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GREENBURGH, N.Y. – Town officials postponed a vote on the Game On 365 lease that includes plans to construct a sports bubble and clubhouse, Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner said early Friday morning after town officials spent four hours in executive session going line by line through the lease.
A vote on the lease had been scheduled for 10 p.m. Thursday night, but officials concluded their executive session around 1:30 a.m. the next day after four hours of discussion and agreed to postpone the vote.
This is the fifth time officials have postponed a vote on the lease.
Feiner said the decision was good because it let residents know the board isn't rushing through deliberations.
Town officials will hold a vote on the lease on Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. at Greenburgh Town Hall. Feiner said the finalized lease would be available for public review before the vote.
Game On 365 wants to lease almost 7 acres on Dobbs Ferry Road and build a 94,000-square-foot domed field house and 15,000-square-foot clubhouse. Town officials estimate Game On 365 would pay approximately $260,000 in rent for the town-owned site, which is where Frank's Nursery used to be located. An environmental study and clean-up of the property would need to be done before construction.
Comments (8)
Paul did not have a bubble bath as a kid . This is why he is pushing the Bubble. Its time for the residents to finally pop the bubble.
"Town officials will hold a vote on the lease on Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. at Greenburgh Town Hall. Feiner said the finalized lease would be available for public review before the vote."
And will the meeting notice be posted on the Town website on its "meetings" page too?
It amazing how such an "open government" is so closed when they have a project that they want to force through. Even more amazing is how they can have a resolution prepared that this project has no negative impact.
Thanks Hal for trying to defend us taxpayers that don't have the legal experience and financial ability to fight the Town. And kudos to the Scarsdale Inquirer as well.
I went to the "meeting" last night for the 10PM vote. Three people were sitting in the lobby, maddening Madden, a man and a woman. I asked if they were in the back. Madden said they're in executive session (apparently to ashamed to visibly see constituents) working on the lease. I left, knowing I'd be wasting my time with this done-deal.
Thanks to Hal for shooting straight!
Like most things in this Town, seldom are the residents protected against the machinations of Feiner -- unless those with both the legal guns and the financial wherewithal take him to Court. An action which, in turn, costs taxpayers to even more as the Town's legal bill is footed by...taxpayers. Those of us lacking law credentials who have resisted Feiner have met with little success -- not because our cause was wrong or unjust but because the local media have either been wed to Feiner from a previous marriage (The Journal News) or suffered from the inattention to what is going on; rewriting Feiner's daily+ press releases have reduced the burden upon low paid, transient "reporters" or editorial policies that are honed to avoid conflict -- instead focusing on the "bright" side. That has been Feiner's focus too; accentuate the positive not because he is concerned about the climate for those selling their homes (departing Greenburgh) but because the bright side obscures the dark side which is mostly of his own making.
The current issue was running its usual course. The Lease, in its original state, was a disaster but the media, true to their history, perceived the uproar as merely a conflict between "not in my neighborhood" and "soccer moms". This may have been an acceptable presentation -- to a point. The point was long passed when it reached the Lease stage. Feiner, provoking the soccer moms to speak, did so because he needed to disguise the harm to taxpayers in the Lease language. The very fact that the Lease existed was proof that the "battle" had progressed beyond whether or not the proposed facility served a purpose or should exist at the Frank's site. But having nothing else to distract attention, that is the position that Feiner continues to maintain -- covering up an unfulfilled need, one that his Parks Department chose not to address by looking to its inventory of locations and not finding any that could produce even one soccer field. When this began, Feiner started the ball rolling by saying that this Lease was needed because it would bring revenue to the Town. When the Lease was published this reason became less of a talking point when it was discovered that the Lease did not produce revenue and even the claim that in the last half of the 15 year term that the Town would lose money on the deal. That the GameOn business plan disclosed that just the retail rents that GameOn projected would exceed the rent paid to the Town, it became a dead on arrival issue to everyone but Feiner.
However, I wander from the original intent of this "comment". I am writing this to applaud The Scarsdale Inquirer and its editor, Linda Leavitt, who I nominate as the single most important factor in causing the Town Board to "stop listen, what's that sound, everybody look at what's going down...". Paranoia did strike twice (and more) and The Inquirer's editorial (true, I was mentioned) in no uncertain terms made it clear that the ship Feiner was commandeering at his usual full speed ahead was the Titanic. Upon its publication last Friday (Feiner reads the paper early a.m. as its serves the vocal Edgemont market), the Town began an orderly retreat (an "illness", postponements, changes, late meeting) to its present state as outlined in the news story here.
The media can make a difference.
Thanks again to The Scarsdale Inquirer and, to those members of the Town Board who were able to see the light hidden in all that "sunshine".
Hal Samis
and (three)
Don't hide behind the bs. If you have a Lease to vote on tonight; that means you have a Lease which GameOn is willing to sign. There's no need for secrecy (further). What makes this situation any different from the circumstances which led to the posting of The Final Lease; that presumably done so the Town Board could say it had nothing to hide.
Apparently now you do and need to vote at a time, unNoticed, when the Public is unable to watch you and the Town Board in action. If you intend to take the position that no substantive changes exist between The Final Lease (once upon a time posted) then that is apparently contrary to the impression fostered by emails sent out by the Town Supervisor in which he intimated that there were changes due to the Public's input. Nothing that I sent the Town Board can be construed as minor changes.
(part deux)
Note how Feiner plays dirty pool. At the bottom is the Town meeting schedule showing the Special Town Board Meeting (for the GameOn 365 Lease and accompanying neg dec Resolution) Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. Next up from the bottom is his email using the Town's email list and here he tells residents that the Special Town Board Meeting is scheduled for 11:00 a.m. Then we have a Special Town Board Meeting for tonight at 10:00 p.m. which came out of nowhere; does not appear on the Town's meeting page and the Public is not allowed to see the Lease before the meeting. No notice, no copy of the Lease, no way to know before their vote just how much of the Public's input (and how it was phrased) appears. You (most of the media) give suckle to Feiner's every press release and jump to attention when he tells you that his is an open government.
GOVERNOR SIGNS LEGISLATION AUTHORIZING TOWN TO LEASE TENNIS COURTS AT AF VETERAN PARK... GAME ON VOTE RESCHEDULED FOR 10 PM TONIGHT
From Paul Feiner pfeiner@greenburghny.comhide details
To gblist gblist@cit-e.net
GAME ON VOTE RESCHEDULED TO 10 PM TONIGHT
Councilmembers Ken Jones and Francis Sheehan have been meeting with the Town Attorney’s office all morning reviewing the terms of the proposed lease with Game On. A vote that had been scheduled for this morning has been rescheduled for 10 PM tonight. All the Board members have been reviewing the comments, e mails, suggestions we have been receiving from residents. Thank you for your input.
PAUL FEINER
______________________________________________________________________
game on vote postponed till Thursday...water metering to be upgraded...settlement with Valhalla approved
From Paul Feiner pfeiner@greenburghny.comhide details
To gblist gblist@cit-e.net
The Greenburgh Town Board postponed till Thursday (11 AM) the vote on the proposed lease agreement with Game on 365 to construct a recreation/sports bubble at the abandoned Frank's nursery on Dobbs Ferry Road for a 15 year term. Members of the Town Board appreciate the input we have been receiving on the proposed lease from residents and continue to negotiate with Game On representatives to improve the terms of the lease. I received a petition signed by a majority of residents who live closest to Frank's nursery (Westchester View Lane) supporting the proposed bubble.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
August, 2012
Thu, Aug, 2
9:00 AM Special Town Board Meeting Auditorium View
Agenda
emails sent to the Town Board yesterday (part 1)
oh, and by the way Meredith, the "rent" is not near $260,000 which is one of the "sore points".
Gee, I would hate to think that what the Town Supervisor is really doing is spending all his time telling the media that he has listened to the residents and thereby giving the media the false impression that the Lease, subject of all the conjecture, is in fact a Lease which the residents would recognize as one which carries their imprimatur.
Hal Samis
Given the number of meetings noticed, cancelled, postponed, "reported illness" etc., one wonders why not having this Lease available to the Public before any vote on these separate occasions is not the course chosen by a government which takes pride only by "calling itself" an open government and not one which practices same.
Why is there no newer "Final Lease" up on the website for all to see and review -- especially when this Lease is being voted upon with its companion piece, a Resolution declaring a negative declaration which means that SEQRA and all its attendant studies (traffic, etc. may be by-passed -- throwing the impetus back on the shoulders of the Public to take the Town to Court. Could it be a strategy to allow the tenant, Game On 365, more time to find funding which will only happen with a signed Lease as part of the investor kit?
If the Public's advice is truly being heeded; then follow the existing process and reveal the Lease to the Public and thereafter vote upon this version at a Town Board Meeting in which the Public is invited to get their comments expressed in a Public arena. Even were the Town Board to legitimately "misunderstand" this procedure or legitimately attempt to input it into the newest Lease yet somehow "fall short" in doing so, it should be the Public (since it is the Public's additions which are said to be "incorporated") who would be the best judge of the success of such an attempt.
The "Final Lease" available on the Town website is a suitable poster child of how to partner with the Public on a controversial matter. If the Public comment was really incorporated in the newest Lease, don't tell us, show us. There are no negotiating secrets at this point in time if the Town Board is prepared to vote with Game On having given its consent. And the latest Special Town Board Meeting has not been properly noticed either -- it does not even appear on the Town website under meetings. Assuming that it was difficult to schedule this meeting on a moment's notice, this holds true for the Public's ability to attend as well if only to observe the Town Board in action. This scheduling difficulty only presents itself as the argument for holding the vote over to a more accessible date, time and AFTER the Public has seen what is to be voted upon. If the Town Board failed to recognize the important issues the first time around; who is to say that the Town Board has learned from this experience?
What's good enough for Colonel Bullmoose is not good enough for Greenburgh, USA.
And, surely by now, Public input on the Game On 365 proposal is no longer being construed by the Town Supervisor as voting in favor of indoor soccer for kids. What is before the Town Board is the terms of a Lease which may provide soccer fields IF the Lease is signed. However, is the Town Supervisor "confusing" the interest in soccer fields with the desire to provide a Lease which provides fairness, protections and net
INCOME to the Town? I think not.