Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

In an entirely predictable move by Mr Feiner, he officially ruled the Edgemont Incorporation petition was not sufficient and cancelled the hope of a proposed incorporation referendum for the Edgemont community. Mr Feiner had said all along that he was against the incorporation citing a loss of revenue, approximately $17 million out of the Town budget that would be Edgemont’s portion. Regardless, what Mr Feiner and any elected official should be doing, is entertaining different ideas and listening to their constituency. Clearly that did not happen. To quote the old Gomer Pyle TV character, “Surprise, surprise, surprise.”

Mr Feiner claimed that the Edgemont Incorporation Council (EIC) had been careless with the petitions, referencing failed boundaries for the proposed village – all of their documentation stated they were utilizing the Greenville Fire District boundaries. He referenced the EIC petition not including minors in their list of inhabitants – although we would assume that would be two-fold: one to protect children’s identity and two because they cannot vote and subsequently don’t “count” toward this event.There’s additional supposed reasons Mr Feiner ruled as he did but these other issues will, unfortunately, flush out in court. That said, he ruled many of the signatures invalid. If anyone could fabricate a reason or a way to invalidate petition signatures, it’s Mr Feiner and his Board.

“Forged signatures falsely sworn to by a witness in front of a notary is a legal violation that invalidates all the signatures collected by that witness,” Mr Feiner said. Wow! His incredible statement is ironic given his own conviction by a Federal court for lying under oath in the Fortress Bible case, destroying evidence and discrimination! Could we ever witness more hypocrisy in government? It’s almost as if Mr Feiner practices doing the wrong thing to see how he can get out from under it.

He floundered helplessly several times during the hearings without his Town Board to keep him from speaking too much. Normally, they would intervene and keep him from going down the proverbial rabbit hole. We can only wonder if this time they knew what he was doing was wrong and decided to err on the side of caution and stay far away. This by no means excuses most of their bad behavior and we even believe Mr Feiner might have told them, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this one. You can stay away.” But not after they agreed to spend $50,000 to hire attorney Robert Spolzino!

“The Town had to develop the facts,” Mr Feiner said. “Otherwise it wouldn’t be a real decision.” Actually, what he should have said was the Town needed to invent the facts and in lieu of actual facts and create what they needed to kill the petition. How? He enlisted his troops from his core of regular supporters, Mona Freitag, Martin Payson, Planning Board appointee Hugh Schwartz and his wife, Town Attorney Tim Lewis and his wife, along with others. The sad part is now that he’s decided to invalidate the petition, a new petition will invariably be filed expanding the area to include portions of Hartsdale parking district – backfiring on Mr Feiner big time! At the same time, it is expected that a lawsuit will be filed by the EIC against the Town and Mr Feiner for ruling the way he did. 

The elephant in the room is that Mr Feiner, with a modicum of assistance from Councilman Ken Jones at one of the public meetings about incorporation, was against the Edgemont incorporation from the get-go. At the first hearing, Councilman Kevin Morgan could be seen whispering in Mr Feiner’s ear after he lost control of the meeting. Instantaneously, Mr Feiner said, “We’re adjourned.”

At no point did he hide his disdain or opposition for the incorporation, claiming routinely that it just wouldn’t work. ABG staffers always believed his end game was to delay the petition until after the (re)election in November, knowing that people would tire of this and he could do what he always does: wear down the opposition while he campaigns against them and rally enough votes to squash everyone in favor of incorporation.

If they don’t tire of the incorporation movement, he’ll simply assume they would forget about. He knows voter memory is minuscule at best. That strategy might have worked had he not hired retired justice Robert Spolzino, who in turn hired private investigators to try to trick pro-Edgemont incorporation residents into signing an affidavit that would invalidate their previously signed endorsement for incorporation. It was so unbelievable that one resident supplied a nanny-cam video with sound that proved what was being done to dupe residents. Watch the resident’s video here: https://youtu.be/MBR3L16s3_s

One detrimental move was when Mr Feiner adjourned the first hearing after losing control of it following his mandate that pro-incorporation residents could not speak at the hearing, only anti-incorporation residents could. At the second hearing, adding insult to injury, he allowed the President of the security firm that they hired to speak during objections, followed by Town Attorney Tim Lewis reading affidavits from the surveyor he hired and the Title search attorney he hired, all during the objections. 

The second detrimental move was when Mr Feiner held the second hearing the day before the hearing was scheduled to close the record, not giving residents or the EIC an opportunity to review statements, evidence or information presented by anti-incorporation proponents. More importantly, at the second meeting Town Attorney Tim Lewis read the previously read statements already entered into the record and then called the same anti-incorporation proponents up to the podium to re-read their statements again. The reason was surely to eat away at the precious time the pro-incorporation proponents would try to utilize for their cause, further thwarting their efforts.

As always, there were no surprises with this announcement. The one surprise we would have enjoyed would have been one where Mr Feiner did the right thing, didn’t force another lawsuit for the Town taxpayers and allowed the petition to go through. Had he done the right thing, we might have gotten A Better Greenburgh, smaller, but better.

Silence Won’t Be Purchased With Appointments

Appointments to various committees happen quite often in the Town. Many are rewards for either supporting Mr Feiner or his schemes. For instance, prior to retiring to Florida, his friend and confidante Alan Hochberg was appointed by Mr Feiner as the Deputy Town Supervisor. Mr Hochberg, also a convicted felon just as Mr Feiner, chaired other committees, including a veterans group for the Town. We understand there’s an unspoken quid pro quo with the former resident and Mr Feiner.


At a recent Council of Greenburgh Civic Association meeting that Worthington Woodlands Civic Association President Dorrine Livson attended, we learned she received an offer from Mr Feiner to be nominated for a vacant seat on the Town of Greenburgh Planning Board. Mr Feiner’s offer, while appropriate at face value, seems like a classic move to silence another of his growing list of outspoken critics. In his correspondence to her, he says, “I think you would be an outstanding member and am confident that you would be fair with each applicant. I also appreciate the constructive suggestions you have made to the town over the years.” Finally, there’s something the Supervisor said that we can agree with!


Apparently an offer was first made to Edgemont resident Jeff Sherwin for the vacant seat on the planning board. It appears that after Mr Sherwin declined Mr Feiner’s offer, Ms Livson declined as well. So now two critics of Mr Feiner failed to be enticed into servitude. We’ve written extensively of Ms Livson and the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association. For those of you who do not know of Mr Sherwin, he is a significant contributor to the Edgemont Incorporation Council, the group which is seeking to get a referendum in the Town as Edgemont seeks to incorporate as a Village and become independent from the control of the Town. In particular, these residents believe they are better suited to control the destiny of their community than Mr Feiner and his Board.

In an article in a weekly newspaper that covers Edgemont and parts of the Town, Mr Feiner was quoted as stating, “I have spoken to others who also believe that you would be an asset to the planning board.” Mr Sherwin was quoted responding, “I believe Paul Feiner is not pro-incorporation. I believe he has a mission to thwart incorporation. I think his asking me to join the planning board was part of a plan, either by distracting me, or by trading favors, or by getting me to say ‘no’ without sufficient reason so he could say Edgemont doesn’t really care about zoning and planning.”


For the last several years, Mr Feiner has pretended to seek approval from his Town Board on numerous projects. As those who follow Town politics are aware, his Board has become nothing more than a rubber-stamp arm of his administration, approving any and all projects of his desire. Project after project appears to get unceremoniously pushed through if it’s one favored by Mr Feiner. The average taxpayer, saddled with exorbitant fees and demands usually take a back seat to the big developers. They also rarely, if ever, get an opportunity to speak to the Board at a work session or in private as so many of the big developers often do.


One project that is currently in litigation is with the S&R developers who are trying to build on a parcel of land they purchased adjacent to the Greenburgh Nature Center. It is being held up for several reasons that never should have seen the light of day. The Town’s zoning maps, changes erroneously made by the Town Board and a covenant held by the neighboring convent of nuns nearby should mandate a dismissal of this project! Regardless, this is yet another lawsuit that is costing the taxpayers more money that we shouldn’t be paying. Planning Board member Hugh Schwartz, whom we have had respect for previously, is regularly vociferous in his objection to the Edgemont Incorporation Council effort. He has had numerous articles published stating so as well as countering those in favor of the effort. Interestingly, Mr Schwartz’s wife is an employee of the law firm involved with the lawsuit against the Town! While we’ll give Mr and Mrs Schwartz the benefit of the doubt, this alludes to substantiating our case with both Ms Livson and Mr Sherwin.


Having a one political party Town works for those members of it. But not having any opposing or dissenting views on the Board robs the residents of fairness, fresh ideas and an ethical compass. Mr Feiner is asking his “critics” to join him on the boards - but that takes away their civic duty to speak out for, against or critique a development as they cannot go before the Town Board, Planning Board or the Zoning Board to present their private point of view or even represent their Civic Association. While it makes him look like the good guy, he is really trying to silence them knowing what they can and cannot do according to the Town’s Ethics Code. This unethical abuse needs to end. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.