered like Susan Boyle was!
FRIENDLY REMINDER: county, town, fire district taxes due Thursday, April 30th. You can pay on line (www.greenburghny.com).
PAUL FEINER
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20 comments:
" ... at no cost to the taxpayers."
The town employees required to work before, during and after the concerts are not getting paid? No added fuel costs for police cars to idle during the concerts?
You might want to try coming to one of these before you comment.
Dear 9AM -
There is no doubt that one can have a good time.
There is also no doubt that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
The concert may not charge an admission fee, but as 5:14 pointed out, it isn't free either - there is a cost, however incremental, to taxpayers.
A truly honest, truly open government wouldn't be afraid to acknowledge it.
Oh please, this constant dissection of every single word and the implication that we are all dumb is getting beyond tiresome. Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch. Can we get off of the open government tangent which every single humorless Greenburgh resident takes SO LITERALLY and is constantly looking for times to point out the nonsense! There are bigger issues facing us all.
Dear 4/28/2009 3:30 PM:
Yes there are much bigger issues. They are presented in the former Comptroller's report to the Town Board (dated March 24, 2009 if you care to FOIL for it) most of which has been redacted because it proves him right and the Town Board derelict.
Sine I don't live in unincorporated Greenburgh, the last laugh or cry is on those who do.
Dear 3:30 -
I agree with you completely. Open government is a phrase put forth by the Supervisor to describe the way in which he wants the Town to operate. To effectively deal with the larger issues, like the duplication of services and the resultant inevitable annual property tax increases, the public needs accurate information. We also need a financial plan spanning several budgetary cycles - we didn't get here in a single year and we're not going to get out of it in a year either. The current climate, and the reason I'm back to posting, is that every time the Town announces a "plan" it abandons it as soon as they think no one is looking. As an example, the Town adopted a sensible, thoughtful fund balance policy. But faced with the politically impalatable, another significant rise in taxes, the policy was abandoned. The Town appointed a comptroller known for his no-punches-pulled honesty - but when the time came for Town officials to own up to mistakes, they chose instead to kill the messenger. The Town's method of apportioning sewer taxes was found by the State Controller to be incorrect. Instead of owning up to the mistakes and correcting them, Town officials circled the wagons, dug in and appealed to the State to change its rules.
Because of these and similar examples I'm sure you can supply, some of us are a little tired of hearing the mantra of "Open Government" without seeing the substance. We point out the discrepancies between current actions and stated objectives in the hopes that our elected officials care about getting it right, not just getting elected.
The concert series really improved pedestrian traffic in the business district last summer. People came to the market and stayed longer to enjoy the music - they spent money in our stores (Starbucks, Bagels n More, and others). Sometimes we have to give a little to get a little. The business district needs some stimulus - many of the store owners are experiencing a significant deline in business due to the economy. Anything we can do to help them should be appreciated. Keeping the businesses in business stimulates our tax base.
Is there evidence of increased sales on such Saturday mornings arising from concerts attendees (as opposed to from the farmers' market visitors?). If so, please provide some solid numbers for your claims.
Dear 3 PM - if you can't tell the difference maybe you should visit and support the local businesses more often!
There may be no evidence that the concerts resulted in increased sales. However--E Hartsdale Ave is fully occupied. The concerts have not hurt business and probably attracted new visitors and shoppers to the ave.
Lasser seems to be obsessed. Can he name a government in Westchester County that is half as open as Greenburgh? Of course not!
Open?! The Town is guilty of concealing dates, times and places of public meetings. The Town regularly holds "neighborhood meetings" and refuses to allow non-neighbors to speak, then votes on Town-wide items. The Supervisor and Town Board ignore Court orders, State Comptroller's findings and their own controller.
To see the Town's Capital Budget requires filing under FOIL. Reading the minutes of a Town Board meeting also requires a FOIL filing. Committees are appointed but do not hold public meetings and their reports to the Supervisor are not FOILable.
Open? What in heaven's name are you thinking?
You forgot the website deletions and the threatening phone calls...
Why was the title concerning the letter to the state concerning the sewer problem removed.
It seems when the town is as fault the comments have got to get removed.
You were told by some of the writers that the problem will not be going away until all the money is returned.
You must be afraid of the amount of people that will follow the lead to give heads up to the state that our money was wrongfully taken over many years.
Above all that the recommendations given to the town by the state comptroller were set aside those being that the assessor had a specific job to equalize the property rates. This was not done causing the residents to pay the higher tax again and again.
You then removed two comments where a list of names and money were granted to those that are employed by the town .
This is a form of a bonus.
You have the nerve to take our money to pay the salaries plus you have arranged for these employees to receive a bonus .
From the names it seems that they all work within the confines of the town hall .All office employees.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE RAISES FOR THE CSEA ???????
Another thing that you removed was that we want to know the findings that were in the Kolesar report.
Your new comptroller has knowledge of the report and its contents which he should make it known to all the residents,
Must we take him to court.
These were all important comments but you decided that you had had enough well sir the games have just begun.
You seem to forget that you are toying with our money
Another thing with the PD you were told to take a survey of how many police persons spouses work and carry insurance.
They have the posibility to collect cash from one or the other.
This has been done many times over. Crooked cop crooked doctor or dentist.
The other was how many are needed to work as DPW commissioner.
You gave the retired Regula a job ,you raised Nannas' salary plus you already have a descent honest man waiting in the wings to take over,
I guess it's not your money .
What sort of a transistion is to take place.
Is Regula and Nanna trying to show this new person how to run the jobs.
I think this new person knows what has to be done honestly. Could it be that he will find out how bad things were being done at the expense of the residents.
One of the things is the small dump trucks that Regula purchased and are just sitting in the yard.
wAS IT IF HE BOUGHT THEM NOW HE WOULD GET A GOOD BREAK OR DID HE RECEIVE SOME COMPENSATION.
That's nothing new.
Wise up Feiner maybe you have been fooled or maybe your playing dumb but we have been taken over the barrel for too long and this time we will fight back even if it means your jobs and that of the board.
The Following was deleted 6 times!
Let's go for seven. Or better yet an explanation.
The Stipend Seven
The following staff are paid extra money. Note; these extra tasks are within their normal work schedule, are non-competitive,no standard nor criteria by which the extra money was allocated exists,and no one else was considered or even interviewed for these stipends.
Bell,Marcia Town Clerk 750. Acting Deputy Town Clerk Real title;Senior Office Asst.
Cioce,Ken Engineering 3,775 Deputy Town Engineer, Real Title Sr. Civil Engineer
Gordon,Winsome Philanthropy 1,200 Minority Business Officer, Real Title Staff Asst.
Lee, Judith Community Center, 3,862 Registrar Coordinator, Real Title Staff Asst.
Sia,Cecile Justice Court 8,000. Court Administration, Real Title Court Clerk
Zacarolli,Anthony Building Dept, 9,570. Acting Deputy Real title Maintance Supervisor
Valerie Whitehead Community Center, Real Title; Staff Asst. Stipend; 30,000 for the temporary assignment
4/29/2009 7:12 PM
Anonymous said...
Dear 4/29 7:32 PM:
Re the various "stipends" you are not even close. Here are some additional compensation that you missed:
Web Master (Joe Lucasey) $4,456
Data Processing in Assessor's Department (D. Pandya) $6,180
Asst Comptroller Personnel (P. Kirkland) $7,416
F Asst Comp Personnel $1,291
SS Asst Compt Personnel $ 464
Town Clerk - records Access Officer (J. Beville) $ 4,000
Town Clerk - Custodian of Elections
(J. Beville) $5,500
Town Clerk - Custodian of Elections (M. Bell) $3,500
Total of the above 2 = $9,000 budget line A.1450.100.1
First Deputy Town Attorney (D.Fried) $8,742 budget line A.1420.101.1
The Court Clerk's stipend is actually $8,488 not $8,000
In addition, Mr. Lucasey receives "subsidized" housing in the form of 50% of estimated FMV for performing certain caretaker tasks at Hartsbrook Park in the amount of approximately $11,000 annually.
I know I've missed one or two, but close enough.
4/29/2009 8:48 PM
Taken from www.sewerdistricttruth.com
The Town has not complied with the State Comptroller's Report. This failure to comply has triggered violations of New York State Law, namely:
Town Law Article 3A Title 5 Section 54 Special Districts
Town Law 202 Expenses of Improvement - How Raised
Town Law 236 Completion of Improvements
Town Law 244 - A - Apportionment of Completed Local Assessment Upon Subdivision or Sale of Land Affected
It is our opinion that the Town has also broken the law by Filing a False Certificate, namely the Schedule of Assessments and Tax Rates that thousands of Greenburgh residents received with their taxes.
What WE MUST DO IS WRITE to the State Comptroller & The State Attorney General. Their websites are easily accessible.
Dear stipend inquirer (Mr. Kolesar?).
The stipends you complain about occurred years ago when certain members of the Town Board, who are no longer there insisted that stipends be given (rather than raises) to employees who were assigned additional work. These stipends have been better for the Town because many times the Town Board chose not to include cost of living increases to that part of the salary the employee earned.
Had you bothered to ask when you were comptroller, you would have known, even though this was common knowledge to the employees AND much of the general public who have followed Town politics. Indeed one of your own employees was doing work well beyond his/her original duties. These stipends were specified in the budget and NEVER hidden from the public.
Sorry 1;35 I never heard of these so called stipends.
Are they not hired at a certain salary
Are they not supposed to do the job that they were hired for
This was never addressed at any town meeting or included in the budgets.
This had to be something hidden in a different column which never existed.
And another thing I do not think the person who wrote all these names and monies id not Kolesar.
He has too much class to come out with such trivial information.
Maybe he will come out and tell us what his real money findings were.
Hired at one salary and then when someone leaves they take over additional responsibilities. And you are incorrect they have been in the budget. Again as I noted, to the extent this was "hidden" (your word because if you look at past budgets the stipends are in there)it was because certain former members of the Town Council chose to do it this way, against the Supervisor's wishes.
You are probably right though. Unless brought up by the public (and some, but not all were), they were probably not discussed that many years ago.
I disagree with you about Kolesar.
Fuzzy Math and Double Speak
To 1:35 PM While you may not agree with some viewpoints posted here, most posters aren't mentally impaired.How on Earth, do we Taxpayers benefit from $6,000., 9,000. and even 11,000 being handed out on a free wheeling basis? Plus how on Earth, or perhaps just how in Greenburgh, is it ANY way cheaper to give out stipends as oposed a 3 or 4% cost of living wage? Do the math.Show me the numbers. Wow! Perhaps Kolesar needs to be re-hired as a Consultant?
If these stipends are sooooooo goood, let us Taxpayers know about them. Better yet pass along to your workforce.
I'll bet my house and car, the writer receives one of these stipends themselves.
No doubt about it.
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