Ethically Challenged & Resorting To Lies

During the last forum at Town Hall which was not attended by Mr Feiner, his opponent for the Supervisor position, Mr Robert “Bob” Bernstein, had the spotlight shone on himself and the Town Clerk candidate Sherron Brunson Fantauzzi. The fact that Mr Feiner and Ms Beville chose to not attend  the event was nothing short of disrespectful to the residents of Unincorporated Greenburgh and those in attendance.

Several people have stated that Mr Feiner, speaking on behalf of himself and Ms Beville, did not attend because the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations were campaigning for Mr Bernstein and against him and they are a partisan group. Ironically, the CGCA is run by Madelon O’Shea, who insists that all meetings, functions and discussions remain non-partisan. The League of Women Voters may or may not be partisan but the moderator, Ms Sue Weisfeld was specifically chosen as she has been known to be fair while forcefully maintaining control of a forum and the time constraints necessary.

We’ve always maintained Mr Feiner is shrewd. He proved it again by not attending the forum and then having a one-half an hour commercial run on the cable access channel immediately after the forum ended. It allowed him a relatively captive audience, a half an hour of uninterrupted and unquestioned time to talk about what he wanted to discuss, not what residents might be interested in hearing. It reminded us of the night he went to the NAACP forum about WestHelp and never answered any questions and rambled on about everything but answering the questions that were asked. ABG is relatively sure we’ll see a repeat performance of that behavior again tonight.

Watching the video he produced found him in front of numerous locations discussing topics relating to where he was. One location he illegally entered to film his commercial was the Elmsford Fire Company, a private corporation who did not authorize his film crew to enter or film there, where he professed his love of the villages volunteer firefighters. At the end of that video, he must have realized he offended the paid firefighters in the three Greenburgh Departments and quickly praised them too. ABG understands why he filmed this piece there. The paid firefighter’s union has endorsed his opponent, Mr Bob Bernstein.

He spoke in front of Frank’s nursery (loss to Greenburgh: $3.5M), WestHelp (loss to Greenburgh: $1.2M/yr), the Fortress Bible property (loss to Greenburgh: up to $8M), the Theodore Young Community Center and so on. At each location he staked his claim against Mr Bernstein as being against what he was trying to do at each of these locations. ABG believes Mr Bernstein was on the right side of each of these escapades. Mr Feiner could be found weaving half-truths with out and out lies about Mr Bernstein. We already have documented that Mr Feiner is ethically challenged and in desperation is resorting to lies to make his case for re-election. Residents are smarter than that but Mr Feiner is hoping they will only remember what he has said, not what he has done.

Mr Feiner has been in office for 22 years now. In the beginning, when many residents tired of the Anthony Veteran administration, the voters decided to try something new with Mr Feiner. What we have learned in those 22 years is that the old saying about how “power corrupts” is absolutely true. While Mr Feiner may have been a logical and even good choice 22 years ago, his lack of management skills, lack of private sector knowledge and experience, lack of ever working in the real world has shifted his focus from doing the right thing for residents to favoring developers, contributors and special interest groups.

This September 10th is the date for the Democratic Primary. The outcome will decide who will be the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Party in the November election. It’s not about which yard sign was more impressive or readable when speeding down our residential neighborhood streets. It’s not about wondering who will help you as you watch your possessions float away during a misting rain because overdevelopment has no place for the water to go. It’s not about standing in the shadows of a larger than zoned-for building wondering how to watch a sunset in our Town. It’s not about watching our already overdeveloped green space turn black from macadam. It’s not about wondering if traffic will begin to move in time for you to play with your kids before they go to bed. It’s not about watching our seniors move out of their homes of 30 and 40 years into a subsidized studio apartments because taxes became greater than their Social Security checks. No, it’s about the fundamental and sweeping changes our Town has gone through and deciding if enough is enough! It’s time to return Greenburgh back to it’s residents. It’s time for A Better Greenburgh!