Town Prohibits Residents From Using Conference Rooms

In an unexplained move that we’re told originated from the Town Clerk’s office, the public is no longer allowed to utilize Town Hall conference rooms for meetings! We’ve heard the decree even forbids all Town Civic Associations as well as Town appointed Boards, such as the Historic Preservation Board, from using the conference rooms. We hope this is not the case. Previously, local groups, neighborhood groups and civic associations had always had access to conference rooms for meetings, discussions, etc, in their Town Hall. Why the sudden change?

One reason that comes to mind is simply censorship and control from the corner office. You may recall we wrote about censorship originating from Mr Feiner in our article found here in our article from Tuesday, January 12, 2016 Censoring The Public, when we discussed Mr Feiner’s blatant censoring of the public – unless of course having a dialog with any individual was something he wanted to do – at the “Scoping Session” for the Jefferson at Saw Mill project. Then he said he would be following Twitter-type rules of only allowing residents to speak for one minute.

Another school of thought refers back to the demonstration that Mr Feiner organized inviting Hamas supporters to utilize Town Hall for an anti-Israel demonstration. It bordered on some ugly behavior with some terrible things said. One older gentleman (using the term loosely) threatened a resident with death threats. We wrote more in depth about this in another article on Tuesday, October 27, 2015 Anti-Semitic Board Offers Hamas Town Hall.

ABG believes this newest elimination of the taxpayer’s rights to use their own, taxpayer-funded building for their groups and organizations meetings is nothing more than retribution against those same taxpayers trying to slow and stop Mr Feiner and his Town Board’s agenda(s). ABG also believes this is the culmination from backlash the corner office received for handing over the keys to the anti-Israel haters. They should not use their own bad behavior to create edicts against the public! At that time, Ms Beville was the one who controlled use of the Town Hall facility and no doubt followed orders from Mr Feiner. But now they are forcing residents to go to different Commissioners for usage of even fewer conference rooms!

This Board seems bent on limiting our resident’s participation and voice, usually because the residents are looking for their leadership to do the right thing and then call them on it when they don’t. Don’t believe us? They have routinely “run the clock out” to adjourn before “allowing” residents to have their 5-minutes at the podium. They have also delayed the official start of meetings with poetry readings, presentations, musical performances and such and then abjectly eliminated the public comment session claiming there “was not enough time” to allow the public a chance to speak. 

The resolution, not requiring a hearing and most importantly, public comments, allows this Town Board to run rampant over the people who not only pay their salaries, but who own the building! The Board has supplied a nicely written list of “Whereas’s” to cover themselves, it “states” and uses the Police Chief as a scapegoat, saying this is being done upon his recommendations. We reached out to the Police Chief for information but did not receive a response. It also says that in addition to not being able to use Town Hall for meetings, groups can use the conference rooms in the Library and Veteran Park. Factually impossible because these rooms are booked almost throughout the year already, they also suggest the Theodore D. Young Community Center as another alternative. Again, rooms in the TDYCC, like the other locations, are only available for a small window during the day and many are already booked as well. This is nothing more than Mr Feiner boasting another way he can control and manipulate the public.

Clearly, this move is wrong for the Town, it’s residents, and most importantly the taxpayers. Town Hall belongs to the public. It is everyone’s building and while Mr Feiner has been there for 24-years, he remains a guest there and should always remember that. That’s when we’ll see A Better Greenburgh.