Council Responds to Feiner's Statements About Finances

Letter to The Rivertowns Dispatch | Joy Haber, Ellen Hendrickx, Gina Jackson, and Francis Sheehan | 6/19/26

To the Editor:

As Greenburgh town councilmembers, we write to correct several inaccuracies in Paul Feiner’s June 12 Dispatch letter.

The financial inconsistencies cited in the forensic report were first identified by the Town comptroller, whose appointment took effect in April 2024. These issues clearly predate her tenure. Concerned that longstanding problems might be wrongly attributed to her work, she sought—and received—assurance that a forensic audit would examine the years before she assumed office.

This distinction matters. Since her appointment, the comptroller has worked to correct prior inaccuracies and implemented new controls to prevent future misallocations. Expanding the audit to include 2024–2026 would obscure the impact of errors that occurred years earlier and dilute accountability for those decisions.

The auditor was retained not as a political tool, but because councilmembers believed an independent review was essential to understanding past practices and restoring confidence in the Town’s financial oversight. The report does not allege embezzlement. It documents fund mismanagement estimated by the comptroller at $100 million.

The report identified roughly $30 million in uncollected property taxes dating back to 2013, much of which is unrecoverable and has increased to $34 million. We don’t need to spend $15,000 on a forensic audit to tell us our corrective action plan needs work.

Thirty-two million dollars approved in the 2019–2022 budgets for the needed courthouse were never restricted by the supervisor. As a result, those unspent funds reverted to the fund balance, artificially inflating it for bond rating agencies. We still need the courthouse.

Finally, with respect to the $7.4 million courthouse resolution, no resolution was required. There is no Town precedent for requiring one. Supervisor Feiner’s corrective action plan is to tax town and village residents again for the courthouse they paid for in their 2019–2022 taxes.

These facts warrant clarity—and accountability—not deflection.

Joy Haber, Ellen Hendrickx, Gina Jackson,

and Francis Sheehan

Greenburgh Town Council