Due to unforeseen reasons, we have recently been offline, causing us to miss the recent Ethics Board meeting. The Board interviewed and discussed Jordan Glass' ethics violation complaint. You may recall he had an ethics violation lodged against him regarding the Deli Delicious/Ernest Tartaglione zoning variance debacle. He is the handpicked, hand-appointed, hand-planted designee of the Supervisor; to make decisions the supervisor orders him to. He also has a business relationship with the applicant, as does his brother. This would be more than enough reason to recuse oneself from an application; except in Greenburgh, which seems to be giving Yonkers a run for the corruption lead.
The issue at hand is the fact that Glass voted in favor of the Feiner-anointed project of Ernest Tartaglione, owner of Deli Delicious. We have covered this story extensively as well as Town Zoning Board member Nicholas DeCicco, who also voted in favor of the project. Immediately after the vote, DeCicco accepted a campaign fundraiser and assorted donations from Ethics Board member Mark Constantine, and Irvington Developer Chuck Pateman, among others. Pateman is the official representative for Deli Delicious and the contractor for the deli's expansion project. DeCicco was found not guilty on all but one count, that he accepted funds from the aforementioned Deli group. He has since returned the monies.
The Board, with its member-scheming crew, has decided to allow Glass to forgo a hearing and plead the offense down. This is similar to what we see when criminals plead from a felony down to a misdemeanor, avoid jail-time and have their records expunged after a certain time. This is a big problem as it means Glass will not be called to task for the crime he's committed and allowed to walk away from his unethical behavior. In effect, he will be able to say he did nothing wrong. It's a perversion of justice and certainly a perversion of ethical conduct by any Board member, especially an ETHICS Board member!
The Town of Greenburgh has long been lead by Supervisor Feiner, who operates without a moral compass, and he encourages our elected officials to skirt responsibility and ultimately the law. This must stop. While the saying is somewhat corny, the stench starts at the head. Regardless of whether any Board member is appointed or elected, volunteer or paid, they must be held to a higher standard. It's time for Paul Feiner to go.
Glass voted in the formal vote while DeCicco only "voted" in a "straw-poll" - there is BIG difference. The formal vote is official and binding while the straw-poll is unofficial and taken to measure the direction the board is leaning.
ReplyDeleteDeCicco was recused long before the official vote immediately after a conflict arose, long before the fundraiser. The one violation upheld regarding attending teh fundraiser was unintentional and corrected as he voluntarily reimbursed Pateman for the event as well as Constantine's monetary donation. No other contributions from "the deli group" (as the writer puts it) were made.
DeCicco could have simply resigned from the ZBA thus negating the ability of the Ethics Board to rule and then not been subject to return even $1, but he chose to sign a sworn affidavit and voluntarily reimburse a considerable sum of money.
Glass has insisted he had no idea Feiner put him on the ZBA to support the Deli application. Glass acknowledged several violations - such as participating in the Deli application when he was the attorney for the applicant's brother - but is contesting most others. The Ethics Board has given Glass the opportunity to "review" a draft decision this month to see if he will accept it or contest everything at a hearing.
There was never any finding that DeCicco's violation was in any way unintentional. At the last Ethics Board meeting, DeCicco demanded that the Ethics Board rescind its finding that he took thousands of dollars from Pateman in violation of Ethics Code's rule against taking contributions from the representative of an applicant before the Zoning Board. The Ethics Board responded that they were not about to rescind a finding based on DeCicco's own sworn admission that he violated the Code, but would instead reopen the matter to hear evidence on whether DeCicco violated other provisions of the Code, such as whether the thousands of dollars he received from Pateman was a "reward" for his casting a straw vote in favor of the Deli's application the week before. DeCicco then threw a temper tantrum, screaming at the top of his lungs at Ethics Board members for several minutes while everyone in the room couldn't believe what they were seeing. DeCicco's behavior was so appallingly bad for an appointed public official, it's no wonder that the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations reaffirmed at its meeting this past Tuesday that the Town Board should immediately remove both DeCicco and Glass from the Town's Zoning Board.
ReplyDeleteDeCicco asked the Board to schedule the hearing which he was entitled to and denied. Either was he reimbursed the the cost of the reception out of good faith. The Board had authority to dismiss allegations (which they did) based upon a sworn affidavit but not to find a violation.
ReplyDeleteThe only person who should fear a full hearing - if it happens to that point - is Bob Bernstein as he will be placed under oath and be called to task for all his documented lies and misrepresentations under cross-examination. Bernstein is clearly one of the most dishonest people around.
The Board specifically dismissed all allegations of reward and influence and people like Bernstein just can't handle getting trounced, and don't mind denying others their rights when it suits them, which is why he continually lies to and misleads people..
The Boards attorney wrote specifically that one of the factors they based their decision on was DeCicco's representation of "honest oversight."
However, the Board gave Glass numerous opportunities to explicitly waive his hearing, which is required, and erred by assuming DeCicco's sworn statement was a waiver.
Kind of a wacky response from Anonymous at 8:34 a.m. Bernstein didn't cause DeCicco to accept $3800 in goodies from Pateman -- more than twice the legal limit -- a week after supporting Pateman's client before the Zoning Board -- DeCicco did. And Bernstein didn't cause DeCicco to throw a screaming temper tantrum the other night that all but guaranteed that any goodwill DeCicco might have had with the Ethics Board had disappeared. No, DeCicco did that all by himself. And it isn't Bernstein that caused DeCicco to continue to level personal attacks on others instead of taking responsibility for his own failures to act responsibly in accordance with the Town's Ethics Code. No, DeCicco has only his lack of self control to blame for that. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteDeCicco is a non-issue in any political arena. He admitted guilt when he should not have. He paid the money back and believes he's absolved from any wrong-doing because of it. That's just wrong. He didn't do his homework and will pay the political price. He's going nowhere.
ReplyDeleteBut, my read from this article is that it's about Glass and Feiner. Glass is guilty as sin and the Feiner appointed, Feiner controlled Zoning and Ethics Boards are doing as they are instructed to by Feiner. Feiner's gotta go!
No Bernstein just intentionally lies about everything and misrepresents all the facts.
ReplyDeleteAt least DeCicco admitted an honest oversight and took voluntary corrective actions.
Bernstein still wont acknowledge his political bias, continues to censor information on the ECC websites, and continues to deliberately mislead the community --- Much like "Anonymous" at 9:22am and 10:30pm last night.
They never cite DeCicco's early recusal, recognize the oversight was unintentional, acknowledge the correction was voluntary not mandated, state that few people understand this part of the code, that no red flags were raised, and most affirmed that recusal was sufficient, or that the Town hasn't given out the Ethics Code or provided any training as required by law. Nah, they just ignore anything potential positive (although not exculpatory) and just have a fun time trying trashing a good guy for their own political gains. Guys like BB don't care about truth or context.
Even without the hearing DeCicco was entitled to, Berstein still got trounced. Howabout Bobby Bernstein runs for office? NO WAY because guys like Bernstein are totally unelectable as their misery precedes them - and they know it. Hence why they are so miserable and indecent to others.
DeCicco is too good of a person to let filthy people like the BB’s of the world stop him from helping and serving other.
As for Glass - He should have known better than to actually vote on a matter when he represents the applicants brother, and he admitted that. It’ll be interesting to see how the Boards handles that situation to protect "The Paul."