Today at 5pm: Town to vote to thwart Edgemont’s right to incorporate.

Here he goes again.

In what has become an almost-annual tradition, Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner is again trying to take away his constituents’ rights. This time, Feiner is directly asking the Town Board to request that the State legislature enact a law denying our right to vote on becoming a village.

The meeting, scheduled for 5pm today, was announced last night with little notification. We ask you to attend. Here’s why: 

Feiner’s move is reminiscent of Father’s Day, 2017 (click for a video of Edgemont’s response), when Feiner scheduled a meeting hoping no one would show up to request legislative changes that would only apply to village incorporations in Greenburgh. 

What’s at stake? Under New York law, residents of a smaller area within a larger town have the right to form their own village by a referendum of the residents within the area of the proposed village. Hundreds of villages in New York have been formed this way. There are six villages within Greenburgh itself whose existence is uncontroversial.

The village law is an essential part of New York’s system of checks and balances: If a town government does not adequately protect the interests of its citizens, they can protect themselves by forming a village and governing themselves.

Feiner, with the help of NYS Assemblyperson Tom Abinanti (who is being challenged by County Legislator Mary Jane Shimsky), wants to turn the law upside-down. Abinanti recently had the election district lines redrawn so Edgemont couldn’t hurt his chances of re-election. As a result, he no longer represents Edgemont (Amy Paulin is our new Assemblyperson). Yet, Abinanti is still pushing to thwart our efforts to vote on incorporation (click here for the bill).

Feiner and Abinanti would require that any new village in Greenburgh only be approved by a vote of the entire Town. But of course, that makes no sense. After all, if the residents’ interests were aligned with those of the Town, they wouldn’t need to form a village in the first place.

At this time, we don’t know if the meeting will be held in person or on Zoom today at 5pm, but we will update when we confirm the format. We encourage residents to attend the meeting to express opposition to yet another chapter in the Town’s six-year campaign to stop Edgemont from voting on its preferred form of self-governance. 

– The EIC