Recently on social media, I saw that Brian Dunning again posted an article that accused the Board of Trustees and mayor of Munsey Park of refusing to let people speak at a meeting.
I was at that referenced meeting and nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, this was the second meeting regarding a proposed walkway to Munsey Park Elementary School.
At the first (where I was also present), Mr. Dunning railed against the proposed walkway for the better part of an hour because he felt traffic might be increased on his street during drop off and pick up.
At the second meeting, after an hour of open discussion on the issue, Mr. Dunning again filibustered that “the walkway was a solution without a problem.” The Mayor had to restore order to the meeting and move on.
For Mr. Dunning to continue to circulate a false article instead of correcting it, is despicable. More notably, the proposed candidates seeking positions with the village have spent the better of the last four years rejecting, complaining and arguing about every possible option that could and should keep our children safe.
The school, church, elected officials and the village have all come together to create solutions to maintain the safety of our community, yet this opposition from Mr. Dunning and his cohorts continue to halt these noble efforts.
How are they fit to run for a position that is so oppositional to the best interests of the people they would be tasked to represent?
They should not only be denied a voice going forth, they should be denied everyone’s vote on March 20.
The existing team of Noone, Sabino and Turano have my unequivocal vote!
Matthew Fulgieri
Munsey Park
Mr. Fulgieri’s letter is a curious one. For one thing, his description of a meeting where I and others were silenced differs substantially from those of reporters from Newsday, the Manhasset Press and this newspaper, all of who wrote, not about the “behavior” of the public, but rather the behavior of the Board in silencing speakers. What is more, while I certainly asked many very direct questions about the project and did conclude that it seemed to be a “solution in search of a problem”, I was driven to do so not by animus toward this Board but rather a concern that the walkway would cause my street, Sargent Place, to become a new entrance for the Munsey Park School and create traffic issues our street was not designed to sustain. I did not hold the floor for an hour and I did not “rail.” I would remind Mr. Fulgieri that the Mayor remarked to the public after silencing me that I do not care if other people’s children are killed because my children do not attend the Munsey Park School. That, Mr. Fulgieri, is despicable. Nothing I asked or said at the meeting in question even comes close to this abject calumny.
As for opposing everything this Board has done for the past four years, I would ask Mr. Fulgieri to identify any public record of this. I can tell you he will not find it. In 16 years I have attended fewer than ten meetings, and then only to learn or ask questions about specific issues, like the Mayor’s attempt to promote his relative or the construction of a walkway to Munsey Park School. I do not in fact oppose everything the Board has done over the past four years. I am not opposed to fixing streets, for example, or parks. I do however oppose their failure to comply with the Open Meetings Law, their nepotism and cronyism, their consistently rude treatment of residents, which has been widely reported to me as I campaign this year, and their spending of money on a frivolous lawsuit.