Gov. David Paterson has signed legislation that would make it easier for citizens and local officials to consolidate or dissolve local governments. Residents and local governing bodies could petition for abolishing or combining special taxing districts, towns, villages or other government entities. Our State Legislators, Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins and Assemblyman Richard Brodsky voted for the legislation. The legislation was proposed by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
NOW THE VOTERS CAN DECIDE IF THE THREE PAID FIRE DISTRICTS IN GREENBURGH SHOULD BE CONSOLIDATED…
COST OF GREENBURGH POLICE (entire unicorporated Greenburgh) $22,568,898…COST OF 3 PAID FIRE DISTRICTS (NOT ENTIRE UNINCORPORATED GREENBURGH: $29,949,012)
New York has more than 10,500 taxing districts statewide, 6,900 of which are town special districts for water, fire and other services. For example… The town of Greenburgh has three paid fire districts –each costing more than the Greenburgh police dept. In 2009 the cost of running the Greenburgh police department was $22, 568, 898. The combined costs of running the three paid fire districts (Greenville, Fairview, Hartsdale) was $29,949,012. The three paid fire districts do not serve the entire unincorporated section of town. The police dept does serve the entire unincorporated section of Greenburgh. Parts of the unincorporated section of Greenburgh (North Elmsford, Donald Park, parts of unincorporated Greenburgh, E Irvington) are served by volunteer fire departments. The police chief recently issued a report (which is on the town web site—www.greenburghny.com) reviewing the finances of the fire departments. A suggestion was made to study the impact consolidation would have on the operations of the departments. This new law will make it easier for voters to successfully push for measures that could result in taxpayer savings. Petitions for consolidation would have to be sgined by at least 10 percent of the voters or 5,000 voters-whichever is less.
SHOULD VOTERS HAVE THE ABILITY TO PETITION TO ELIMINATE/CONSOLIDATE COUNTY GOV…..ELIMINATE THE STATE SENATE?
I hope that this law will be the beginning of the effort to rethink the way government in New York State runs. We need to restructure government if we are going to be able to make living in Westchester more affordable. I hope that this new law will be followed by additional actions that could lead to the smarter government. Among the suggestions:
***the NY State Legislature should approve legislation creating a New York State Constitutional Convention to rewrite the state constitution.
***the NY State Legislature should amend the new consolidation law to provide voters with the ability to petition for the elimination/consolidation of county governments.
***The NY State Legislature should amend the new law to grant voters the right to petition for the elimination of state agencies, authorities and even one house of the NY State Legislature. Our dysfunctional State Senate could be abolished and replaced with a unicameral legislature. Nebraska currently has a single legislative body. In the federal government the House reflects the population and the Senate reflects the geographic regions. However, the State Senate legislative districts are based on the principle of one man one vote. The current bi cameral legislature makes advocates for new legislation jump through two hoops in one session for no valid reason.
Paul Feiner
Greenburgh Town Supervisor
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21 comments:
Paul:
You have got to be kidding. You can't even run the Town of Greenburgh and now you want to have control over the fire districts. You take the advise of the police chief who knows nothing about the fire districts and their operations. Maybe we should have the 3 fire chiefs do a study on the police department, considering they need to call the fire department every time there is a routine medical call. Clean up your own backyard before you take on others
Paul -
Using John Kapica's own figures from the report he and the assessor compiled, the fire taxes of property owners in Greenville would more than double! The fire district taxes imposed on property owners in Greenville would be second only to their school taxes!
What are you thinking? Are you secretly in league with Bernstein? First you hand him an issue with funding Taxter Ridge's purchase. Then you give him the opportunity to reinforce Finneran's barring access of village residents from "B" budget recreation. Now you're giving him an incredibly good reason for Edgemont to reexamine villagization.
In the words of a famous ancient Roman general, "One more victory like that and we are doomed."
A great idea. Let the County run the Towns and Villages with, hopefully, a new County Executive.
Hi Peter:
Have you compared the salaries of town employees with fire district employees? After you do, please tell us what you think. You may be surprised.
Waste in one area is not an excuse for doubling the taxes for an innocent population.
Only Edgemont is charged for the Greenville Fire District's salaries. If Edgemonters thought they weren't getting value for their dollar just how long do you think it would be before Bob Bernstein filed a lawsuit?
On the other hand, if Fairview and Hartsdale think their fire fighters are overpaid, they should be making their feelings known to their INDEPENDENT fire commissioners.
With the exception of the Police, no one at Hillside Avenue has a job description which includes placing her/his life on the line in the ordinary performance of her/his duties. If that isn't worth a bit more than risking a nasty paper cut, I don't know what is.
Town employees do one set of tasks - fire fighters do another. The jobs really aren't comparable.
Peter: bet ya that most Edgemont voters have no clue how much each of the fire district emloyees, firefighters, captains and chief earn.
Why don't you post the salaries on this website?
Bet ya that even the ECC leadership isn't paying attention to salaries.
Compare Greenburgh police salaries with the salaries of Greenville fire district employees.
We in Greenville are very satisfied with our fire department something that we cannot say about you and the board.
Why the hell don't you leave us alone.
You cannot clean up your own house,
It was mentioned some time ago that the police dept should be taken over by the county or state police.How come you did not mention this in any of your blogs.
How about consolidating all police dept. here in Greenburgh,, This was not suggested by the chief who does not know anything about the dept. and above all your assessor .
She swhould be paying more attention to the job that she has instead of medling into things that she knows nothing about.
Her mistakes you seem to cover up very well////// What's going on Paul///////
Actually I'm well aware of what the Chief, the Assistant Chiefs and the Captains earn. I also know how much the firemen make - you see, I was concerned about the increasing cost of fire protection, so I asked.
Your posting sounds a little sour grapey. I've never suggested other Town employees don't deserve the opportunity to make a decent living, I merely suggest that only the job descriptions for police officers and fire fighters include risking their lives in the ordinary course of their work - unlike Town Supervisors, Assessors, Town Board members, Building Inspectors and assorted assistants, clerks and the like.
Because public safety jobs are so fundamentally different in their risks, I'm not particularly upset about paying those folks a risk premium. I know that there is no way in the world that I'd voluntarily run into a burning building. I'm grateful there are people who are willing and able to do so. Perhaps you chose the wrong career?
10 Most Dangerous Jobs in America
26 June 2009.Deadliest Catch: Ode to Fishermen
Logging is typically
the most dangerous
job in America.
Before you complain about punching the time clock, read this list for some perspective. Maybe the coffee stinks and you don't like your boss, but at least the threat of death or injury isn't perpetually hanging over your head. The order may change from year to year, but these are typically the most dangerous jobs in America.
1. Logger
2. Pilot
3. Fisher
4. Iron/Steel Worker
5. Garbage Collector
6. Farmer/Rancher
7. Roofer
8. Electrical Power Installer/Repairer
9. Sales, Delivery, and Other Truck Driver
10. Taxi Driver/Chauffeur
one supervisor
one chief of police
and one fire chief
Each of Greenburgh's six villages got by this year and last with single digit tax hikes. They each have a mayor (who gets paid a nominal fee), a police chief and a fire chief. Unincorporated Greenburgh has experienced a 31% tax hike this year and last with a police chief who's retiring and a supervisor with no knowledge of finance and no plan to remedy the town's exploding tax problem except to blame the unincorporated area for not following his suggestion to consolidate its fire districts which, as should be obvious, are not the problem. This follows his other publicity stunt earlier this year which was to blame the state for not abolishing Westchester County.
Regarding this rediculous posting by the Supervisor, let's get the facts about average response time to all calls. I bet the average response time from the Greenburgh police department is substantially higher (longer) that that of any of the 3 fire districts and I don't live in any of the 3 fire districts, so I am not defending anybody. Care to wait 20 - 40 minutes for a fire truck to show up when your house is burning?
Does the above mean that some kind of consolidation / sharing of costs might not save some taxes, of course not. Paul can't stand to have people ask about the $2.7 million in uncollected parking fines, or the $300,000 plus that the Greenburgh Housing Authority owes the Town (unincorporated Greenburgh) or the $100,000 or so spent on last year's TDYCC day camp taking kids to water parks, etc.
Let's have someone/ some firm independently audit any numbers. Anyone have any suggestions?
True or false? Two of the three fire districts permit employees pension benefits to be based on only one year, costing taxpayers significant dollars.
9:40 Quit the PD and take the test for the FD and stop your bitching!
Dear 9:40 -
Would it be correct to assume that those districts are Hartsdale and Fairview?
If that's the case, wouldn't it be completely irresponsible of Greenville to consolidate?
Not only would Greenville's fire protection costs more than double, they would be mismanaged as well.
The argument against consolidation continues to strengthen.
Paul and Kapica should refocus their energy into the police department. Countless unsolved burglaries in Edgemont, an armed robbery at Amazing Savings that took several hours, not minutes but HOURS for the SWAT team to assemble and enter the store, unsolved murders in Fairview...The list goes on. By the way I have the utmost respect for the officers of GPD, however, Feiner and his lap dog Kapica have stretched them so thin between EMS, Technical Rescue, SWAT among other things that crime fighting has taken a back seat. Ask most cops, they'll they you they want nothiing to do with EMS in G'burgh or the villages. Feiner also neglects to mention that even if the 3 FD's consolidated, he still wouldn't have control due to a law preventing towns from having fire departments, hence the 3 fire districts existing in the first place.
You are right, 8:37am. They should have stormed the place containing numerous hostages before evaluating the situation. I guess it is true. Watching too much television rots your brain.
8:54: So should the FD's wait 2 hours after pulling up on a house fire before going in and putting it out?
If Cuomo only knew how this town is being run he would be the first to have either the county or state take over .
This town is a disaster .
You fired the only person that had guts to tell you swo.
You see he was not your patsie.
What you have there now is ayes man that will put us all in a bigger hole.
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