Bedlam Erupts As Town Petition Meeting Implodes

ABG staffers arrived early to ensure a parking space as well as seats in the room where the hearing was to be held regarding the Edgemont incorporation petitions. Unbeknownst to the hundreds of residents that were present, Mr Feiner decided to once again play games and limit those who spoke and keep those who wanted to speak from doing so. New rules were announced at the start of the meeting that would only allow those people who wanted to object to the incorporation to speak. The crowd was angry.

It’s no secret that Mr Feiner is against the Edgemont Incorporation effort and has gone out of his way to sabotage their efforts. And, he has repeatedly said he might not contract Town services with the new Village of Edgemont should incorporation be successful. Why he would not do what is best for the Town and it’s residents is difficult for us to comprehend. If he did contract services with Edgemont as a Village, the Town budget would remain close if not exactly as it is now. 

After Mr Feiner read a prepared statement, he had Robert Spolzino, a retired former appellate court judge, whom some said Mr Feiner “bought”, but we’ll say he hired for $50,000 to advise of the petition's sufficiency, read the law that they were following for this event. Then Town Clerk Judith Beville said they would be timing each speaker allowing them 3-minutes to speak. It was also mentioned that anyone who believed they were tricked by the private investigators that Mr Feiner is responsible for hiring, also would not be allowed to speak. Audience members could only speak if they were against the incorporation petition.

The owner of the private investigation firm Stanton Private Investigators, which was used to get the carefully crafted affidavits from every person who signed the original incorporation petition to invalidate as many as possible by signing this newer affidavit, said that he had many signature affidavits objecting to incorporation and would be delivering them to the Town Clerk’s office shortly. 

It was said just before the meeting started that someone was outside distributing petitions out in the lobby that could be used to speak against the incorporation petition. While we were unable to verify this, we did see Town Attorney Tim Lewis in the lobby with a handful of papers and appearing to be looking for someone. We noticed that speaker after speaker would read the same or similar statement as the speaker before them. Many were not from the Edgemont area which is surprising as only Edgemont residents can vote for incorporation; some were from Fairview, some from Elmsford and other areas of the Town.

A good number of the people protesting the incorporation petition were also many of the same people that have served Mr Feiner in numerous capacities and at his demand when needed. For instance, Ms Mona Freitag spoke against the incorporation petition, citing Craig Bernstein’s signature didn’t match his Board of Elections signature card. By the way, she was Mr Feiner’s hand-picked and personally backed candidate who he had helped run for the Hartsdale Fire District Commissioner position in the last fire district election. She lost that election.

After listening to about a dozen speakers lip-sync why they were against the incorporation petition, Mr Mark Rosenblatt went to the podium. He stated that he wanted to object to several of the objections. The retired judge interrupted him and said that only speakers objecting to the incorporation petition could speak. Taken aback, he stated that he had a right to rule against objecting to the objections. At this point the crowd, seemingly more pro-Edgemont incorporation began yelling, “Let him speak!” One retired judge sitting behind us yelled out, “Shame! Shame!” Then Bob Bernstein, Edgemont Community Council President shouted to the judge, “With all due respect, read part 3 of the statute!” The judge read part 3 which said written and verbal objections were allowed at the hearing. He then said it was his ruling that objections to the objections were not allowed. Like many Town Board meetings that Mr Feiner runs (into the ground) and makes up as he goes along, so too was this judge’s kangaroo court antics. At this point the crowd was on their feet yelling, This is bulls$#@!” and “Facist!”

Knowing their incompetent leader needed to be rescued, Mr Morgan went and whispered in Mr Feiner’s ear. He quickly announced,“We’re adjourned.” At which point almost everyone stood up chanting numerous slogans along with many people who were laughing at the ridiculousness of how this sham of a hearing was being run. Mr Feiner obviously paid this judge with our money and will probably be spending more unauthorized money to keep pushing his agenda to stop the incorporation. We can only imagine what it must be like to live in a Town or Village where everything is on the up and up and done the right way, trying to make life for its residents better. Oh wait, that’s what Edgemont is trying to do. They may be on the right track. If all neighborhoods could do this, we might get A Better Greenburgh.