Reproduced with permission of The Scarsdale Inquirer.

© 2004 S.I. Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Published in The Scarsdale Inquirer on Friday, October 8, 2004

By LAURIE SULLIVAN

Paul Feiner's campaign contributions, which have been front-page news for the last several weeks, are once again commanding attention, this time from the Edgemont Community Council.

In an unusual move, the ECC unanimously passed a resolution at its Oct. 4 meeting to send a letter to Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro asking her to investigate campaign contributions given to the town supervisor from lawyers and developers with applications pending before the town.

The letter was approved by ECC directors and signed by ECC president Michelle McNally.

McNally, who was recently named president of ECC after the sudden death of David Kreiness, raised the issue of the questionable donations with board members at Monday's meeting. "Something like this can create a sense of mistrust and the question that was posed was how do we want to respond to this. These articles [in the newspapers] certainly have raised questions and the ECC certainly does not have the expertise or background to respond to this," said McNally. "Rather than let this fester, we thought that the best way to put closure on this was to ask the D.A. to investigate this. The D.A. brings an expertise and objectivity to this matter and will provide a determination for the public."

The letter asked Pirro's office to "open a formal investigation to determine whether any laws were broken in connection with certain campaign contributions received by Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner. Our vote was 14 in favor with two abstentions." ECC board members were each sent a copy of the letter for approval before it was sent to Pirro's office.

McNally noted in her' letter that the resolution was passed after reports in The Scarsdale Inquirer and elsewhere described "a series of political contributions to Mr. Feiner during the first six months of the year by persons with applications pending before the town or by lawyers representing such persons."

In closing, McNally said that regardless of what the town's ethics board may conclude, "We believe the community also has the right to know from its law enforcement officials whether any laws are or were being broken here. Responsibility for determining whether there is evidence of corruption or influence peddling at the municipal level rests with the office of the district attorney." The ECC president concludes her letter by asking Pirro to immediately open an investigation.

"The original idea was to send a resolution to Paul Feiner to ask him to return the campaign contributions. I said if you really want to get their attention, send a letter to Jeanine Pirro," said former school board president Robin Schaffer, a director of ECC. "I said it would make a lot of sense to go outside of the town, since the ethics board is appointed by Paul. I don't believe an ethics board appointed by the supervisor is a neutral body." Schaffer added that Feiner would not have taken a resolution from ECC seriously.

Feiner promised more than three weeks ago to write to the ethics board for an opinion on two controversial campaign contributions made earlier this year, one by Michael D'Alessio, developer of 42 Round Hill Road, Edgemont, and the other by Ruth Roth, attorney for Castle Walk, Edgemont. At press time Feiner had yet to send the letter. D'Alessio had an application before the town at the time of his $1,000 donation to Friends of Feiner; Roth and her law partner each contributed $250 to Feiner while she represented the builders of Castle Walk, which sought a three-lot subdivision, including a flag lot vehemently opposed by Edgemont neighbors. In a Sept. 24 Inquirer article, several more questionable campaign contributions which overlapped with pending applications was discussed in detail. -

The Edgemont Community Council is an umbrella civic organization that represents all eight civic associations within Edgemont.

Numerous calls and e-mails to Feiner by the Inquirer to respond to ECC's action were unretumed.