Good Morning Long Beach Neighbors. Here is a video and my summary of what happened during and after the August 19th city council meeting.http://m.ustream.tv/recorded/51588609?rmalang=en_US (my time is at the 56th minute, and I'm posting my address to the council and legal counsel below.
So first I asked our city officials a simple question; "Does our City manager have the authority to authorize legal counsel to sign a stipulation without the city council's authorization?" And I got no response, there was complete silence.
My address concluded:
"I would like to share a quote from Adam Smith that I found relevant and inspirational to what I’d like to create awareness about here tonight. Adam Smith said: “Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”
We do not need more developed residential housing. We need a strong community that is supported by the health of the environment and in support of that environment a transparent and effective City Council.
With that said, I want to know why Corey Klein, our city’s legal counsel signed a stipulation agreeing to Sinclair Haberman LLC to build two 19 story towers?
I do not think that the stipulation signed by Cory Klein represents the City of Long Beach but instead represents a business plan and possibly an ideal of wealth as being unlimited. It exemplifies and favors those with privileged interests.
The fact is that we are living in an eco-system that hasn’t been replenished since Senator Reynold’s begun the dredging, and Bay Park Sewage Plant began treating our waste. Recycling began in Conshohoken, Pennsylvania with the first recycling mill in 1972. Long Beach started collecting Recycling publically on a city wide scale in 2014 (42 years later).
The City of Long Beach hasn’t received or applied for any International Standards for Organizations that I’m aware of. My city for 30 years, is without a composting system, (both an environmental, and economic discipline that is just as historic as it is beneficial.) Also, There are no signs instructing people to stay off of our dunes, and we just heavily invested in them.—so these are just three examples that require more attention and education.
Returning to the stipulation signed by Cory Klein:
You need to hold people who abuse power, and have conflicts of interest accountable. This stipulation is being publically ignored, instead of explained by our public leaders.
What is being done about a man running for office, that has abused his current role? If he is above being held accountable for his actions, are you as well?"
I felt torn, that my elected officials withheld information from me and my city, and suppressed any form of on the record acknowledgement.
Then a neighbor asked for ADA compliant bathrooms in city hall which our city received grants for. The counsel was haply to announce that they're beginning construction to renovate them in the fall.
Then halftime Howie brought up a young man who was a part of a group of neighbors that rescued a man who overdosed on Heroin. I have a friend who was there and assisted at the scene, but I'm not mentioning his name because a selfless act of neighborly kindness must have integrity. I feel that halftime Howie is proud of his friend, and his friend did something great. Howie concluded that he would like the city to commend his friend.
Then Judy, from the FACTS and underage drinking programs, spoke up about how downtown Park Ave commercial businesses have signage promoting fish bowls full of liquor, and das boots full of beer right on the street where impressionable children walk through to get tuti fruti, Gino's ices, or Ralph's.
Then after the meeting, I was talking to a neighbor about how I was fighting a virus + a bad sunburn, right when I was rudely interrupted by councilwoman Fran Adelson. She was loudly telling me that "I want you to know that, like Mr. Mandel told you last meeting, this is a legal issue, and even though our legal counsel (Corey Klein) is no longer on this case, we can't speak about it."
I simply replied; "I feel frustrated that there is no transparency on this. Our legal counsel signed a stipulation for two 19 story towers, and didn't notify the city to hold a public hearing, and I would like you to have a press conference, because. nothing is being said about this."
She just repeated to me, "its a legal matter that we won't talk about."
I am tired of blindly being optimistic about a board of council members who are working for the wealthy and privileged few with agendas of extremely unethical development, and I simply ask for transparency and accountability. Apparently that's too much for me to ask of my own government. Perhaps a lawsuit of my own will spark some sense in them?
Your comments are mostly right on, Joey, and you were the one to really break this story, so bravo to you!
ReplyDeleteThe only incorrect comments you made were when you questioned the City Council's openness in relation to this matter. The City Council has been ordered by their new legal counsel to refrain from talking about the case, because the new attorneys are negotiating with the Habermans' attorneys to have the Court vacate its signature of the unauthorized settlement stipulations, which signature elevated the stipulations to having all the force and effect of a court order.
Believe me, the City Council is not doing anything wrong in this. They have done everything they could do to save us from the legal malpractice and ethical violations committed by Corey Klein in connection with signing these stipulations.
Oh, and how do I know all this? Because my husband, Stuart Banschick, is one of the Zoning Board members sued as an individual in the Haberman case. If no one had discovered Corey's misdeeds, my husband would have been in danger of having a $50 million judgment entered against him personally, as well as against the City of Long Beach!! I can't even BEGIN to explain the severe danger in which Corey Klein placed our City, and our citizens!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delayed response.
ReplyDeleteI respect the city councils hesitation to discuss a legal malpractice lawsuit, but governmental organization involves other disciplines beside legal issues and therefore is not a deterrent from the democratic process of dialogue.
I respect each member of the council for different tasks they've endured before and after Hurricane Sandy, however, this doesn't excuse them for poor decisions. It is time to devote some conscious dialogue to this overlooked topic. If the city council is not at fault (Which I’m only lead to speculate that they are not) then I am requesting clarification.
Our City officials will go to a hospital rally, pump their chests on the day of an election primary, the very same primary that Corey Klein is running, against another attorney who is involved with the Haberman lawsuit-- yet the day our city officials become aware that Corey Klein signed this stipulation and do not publicly hold him accountable, that raises extreme doubt.
It's hard enough to keep young adults fresh out of college in Long Island/Long Beach with the high cost of living—I want to know if any of the parties involved in this "legal issue" have any shame that the $50,000,000-$100,000,000 potential cost to our city will render it nearly impossible to have young adults settle in to Long Beach, let alone raise a family here as they struggle with the economy of the nation and of this city?
Corey Klein coerced me on the stating he has children who read the internet, but those children will only be caring about Long Beach politics until they're out of college, too far in to debt to live in a city that most likely hasn't begun rebuilding it's 100+ year old water tower, water infrastructure, sewage infrastructure, the double dipping superintendents whose pensions we are paying for totaling over a few hundred million.
Would you decide to block the developers from building three 7-10 story buildings and a parking garage, knowing they would make an ultimatum of "You let us build two 19 story towers, or we'll sue you, and every single Long Beach resident for up to $100,000,000? Would Mr. Current and Former ZBA member, Ethics Advisory member Stuart decide to recuse his self then?
As a Long Beach Tax Paying Resident, I seek transparency from my elected officials, and that includes those who are potentially responsible for the rise of my families' taxes. Are too many people wearing green when it's Irish day and not paying attention when our city invests in 700,000 Dunes without a single sign prohibiting people from encroaching on our Dunes? Are they not paying attention while our city invests in a species of deciduous trees that is most probable for breaking under snow, or wind, or frost stresses and could injure people? These are not only environmental issues (Green), these are economic issues (Green).
It doesn't matter what dynamic of the geo-political spectrum you are part of, whether you live in an ocean view high rise, or the projects, your lively hood depends on what you pay for taxes, and what you end up receiving, and right now I'm receiving a life's worth of stress from very arrogant members of our community.
I do thank you for reading my blog Mrs. Banschick. Everyone in this town had the opportunity to request a comment from our city council, and our corporate attorney regarding the latest edition of this far ranging saga, and not a single person (other than myself) did.