Reproduced with permission of The Scarsdale Inquirer.
© 2004 S.I. Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Published in The Scarsdale Inquirer on Friday, November 12, 2004
40 civic groups ask Pirro to investigate G'burgh supervisorBy LAURIE SULLIVAN
The Council of Greenburgh Civic Association, an umbrella organization that. represents 40 civic groups in unincorporated Greenburgh, wrote to Westchester District Attorney Jeanine Pirro Monday, asking her to open "a formal investigation into whether Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul J. Feiner broke any laws in connection with his political fundraising."
The CGCA's letter comes on the heels of the Edgemont Community Council's Oct. 6 letter to Pirro which also asked her to investigate contributions given to Feiner from lawyers and developers who had applications pending before the town.
However, the CGCA's letter, which was signed by its president Madelon O'Shea of Edgemont, goes into detail as to how the association believes the supervisor might have broken the law. It describes contributions from developers and their attorneys at made at a Feiner fundraiser at Gregory's Restaurant in White Plains on March 29, 2004. The letter speculates how some of those donations might have affected Feiner's actions on specific matters.
O'Shea wrote, "Questions have been
raised about whether it is possible that what occurred exceeded a mere appearance of impropriety."The letter mentions a developer "seeking a controversial permit to cut down trees" who made a substantial ($1,000) donation to Feiner's campaign 12 days after neighbors filed an appeal with the town board concerning the forestry officer's decision to grant a permit without visiting the site. "It is the perception of the neighbors that the town did little to enforce the law or help them," the letter says. The developer, Michael D'Alessio, who is building a house at 42 Round Hill Road in Edgemont, has a new application pending before the town. Feiner has not recused himself from the most recent proceedings nor has he offered to give the donation back.
The CGCA cites another example where "a developer sought approval of a subdivision involving a controversial flag lot at a time when the town board was considering amending the law to prohibit flag lots." Two weeks after the planning board recommended banning flag lots, two law partners representing the developer made contributions to Feiner and "subsequently a member of the town board loyal to Mr. Feiner had the matter
taken off the town board's agenda. As a result, the subdivision application was approved before the town board could act," the letter said.The civic group also questioned a contribution from a law firm representing a developer who sought to purchase the former town hall property at a price many considered to be less than full value. At the time the contribution was made, Feiner "was actively advocating a sale to the developer."
Other contributions in question include one from "a New Jersey executive of LCOR seeking subdivision of the Landmark at Eastview property and an extension of approval from the town board for a $300 million office/laboratory project." Another from developers seeking approval to construct Avalon II, a large residential housing project on steeply sloped Nob Hill. Yet another from "persons working on behalf of BMW" which ran into trouble when its construction deviated from plans previously approved by the town's planning and zoning boards. And lastly, the Greenburgh Health Center and its affiliate, the Mount Vernon Health Center, "which had its
application to relocate its facility challenged by a neighborhood civic group." The letter notes that Feiner was asked at a Sept. 8 town board meeting to "return questionable contributions" on a "noquestions-asked" basis, which he refused to do; instead he offered to request an opinion from the town's ethics board. The CGCA's position is that his letter only addressed one contribution (D'Alessio's) and "shifted responsibility for the March fundraiser from himself to the restaurant's owner." He blamed all other "questionable contributions on the results of mass mailings to thousands of prior contributors."The CGCA also attached a copy of minutes from its Dec. 15,1998 meeting, noting that the Antenna Advisory Board "continues to be concerned with Supervisor Feiner's ties to the cellular industry and his campaign contributions
from providers who have cases before the town." On page 5 of their minutes, it says, "There was discussion about Supervisor Feiner's constant attempts to influence various town boards."Reached by phone Wednesday, O'Shea said, "I really feel that council has given Feiner every opportunity to treat this differently. We all said `give the money back.' We said that two years ago, and it kept snowballing - ECC and CGCA said it separately. We wanted him to do it so there wasn't the most remote possibility of impropriety. Every other means have been exhausted by us." She went on to say she didn't know "what's going to come out of this. I would hope that lessons will be learned. There are things that need to be investigated. There's a lot in town that needs to be investigated. The council was strongly in favor of doing this."
In a phone interview Wednesday, CGCA vice president Ella Preiser said the
letter was not politically motivated and that the purpose of sending the 1998 minutes "is to show that this is something the council has been talking about for many years. Hopefully we can learn once and for all what is proper. There are definitely feelings that something has gone amiss, something is wrong. We went to the DA because nobody but the DA can do an investigation."Ethics board defers action on Feiner In a surprise twist, the Greenburgh Board of Ethics has decided to defer any action on whether Feiner's acceptance of certain campaign contributions violated the town's ethics code.
Judge Thomas Facelle, the chairman of the ethics board, called the Inquirer last Friday to say that his board had written to the supervisor advising him that it was "deferring any action pending the actions of the district attorney based on the letter sent [to the DA] by the Edgemont
Community Counsel."Facelle said that the ethics board based its decision not to proceed to avoid possibly compromising an investigation that the district attorney's office might conduct. He explained that the same witnesses interviewed by the ethics board might also be called to appear as witnesses by the district attorney.
After Feiner wrote his letter to the ethics board in October, Bob Bernstein and Ed Krauss of Edgemont and Hal Samis of Hartsdale wrote the ethics board complaining that Feiner's letter was not forthcoming. Krauss and Bernstein went into great detail as to what Feiner omitted from his letter and asked that the ethics board consider all the facts before rendering any decision. Facelle wrote back saying that if they had additional information, the board would be willing to meet with them.
Facelle said he would not contact the letter-writers about this latest development because he already told them he would get back to them.
When asked how he would know if and when an investigation were complete, if indeed there will be any investigation, he would only say, "I'll find out."
Before becoming a Supreme Court and Family Court judge, Facelle spent 20 years as chief prosecutor in the district attorney's office under Carl Vergari.
Ann Marie Corbalis, spokesman for Pirro's office, said it was protocol "not to confirm or deny any investigation" by the district attorney's office and would not offer any information as to whether Feiner was being investigated.
On Monday, Samis wrote a second letter to Facelle, advising him that Feiner accepted $2,000 in contributions from the owners of the Westchester Golf Range, who are in the process of selling off 32 acres of their property to Garson
Developers who plan to build luxury homes for empty-nesters. "Their contribution(s) in the first half of this year would seem to be concurrent with negotiations regarding the proposed sale. Again, I bid you to think of the phase, `the appearance of impropriety."' Samis asked to appear before the ethics board.
In a phone interview Monday with the Inquirer, ECC president Michelle McNally said, "I see the two issues as separate and distinct. One is a question of whether or not there was an ethical violation and the other is whether or not there was a criminal violation. We don't know when the DA will make a decision about whether or not to investigate this matter. I hope the ethics board doesn't let this matter go undecided indefinitely. I think it is in everyone's interest for the ethics board to decide this matter as soon as it is practicable."
McNally said the district attorney never answered her letter.
Feiner could not be reached for comment.