Yorktown Councilman Was Wrong to Impugn Resident During Hearing
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Why did the Mar. 22 public hearing in Yorktown about solar farms morph into a false accusation of “prejudice” against a community member?
Ask Councilman Tom Diana for the answer because he chose to fabricate this slanderous allegation against a respected citizen without factual basis.
The issues being discussed were tree removal and the adequacy of mitigation proposals for future solar projects. A speaker commented about the history of tree removal problems at a local gas station to illustrate the dangers of improper mitigation and lack of enforcement by the town.
Instead of acknowledging and providing future solutions to these valid tree mitigation issues, Councilman Diana chose to make a false accusation of prejudice by this citizen against the gas station owner. Mr. Diana then went on a vigorous diatribe in defense of the gas station owner. The citizen categorically denied knowing anything about the background of the gas station owner, but Mr. Diana never apologized for the disgusting accusation.
There is no evidence, whatsoever, in the public record, going back to October 2015 of any speaker exhibiting prejudice against the background of the gas station owner, including the person whom Mr. Diana accused. Mr. Diana created an issue of prejudice where none existed.
Councilman Diana’s accusations of prejudice are especially disingenuous and hypocritical given his past silence regarding the distribution of racist flyers against fellow councilmembers in 2017, Holocaust/Nazi trivialization under former supervisor Michael Grace’s tenure and racist comments against two former councilmembers. That doesn’t include Mr. Diana’s personal online posts that have since been deleted.
Councilman Diana should provide evidence for his accusations or publicly apologize to the community member that was defamed by his irresponsible accusation. The Town Board represents all the citizens of Yorktown and should not be acting as cheerleaders for businesses, at the expense of slandering citizens.
Miriam D. Messing Curtin
Yorktown
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