Ohhhh, the Greenburg Family: as content creators, we must admit that they are fantastic muses when it comes to creating articles of interest, disgust, outrage, and general intrigue. But as Scottsdalians, we can’t help but be disgusted that they are still somewhat relevant.
We have spoken at length about former Scottsdale Unified School District Board President Jann-Michael Greenburg, who while still a board member was forced out as President after his father put together a disturbing dossier of information about perceived political enemies. And likewise we have talked quite a bit about Mark Greenburg, Jann-Michael’s father, who seems to be the ring-leader of the intrusive paranoia-driven snooping and who has a persona that could politely be described as abrasive and who many would describe as unnecessarily mean-spirited and vindictive.
They’re not going away, however; instead, Mark Greenburg is going on the offensive with a lawsuit against one of the mothers that he was collecting information on as part of his dossier, Amanda Wray. The complaint states that Wray falsely told journalists that he harassed, threatened and stalked her online, resulting in “unwarranted national and international attacks” on him.
Greenburg has a long history of using lawsuits quite liberally (and some would say, as a weapon): between counter-suing an SUSD member after he made a website apparently designed to look like it was hers but instead used to denigrate her, and a lawsuit against local activist Emily Austin after he ridiculously accused her of anti-Semitism, litigation sure does seem to be his weapon of choice. Indeed, his career seems to be currently revolving around business litigation in the musical industry. The business he owns, Tresona Multimedia, sued a literal choir director in an apparent attempt to cash in on the interest in the TV series “Glee”. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit.
While we can’t justify Jann-Michael’s participation in the snooping scandal, he generally seems to be a halfway reasonable person whose greatest sin is his inability to tell his father to back off. But like a helicopter parent who won’t let their child scrape their knees, shed a few tears and grow stronger through the process, his father seems dead-set to use his willingness to litigate to “help” his son. It’s like Lavar Ball attempting to steal the spotlight from his kids and becoming the story himself.
Jann-Michael Greenburg’s aspirations for higher office might be done after all of this. But since attempts at recalling him have failed, he’ll still have a vote in the SUSD Board for at least this year. We hope that he understands that while his father was able to open doors for him, that ultimately his temperament is a liability. And while a son having difficult conversations with a father is never easy, we hope that he gets the gumption to tell his father to stand down, and perhaps get a hobby that doesn’t include data collection and litigation.