Hypocritical Supervisor – Anti-Jewish: Bad, Racist: Best of The Best

Lawsuits are a dime a dozen nowadays, especially in Greenburgh. Mr Feiner certainly knows about that! In fact, controversy is a common feature regarding just about everything Mr Feiner touches. He sort of has the Midas Touch, only in reverse. This time however, we find that another community leader is under attack, and without Mr Feiner’s instigation – but he is involved. You’ll recall Mr Feiner needed to get attention away from his mismanagement of Town finances and decided to take advantage of a comment made by a disgruntled former Fairview firefighter under oath.

This time it seems Greenburgh Schools Superintendent Ronald O. Ross (seen earlier, left) and members of the Board of Education, individually, are on the receiving end of a lawsuit filed by a number of Greenburgh Central School District employees. While the charges in the lawsuit have not been substantiated, this is Greenburgh and a little detail like that isn’t really necessary! Plaintiffs in this action are one of the schools principals, the human resources director, two guidance counselors and four teachers, all of whom are suing the Superintendent for having created what they claim is a hostile workplace rife with harassment and filled with racial, religious and sexual slurs. They have included the School Board in the lawsuit as they also claim that they knew of the situation but did nothing to address it. Damages have not been specified so we’ll have to wait and see how this all shakes out.

According to court papers, Ross (more currently, left) has used numerous variations of slurs to refer to colleagues and subordinates. Some of these include: “White Bitch,” “Whining White Bitch,” “Black Bitch,” “Old Black Bitch,” “Old Fat Black Bitch,” “Nazi Bitch,” “Jew Bitch,” “Midget Bitch,” “Old Black Bitch,” “Old Fat Black Bitch,” “Nosey Jew Bitch,” “F—–g White Bitch,” “Fat White D–e Bitch,” “White D–e Bitch,” “Deaf White Bitch,” and even “Racist White Bitch” and “Racist Brazilian Bitch.” Other derisive monikers where the word bitch was not included are: “Aunt Jemima,” “Clarence Thomas,” “White Uncle Tom,” “White Devil,” “sell out,” “crackers,” “trailer trash,” or “Oreo.” Clearly there is enough here that this should not be easily dismissed with a wave of the hand as one off-color (no pun) remark made in confidence or privacy.

Below is a copy of two emails sent by Mr Feiner to select School Board members. Both emails are shown below. In the first email (top), he asks the School Board members to not seek to replace Superintendent Ross. He closes the email with the sentence, “If I did not think that Ron was the best of the best – I would not write this note.” The second email (bottom) again finds Mr Feiner is disappointed to learn of an effort to replace Superintendent Ronald Ross, claiming Ross is hard working, and he really cares about “our” children. Mr Feiner does not have children who attend the Greenburgh schools, so “our children” seems a bit contrived. In closing with the second email, he says, “I would be happy to meet with you to discuss why I think it’s important to keep Ron Ross working for our community.”

There’s no doubt that the charges leveled against Mr Ross are significant even if they haven’t been substantiated. Fortunately, he has Mr Feiner’s support and endorsement. The people who have initiated this lawsuit are not rank-and-file workers with a beef against their boss or received a bad review. So there might just be something to this lawsuit after all. These also don’t appear to be disgruntled employees trying to get “even” with their boss as former Fairview firefighter Darryl Leake seems to have done against Fairview Fire Chief Anthony LoGiudice. Mr Feiner couldn’t move fast enough to crucify Chief LoGiudice in email-blasted court of public opinion over an anti-Jewish statement the Chief made years prior. When an apology was requested by Mr Feiner, the Chief apologized in person and in writing. But that wasn’t enough for Mr Feiner. Now that he had the media blitz in full swing, he needed more, so he resurrected his phony consolidation plans with faulty information, open lies, and a task force of bitter retirees in hopes of fanning his fire of desperation.

In our article entitled “Selective Racism Condoned By Supervisor” on April 8th, we quoted Mr Feiner as saying, “We cannot, as elected officials, allow discrimination to rear its ugly head.” Yet he endorses Superintendent Ross, openly practiced discrimination himself against the Fortress Bible Church when the Church purchased property and sought to construct a new church and school on it just off of Dobbs Ferry Road. He and the Town Board have ignored the use of the “N-word” in Town Hall by Tax Assessor Edye McCarthy with other employees present. We posted an excerpt of a letter of complaint from the offended party in that same article. The complaint was summarily ignored by the Town.

More importantly, why is it acceptable for Mr Feiner to be offended about a comment made years ago and seek to destroy one mans career while it is acceptable for Mr Feiner to be endorsing the bad and reprehensible behavior of another? Of course, the charges need to be substantiated. Especially disturbing is to hear of this in our learning institutions. Why does Mr Feiner’s administration allow the insulting use of the “N-word” within the offices of Town Hall but do nothing about it when complaints are made? Why can the Town Comptroller withhold funds to the taxing entities, knowingly breaking the law, and have no punishment, retribution or consequences for his illegal behavior? And, if Mr Feiner is his boss, why are they both not thrown out on their ears? Why can Mr Feiner offer an illegal lease to a private company without the Town having a clear title and pay no consequence for it? Finally, since Mr Feiner is concerned with the Fairview Fire Chief’s $200,000-plus salary, why has he remained silent about Mr Ross’ equally high $200,000-plus salary? Regardless of what is transpiring with the fire chief and the superintendent, both of whom are trained for their positions, they’ve never criticized Mr Feiner for the ratio of work-to-pay that he is paid.

The Fortress Bible Church discrimination case against Mr Feiner and the Town speaks volumes regarding their illegal activities and how they treat “some” people, while treating "others" much differently? Why does the populace, our willfully ignorant, not demand more from our elected officials? Why does the public tolerate Mr Feiner and the Town Board turning a blind eye toward discrimination and even practicing it? We’ve seen Mr Feiner and his Town Board selectively pick and choose which outrage they will focus on. Its a shame they will not simply do the right thing and unequivocally stand for what’s right. If and when they do, we’ll begin to see A Better Greenburgh.