Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Edgemont Outreach Meeting: Feiner Shows Incompetence

Paul Feiner and his handpicked Town Board held another of their outreach/feel-good meetings with the Edgemont Community Council, which is an umbrella group of eight separate Edgemont civic associations representing 8500 people. They do this so he can tout his pseudo-open government shtick. Unlike the newspapers from White Plains and Yonkers, these constituents went to school, graduated, were informed, and stumped him and his “Stepford” Board, proving they couldn't answer any questions from the public.

At one point, it was uncovered/leaked/exposed that the Town has for the past five weeks been sitting on the news that the state has ordered the town to add an additional 2% hike to this year's 4.5% tax hike on the grounds that utilities had been over-assessed. Neither the actual facts nor the actual numbers were made available. Simply, nobody from the Board would give the group any specific information.

Board member Francis Sheehan, broke the bad news, ultimately getting them off the hook as to how to find a way to own up to The Paul’s secrecy blunder. Edye McCarthy, yet to impress us, couldn't say how much the hike would actually be. Feiner, true-to-form, stated the school and fire districts would be impacted as much as the town -- but neglected to mention that he nor the Board hadn't told the school or fire districts. So, the public wasn’t told, school districts boards weren’t told and fire district boards weren’t told. The school and fire district board members in the room were shocked and stunned reeling in disbelief! Is it any wonder Feiner might have had Sheehan “accidentally on purpose”, say something about it?

We imagine a conversation between the Board members prior to the Edgemont meeting going something like this:

Sheehan: Paul, what do you mean the state is hitting us with another 2%? Why didn’t you say something to us about this? What are we going to do if it comes up in Edgemont?
Feiner: Umm, uh, I uh don’t think it will really um, matter. Do you think it will?
Morgan: Huh?
Feiner: I’ll just talk about that downed fighter jet and that the pilot was saved. People will think I’m really concerned for our troops and forget about it. It's Edgemont, they can't do anything about it.
Brown: What is going on? Will someone please explain to me what happened?
Feiner: Tell her, Francis. You know I don’t talk to her after the March meeting last year.
Morgan: Is Diana coming with us or meeting us there?
Brown: Ask her, Kevin . She’s asleep on the other side of Francis. Will somebody please explain to me what Paul did this time? Paul, what did you do now?
Feiner: I don’t, um, uh, have to uh, talk to you.
Sheehan: We got a notice from the state over five weeks ago about an additional 2% hike to this year's 4.5% tax hike. And Paul never did anything with the information or told anyone.
Morgan: What? Another tax increase? It’s a good thing I’m double-dipping or I'd have to move.
Feiner: Kevin, why don’t you hold a press conference announcing this and maybe it will go away. I’ll just be me and play dumb.
Morgan: Whuh? Nooo, not me. I’m tired of jumping for you, even if you do pay for my campaign materials. Besides, I’m busy pretending to be interested in Town flooding.
Sheehan: Paul, maybe I can let the cat out of the bag at tonight’s meeting. It’s only the same Edgemont people who are against everything we do anyway.
Feiner: I think, um, our ploy about them being against everything we do is working. I need you all to say it more often. Hey, you know what, you know what, I’ll get Judith to say it too. She does anything I tell her. This could all work out. The voters are the dumbest ever. Don’t worry; we’ll all get reelected with no problem. The democrats hate me but they all keep voting for me. Don’t you just love Greenburgh? Let's go inside, this will be a piece of ... hey, somebody wake Diana up and bring her in.

Sonya Brown, the most lucid and concerned one of the group, was given little opportunity to speak. Edgemont residents were disgusted with the town board's poor performance. Robert Bernstein, the President of the Association, ended the embarrassment and declared the meeting over.

For those who don’t believe their Town is imploding or work for a newspaper, you are living in a dream world and need to come out to more Town Board meetings. We must hold these politicians feet to the fire. Come election time, we must start to clean house!

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