Monday, June 19, 2017

Witnessing A Microcosm Of This Town Board: They Voted “Yes”!

Updated June 19
The room slowly filled beyond capacity as the 8PM hour approached. By 8:15 you could feel the electricity in the air as mostly Edgemont residents began to fill the room. Although residents from other neighborhoods and civic associations joined in. As usual, the Town Board entered late, except Councilman Sheehan, who came in on time and took his customary seat. The actions tonight would be the first time many would see their Town Board in action. This would be the microcosm of what this Board is really like and how they think of and treat their constituents.

Once Mr Feiner entered the room, the crowd erupted with, “Boo’s.” Mark Lafayette of Edgemont was handing out “Impeach Paul Feiner” buttons and had several hand-made protest signs that he distributed to various audience members. Three Greenburgh Police Department officers were present presumably for crowd control. They weren’t needed. But ever since Mr Feiner allowed Hamas members the use of Town Hall for an anti-Israel group rally, and the police had been called in to subdue a small riot – again brought about by Mr Feiner, he feels the absoluteness of power slipping away and needs more and more protection. This is what third world nation despot wind up doing just before they are overthrown. Hmmm.

After the cacophony of boos, the crowd began chanting, very loudly, “Let us vote, let us vote!” While all of the meeting room seats were taken, the back of the room and then the lobby area filled up with more and more people who were chanting. They clearly were in violation of the fire ordinance limiting the amount of people who could be in the space. We saw members of the Edgemont Incorporation Committee (EIC), the Hartsdale Neighborhood Committee as well as civic association leaders in attendance. Another chant that was used was, “Shame, shame, shame.” There were even a few catcalls and names shouted out to the Board members that we will not repeat.

Once the crowd quieted down, but not for long, Mr Feiner said they would let anyone who wanted to speak have two-minutes to do so – down from the very generous three minutes usually proffered at regular Town Board meetings. Jeff Sherwin, of the EIC, was the first to speak. His initial question was, “Why was this meeting being held today, on Father’s Day?” As Mr Feiner did his usual rope-a-dope, the crowd wasn’t buying it and booed him again and shouted, “Answer the question,” and“You’re corrupt!” Still, he did not provide an answer.

Then Jeff laid out a scenario and asked, “If this was to be their legacy, to suppress voter rights?” No one answered. They were probably thinking, “Hell yes, otherwise Paul will have me Sonya’d.” For the uninitiated, Sonya Brown was a Town Board member originally supported by Paul Feiner until she stepped away from the Feiner reservation and was shunned while she completed her term and then tossed aside for Ken Jones in the subsequent election. So, no Board member is willing to give up the position simply by doing the right thing or going against Mr Feiner and risk being “Sonya’d”.

Ken Stahn also spoke as the President of the Sprain Brook Road Civic Association President and said, “Since 1999 he has been listened to by this Town Board but has never been heard.” Telling to say the least. Again, after another speaker reflected leaving a communist county to come to America seeking freedom and finding fault with the Board’s actions, the crowd again took to chanting. This time they chanted, “USA, USA!”

The entire meeting, which officially started late at 8:30PM and ended about 9:46PM, was exemplified by the cowardly move by the Board to go into Executive Session. Usually this is reserved for personnel issues and legal issues concerning the Town. This time, we believe it was to get out of the public scrutiny and decide who would fall on the sword for Mr Feiner this time. It was Councilman Ken Jones. He took off his glasses, an obvious tactic he’s done before to avoid eye contact with those he’s sworn to serve, and said that after conferring with Town Attorney Tim Lewis in their back room, blah, blah, blah, they all voted to support the resolution. He might as well have turned to Mr Feiner and asked, “Did I do it the way you wanted, sir?”

This is about suppressing voters rights only in the Town of Greenburgh. Mr Feiner said this would be good for all of NY State. But it won’t. The bills introduced by Tom Abinanti and Andrea Stewart-Cousins are slated to be voted on tomorrow. You must take action and contact them if you are against this travesty. Maybe they will listen, but we don’t have much confidence in them either to do the right thing. Reach out anyway and maybe we can get A Better Greenburgh.

How can you help?
Attend town board meetings @ Town Hall - 177 Hillside Ave and express your displeasure.

Fill out this New York State form to oppose the bill:
 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2017/S6728

Call your state elected representatives and voice your opposition to these two bills. But hurry - votes are scheduled for later today!

Senate: refer to bill S6728 sponsored by Sen. Stewart-Cousins
  • Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins 914-423-4031 518-455-2585 
  • Sen. John Flanagan
    He's president of the state senate and head of the rules committee
    518-455-2071
  • Sen. George Latimer
    He's the Dem nominee to run for county Supervisor against Astorino this fall
    518-455-2031
Assembly: refer to bill A8423 sponsored by Tom Abinanti
  • Tom Abinanti  914-631-1605
  • William Magnerelli
    Chair of Local Govt committee that meets today 
    518-455-4826
  • David Buchwald
    Rep from Mt Kisco who sits on Local Government comm 
    518-455-5397

3 comments:

  1. Your link for Abinanti has a typo, should be one a at beginning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SENT TO TOWN CLERK
    Regarding the following GBlist email (portion thereof below) "postmarked June 18, Saturday at 8:00 PM sent by the Town Supervisor) and knowledge that this email remains the only communication referencing the Sunday June 18 SPECIAL MEETING date AS WELL AS the Friday June 16 SPECIAL MEETING (such absences verified by consulting news and information on the Town website), how does the Office of the Town Clerk respond to its FAILURE TO NOTIFY the Public of hastily scheduled but exceedingly imminent Official Town Board meetings. The Town Clerk and her Office is empowered to use the taxpayer paid email list for such purpose -- as does the Town Board.

    Let me be most clear: I request the Town Clerk to clarify the known chain of events and explain why her Office (aware that "the Town Board had decided to re-notice the re-affirmation "meeting" scheduled for Sunday) it WAITED until Saturday night to inform the Public of the Town Board's intent to do so. It is my understanding that the Town Clerk's Office is charged with the responsibility for posting official and open Town meeting time, date and Agenda and does not need to seek special permission from the Town Board to do so.

    Clearly, the Town Supervisor has not lied to residents because most residents do not know how to read him without exercising a full Socratic method of interpreting his yada yada while ignoring recognition of his honed talent for obfuscation. Understandably most residents receiving the GBlist do not have the same fine tuning to details as possessed by, say, a Federal Judge.

    What Feiner wrote (see below) is that he wanted to give AT LEAST 24 hours notice for the SPECIAL MEETING to be held: (choose either A, B or both)
    A) SPECIAL MEETING of Friday June 16 at 2:45 PM
    B) SPECIAL MEETING of Sunday June 18 at 8:30 PM

    Thus Feiner, writing that he "personally walked over to the Clerk's Office on Thursday" (with no time stated for when on Thursday he made that pilgrimage), could mean that he did so 24 hours in advance of the scheduled time on Friday OR leaving less than 24 hours for the Clerk's Office to respond -- which apparently it never did with regard to the Friday date. But then, to the contrary, Feiner writes "We scheduled the special meeting at 2:45 PM" hours after I spoke to the Clerk's Office". That would seem to indicate that he spoke to the Clerk's Office on Thursday before 2:45 if/IF he abided by the 24 hours notication period.

    Or does it?

    You can't tell from Feiner's email because he does not clarify which meeting, Friday or Sunday. he is seeking to cleanse of all doubt. So given his "sincere" commitment "to follow the letter and spirit of the law", that should explain why? he chose to WAIT UNTIL Saturday at 8:00 PM to do so. Indeed, he gave the Public not only 24 hours of advance notification but even threw in an extra 30 minutes because he is...who he is: Kind and generous to a fault says...he.


    "Some blog posts on Edgemont sites claim that improper notice was given of the meeting yesterday. Even though work was still being done on the resolution, I personally walked over to the Town Clerk's office on Thursday and advised that I wanted to give at least 24 hours’ notice before Friday’s meeting. We scheduled the special meeting at 2:45 PM on Friday, 24 hours after I spoke to the Clerk’s Office. Nevertheless, for the avoidance of any doubt and to ensure we are following the letter and spirit of the law, the Town Board has decided to re-notice the meeting and reaffirm their votes tomorrow (Sunday) evening, at 8:30 PM, at Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Avenue..."

    ReplyDelete
  3. keep voting in Paul and this is what you get

    ReplyDelete