Announcing Nothing Says It All

All they want to do is vote. All they want is to become a Village. All they want is to control their destiny. All they want is to get out from under the incompetent, illegal, and bad decisions repeatedly made by this Town’s mismanaged and incapable Town Board. Hey, wait a minute... we all want this. But we all can’t afford to do what the Edgemont Incorporation Committee (EIC) has undertaken. Be it the expense, the lack of expertise or the support that doesn’t exist elsewhere in the Town, most of the rest of Unincorporated Greenburgh is saddled with what the EIC has confirmed is a problem. The Town not acting in their/our best interest.

In another calculated move this week, Mr Feiner chose to announce he had reached a decision as to the sufficiency of the EIC petition but would not make it known publicly until after he met with his Town Board early this week. If the decision has been made, why not just announce it? The legal requirements involved are simple: determine the sufficiency (or not) of the petition and let the EIC specifically, and the public in general, know the decision. But Mr Feiner, the Master of Deflection, the King of Compounded Confusion, the Purveyor of Publicity, the Convolutor of Crappola, decided early on that he was against the incorporation and attempted to thwart this effort at every juncture. Hence, the delayed announcement. But again, why?

The EIC’s move to incorporate and the efforts against it may or may not be legitimate. There are other events at play that factor into the Master of Deflection’s suspect actions. Take, for one instance, the Town’s maneuvering with the Dromore Road fiasco; or another instance to get the Shelbourne Assisted Living facility approved by any means necessary and take some of the attention off of the EIC case. The reality however is that it highlights the exact reason the EIC is seeking to incorporate!

What's also interesting is that Feiner Planning Board appointee Hugh Schwartz has been a vociferous proponent on the anti-incorporation side of the fence. Mr Schwartz has publicly positioned himself as being recused as a Planning Board member from the Shelbourne project because his wife works for the law firm representing Shelbourne. However, we came across this piece of information that may indicate otherwise where he requests to talk to Town Attorney Tim Lewis about it. Hmm, this makes us wonder.

Mr Feiner usually has many irons in the fire, enabling him to dance from one controversial issue to another. What he fails to publicize is why. We believe it is simply to be able to change any conversation from the question raised to something else, hence the moniker, Master of Deflection. The issue at hand, beyond Edgemont's right to vote for incorporation, is what else is he doing?

Some have said Edgemont activists fear Mr Feiner will reject the petition, and is conferring with his Town Board to plan a response once the announcement is made. We've also learned from some in Hartsdale that the EIC is considering circulating a new petition, and expanding the boundaries of the proposed village to include parts of Hartsdale, including the hamlet's parking district. The boundaries must be determined by the proponents of the village incorporation. Not the Town, an existing fire district map or school district map. In fact, it can be drawn by a kid with a crayon and agreed to by the EIC and submitted as final. Clearly, there is more going on and wonder how much is from the corner office?

Strangely, when questioned at numerous meetings about what preparations were made by the Town should an incorporation take place, Mr Feiner hesitated and said, “Nothing, because I don’t believe it will pass.” Many were taken aback. Shortly after one of the last meetings about Edgemont incorporation, Mr Feiner said he wanted a citizen’s group to look into what the Town could do should incorporation takes place. He subsequently appointed Luis Polit to chair the Greenburgh Unincorporated Area Citizen’s Contingency Committee which would be tasked with seeking solutions. 

One condition of acceptance was that Mr Polit would receive no interference from the Town or Town Board and get to appoint all of the committees members. While this sounds above-board, a documented video exists of Mr Polit physically pushing Robert Bernstein after a disagreement the two had while serving on a different Town committee. Additionally, Mr Polit recently made this statement after being forced to cancel a meeting with department heads and town commissioners, “I suspect they were told not to participate in this meeting until the petition gets resolved, so I kind of read between the lines.” Obviously, while Mr Polit might believe in preparedness, open government and independence, Mr Feiner is clearly not interested in any of these!

Mr Feiner’s ability to “game” the political system to his advantage is well-known and he surely has another ace up his sleeve. Or, he’s looking to delay this until after the (re)elections. It remains to be seen exactly how this will play out. All bets at this point indicate that Mr Feiner will reject the petition on the grounds of some obscure or undefendable technicality. It will warrant yet another taxpayer lawsuit that didn’t have to be. That is not acting in the best interest of the Town. What is in the best interest of the Town is for this administration to step down. With or without a seventh village, it’s what will help us get A Better Greenburgh.