Misinformation and deflection are the cornerstones of the
Feiner Administration. Mr Feiner’s underlings know that they need to do several
things to keep whatever position they occupy in the Town. First, always make
sure to bail out Mr Feiner when he puts his foot in his mouth. Second, fall on
the sword when a policy or decision he mandated gets exposed. This was
last highlighted in our article posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2014,
entitled Just Another Broken Law, where Town Comptroller Bart Talamini
dove on the sword admitting that he and he alone violated NYS law and withheld
the tax payments to the fire districts to the tune of $10M. Third, anytime
there is an issue that could be interpreted as embarrassing to Mr Feiner in a
meeting, a Town Board member is required to make a motion to hold it over, keep
it open, pass it to a commissioner or say it will need to be investigated
further. The list goes on but you get the point.
There is another group of “Feiner-ites” that also serve the
master unconditionally. One example is a resident and convicted felon, appointed by Mr
Feiner to the Deputy Town Supervisor position. There was no Civil Service exam that had to be taken for the
position. There was no election for the position either. It was simply a
nepotistic appointment arbitrarily made from one friend for another. This
underscores the glaring lack of standards and abuse of positions and rank at
Town Hall. More importantly, it reeks of the nepotism Mr Feiner himself has
accused the fire district of practicing. Shame. On. Him. Why doesn’t the
mainstream media report on any of this? We can only assume its because they share similar
agendas.
Another “Feiner-maton” is also a resident with his own small
cadre of drones that will say whatever they are instructed to say whenever and
wherever they are needed. The one distinction between these two men
is that this one was not appointed to any position by Mr Feiner. He just
believes in the failed social engineering plan known as Westchester 2000. It was never adopted because it was
too enormous, bureaucratic and costly to ever be implemented, run or successful.
He continues to carry that torch while doing Mr Feiner’s dirty work. He’s also
gotten quite a bit of media coverage himself by the Feiner-friendly media and
with their complicity, helped him spread a good deal of the lies,
misinformation and distrust being groomed from Town Hall. Being retired from
the mainstream media guarantees a certain amount of cache with them and
knows they will listen to him and print whatever he says. Fortunately for Greenburgh, he is selling
his home to move out of Greenburgh – a telling gesture if there ever was one!
The Town of Greenburgh’s hiring policies leave a lot to be
desired based on what we’ve witnessed by Mr Feiner cavalierly
“appointing” people into positions of consequence. Claims by Mr Feiner and his
minions of nepotism in the Fairview Fire District would almost be laughable if
the mainstream media had not been so complicit with Mr Feiner’s ruse instead of
honestly investigating the allegations. If nepotism exists, it can certainly be
found with our own “Pinocchio Paul”. Much has been said about Fire
Commissioner Vikki Simmons’ son being promoted to Deputy Chief. Much has also
been said about retiring Chief Anthony LoGiudice. And most of what has been
fabricated was done to further Mr Feiner’s agenda as well as deflect attention
from the Town’s crippling financially-induced problems caused by Mr Feiner.
What the media hasn’t reported is that everyone working in a
firematic capacity for the fire department/fire district had to start the process by taking and passing a
Civil Service exam, subsequently being put on a numeric list by score
before the Fire Commissioners could even interview and/or hire them! This is the same exam that
is used throughout the County by all other paid fire departments and fire districts. In fact, it’s known in firematic circles as the “County Test”. What also hasn’t been
reported is that every firefighter who is promoted must also take and pass another Civil
Service test just to be put on another numeric list by score before they
could be interviewed and chosen for promotion.
Just passing either test and being on the list
doesn’t guarantee being hired or promoted - it only opens the door. And, the lists have a finite life
span. So passing and being on the list is a temporary opportunity. If and
when the list expires and a civilian wants to be considered for a position or a
firefighter for a promotion and didn’t get “made” the first time around, they
must take a new test again and pass it to be placed on a new list. There is also no
guarantee that they will pass the new Civil Service exam just because they
passed it previously, nor any guarantee they'll get “made” this time
around.
Last night’s Fairview Fire Commissioner’s meeting saw a 180°
turnaround from the previous meeting. Armed with handouts, information and
facts, the Board was in control of this meeting! ABG has learned that before
the previous meeting held in April, the Board had been instructed by the
District’s attorneys not to comment on any of the accusations that were
made, giving the false appearance that the Board of Commissioners had something
to hide. Whether this was a good idea or not remains to be determined. Several
opponents rallied around resident Milt Hoffman once again; although his entourage
was significantly reduced to just a hand full of residents.
He made several comments, with some being good points: the
fire departments website is lacking and needs to be improved to disseminate
information to the public and the need to extend the voting hours for fire
commissioner elections. He also stated that now that a new Chief has been
appointed, they lose the ability to have the Hartsdale Chief take over command
of the Fairview FD. Ms Simmons explained to Mr Hoffman that NY State law does
not allow anyone to be a member of two or more fire departments and they are
required to have a Chief officer. He looked stunned when she replied. For any
officer to give an order to a Fairview firefighter and have it be followed, the
superior officer would need to be a member first and then a ranking
officer in the Fairview FD, unless they were operating in that departments jurisdiction under mutual aid.
Much had been said about Commissioner Simmons last
month. This month she was having none of it, keeping Mr Hoffman in check and
countering every one of his ramblings with real facts. When he tried to highlight
the eight-year old Michaelian Report as an example, Ms Simmons held up her copy
and promised to give it to anyone who wanted to see it and countered the
information as Mr Hoffman tried to make it pertain to the Fairview Fire
District. The highlight of the night came when "First Lady" Kathy LoGiudice, the
outgoing Chief’s wife, was called on to speak. She rose and stated she was not
a public speaker and had prepared a letter that another resident would read on
her behalf. We will post her letter in our next post. In it she countered much of what
had previously been said as the anti-Fire Department/District/Chief crowd were
attacking everything and everybody with the Fairview Fire District and Department.
After the letter was read, one Commissioner felt the need to
respond as his name was mentioned in her letter. Commissioner Simmons, with
over 20 years of service as an unpaid commissioner, let him speak. When he was
finished, Mr Hoffman said he wanted to respond to what had been said about him.
She told him he had had plenty of time to speak tonight and they were going to
move on with the meeting. As he began to protest, another commissioner stepped
in and told him a resident gave an opinion and if he has an issue with that, he
could take it up with her after the meeting. They proceeded with the regular
order of business and adjourned to Executive Session to discuss personnel
issues.
ABG and many of the residents wish Chief LoGiudice and his
family well in his retirement. We hope the cancer he contracted at Ground Zero
will be held in check and again thank him for his years of service to Fairview,
Greenburgh and our respective communities throughout.
ABG also congratulates Chief Howard Reiss on his promotion
to Chief of the Department. We know that with his firematic background,
knowledge, history and compassion for others, he is the right choice for this
job.
It seems as though the firestorm started by Mr Feiner for
his own political benefit has been extinguished. Maybe things will change at
Town Hall in the next election and we can stop these games and finally have A Better Greenburgh.
