Anti-incorporation people are now suing Paul Feiner over the petition, too. (Wait... what?)
A new Article 78 lawsuit against Paul Feiner for the rejection of the incorporation petition was recently discovered. The plaintiff is the newly famous Don Siegel. See here for the lawsuit: http://bit.ly/2ulCzFA.
If you read the case, you'll find that Don Siegel, despite having raised objections of his own during the petition hearing process, is suing Paul Feiner for rejecting the petition for the wrong reasons. He claims Paul Feiner should reject the petition because he believes, among other things, that the pages were not fastened together properly. This lawsuit was filed without notice to the EIC, so it's possible Don Siegel's lawyers (who didn't even spell Don Siegel's name right) didn't want the EIC to be aware of this other suit.
Had the EIC remained aware of this Article 78 and if Paul Feiner failed to defend himself or lost this Article 78 to Don Siegel, the courts could potentially uphold Feiner’s rejection of the petition even if the EIC wins its Article 78. That’s because Don Siegel introduced new reasons that the EIC didn't have the opportunity to contest in court.
Simply stated, Don Siegel is taking an action here that would effectively put the control of the rejection of the petition back in Paul Feiner's hands if Paul Feiner fails to defend himself properly. It's a neat trick employed previously by the Town.
Fortunately, we did learn of the Siegel suit. The EIC can and will intervene as a “necessary party,” which means that the Siegel Article 78 can’t be decided without the EIC being a party to it. We would also seek to have Siegel’s case transferred and consolidated to our existing case, which in turn would simply add his objection to the existing objections (all of which we believe are without merit).
Oh, yeah, and the lawyer that can't spell the name of the guy who hired him is the same outside lawyer the Town has been using for years (see here: http://bit.ly/2sBHbpm). He was hired again for $25K for a case that has been dormant since 2012 (see here: http://bit.ly/2swdNW6) not 24 hours AFTER Paul Feiner was served with this lawsuit from Don Siegel. The Town also hired another law firm on the same day to handle that same dormant case for another $25K.
We would love to get more information from the Town on why 1) they chose to hire a lawyer that is suing them; 2) they needed two lawyers for the same suit; and 3) suddenly this suit has resurfaced after five years of inactivity. Freedom of Information Laws (FOIL) were enacted precisely to bring transparency to government processes and actions, but Town Attorney Tim Lewis apparently has other ideas. He has suggested that we sue him for FOIL-able documents if we wish. Hopefully, the Town will be more forthcoming with answers here to provide the transparency and open government that taxpayers and voters deserve.
Happy July 4th. Let freedom ring across the U.S.A. and in the Town of Greenburgh.
