Dear Members of the Common Council:

We are sending this request just to you. . .and not the Mayor and other City Staff employees.

The August 7th email to you from Carry Kyzivat deserves your full attention. . .and serious consideration as there a lot of residents of White Plains like Carry and ourselves questioning the transparency and honesty of the City’s “FASNY review process”.

As Council members we admire your public service and the toll your part-time commitment takes on your professions, family and personal time.

We imagine the FASNY submissions have been particularly difficult because there have been so many pages of documents and resultant changes along the way. . . that we realize some of you may not have studied all the FASNY documents to the extent some of us residents have.  So Carry’s question of who is helping and advising you is critical.

If the answer is no one is helping and advising you and you are reading all of the submissions yourself. . .then you, like us, are aware of all the FASNY misinformation, inaccuracies and misdirections that we have encountered so far.

Reviewing the FASNY documents is like the game we used to play with our children “Where’s Waldo” except with the FASNY submissions when we search and find information. . .it always ends up to be misinformation.

In the opinion of many this whole FASNY review process has been “flawed”. . .and it leads us to wonder:

Who is giving the Council legal opinion that the review process you are following, including not asking questions. . .is right according to the law?

Could those giving you input be interpreting the law incorrectly or could there be other interpretations?

Are City Staff and outside consultants covered by the City ethics codes?  Does the City have Ethic codes?

The reason we ask is that we have been looking at WP regulations. . .and will report our findings to you in future emails. . .however we can tell you now. . .nothing in the WP regulations we found supports approving this FASNY project. . .and common sense would tell most of you that this project does not fit with any residential neighborhood in WP.

Even searching our memory of past Common Council reviews of major developer projects in WP. . .showed Council members have in fact asked many good questions. . .so who advised you to stay silent with the FASNY project before you?

Something strange is going on in our City. . .where this FASNY project, which is not supported by residents or WP regulations, is moving along with the Common Council, by your silence, participating in the process.  Is it possible for innocent Council members to be tainted by this review process?

Even if you have not made up your mind yet on the FASNY project. . .you have to admit the “review process” is flawed….

And if so should you take action right now. . .so as the “FASNY review process” continues at the least it is honest and transparent?

We report. . .you decide.

Marie and Ron Rhodes

P.S.  In line with our comments above. . . .If anyone past or present has told the Common Council that you have to grant a Special Permit to a school. . .they really should have said it depends on the type of school. . . yes a “public school” would be eligible. . .however a “private regional school campus” is not eligible for a Special Permit.  We’ll give you the details in our next email on Special Permits.