Another Resident Speaks Out

This post was a letter posted on another site after last nights Town Hall meeting to discuss forming another Citizen’s Committee for the Town, this time for Alan Hochberg to address ConEd’s inaction during Hurricane Sandy. Given the enormity of devastation throughout the region, we are more concerned with The Paul’s inaction during and after the storm. It is written, submitted and reprinted with permission by Whitney P. We feel there are several valuable points, warranting inclusion here:

Thank you for another great publicity piece for Paul Feiner. You took the comments of a few Village supporters who threw a few minor, somewhat valid, albeit softball, points and allowed him to pontificate for two hours. You neglected to quote any of the people who recognized Feiner’s typical lack of action, poor management skills and uselessness as a leader as he did absolutely nothing during the storm except send out emails to people with no power. Feiner admitted in the beginning of the meeting that HE couldn’t get ConEd to respond quicker or better for Greenburgh. If he can’t, what makes these residents believe they will have an impact? Because he said so? They won’t. If there are fines levied against ConEd, we will pay them after ConEd pays them and they raise our already high rates even higher still!

One man got up and blasted Feiner, saying he did nothing but make empty promises during and after Hurricane Irene, and his lack of actions were the same for this storm. All Feiner ever does is send letters to other politicians telling them they should do more for constituents. He also stated there is an emergency operations center in Hawthorne for all the decision makers to be located during an emergency with the heads of all agencies. THAT's where Feiner should have been during this storm. But, since you didn’t push back and just reproduce his one-sided press releases, you don’t know why he wasn’t there, do you?

Another man asked if Feiner had invited ConEd to attend this meeting. His standard parsing of words was to dodge the real answer until he finally admitted he had “notified” ConEd of this meeting. When the man continued to push, Feiner finally stated that, no, they had not been invited. Of course he didn’t invite them, as well as Police Chief DeCarlo, Fire Chief Loguidice, Highway Commissioner Carosi, if he had, it would have actually required doing something.

This meeting was about publicity for Feiner, shifting attention off of his Fortress Bible loss $8 million, the contaminated soil at the GameOn 365 site, the loss of $1.2 million a year from Westhelp and so much more. He got his publicity no thanks to the GDV. Feiner is a media whore who will continue to talk to you regardless of how much you write against him. Samantha, you need to get in the game.

Finally, Samantha, good reporters learn early on if they plan to make a name for themselves they must ask the tough questions, state the unpleasant and prove themselves in their reporting with the real story. What you’ve done is regurgitate Feiner’s talking points, historically repeating that Feiner will not be held accountable for his failures (again) and that you may have better success at your next job. We had such hope for you.