Resident’s Crusade Wins Lawsuit Against Town Arrogance

Lawsuits against our Town seem to be a dime a dozen. Some are frivolous in the hopes of exacting small sums of money from the taxpayers’ coffers. After all, many in the Town are fed up with paying for everything for everybody and having Mr Feiner get the credit as though it was due to his largess. Then there are the people who will file suit against the Town and Mr Feiner in particular because they honestly believe wrongdoings were committed. Such is the case this time.

What began as a simple FOIL request from one resident would soon become her crusade. In February of 2014, Worthington Woodlands Civic Association President Dorrine Livson, requested a copy of the Town's email list, known as the GBList from Mr Feiner and the Town. The GBList contains approximately 2,500 email addresses that are the property of the Town but that Mr Feiner uses as his personal list at his discretion. This time, Mr Feiner had once again sent out another one-sided email and she wanted the other half of the story told, allowing for a balanced discussion with her organization's members.

Mr Feiner uses this list to push issues with only his point of view, go after residents and taxpayers who disagree with him as well as shield himself from the media with his one-sided accounts of his facts. Mr Feiner and Town Attorney Lewis turned down Ms Livson's request. As usual, the Town Board remained silent during all of this. No need to bite the hand that feeds them.

Ms Livson FOIL-ed the list under the Freedom Of Information Law which allows citizens to officially request files, documents and such from their community, county, state and federal government. Her FOIL request should have to be fulfilled by the same people now refusing to supply her the file. She then filed an appeal with the Town Board again, who would once again be the decision makers from which she was requesting the file. No surprise here, the appeal request was also denied. There was only one thing left for her to do.

Telling Ms Livson “No” to all of her requests caused her to become more determined than ever to get a hold of this elusive GBList. With the refusals and the appeal denial under her belt, she knew she was being forced by Mr Feiner and Mr Lewis to file an Article 78. An Article 78 allows individuals who have been refused FOIL requests to appeal the denial in court. Knowing the key players with many of the lawsuits against the Town, Ms Livson reached out the uber-legal team of Keane and Beane, who has successfully won the Fortress Bible Church Discrimination lawsuit against Mr Feiner with a $6.5million dollar fine that Unincorporated taxpayers must pay! Ms Livson had hoped it would never come to this and always held hope that Mr Feiner would change his position. Since he would not, and armed with the facts, Ms Livson and her legal team went to court referencing a 2008 case which ruled in favor of the Committee on Open Government that email lists are Town records and must be disclosed!
 
One piece of evidence used in court was an email from March 3, 2014, from Town Clerk Judith Beville on behalf of other Town officials who wrongly denied Ms Livson’s FOIL request saying there was not a print or extraction function on the software that can reasonably create a list of email addresses. Ms Livson contacted the vendor who maintains the GBList, Cit-e-Net, and found out that pending Town approval, the list could in fact be printed and the email addresses supplied. Ms Livson again approached the Town Board with this new information only to have Mr Lewis fabricate new concerns and deny her appeal.

In the end, the judge dismissed most of the Town’s positions as either incorrect or not germane. Mr Lewis, the head of the legal department for the Town, did not cite the correct cases, did not address whether the GBList was a private list, and that concerns about sharing the list with Ms Livson were never invoked as reasons for the denial in court. Basically, the Town Supervisor, Attorney and Clerk were telling Ms Livson one thing and the court something else. 

The Town “leaders” routinely and arrogantly deny many people or groups access to information - unless you're in their golden circle. Ms Livson finally got through all of their illegal maneuverings because they forced her hand. She never wanted to have to go to court and always hoped the Town leaders would do the right thing. They would not - until now. Disappointingly, they will be forced by the court to do the right thing because they are being told they must. It’s a shame that Ms Livson had to go to court to be proven correct.

The Town has about a month to appeal the decision against them. ABG is convinced they will although this case has significant ramifications. While Mr Feiner will say he disagrees with the court’s ruling but will comply, it also opens up the path for civic associations, neighborhood groups and individuals to gain access where none has previously existed. Mr Feiner may put a line mentioning this decision in one of his daily email blasts to the 2,500 or so addresses he has. Ms Livson will now be able to add more than one line and help balance the arguments, discussions and information. This is yet another black eye for the Town of Greenburgh. It’s sad to see these leaders behaving badly. They must go. It’s the only way we'll get A Better Greenburgh.