The Crisp Fall Air - Not in Greenburgh

Go outside during sunrise and you may encounter a few animals foraging for food or seeking cover as their nocturnal safety slowly ebbs. Inhale. The crisp fall air will thrill your olfactory senses and offer you the cleansed air of a new day. Except, that is, in the Town of Greenburgh, where we’re under constant assault by The Paul and his merry ‘Stepford’ Board. Whatever and whenever he wants them to do something, he snaps his fingers, they genuflect, bow their heads and loudly say, “Yes-sir!” It’s sad that these Board members are so desperate to stay in office they’ll sell their souls to the devil. The foul stench of wrong-doing just won’t end.

The Scarsdale Inquirer, a respectable newspaper that actually covers stories in-person, recently wrote about Paul Feiner’s hand-picked and anointed Greenburgh Zoning Board member Jordan Glass, who has finally stepped down after it was proven that he had violated the Town’s ethics code (yes, a contradiction of terms). ABG has maintained that Glass was “dirty” and his posturing was nothing more than an attempt to deflect attention away from his wrong doings. We’re glad to see the ‘Piper’ has finally gotten to the right neighborhood to get paid. Another disgraced Zoning Board member is Nicholas DeCicco, also found guilty of ethics violations. When someone The Paul has appointed gets caught violating the law, it becomes time to spin as much and as quickly as possible. Feiner is nothing if not spin. As a note, DeCicco stepped down and was recently appointed to the Planning Board. A fox in the henhouse is okay in Greenburgh.

We’ve also found Feiner’s politicization of the events with Glass as a campaign against Glass equally distasteful, saying that Glass was a victim of personal attacks and caused many to not volunteer for the Town. This reminded one staffer of Hillary’s “right-wing conspiracy” cries during former President Clinton’s philandering accusations. We think many people don’t volunteer for the Town because there is so much nepotism, back-room deals, secret handshakes and political back scratching, that they don’t want to be mired in the morass of undergrowth in Feinerville. After all, some of them have families and teach their children by example – good examples.

Feiner has always said what was expedient for the moment. We witnessed this recently as he offered flood victims relief by claiming the federal government’s FEMA would buy their flooded homes. After some basic research, we found, as we’re sure did others, that there are numerous steps that must be implemented by the Town, then by the County, and then the state and finally the feds before anyone’s home will be bought out by FEMA. It was a good sound-bite that got Feiner publicity. The Paul is the media-darling of the Journal News, which doesn’t actually fact check the blather he spews for accuracy, they just print it. Regardless, Feiner said he didn’t know Glass when he appointed him to the Zoning Board. And yet, in several correspondences and emails, he’s says he’s been receiving feedback from Glass for years! Next he’ll say that he misspoke. Get ready, it’s coming.

Some of the Zoning Board members do a credible job and make the effort to do the right thing for the residents and businesses. Unfortunately, a minority sullies the good work of the others. Greenburgh makes Chicago politics look like preschool. What The Town needs is people on committees, boards and related positions who practice honesty, integrity and values beyond a party-line, or simply, who do the right thing. Just telling the truth for a change could be infectious. Maybe if Feiner told the truth, it might be the start something completely different. It might, but this is Greenburgh. We won’t hold our breath.