This Past Week in the Greenburgh Supervisor's Race

A selection of issues that caught my attention over the last week or so related to the Supervisor campaign:

1. Frank’s Nursery no longer fosters the growth of seedlings into house plants. Instead, this particular nursery nurtures invasive bittersweet vines whose tangled tendrils are thorny narratives. In the past week, the town board has reversed its earlier initiative to push through a deal to allow the GameOn company to develop the contaminated Frank's Nursery site as a “sports bubble” facility. Apparently, the relentless criticism by the opponents of this proposed deal has caused certain town board members to hesitate on proceeding with GameOn and instead return to an RFP process: http://www.lohud.com/article/20130613/NEWS02/306130110/Paul-Feiner-suggests-sealed-bidding-old-Greenburgh-nursery-land?nclick_check=1
 I would assume that Feiner is going back to square one because he no longer has the 3 votes he needs to approve a deal with GameOn. Bernstein and “William” at abettergreenburgh have given their allies credit for this reversal.  See:
http://www.abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2013/06/public-forces-feiner-capitulation.html
Opponents of the GameOn deal have consistently stressed the financial foolhardiness: GameOn’s offer is much less and riskier than another offer proposed by House of Sports (although, I suspect, there is a lot bluffing going on here by all parties involved). This comes after the collapse of an earlier discussed lease of the property (supported by a town-wide referendum pushed by Feiner this past fall to elicit public approval), which the state determined ran contrary to state rules mandating sale of government foreclosed property (i.e., the town shouldn't be a commercial real estate landlord).

 Election impact: Will Feiner gain a strategic victory amid a tactical defeat? Bernstein’s campaign is all about accusations of Feiner’s alleged financial mismanagement of town affairs. Frank’s Nursery is one of the central pillars of Bernstein’s argument. Feiner seemed to concede Bernstein’s argument on Franks’ by retreating from plans, on-going for more than a year, to work out a deal with GameOn. But there may be a clever calculation by Feiner behind this surrender: returning to an RFP process will take a few months. It seems reasonable to posit that Feiner concluded that good politics dictated punting on his deal with GameOn now, - 83 days before the election – and, thereby, taking off the table one of his opponent's most dramatic accusations (after all, Bernstein held his candidacy announcement at the Frank’s Nursery haunted house).
But if Feiner is conceding a pawn to catch his opponent off guard, Bernstein, after some hesitancy, is not taking the easy piece off the chessboard and moving on (how many metaphors can we mix into this post?). Yesterday, Bernstein alleged that even this apparently fair RFP process is really just another scheme to benefit GameOn. See his argument at http://bobforsupervisor.com/news/RFP_is_Yet_Another_Backroom_Deal Any statement from the Feiner responding to Bernstein's allegations?

 2. WestHelp: The Board continues to pursue a deal to lease this affordable housing property to a company called MRH. Bernstein has made Westhelp one of the four pillars of his allegations of Feiner managerial incompetence (along with Frank’s, Fortress Bible, and the Valhalla School payments). The mysterious “Wiliiam” at ABG posts Bernstein’s release on this issue (apparently I’m not on the press release email lists) http://www.abettergreenburgh.blogspot.com/2013/06/bernstein-on-westhelp.html
I’m happy to post any response from Feiner’s team, if they will sent it to me.

 3. Positive messages (focusing on past and planned achievements instead of digs at the opponents) should always get attention: Feiner released a list of “15 of many accomplishments since the last election” on his website: http://www.paulfeiner.com/featured/thinking-out-of-the-box-a-vision-for-a-better-future/
It’s a nice list and a good reminder of a lot of the day-to-day goings-on in the town and the sort of things Feiner does in addition to constituent services. (Also, Feiner updated “the next two years” section of his website). Feiner also released a campaign flyer with a nifty retro design and list of achievements.

Bernstein should be complimented on his new website: http://www.bobforsupervisor.com. It’s a professional looking campaign site that warrants exploration. For example, clicking on “issues” leads right to “TAXES” which shows that Bernstein recognizes the heart of the matter in suburban politics. The “Price of Paul” section is very effective.