Fire Commissioners Fight Back!

Misinformation and deflection are the cornerstones of the Feiner Administration. Mr Feiner’s underlings know that they need to do several things to keep whatever position they occupy in the Town. First, always make sure to bail out Mr Feiner when he puts his foot in his mouth. Second, fall on the sword when a policy or decision he mandated gets exposed. This was last highlighted in our article posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2014, entitled Just Another Broken Law, where Town Comptroller Bart Talamini dove on the sword admitting that he and he alone violated NYS law and withheld the tax payments to the fire districts to the tune of $10M. Third, anytime there is an issue that could be interpreted as embarrassing to Mr Feiner in a meeting, a Town Board member is required to make a motion to hold it over, keep it open, pass it to a commissioner or say it will need to be investigated further. The list goes on but you get the point.

There is another group of “Feiner-ites” that also serve the master unconditionally. One example is a resident and convicted felon, appointed by Mr Feiner to the Deputy Town Supervisor position. There was no Civil Service exam that had to be taken for the position. There was no election for the position either. It was simply a nepotistic appointment arbitrarily made from one friend for another. This underscores the glaring lack of standards and abuse of positions and rank at Town Hall. More importantly, it reeks of the nepotism Mr Feiner himself has accused the fire district of practicing. Shame. On. Him. Why doesn’t the mainstream media report on any of this? We can only assume its because they share similar agendas.

Another “Feiner-maton” is also a resident with his own small cadre of drones that will say whatever they are instructed to say whenever and wherever they are needed. The one distinction between these two men is that this one was not appointed to any position by Mr Feiner. He just believes in the failed social engineering plan known as Westchester 2000. It was never adopted because it was too enormous, bureaucratic and costly to ever be implemented, run or successful. He continues to carry that torch while doing Mr Feiner’s dirty work. He’s also gotten quite a bit of media coverage himself by the Feiner-friendly media and with their complicity, helped him spread a good deal of the lies, misinformation and distrust being groomed from Town Hall. Being retired from the mainstream media guarantees a certain amount of cache with them and knows they will listen to him and print whatever he says. Fortunately for Greenburgh, he is selling his home to move out of Greenburgh – a telling gesture if there ever was one!

The Town of Greenburgh’s hiring policies leave a lot to be desired based on what we’ve witnessed by Mr Feiner cavalierly “appointing” people into positions of consequence. Claims by Mr Feiner and his minions of nepotism in the Fairview Fire District would almost be laughable if the mainstream media had not been so complicit with Mr Feiner’s ruse instead of honestly investigating the allegations. If nepotism exists, it can certainly be found with our own “Pinocchio Paul”. Much has been said about Fire Commissioner Vikki Simmons’ son being promoted to Deputy Chief. Much has also been said about retiring Chief Anthony LoGiudice. And most of what has been fabricated was done to further Mr Feiner’s agenda as well as deflect attention from the Town’s crippling financially-induced problems caused by Mr Feiner. 

What the media hasn’t reported is that everyone working in a firematic capacity for the fire department/fire district had to start the process by taking and passing a Civil Service exam, subsequently being put on a numeric list by score before the Fire Commissioners could even interview and/or hire them! This is the same exam that is used throughout the County by all other paid fire departments and fire districts. In fact, it’s known in firematic circles as the “County Test”. What also hasn’t been reported is that every firefighter who is promoted must also take and pass another Civil Service test just to be put on another numeric list by score before they could be interviewed and chosen for promotion.

Just passing either test and being on the list doesn’t guarantee being hired or promoted - it only opens the door. And, the lists have a finite life span. So passing and being on the list is a temporary opportunity. If and when the list expires and a civilian wants to be considered for a position or a firefighter for a promotion and didn’t get “made” the first time around, they must take a new test again and pass it to be placed on a new list. There is also no guarantee that they will pass the new Civil Service exam just because they passed it previously, nor any guarantee they'll get “made” this time around. 

Last night’s Fairview Fire Commissioner’s meeting saw a 180° turnaround from the previous meeting. Armed with handouts, information and facts, the Board was in control of this meeting! ABG has learned that before the previous meeting held in April, the Board had been instructed by the District’s attorneys not to comment on any of the accusations that were made, giving the false appearance that the Board of Commissioners had something to hide. Whether this was a good idea or not remains to be determined. Several opponents rallied around resident Milt Hoffman once again; although his entourage was significantly reduced to just a hand full of residents.

He made several comments, with some being good points: the fire departments website is lacking and needs to be improved to disseminate information to the public and the need to extend the voting hours for fire commissioner elections. He also stated that now that a new Chief has been appointed, they lose the ability to have the Hartsdale Chief take over command of the Fairview FD. Ms Simmons explained to Mr Hoffman that NY State law does not allow anyone to be a member of two or more fire departments and they are required to have a Chief officer. He looked stunned when she replied. For any officer to give an order to a Fairview firefighter and have it be followed, the superior officer would need to be a member first and then a ranking officer in the Fairview FD, unless they were operating in that departments jurisdiction under mutual aid.

Much had been said about Commissioner Simmons last month. This month she was having none of it, keeping Mr Hoffman in check and countering every one of his ramblings with real facts. When he tried to highlight the eight-year old Michaelian Report as an example, Ms Simmons held up her copy and promised to give it to anyone who wanted to see it and countered the information as Mr Hoffman tried to make it pertain to the Fairview Fire District. The highlight of the night came when "First Lady" Kathy LoGiudice, the outgoing Chief’s wife, was called on to speak. She rose and stated she was not a public speaker and had prepared a letter that another resident would read on her behalf. We will post her letter in our next post. In it she countered much of what had previously been said as the anti-Fire Department/District/Chief crowd were attacking everything and everybody with the Fairview Fire District and Department.

After the letter was read, one Commissioner felt the need to respond as his name was mentioned in her letter. Commissioner Simmons, with over 20 years of service as an unpaid commissioner, let him speak. When he was finished, Mr Hoffman said he wanted to respond to what had been said about him. She told him he had had plenty of time to speak tonight and they were going to move on with the meeting. As he began to protest, another commissioner stepped in and told him a resident gave an opinion and if he has an issue with that, he could take it up with her after the meeting. They proceeded with the regular order of business and adjourned to Executive Session to discuss personnel issues.

ABG and many of the residents wish Chief LoGiudice and his family well in his retirement. We hope the cancer he contracted at Ground Zero will be held in check and again thank him for his years of service to Fairview, Greenburgh and our respective communities throughout.

ABG also congratulates Chief Howard Reiss on his promotion to Chief of the Department. We know that with his firematic background, knowledge, history and compassion for others, he is the right choice for this job.

It seems as though the firestorm started by Mr Feiner for his own political benefit has been extinguished. Maybe things will change at Town Hall in the next election and we can stop these games and finally have A Better Greenburgh.