Showing posts with label FOIL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FOIL. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 29, 2025

F.O.I.L.ed Once, Overtaxed Everytime

My property taxes went up again this year, and instead of fleeing (just yet), I decided to fight. To understand how assessments are calculated, I filed a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request this past August. I asked for three things: the raw data used to generate assessments, the modeling methodologies, and whether the modeling is conducted in-house or outsourced. What followed was a months-long bureaucratic obstacle course. First, I was told the request would take up to eight months to fulfill. Then I was informed I would need to pay $376 for 1,500 printed pages. Only after pushing back and citing the law was I permitted to bring in a thumb drive and receive the 1,500 pages electronically. To decipher what I received will require spending an entire weekend (at least) parsing the documents through ChatGPT, then manually verifying every interpretation. Fellow citizens, that’s not transparency. That’s obstruction. And it’s what compelled me to attend a recent Civic Association meeting featuring Greenburgh’s longtime town assessor, Edye McCarthy, as guest speaker. I was hoping for clarity and, instead, found deeper cause for concern.

One would think that a large—curious if not angry—crowd would have been in attendance. Instead, the meeting featured two obsequious moderators, a single town board member (Francis Sheehan), and twelve residents. And yet, what unfolded offered a revealing glimpse into a deeply flawed property tax system that affects thousands of homeowners. The assessor, who has held her role for nearly four decades, gave a well-rehearsed presentation, painting a picture of professionalism and fairness. She detailed her team’s use of the CAMA system—Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal—to determine the value of homes based on dozens of parameters. Their findings, she then explained, are verified externally by (unnamed) third parties. But when the floor opened for questions, it became clear that behind the veneer of precision lies something far foggier.

I asked Ms. McCarthy why the assessed values in Hartsdale continue to rise despite a stagnant housing market. According to broker-reported sales activity, the average sales price in 2025 remained virtually flat compared to 2024 ($946,412 vs. $942,828), while the median price declined. Yet the 2025 Market Trend Map on the assessor’s site shows every neighborhood in “growth mode.” So even though her office implies to have access to current data—albeit questionably sourced or interpreted—her answer to my question was that assessments are based not on current-year sales, but on sales from up to two years prior. In other words, 2025 property taxes are pegged to values from 2023. This introduces an automatic lag into the system that all but guarantees upward drift. When the market softens, residents are still taxed at inflated rates until the lag eventually—if ever—catches up.

Even more revealing was her admission that there simply aren’t enough annual sales to support a valid statistical model in certain parts of town. Hartsdale had just 70 single-family home sales in 2023, 74 in 2024, and 22 so far in 2025 (likely due to incomplete data). Statistically speaking, these are paper-thin samples—nowhere near the scale needed to build robust, predictive models with meaningful p-values or confidence intervals. The assessor conceded this point, adding that in such cases, the science stops, and the “art” begins. This art, as she described it, involves her team stepping in to manually adjust values when the model falls short. Sometimes it’s based on neighborhood buzz—“things I hear,” she said. Other times it reflects broad judgments about desirability. For example, she noted that swimming pools didn’t used to be worth much but now “add a lot of value.” These judgments are not always integrated into the modeling software; they’re done by hand, by a team that now works year-round addressing grievances—because they are running a subjective and error-prone process rather than a neutral, data-driven one. This is how even homes like my parents’—which have not undergone a single renovation in 30 years—still see regular tax increases. If the average is based on lagging data, fragile models, and discretionary tweaks, and if most homes are nudged upward, then nearly everyone ends up paying more.

There are additional inequities that should concern all residents of unincorporated Greenburgh. The town assessor confirmed that a disproportionate share of the Town’s tax-exempt properties—such as religious institutions, public facilities, and other nonprofits—is concentrated in unincorporated Greenburgh. These properties are exempt from paying taxes, yet they still rely on municipal services funded by the rest of us. We are carrying this load—without any compensatory relief. To make matters worse, certain neighborhoods within unincorporated Greenburgh have never received meaningful remediation for chronic flood zones, rendering some homes effectively unsellable. These properties lose market value, yet continue to be taxed as if the flood risk doesn’t exist. And I won’t even get into school taxes—except to say that they increase every year, with no accountability. Thanks to the perennial decisions of the Board of Education, our tax burden continues to climb, even as the chronically under-performing Greenburgh Central School District further drags down property values. In short, we pay more and get less—less equity, less transparency, and less return on our community investment.

There is a larger sociological problem here. The town’s tax system, as it currently functions, is killing the host. Longtime residents are not selling their homes. They are not realizing the supposed gains in value that rising assessments assume. But they are being taxed on those paper gains just the same. Seniors and working families alike are being squeezed by a process that is inconsistent, and largely immune to scrutiny. Official inflation for 2025 is around 3%, but the U.S. dollar has also weakened by 10% against foreign currencies, raising the price of imported goods. Meanwhile, local wages are mostly flat, while housing costs—prices, taxes and mortgage rates—climb.

And all of this is happening under the watch of a single assessor who has been in office for 37 years and a town supervisor who is once again running unopposed. There is no check on this system. No rotation of oversight. Just a bureaucratic machine that lumbers on, adjusting its numbers by ear and squeezing ever more from residents—residents who are left with no choice but to comply or leave. It is time to demand more. Not just transparency, but reform. Not just models, but fairness. Not just polite meetings with twelve attendees—but real civic engagement.

— Tanya Dragic 

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Former Frank’s Nursery Finally Sold

It was announced by Mr Feiner, in conjunction with the daily newspaper of record for Westchester County, that Greenburgh town officials finalized the $3.5 million sale of the old Frank's Nursery property. He also touted the future opening for a new assisted living facility at the site. Having lost his battle to develop Dobbs Ferry Road into a sports corridor, his carefully worded explanation avoided all hints of the calamity he created with the property.

The 7-acre property on Dobbs Ferry Road had been vacant since the nursery shut down. In 2011, the town foreclosed on the property and took possession. From that point on, Mr Feiner made the property a political football. The property was required by County and State law to be sold as municipalities cannot be landlords. What Mr Feiner tried to do was “gift” the property to his new friends from GameOn 365. So egregious and offensive was this move, it forced residents to organize and form the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association!

He said, “It’s significant because now, for the first time, it’s not town property and it’s back on the tax rolls. The construction of the assisted living facility will start. They’ll start with the remediation of the contaminants.” The remediation was promised by Town Attorney and pseudo-environmental expert Tim Lewis to cost no more than $100k to remediate. And, while Mr Feiner was trying to illegally lease the property to GameOn 365, he had insisted the Town would pay for remediation. In actuality, the Town will be responsible for $1,899,283 million of the cleanup.

During the entire time of this bad behavior by Mr Feiner, he enraged the group of people he should have been representing! Instead, he created a tug of war with the area civic associations and taxpayers for the sole benefit of an out-of-state for-profit company. During this time, secret emails between Mr Feiner and his friends at GameOn 365 were uncovered. One damning statement from GameOn 365 to Mr Feiner was that they should stop the email communications and only discuss things by phone as emails are subject to F.O.I.L. requests and phone conversations are not. They did just that!

After a proposal for a sports and recreation facility fell through, the town reached a deal in 2015 with Capitol Seniors Housing for an assisted living facility. That deal was finalized Thursday with the closing of the sale. The sports facility proposal didn’t “fall through” as Mr Feiner wants the uninitiated to believe. The proposal was out and out rejected by all the residents in the area! Once Mr Feiner and his Board ignored the property beyond 6-months, during which point he could have legally given it away, it reverted back to residential zoning. Since the adjacent residents have a right of refusal, they did just that. As Mr Feiner scrambled to meet with residents individually and in small groups to persuade them to acquiesce and support the GameOn 365 proposal, they stood united!

Mr Feiner said the new facility is expected to generate $500,000 in property taxes. But he doesn’t say if that is yearly, as a lump sum from the sale or how he’s come up with that figure. He routinely throws out figures without corroboration, validation or proof, hoping for the sensational and unsubstantiated reproduction in print newspapers. He also said, "I think it’s going to be a big asset to the town having an assisted living facility at that location. The neighborhood supported it.”

Actually, the neighborhood did and does support it. All along they insisted that the only proposal that could be acceptable at that site was residential housing. He even tried to propose other commercial activities at that location. The civic associations saw what he was trying do. If they said yes to that proposal he could use that to make the argument that there is no difference from placing one type of business over another at that location. The civic associations remained steadfast and eventually won out! It’s this kind of civic involvement that makes for A Better Greenburgh.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

The Propaganda Scramble

Now that Mr Feiner has alienated his loyal base of Village residents via the revaluation, said to have been handled ineptly by Tyler Technologies, he is scrambling to validate the increased taxes the Villagers will be paying in their next tax bill. But is it enough? This same voting base were his guaranteed votes that would routinely put him back into office year after year.

The Jefferson project proposed at the Ardsley and Dobbs Ferry border between Rt 9A and the Saw Mill River Parkway is just one example. He has rallied against it. Why? We believe he did so because it would increase his school taxes. As you may know, about 60% of your property taxes is school taxes. He also did this on behalf of Ardsley resident and Greenburgh Town Board member Diana Juettner. He did the same thing against an assisted living facility proposed in North Elmsford’s Payne Street area. The location is in the backyard of Greenburgh Town Board member Kevin Morgan. He’s also fought the Yonkers development of a big box store in his own back yard as part of the Stew Leonard’s property expansion claiming traffic concerns. When Greenburgh residents have the same concerns about projects in their neighborhoods, they are summarily dismissed and told to suck it up. Can you say Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY)? Meanwhile, they routinely tell all of us how good this is for the Town, the neighborhoods, the residents, etc. Ultimately, it is not.

Roll Camera. In spewing his “what we’ve done for you lately” propaganda, there are some truths but also a great deal of unsubstantiated showmanship. First, he makes sure that someone else is to blame by saying the Villages are part of the Town because of state law. Second, he provides a breakdown of the taxes Villagers pay, claiming only 2% of their entire tax bill goes to the Town services. Again, according to him 60% goes to school tax, which the Town is obligated to collect. The rest of his tax collection speech is him doing the Feiner vamp, saying nothing and  proving politicians can speak without saying anything. Stop camera.

He says:

What does the town do for the 2% of your entire tax bill? ABG provides a closer to the truth answer to each point.

1. We offer advance life support (ALS) and paramedic services which has a proven record of repeatedly saving the lives of village residents. Hopefully, you won't need them, but if you do these services are ready to respond to your call 24 hours a day.

Real Answer: They do provide this. However, the Villages pay the Town for this service. What he doesn’t mention is that the Village Ambulance Corps augment the Greenburgh ambulances by responding to Greenburgh calls when requested through Mutual Aid. And while Greenburgh is the “owner” of the call and bills for its services, they do not share any of those monies collected with the ambulance corp or fire department ambulances they used.

2. The town's town wide senior program serves or delivers over 30,000 meals to village seniors each year. The program provides a hot meal five days a week to eligible seniors. We have three nutrition sites - in Dobbs Ferry, Tarrytown and unincorporated Greenburgh. Our home delivery program provides delivery services to seniors who cannot come to one of these sites.  

Real Answer: Mr Feiner habitually throws out numbers hoping some of them will “stick”. Sadly, while he is telling you they deliver 30,000 meals to village seniors, we know it's simply not true. No matter how we did the math, there seems to be about 120 seniors out of about 92,000 total residents who are are getting meals from the Town. And there is no informational breakdown available between Town and Village recipients.

3. The town has a recreation program for developmentally disabled residents.

Real Answer: This may be, but we could find nothing about this on the Town website.
4. The town's animal control department responds to calls for service within the villages. If there is a stray or injured animal the animal control unit will respond. We transport the animals to an appropriate medical facility for care.

Real Answer: This is sort of true. Animal Control is only available between 9 to 5, if the animal control people are available/working. By the way, they won't take every type of animal.
5. The town's civil defense unit provides civil defense services during natural disasters and other major events, such as post 9/11 and during blackouts. These services include coordination of communications for police, fire, paramedics and refilling of air packs and fresh air for specialized rescues. The unit also responds to refill the air tanks of village volunteer firefighters during fires.

Real Answer: While we applaud the work performed by the Civil Defense, this is an extremely small group of volunteers without the personnel necessary to do a lot during an emergency. In fact, they are augmented by the Town's C.E.R.T. group. They DO go to fire scenes and fill air tanks for any firefighters who request them. The paid fire departments have their own systems and don't utilize them. In fact, there's a move now by the paid departments to replace all of their air packs which will require that they purchase new refilling systems. If they didn't use the Civil Defense's system for free, they could go to the Westchester County Fire Training Center in Valhalla and refill their air tanks there 24-7-365 at no charge.

6. The town's highly trained and specially equipped special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team is available 24/7 to respond to emergencies. Officers from throughout the town who meet very rigorous standards are readily available to respond to emergencies in the villages.

Real Answer: This is true. The Town's special operations groups are comprised of the paid fire department members and the police department members and require overtime that the taxpayer must pay. Once dispatched, their positions are required to be "backfilled" by off-duty members. This is mostly billed as overtime to the taxpayers. The County has the same special operations teams that can be called out at a moments notice and at no charge to the community and have much more resources available to them.
7. The town's road striping unit is responsible for striping roads, including the center and side lines and crosswalks on roads in all six villages.

Real Answer: While valuable, we're guessing this is not vital. What is vital is to have more police officers on the road, patrolling our communities.

8. The town acts as a collection agent for the schools and county. The town guarantees 100% of the taxes to both entities. If you do not pay your school or county tax bill the town pays it for you. The town then has to use its offices to pursue collection of all unpaid taxes.

Real Answer: This is true, the Town is obligated by law to collect these monies. They don't do because they want to help the Villages out.

9. The Town Clerk
• Responds to FOIL requests from residents town-wide; and provides…

Real Answer: All government agencies are required to respond to FOIL requests. The Town of Greenburgh seems to take an inordinate amount of time fulfilling this obligation while other communities seem to do this more quickly and at less cost to the taxpayers.

• dog licenses to residents, town-wide;

• marriage licenses to residents, town-wide; New York State Licenses: Fishing, Hunting, Handicap Parking Permits;

• Town of Greenburgh Licenses: Cabaret, Canvassing/Peddlers & Solicitors, Filming, Sanitation (private), Taxicab and Taxi Driver;

• Senior Citizen Rent Abatement Program (ETPA) for qualified town residents;

• Management of all vital records (marriages and deaths) that occur in the Town of Greenburgh;

• Sales Tax Letters to residents and businesses for correct Sales Tax amount for the town; and several other miscellaneous services.

Real Answer: While all of this is true, it's our understanding that these services take up a miniscule part of the Clerk's office time and frankly, that's their job, regardless of the Villages' usage of it or not.
10. The Town's Sewer Department responds to calls for service from the villages for sewer emergencies 24/7, which require the use of The Town’s jet/vac truck and operator.

Real Answer: While it is available, our understanding is that it is not used that often.
Because the Theodore Young Community Center was paid for with federal and state tax dollars, residents of the villages have the ability to use the indoor pool at the Theodore Young Community center and to participate in their programs.

Real Answer: While true, most people are unaware of the center because of where it is and if they are aware of it, find there is very little time available to use it because there are daily programs already filling their burgeoning calendar.

The above are some highlights representing the services offered to village residents. I hope this information answers some questions. Feel free to contact me with any further questions.

Real Answer: While these services may be available to the Villages, it hardly justifies the significant tax increase revaluation is placing on many residents. This is pure Feiner Deflection, changing the subject from the original discussion to something unrelated. It has to stop. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Sustainable Westchester Executive Director Out


In 2014, a town resident, filed a Freedom Of Information Law (FOIL) request for the Town’s GBList. The GBList is the Town of Greenburgh’s E-Mail list that Mr Feiner and his Board use at their discretion for whatever they deem appropriate. The resident’s argument, made in court and agreed to by the courts with their verdict, found that the request to be able to tell “the other side” of the story that Mr Feiner was telling was a reasonable one. However, even after being told to turn over the coveted email list, he refused. The legal department scrambled and filed an appeal at the eleventh hour. So, now the resident is forced to wait even longer.

Mr Feiner has posted jobs that he learns about on a private site he maintains. Another way to garner email addresses is for those out of work people to sign up. He doesn’t screen the positions, he doesn’t get paid for sending candidates, qualified or not, and he doesn’t guarantee your success. What he does guarantee is the growth of his contact list, including email addresses! His real fear with releasing the GBList is that he will be called out when he says something that is not true - which at times is often.

In a recent “post” for a position, really a self-promotion campaign for name recognition, he sent out the position of Executive Director for Sustainable Westchester. Below is the opening portion of the blurb that goes with the job description. We’re not posting it because we don’t want your email information, and have no ulterior motive. If you think you are executive director material and the position may be for you, click on the link below and get the entire picture. 

Executive Director
Sustainable Westchester
Sustainable Westchester, a not-for-profit organization, is a membership-based consortium of municipalities that addresses critical sustainability concerns within Westchester County. Formed from the merger of the Northern and Southern Westchester Energy Action consortia in 2014, Sustainable Westchester’s membership has rapidly expanded to include the membership of virtually every municipality in Westchester County and now serves more than 900,000 residents.
The organization provides a forum for communities to share ideas, develop programs and procedures, and formulate effective responses to important sustainability-related opportunities. It convenes and provides support to individuals in member municipalities through volunteer-led Working Groups. Presently there are four Working Groups: Land Use/Transportation, Energy, Materials Management, and Water.  The Working Groups set the strategic direction for initiatives in these areas based on the needs and opportunities presented to the member municipalities.   Website: http://sustainablewestchester.org/

We’re not sure why the previous Executive Director of Sustainable is no longer in that position. Could it be that he didn’t move the process along quickly enough for their Board of Directors and they gave him “the boot”? It reminds us of Westhab in Fulton Park. Their Vice President of Real Estate had sealed the deal with Mr Feiner and his Board and then hit all kinds of roadblocks from the neighborhood associations when the neighborhood associations actually did better research on the zoning, covenants, etc., than Westhab did, causing an over two year delay and significant reduction in the size of their project! Could it also be that due to the delay, the lower cost of fossil fuels and the lack of return once proffered by ESCO’s that Sustainable Westchester is not the Golden Goose it once was thought to be? ABG thinks so.

Below is a letter written by the Mayor of Scarsdale that appeared in the latest edition of the Scarsdale Inquirer about questions surrounding Sustainable Westchester. There are other communities as well who did not drink the KoolAid and go along with this. Rather, they asked the hard questions, studied the facts and made an informed decision with their community. This is the way government should work. When it does so in our Town, we'll finally get A Better Greenburgh.




Saturday, November 8, 2014

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.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Feiner Admits To Altering Official Town Recording

Many residents have a love/hate relationship with Greenburgh. On the one hand, we love being proven right. On the other hand, we hate being proven right. Mr Feiner has openly admitted on the website called "Greenburgh Update" that he "just posted an unedited tape" of the Town Board meeting recording. You'll recall we exposed and published what we believed to be was a doctored recording after discovering the deletion of the negative comments made about Mr Feiner by former Town Supervisor candidate and opponent, Robert Bernstein. As seen in the screen capture admission of his post below, Mr Feiner states:





Note: Whenever we catch Mr Feiner in a lie, he'll routinely say what we've uncovered and exposed is not true.

Numerous individuals contacted ABG after we first broke the story about the edited version of Mr Bernstein's public comments. They were wondering if this could be a technical "glitch" or was actually done on purpose? Our rationale was since this has happened before, we were not as forgiving and believed it to be on purpose. By whom? That's the million dollar question. It certainly could have been a glitch. But with our Town Board openly lying to residents, routinely doing back room deals with developers and keeping residents in the dark on so many issues, is it any wonder we're skeptical?

You'll recall a short time back that approximately fifteen or so minutes of Commissioner William Carter's discussion of the Theodore Young Community Center (TYCC) budget were deleted after Mr Carter made an unintended comment about the Lanza Foundation being Mr Feiner's "Golden Goose". While the comment wasn't that derogatory or intended as an insult, deleting the Carter portion of the recording was worse than leaving it uncensored and risk the Lanza's viewing it. After the G10 created an uproar about it, the Town replaced the edited recording with the unedited version. We believe the same thing is happening here.

During the last Town Board meeting, held on a Tuesday instead of the normal Wednesday night, much was said by the public about the altering of Mr Bernstein's public comments in the Town's official video record of the meeting. ABG staffers continued the debate that if the recording was edited, what were those who authorized or did the editing thought the benefit might be? Town Clerk Judith Beville insisted an internal investigation by SwagIt proved that the error had been on their part. ABG has FOILed the report from SwagIt. But from what we heard Ms Beville read at the Town Board meeting, it seems far from over. 

The Town Board meeting seemed contentious as the public wasn't buying what Ms Beville was feeding them. She insisted that the investigation and the matter is considered closed, reading excerpts from the report as Mr Feiner hastily moved to adjourn the meeting while she spoke. As we have all witnessed before with our government officials, they deny everything when caught and as more information is uncovered and the truth eventually surfaces, they begin to change their tune. Will the truth win out? Is Ms Beville hiding something? It'll be hard to find out the truth, after all, this is Greenburgh. We'll forge on and hope to uncover what happened. Until then, resident/taxpayers must remain diligent, involved and critical of what is taking place in our Town. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.