Town Board Meeting
July 13th Town Board Meeting
Submitted by joyce.mitchell1 on Wed, 07/15/2009 - 8:18amThe town meeting for Kent began promptly last night at 7 PM with a statement read by Lou Tartaro, condemning the Putnam County legislature for their action regarding the Kent Manor affair. To quote from the Journal News and Susan Elan, “Putnam faced charges as a co-defendant for "conspiracy to deprive the property owner of constitutionally protected property rights."
Without offering any judgment about the legality or fiduciary position of our Town Board regarding past or current legislative or policy actions in re Kent Manor, I find it ironic that Mr. Tartaro, who publicly denied the existence of any legislation, was the one to read it. He has never apologized for his misstatement, retracted it, or acknowledged it.
Readers of KFW’s posted articles may recall that Cliff Narbey has been researching our town’s potential liability for months and at every attempt to discuss this with the Town Board has been met with a total shutout from Supervisor Doherty, who even refused to affirm or deny if we have insurance to cover the potential liability. But the press has stayed on it and Susan Elan has informed us that our potential liability is $16,000,000. My information is that we have only $1,000,000 in insurance coverage. If we lose, our town property taxes would be almost doubled.
Tom Maxson, a candidate for Town Council, also read a stirring condemnation of the Put County Legislature for leaving us on the hook for the full amount. And, to add insult to injury, the County will now move to recoup property taxes that they paid out to the Town of Kent and the Carmel School District on behalf of the Kent Manor developers who had not.. However offensive as that may seem, the County is acting in accord with the law and what they believe to be in their own interest. As County residents, is it in ours?
The Lake Carmel Cultural Center (aka Arts on the Lake) was voted $15,000 needed, apparently, to secure the $400,000 “grant” (another acronym for our tax dollars) to bring the old firehouse up to code. Let me make clear that I support Arts on the Lake with membership, attendance, and donation. But I am deeply disappointed that the promise of the organizers to develop this art center on private funds and to eschew tax dollars has not been kept.
Another item of particular interest to all was the continued advancement of the Supervisor’s agenda to extend her term of service from two to four years. In spite of the fact that the overwhelming number of comments on our poll and at the Public Hearing in February were against such a move, it is the plan of this Board to proceed with a referendum on our November ballot. The proposal, amended only for procedural errors, was voted on again, with only one dissenting vote from Karl Rohde. The only supporting public comment at the microphone was made by Ms. Doherty’s campaign manager.
Kent Fiscal Watch has invited the Supervisor to come to our Open Meeting in October and defend in debate what appears to be her self-serving proposal to double her term of office. So far, she is unopposed for the position this November, which gives her a guarantee of four years to pursue her policies. What is she afraid of? Why does she want to lock us into four years (giving her a total of six if she is elected?) Pawling tried this and has already changed back to a two-year term. Southeast voters changed to a four-year term and there is much unrest as a result.
All residents should take notice that there will be another Public Hearing about this attempt to change the Supervisor’s term of office. It will be held at Town Hall on August 17 at 7:00 PM. Please save the date and be there. And remember that this Supervisor (and Councilman Tartaro) served on the Board that helped put us at a liability of $16,000,000, tried to keep information about the litigation from us, and now asks our confidence and support for a longer term. The trial is scheduled to begin July 20. Stay tuned!
