Daley Court – Video and Documents

Finally I have processed the documents and video from the hearing last Tuesday. Video is below and the documents are at the bottom. You be the judge. I’ll be glad to answer questions through the comments section.

History shows that Mr. Horan reads this blog. Here is a challenge Mr. Horan, as Chairman of the Real Estate Acquisition & Disposition Committee, show me the law that WAS followed in the council’s disposition of the property because I have listed the law that I believe wasn’t.

Council Calls Public Hearing To Order
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Chair of Redevelopment Agency Speaks
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Developers Bill & Dan Speak
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Jon Searles (Me) Speaks
[blip.tv ?posts_id=2272018&dest=-1]

Mayor Currey Addresses Council
[blip.tv ?posts_id=2272025&dest=-1]

Council Debates and Passes Transfer and Sale Motions
[blip.tv ?posts_id=2272154&dest=-1]

** If any of the below documents give you an error please update your adobe reader to 6.1 or better or let me know about the problem so I can down convert the document for compatibility.**

Town Fact Sheet
State Response to EHRA Eminent Domain 06-18-2001
State Refusal to Authorize Property Sale – 2000
Sheldon Oak Central Windfall Profit
RFP 08-043
Redevelopment Minutes 02-27-03
Property Card 2009
Property Card 2003
Koteen Offer 12-02-2002
Karno Letter Pushing Koteen 06-21-2002
HUD H 08-08
Hud 202 Guidebook
Hovanec EHHA appraisal 09-08-2000
GIS Property Card 2009
EHHA to EHRA update on deal 12-05-2000
EHHA to EHRA on expedition of emminent domain 07-02-2002
EHHA EHRA Solicitation 03-22-2000
East Hartford Town Ordinances Chapter 10 – Finance & Taxation
CGS 8-137
CGS 8-24
Certificate of Taking – Eminent Domain – 08-13-2002
Sheldon Oak 2007 990
New Samaritan 2007 990
EHRDA vs Beatman Emminent Domain 06-14-1999
EHRDA vs Karabetsos Emminent Domain 04-20-2000
ToEH vs EHHA Emminent Domain 07-19-2002
Real Estate Acquisition & Disposition Committee FOI Appeal
Town Council Agendas Page 1
Town Council Agendas Page 2
Town Council Minutes
Town Council Subcommittees
Town Council Minutes 05-14
East Hartford Notices 04-15 to 05-11
East Hartford Notices 05-11 to 05-20

Mayor's budget passes unanimously almost unchanged.

The East Hartford Town Council voted unanimously this evening for the Mayor’s proposed budget with just a few changes, the details of which I’m unsure because I couldn’t figure out what Council Member Marcia was saying, or trying to.

Once again the best show awards go to Bill Horan and Rich Kehoe for presenting themselves in a manner becoming a Council Member during discussion of the budget with Bill pulling a bit ahead of Rich.My only complaint with Bill’s monologue was the suggestion that the Town Council would love to spend more money if we were in better economic times. I could have sworn it was the duty of the Town Council to exercise restraint every year, even the few which could be classified as flush in comparison to this.

There wasn’t any of  the heat that characterized last year’s budget meeting which provided little opportunity for embarrassment to anyone with the result being a very short meeting.

One odd bit came from Marcia’s comments after the budget was adopted when she read her speech, for lack of a better description. It sounded like she was commending the Council or Mayor for not neglecting maintenance items like rolling stock in the budget because such neglect would result in hardship down the line. Yet, unless it was in the part of Marcia’s budget motion which I couldn’t make out, the budget as proposed does indeed fail to fund maintenance items such as rolling stock.

The 2 million effectively put in escrow for the board of education also struck me as a false savings item. It was described that if state funding should fail to come through as expected the 2 million would be transferred to the Board of Education to make up the gap. What happens if the state does come through? Can we expect another elevator to the Mayor’s office? Maybe an escalator this time?

At the end of the day no tax increase is what the residents of East Hartford, myself included, needed and that’s what we got. While I am certain further cuts could have been made I’ll take this as a start that we can build on next year.

Video: Town Council – August 26th

The agenda for the council meeting Tuesday night was considerable and unfortunately I ran out of battery before the council ran out of agenda. The video of what I got is below. I believe I only got about 2 minutes through the adult ordinances discussion.

There were some very notable items on the agenda Tuesday.

Officer Todd Mona and his dog Primo were recognized for their receipt of the 2007 Daniel Wasson Memorial K-9 Award.

The EHPD K-9 Division was recognized for their accomplishments in placing 1st as well as receiving multiple best in show awards in the 2008 Canine Olympics.

The Allstars softball team received recognition for their second championship domination in a row. Councilman Weinberg expressed his excitement at this second win being proof that the first wasn’t a fluke.

The council also discussed and passed the adult ordinances as recommended by the ordinance committee. What was notable in the discussion was when Chairman Kehoe was describing why and what changes were made from the prior version which was spoken on at the public hearing. Although Councilman Horan spoke precisely as required in describing the purpose of the legislation, mitigation of secondary effects, Kehoe and Weinberg betrayed this purpose.

At one point Weinberg made a statement that although federal law (failing to realize it is the constitution not federal law which requires it, or not recognizing the difference in the two) requires us to permit adult businesses in town these ordinances are going to make them not want to come to town. In other words these ordinances are in his view intended to or will have the effect of causing someone who wishes to open or operate a protected adult business to censor their own speech by choosing not to do so. That is unconstitutional as well.

Kehoe in his explanation of the changes to the ordinances explained on multiple items how they were changed in this final version because their lawyer, Mr. Gerard, told them they were indefensible since they could not come up with any plausible way they would mitigate secondary effects. In short, Kehoe admitted through the words that lay between the lines that in drafting these ordinances the primary concern of the council was preventing adult businesses from operating in town with secondary effects being an after thought considered only for constitutional defense. Are these public betrayals of the intent and purpose statement which preface the ordinances enough to give Attorney Silver or Coleman some some rope to hang them with? That I don’t know. Let us hope not.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8509558925591775998&hl=en]

Marc Weinberg comments on citizen exclusion from fees committee.

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At tonights Tax Policy Committee meeting (entry on that topic to follow) Marc Weinberg was good enough to comment on my exclusion (and yours as a result) from the fees committee meeting on Wednesday the 23rd.

Audio is here.
[audio=http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/1/29/1728949/weinberg.mp3]

Taxpayers not allowed? How about Honest Abe?

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What the heck is going on with government transparency here?

Here’s the deal. The fee committee was meeting at 6:30 on Wednesday, an hour before the P&Z hearing. I thought I’d go, being a taxpayer and all, since I was there anyway.

Now I find it interesting that the official minutes list me as present when I was only able to enter the meeting through a misunderstanding of Marcia Leclerc and subsequently told I wasn’t welcome. The video below tells the story but here is a summary in any case.

Marcia Leclerc and Marc Weinberg were present in the town council minority office with Don Pitkin teleconferenced in. (Don was/is? recovering from illness.) I met a nice gentleman (Marc Nicol) in the hall who was there on behalf of Riverfront Recapture which manages our riverfront parks. He was giving a presentation on some new statues to be installed along the park and requesting a waiver of town fees for installation and planning. It appears that Marcia thought I was with him and so in an error of judgement (in her opinion) let me into the meeting. When she discovered I was not with Riverfront Recapture she informed me that I was only welcome for the presentation and not for the rest of the meeting which she said was closed.

Check the meeting minutes yourself. At no point was the meeting ever closed session.

I checked with other council members and commission members prior to the P&Z. They told me these meetings are always open to the public unless the committee enters executive session which they clearly didn’t. Why then did the Chair of the Fees Committee lie to me and tell me the meeting was closed session and refuse to allow me to remain? You decide, I think something stinks.

On a more positive note it seems that our riverfront park is scheduled to get a bunch of new statues depicting the life of Abraham Lincoln this spring/summer. The presentation, while having little to do with waiver of fees for the most part, was interesting and informative and makes up the majority of the video below. Check out the Lincoln Walk.

The part I like best is the cost to the taxpayers. $0, well except for the “up to $1,000″ in waived fees that Marcia didn’t want discussed while I was present.
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8834369510597247984]