From: Carol A. Wielk, President, Secor Homes Civic Association, Inc.
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 4:57 PM
To: Diana Juettner, Steve Bass, Eddie Mae Barnes, Timmy Weinberg, Paul Feiner
Cc: Tim Lewis
Subject: RFP for Independent Consultant

The Town Board in Greenburgh is obligated to consider the needs of the Town Entire, and that includes the oft-forgotten needs of unincorporated Greenburgh.

The Supervisor has established a Budget Committee to advise him regarding the allocations of the Part A (entire Town) and Part B (unincorporated area), as is his right.  The Town Board made no objection to this committee, even as some of its membership, and, particularly, its chair, have clearly taken positions contrary to instilling confidence in the objectivity of its deliberations.  [The chair intervened in a lawsuit, on behalf of village interests, on the very matter of appropriate budgetary allocations.]

The committee now wants a staff or some expert advice to guide it through the budget review process.  The committee is apparently not satisfied with accessing only Town staff (although clearly even Town staff and resources should not be used in this endeavor). Rather, the committee seeks, with the active support of the Supervisor, to retain, at taxpayer expense, an “independent” consultant to “cooperate” and work with the committee to review Greenburgh’s budget.  This is improper and further erodes the community’s confidence in its Town governance.

If, indeed, the Town Board does not truly represent the unincorporated part of Greenburgh, its support of a taxpayer-funded and extremely costly consultant to “staff” and interact with a committee, not sanctioned or established by the Town Board itself, will be prima facie evidence of its failure to represent unincorporated Greenburgh.

At its April 19, 2005 meeting, the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations was distressed to learn of the failure of the Town Board to represent all of Greenburgh.  Their resolution follows. 

By acceding to the Supervisor’s wishes, on both the membership and financial support for his budget committee, the Town Board will have demonstrated insufficient regard for the residents of unincorporated Greenburgh, and those residents will need to reconsider their support for the Board as it is presently constituted.

Carol A. Wielk, President
Secor Homes Civic Association, Inc.

Resolution of the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations at its April 19, 2005 meeting:

WHEREAS the Town Supervisor has appointed his own Budget Committee (“Committee”) to study the fairness of the Part A and Part B Greenburgh Town Budget; and

WHEREAS the Committee does not appear to be subject to the New York State Open Meetings Law or its Freedom of Information Law; and

WHEREAS the Committee is chaired by a person who intervened on behalf of Greenburgh's villages in a litigation which resulted in a ruling that the Town unlawfully excused village taxpayers from paying their fair share for town parkland open town-wide; and

WHEREAS, the Committee Chair has refused membership on the Committee to the president of a civic association in unincorporated Greenburgh on the grounds that civic association presidents in unincorporated Greenburgh cannot be "impartial;"

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT:

1. The Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations (CGCA) opposes any use of Town funds/resources to support such a committee, and
   

2. Condemns the Committee Chair, who himself is partial, for suggesting that presidents of civic associations in Greenburgh are, by virtue of their leadership roles in unincorporated Greenburgh, so incapable of being impartial that they cannot be permitted to serve on the committee.