One Problem The Problem Solver Won’t Touch

A concerned citizen reached out to ABG and asked if we would publish his letter to the editor. After discussing it with us and that he had already sent it to another media outlet, we made an exception to run it because it touches on an extremely sensitive topic in Greenburgh. That subject is that Mr Feiner routinely and repeatedly uses Town resources for his own agenda. Here is Mr Hirsch’s letter, unedited and in it’s entirety:

Town Supervisor Feiner would like everyone to view him as a leader who runs the Town “openly” but the reality is far from that truth. For years I have written how Mr. Feiner is a master at controlling the media which enables him to control the message. The media I am most often referring to is his control over the Town resources he employs to communicate with his constituents (email distribution lists, Town website, televised meetings, etc.). Personally I don’t believe that Town resources should be used to help keep him in office but it truly offends me when Mr. Feiner uses these same town wide resources to sway public opinion in support of his agenda. It should be noted that these same resources are NOT available to residents (nor am I suggesting that they should be) but it’s awfully hard to speak out on issues when the Supervisor has a good lead on controlling their outcome.

Although I have over 20 years of history from which to pick, Mr. Feiner handed me the perfect timely examples to highlight his selective reporting style.

For weeks Supervisor Feiner has been using town resources to sway public opinion on last night's [March 4th] Fairview Fire District Vote. Included in today's email [March 5th] he stated that “The room was packed with residents of the Fairview Fire district-the overwhelming majority of attendees objected to the funding of another administrative position.” I'll agree that out of context this is a factual statement but I am merely borrowing some of its words to help make my point.*

The 2/26/14 Greenburgh Town Board meeting was also “packed with residents” where most (all save I) spoke up against the board approving resolution CD1-2/26/14 (zoning change study for GameOn). Putting both issues aside and sticking to my point, there was NO such email or story reporting on this event to the public. Also, if you listen to Mr. Feiner at the 3/4/14 Town Board work session, while he acknowledges the event he also continues to move his agenda forward even claiming that residents he has since spoken to are no longer against the proposal. There he goes again changing the message with the town wide resources primarily available to him.

The days of “Control the Media, Control the Message” have got to end and I implore the Town Board to finally create, initiate and follow Policies and Procedures for town wide communications from how we choose to disseminate information (mail, email, website, etc.) down to reviewing guidelines for acceptable content.

Below are the other communications Mr. Feiner chose to write about the vote for the Fairview Fire District while at the same time selectively withholding to write about the opposition surrounding the zoning change for GameOn on the Dobbs Ferry Road corridor (Please excuse the typo's, I wanted to share Mr. Feiner's communications verbatim).

* Unlike my example above, on 2/24/14 Supervisor Feiner wrote regarding Fairview “I believe that this proposed expenditure is a big waste of taxpayer dollars. I encourage residents of the Fairview fire district to attend the meeting on Tuesday March 4th.” This would directly support my notion of how Mr. Feiner shares his thoughts to help sway public opinion towards his objectives.