It’s ironic that the four residents quoted in the article Residents speak out on lack of public input during Village of Great Neck meetings are actually recorded on the video of the Board of Trustees meeting provided by the village. Those quoted malign the mayor over his lack of transparency and speak falsely about a “gag order.” Yet, the video shows they each exceeded their 3-minute time limit, some of them speaking multiple times.
Unfortunately, there is a small group of people who often hijack these meetings by injecting their comments and arguing throughout the meetings, preventing all agenda items from being heard and providing little constructive input.
Watch the video https://youtu.be/oqFbRI3vNbU after the 2:51 mark – you will see that there was plenty of public comment.
Another preposterous allegation of one of the residents quoted is that when the public’s comments are registered it is too late for any serious revision of any project to be made. This could not be further from the truth.
She made her public comments at this meeting and the last meeting. This is one of the few municipalities that have a board that does listen. This resident administers a Great Neck Facebook group that regularly smears and misstates many of the village’s initiatives and has a clear bias against this Village government.
Listening to the small group of ill-informed but oft-quoted naysayers narrows all the thinking in this Village to what a select few unelected individuals care to think and disseminate to others.
Many of the rude interruptions that occur during these meetings are at the hand of these self-appointed radicals. They complain about the process, and when that process is followed to a tee, they argue that it has not been followed.
The people quoted in the article don’t represent the thinking of the residents of our great Village, even though they may think they do.
Facts matter, and if this publication had any sense of journalistic integrity, it would check the video before spreading falsehoods spoken in bad faith.
Dr. Joshua Ishal
Great Neck
