Has the Spano administration and a majority of the Westchester County Board of Legislators been unethically influenced by campaign donations?
The Journal News headline pulled no punches: "Building's Purchase All Politics, Critics Say"
Westchester County's $13.6 million purchase of a vacant Ardsley office building was decided years ago, part of a pricey political favor to a supporter of County Executive Andrew Spano, critics of the deal say.
Records show that county officials determined by 2006 that they wanted the building at 450 Saw Mill River Road, going so far as to have a contract of sale drawn up in October of that year.
As the deal stalled, top officials in Spano's administration continued to lobby from within to buy the property from local developer Jon Halpern, a Spano campaign contributor who hosted a fundraiser for him in 2005.
Rethinking Westchester Government has noted how each member of the County Board of Legislators responded to the purchase this building.
In the final county board tally, Oros and the board's two other Republicans, James Maisano and Gordon Burrows, joined Greenburgh Democrat Thomas Abinanti as the only votes against it. Last week, Abinanti called it a "sick building" that sat dormant so long for a reason - it was a bad buy and too costly to renovate. "They were bailing out an owner who couldn't sell the building," Abinanti said. "If the county had wanted, if the county had looked elsewhere, we could have gotten a better deal. They didn't want to look elsewhere." Halpern's building cost Westchester taxpayers $76 million. Rethinking founder Paul Feiner, Greenburgh Town Supervisor, has been an open critic of the purchase from the beginning. "I've always felt that it was a done deal and I really feel that it was a bad deal," Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner said. "I think that the county overpaid and basically gave somebody a gift. "I think that this was not a serious effort to look for anything," Feiner said. Of course, insinuating a "quid pro quo" versus actually proving the the bids and purchase were unethically manipulated to ensure purchase of this particular building (rather than seven others) are two entirely different things. We at Rethinking hope elected officials clearly identify what transpired here, find out if it has happened before and prevent it from occuring again. One idealistic solution is presently practiced by Paul Feiner, who had a campaign ethics law passed that doesn't allow candidates in Greenburgh to take money from developers and builders whose projects are being reviewed by the town.
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