Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Residents' Voices Go Unheard as Biased Vote Approves Amendments
Once again, the town council of West Hartford proves to be a brick wall. While resident after resident implore upon the council to let the court system do its job, they again came with speeches written prior to hearing the testimony and clearly have biased opinions of the matter before them. Why must the town be subjected to over two hours of repeated claims that the Taubman Company is trying to ruin the town management's fun when the decision was made prior to the meeting. Each town official who spoke tonight passed off anyone with a dissenting opinion as someone from the Michigan based company. Let's be clear that there are residents of West Hartford who think this project is a complete sham.
I also urge you to check out what the Courant has to say in tomorrow's paper about tonight's meeting. I guarantee (and I'm writing this at 10 PM after the meeting) there will be a glowing pre-written (before the meeting) article in the paper quoting Mayor Slifka from his pre-written (before the meeting) speech and saying how wonderfully detailed the town officials were in making their decisions.
I truly believe that some or all of the town officials involved in this deal are in some way benefiting from this project. How else can you have such a biased opinion before hearing what people have to say?
Please, next time before you get into the Public Forum portion of the meeting, remind the people who plan to speak that you aren't there to listen to what they have to say. Remind them that your decision is made for you by Barry Feldman. Remind them that you have a speech written outlining your decision. Remind them that you don't care one ounce about what happens to anyone in the town but yourselves and your careers.
The fight over Blue Back Square isn't about Taubman against the Town of West Hartford. It's about the citizens of West Hartford against a greedy, tyrannous town government and out of state developers who've concocted the deal of a lifetime, for themselves.
Have a great day.
Mark Quigley
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3 comments:
I am so utterly disgusted by these people.
They would rather do everything in their power to protect poor Mr. Heapes and his interests - than the residents or the major taxpayer - West Farms - that pays over a quarter of the tax revenue that this town depends on. If I were Taubman I would close the West Hartford portion of the mall and turn it into a tax exempt church.
I thought it was pretty interesting that Scotty requested armed police be present in the hallway during the proceedings...
This is a warning to all citizens of CT. Please don't let your own Town Council get away with type of travesty that is happening in West Hartford. Last fall, citizens of West Hartford had a referendum to approve an agreement that the town made with Blue Back Square developers. 60% of the citizens voted to approve the project - based on a specific agreement. On 4/13/05, in a purposefully poorly publicized meeting, they voted to significantly change that agreement in order to allow the developer to start construction. The legal protections that were initially included in the agreement by the town's own legal staff, were summarily stricken. 32 pages worth of changes to the agreement were voted on and approved in one fell swoop. We have given up protections, and the developer has not even closed on the optioned Grody lot yet, property it is supposed to own outright! Now the developer is free to close on town owned land and begin construction despite the harm that it may cause some citizens and taxpayers of our town. Shame on West Hartford's leadership as they thumb their noses at the due process rights of it's citizenry and cowtow to the needs of the developer, who have already designated a June date for groundbreaking. They claim that Blue Back Square was not a done deal from the start.. there is plenty of evidence mounting to show that it was. I would like to see a state ordered investigation of this no bid public private partnership. We are being railroaded in the name of consumerism and greed, and in the end the taxpayers will be footing the bill. Don't let this happen to you.
Judy Aron
860-523-7257
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