Censorship in Greenburgh, The New “Norm”

 The “sanitizing” of Mr Feiner’s illegal actions with last night’s just-passed AT-1 resolution because he generated a guilty verdict in the Fortress Bible Church discrimination case, borders on a new low. It is illegal, illogical and ill conceived. More appreciably, it’s a new level of dishonesty and something that should not be tolerated in our Town. Why? Because whomever authorized and subsequently made the changes are illegally altering official Town records for their own benefit. But Mr Feiner and his Board know that there will be no consequences for these actions. Mr Feiner is an expert skirting the law instead of directly violating it with his actions. And when called to task, he just shrugs it off and say, “If you don’t like what I’m doing, sue me!”

This sanitizing of information is clearly nothing less than censorship. Need another example? More Town censorship reared its ugly head during last night’s meeting when the G10 revealed a (roughly) 30 minute deletion from the November 26th Town Board work session with Theodore Young Commissioner William Carter. Viewers of the work session watching on computer or TV were able to witness the entire meeting during the live transmission.

The question you may be asking yourself is why was anything censored and why did someone go back to review an old video archive in the first place? It’s simple really. Questions about the Xposure program had been raised. At a following Town Board meeting, the Board was asked about the Xposure program and Councilman Jones tried to answer the questions. He said the issue was less about Xposure, and more about the TYCC generating revenue. After Mr Jones apparently failed to provide a satisfactory answer for the resident who was seeking a direct and concise answer to the questions, the meeting adjourned. The resident querying the Board decided to go to the Town website shortly thereafter to see what was actually said. That’s when she found the gap of about thirty minutes where the information she sought should have been.

Several residents brought up the subject of the video deletion at the December 16^th Town Board meeting. The three remaining Board members claimed to have no knowledge of the censorship they were referencing. ABG will give them the benefit of the doubt that they did not know of this. And, although each Board member professed no knowledge of the deletion (censoring), its also a “stretch” for us, given the shenanigans we’ve witnessed from this administration. This was a sloppily edited deletion that was obvious to all who watched the beginning of the Part 3 session with Mr Carter.

It is unknown who may have made the deletion, how or when it happened. However, the members on the dais said they would investigate and will report what they find. ABG reached out to the Video Department manager, who stated he had watched the piece five or six times, sees the section in question but cannot explain what might have happened. To see the section in question, go to http://greenburghny.swagit.com/play/11262013-524 at about the three minute portion of the Part 3 transmission.

ABG was successful in getting a “clean” video copy of the original meeting. After reviewing the video, we understand why the deletion might have been made, but disagree with it being done. After all, when Councilman Ken Jones yelled during a meeting at resident Hal Samis to “Sit down! Sit the F*** down!” it remained on the website. Why start to covertly remove information from the public unless you have done something wrong or have something to hide?

The work session of November 26th found Theodore Young Commissioner William Carter joining the Board to discuss his portion of the Town budget and his department’s audit. This was explained to him as a routine audit and it was simply his department’s turn. He said he had a few questions for them as well, joking back and forth with members in attendance. Then it jumps to him examining the budget. Where’d the footage go?

The missing discussion ensued with a question Mr Carter had regarding the Xposure program line item in his budget for $115,000 (net), when and why it was put there? His questioning of Xposure being in his budget instead of the Towns is because he has no control over the program, its funding or running of it.

Councilman Sheehan, who used to routinely throw himself onto the sword for Mr Feiner, was not around. In his stead, Town Clerk Judith Beville stated that the Video Department is made up of highly skilled people using complicated equipment. She would know as that group falls under her authority. But she didn’t know what might have happened to cause the missing 30-minute segment from the work session video. Morgan, Jones and Juettner all continued to claim ignorance with the deleted video.

The question of the night and subsequent day, is who deleted the 30-minute portion of the video and why? Was whoever did this acting upon orders from someone else, i.e., a superior or an administrative member? Was it someone in the administration who gleaned this editing information from YouTube? And what would be the motivation for doing this? Could it be to not have one of Mr Feiner’s programs assaulted? Could it just be another chink in Mr Feiner’s slowly failing political armor? If this was anything but a mechanical glitch, and one that is verifiable and not just someone’s word, the parties involved should be terminated. After all, this is Bizarro Greenburgh and Mr Feiner will just give them another position. It has to change in order for us to truly have A Better Greenburgh.