Willful Ignorance Allows Public To Be Duped

The Fairview Fire Department’s Board of Fire Commissioners held their monthly meeting at Fairview Fire Headquarters at 19 Rosemont Boulevard. The room was not packed but certainly had more in attendance than their meetings usually do. According to one resident, only 13 people voted in the last election! The room was split into thirds with the crowd that was there. One third was there to protest anything and everything, one third was there to support the fire department and the other third were firefighters either there to support their Chief and/or to learn what would happen in what has turned into another Feiner induced trial by media.

For those in attendance, there simply to protest, they were armed with faulty information and hysterical statements from a select few of Mr Feiner’s “co-conspirators”. One of those in attendance was a former opinion editor who brags of and routinely refers to the committees report he helped generate. He was appointed to be part of this flawed committee by our Supervisor to “evaluate” consolidation of the Town’s three career fire departments, Fairview, Hartsdale and Greenville and provide a pre-ordained outcome. They did. This “study” for the fire service was something else outside of Mr Feiner purview. His position as Supervisor or with the Town Board has no say, control over or business dealings over the fire service as each fire department is controlled separately by their own fire districts and not the Town. Fire districts have independent taxing authority and are not under the control of the Town. This was another grandstanding abuse of power as Supervisor foisted upon the willfully ignorant. This tactic was again intended to deflect attention away from his double-digit tax increases, guilty verdicts, costly decisions and general mismanagement of our Town and its finances to the overall tune of about $40 MILLION! ABG is convinced this latest deflection was to continue shifting focus away from ABG’s exposure of his condoned racism with his appointed Department Head in Town Hall!

ABG exposed with documents acquired by us in our previous post, that Town Assessor Edye McCarthy had used derogatory, inflammatory and racist language with another Town employee in her department that has still not been addressed by Mr Feiner. The employee was upset and sent a letter to that employee’s manager, Ms McCarthy, and cc’d the Union President and Supervisor Feiner. It’s ironic that Mr Feiner would complain about the Fire Chief’s language and apology as “a good first step”, when Mr Feiner has never apologized to the Fortress Bible Church (or Town residents) for the discrimination he and his Town Board perpetrated on the church when they sought to build on the Greenburgh property they had purchased. In fact, Mr Feiner was found guilty in Federal court of discrimination, lying under oath and destroying evidence and fined $6.5 MILLION that the Unincorporated resident taxpayers will be forced to pay. There’s where your tax increases are going; its for something he never should have done.

It hasn’t been lost on many residents that Mr Feiner demanded an apology for a slur that was made about him years ago. He received the apology and then refused to accept it. He needed more traction so he said he wanted more. The paradox is he did much worse with his actions against the church and yet he gets a pass? Why should the residents and taxpayers allow this? ABG believes it is because the electorate is willfully ignorant and keeps their heads in the sand until something happens in their backyard or to them. We call them OIMBY’s (Only In My BackYard). Mr Feiner should resign immediately!

Last nights fire commissioner’s meeting was a sad commentary as most of the residents there were misinformed and seemingly bragged about what they didn’t know. They complained that they didn’t know there was a Board of Fire Commissioners, when they met, that there was a fire department website, the salaries of the fire department members and more. In an incredible display of ignorance, anti-fire department proponents repeatedly rose or just interrupted the speakers who had the floor and decried, “We didn’t know. You need to do a better job of informing us.” They played right into Mr Feiner’s hands again. To be fair to the audience, the Board of Fire Commissioners did a terrible job of running the meeting and seemed ill-prepared for the dogged questioning from them. The Commissioner running the meeting, Ms Vicki Simmons, seems to be on defense the entire night and did poorly each time she she attempted to answer any questions. The rest of the Board appeared content to allow her to be pummeled the entire evening and remained silent. We should mention that the commissioner’s positions are all unpaid.

One commissioner, Michael Cotter stood up and said he was against the Executive Deputy Chief position, drawing applause from the “anti”-side-of-the-room crowd. The position had been occupied by Chief LoGuidice prior to his being appointed Chief and has remained unfilled since then. Now that he will be retiring, he had suggested it be filled to begin training his successor. The structure of the fire department was clearly not understood by most of this crowd nor did they seem interested in trying to understand it. Again, Ms Simmon and the rest of the Board did nothing to explain the value or need for the position and that it would be left vacant as a temporary one once the Chief retired and the person filling it was promoted to Chief. With a $12.5 million budget, surely there is room to negotiate other savings to offset this position. That was never discussed. 

Explanations about what is going on in the Fairview Fire Department need to be forthcoming. Even though the flawed consolidation report insists on an increase of taxpayer volunteerism, none of the audience members who have been duped by this same report have signed up and joined the department. In fact, many said this was the first time they had come to a fire commission meeting. That’s sad. As to not knowing about the fire department, residents can always stop by and ask questions of any of the fire fighters and receive answers. Mr Feiner’s next ploy is to try to consolidate only the Fairview and Hartsdale fire departments. He has purposely (and cowardly) taken the Greenville fire district out of these discussions for several reasons. He knows if he includes Greenville, he will take on the wrath of the Edgemont community and force their hand to incorporate into their own village. That would be a disaster for him and the Unincorporated Town taxpayers.

Mr Feiner’s consolidation hijinks would cripple his budget – the real issue for all of these smoke and mirror discussions of consolidation. With the guilty verdicts (Fortress Bible), lawsuit losses (NextG), certiorari adjustments ($100K - $3.5M at each Town Board meeting), lost revenue (WestHelp, Frank’s Nursery) and, well, the list is almost endless, he desperately needs the Edgemont community to remain in the Unincorporated Town. Taxes have continually risen under Mr Feiner’s tenure in office. Usually, the increases have been double-digit increases. Where were the people attending this meeting and why were they not complaining when the Town budget was being discussed and adopted? Because the same persons leading the charge for fire consolidation want increased taxes and spending and not real consolidation, cost-effectiveness and/or financial savings. The lack of revaluation by Mr Feiner’s administration for the past twenty-two years he has been in office is causing the hemorrhaging of tax dollars by every department, especially our fire department and punishing tax-beleaguered residents. Couple this with about 49% of tax-exempt entities in Fairview and its a recipe for disaster!

There are a tremendous amount of issues going on in the Town that have mostly be foisted upon the willfully ignorant taxpaying OIMBYs by Mr Feiner and his phony and carefully crafted committee appointments. What remains to be seen is how many of these concerned citizens will show up and participate in next month’s Board of Fire Commissioner meetings or if they will go to the Hartsdale and Greenville meetings and complain as vocally? We hope they become regular fixtures at these meetings, but don’t have high hopes for this to happen. Will they start to regularly attend Town Board meetings? Probably not. They’re content to complain and hope someone such as the G10 will continue to be their watchdogs, but prefer to sit back, complain and hope others will fight their fight.

ABG supports consolidation if it is town-wide and includes every department and portion of Town government. But it cannot be isolated consolidation that picks and chooses when and where its convenient to utilize. We need an independent study, not controlled by Mr Feiner, with subpoena power so they can get answers that will aid in providing an honest assessment of what we have, if its working and how it can benefit by a Town-wide consolidation. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.