WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. August 27, 2010 UPDATED MIDNIGHT, AUGUST 27, 2010:
As reported yesterday by WPCNR, after 10 days, not finding any attorney apparently better than Steven Leventhal to evaluate the Board of Ethics finding that Mayor Adam Bradley possibly committed an ethics breech in scheduling a meeting with city commissioners for his new landlord, the Common Council voted 5 to 1, with Councilman David Buchwald the nay vote, to hire Mr. Leventhal at a maximum expenditure of $20,000 to investigate the propriety of the Mayor’s interactions involving Walter Gabriele, his landlord at what the Mayor describes as his “temporary residence” at 19 Hall Avdenue. The Mayor recused himself from the vote.
Council Prsident Thomas Roach, and councilpersons Beth Smayda, Milagros Lecouna, Benjamin Boyin, and Dennis Power all extolled the virtues of Mr. Leventhal’s experience as an ethics evaluator in such matters, and voted to spend a maximum of $20,000 for the time it takes Leventhal to evaluate the Mayor’s involvement.
Roach said the Council will have no contact with Leventhal and that he will strictly to report to the Board of Ethics and the investigation will be confidential (despite leaking by some unknown party this week of the nature of documents involving the scheduling and content of the matters on which Mr. Gabriele sought city consideration to The Journal News)., Some one had to have revealed to The Journal News the nature of what was being investigated, pparently leading the newspaper to request specific documents via the Freedom of Information Law.
No one on the Common Council last night expressed any concern about the Board of Ethics perhaps violating their charge to not discuss ethics inquiries or reveal information on them, or who tipped the Board of Ethics to the chain of circumstances surrounding the Gabriele-Bradley matters, precipitating the Board of Ethics investigation.
On Thursday Darren Grubb told WPCNR Mayor Bradley at the time of the meeting in question made a brief appearance at the meeting in question called by Bradley, but recused himself before discussion began and did not participate in the discussions. Grubb also told WPCNR that Mayor Bradley and Mr. Gabriele were acquainted (without revealing how they knew each other),before Bradley took up residence at 19 Hall Avenue, but did not elaborate. Particulars of Mr. Bradley’s arrangements at 19 Hall Avenue, Grubb said, were not being made public because the Mayor was preserving confidentiality prior to the investigation of the Board of Ethics investigator.
Late Friday evening, Mr. Grubb, speaking on behalf of Mr. Bradley amplified Thursday evening’s remarks to WPCNR, issuing this statement:
“Upon learning of his (Gabrielle’s) inquiry, Mayor Bradley asked Mr. Gabrielle to submit a letter documenting his inquiry so that it could be considered based on the merits and placed in the official and appropriate channels. Upon receiving the letter from Mr. Gabrielle, Mayor Bradley proactively gave full-disclosure regarding his temporary tenancy at 19 Hall Avenue to staff that handle the issues raised in Mr. Gabrielle’s letter.”
The nature of the discussion involved, according to documents supplied by Mr. Grubb to WPCNR, in addition to the sale of two adjacent pieces of property to 19 Hall Avenue, described as being “garbage dumps” for the neighborhood, included request for relief from paying a $3,000 payment to the city in case storm water rentention facilities failed, and request from relief from having to install a similar storm drain retention system at a project on Harmon Avenue, which Gabriele said in this letter to the Mayor requesting the meeting, would make the project financially unfeasible. Gabriele argues in his letter that state law does not require the elaborateness of such a system in a less than 10,000 square foot building.
Grubb told WPCNR that Mayor Bradley did not automatically schedule a meeting. Bradley told Gabriele to put his concerns in a letter to the Mayor’s office. Grubb said, after receiving the letter, Bradley scheduled the meeting, but Grubb stressed this is done routinely when citizens buttonhole the Mayor and express their concerns.
In other action last night,
********Councilperson Milagros Lecouna raised the issue of lowering the speed limit to 25 MPH (from the current 30) on city streets in areas surrounding the schools and on neighborhood roads that have become cut-throughs into and out of the city, and also suggested the possibility of installing redlight cameras and speed cameras in the city.
Traffic Commissioner Tom Soyk said the redlight camera idea has been authorized to be tested in some cities around the state. He also said it would be difficult to populate certain streets with the 25 MPH signs, which the city could do. The ideas were not dismissed as impractical however. Council President Tom Roach noted that lowering the speed limit 5 miles would incentivize police to issue more speeding tickets, generating more revenue.
********Commissioner of Building Damon Amadio delivered a report as requested by the council on the number of “sprinklered restaurants.” furnishing a list of establishments to the Common Council. Amadio said about 160 of the city’s 200 restaurants are sprinklered, and in response to Council concerns expressed by Councilpersons David Buchwald, Milagros Lecouna, Dennis Power, Tom Roach, and Beth Smayda was pressed to explore ways the city could lobby the non-sprinklered establishments and buildings to install sprinkler systems going forward.
Amadio explained over and over the city had to get state legislature approval to order compliance on older buildings “grandfathered in.” In addition, he noted all new buildings and rebuilds of all buildings, with the exception of one-family and two-family homes, had to be sprinklered as part of city code. At the insistence of Mayor Bradley, Amadio agreed to give the Mayor and Council a detailed explanation of the state code showing the occupancy thresholds of when sprinkler systems were required.
Amadio agreed that the recent Bengal Tiger fire (where the Tiger portion of the building was not sprinklered) might be a good selling point for the state to allow the city to change its code. Councilperson Lecouna pressed for more information in a revised listing of restaurants which Amadio said he would prepare, showing buildings where there were residences above the restaurants, how old the buildings were, whether they were grandfathered as well as structural anomalies like cocklofts, firewalls in place, and other considerations. No mention was made of whether city fire inspections needed to be reviewed to reveal more of what exists building to building.
*********Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel gave a report on affordable housing, basically reporting that the city was essentially filled up with less than 10 vacancies available for the waiting list. She said currently 22 applicants for vacancies were being processed as to income and eligibility. Councilman Benjamin Boykin said the Council should hold Cappelli Enterprises to its promise to buld some 13affordable housing units he owes. Councilman Dennis Power suggested and requested of Corporation Council John Callahan for a list of options that the council had to compell the Cappelli organization to either build or perhaps pay about $2,800 a month into the affordable housing fund since they currently owed the city 3 at this time. The money would be the difference in market rates that Cappelli Enterprises pays the landlord of buildings they use in lieu of units in Cappelli-owend and operated buildings.
**********Councilperson Milagros Lecouna presented her design for the first in a series of more inviting entrances to TheGreenway, ( which she created as part of her dual Masters program in urban planning and public affairs with a concentration in environmental policy she is enrolled in at Columbia University) She said the Commissioner of Public Works Joseph Nicoletti has worked with her on incoporating her design into the Greenway and supports the concept. The entrance would be built at the end of Hartsdale Avenue off Beverly Road, about midway on the Greenway. No cost for the construction was given. No councilperson asked what the cost would be.
*********The Council agreed the city should join the Long Island Sound Watershed Intermunicipal Council. All thought this was a great step.
**********The council went into executive session to discuss litigation. Afterwards, no Council member would discuss the subject of the litigation. No leaks on the nature of the confidential Executive Session have been received by your reporter at this time.
