Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Extortionist exposed

At the Tuesday May 12 Council meeting, the Richmond Glen developer requested an easement on town-owned land that would enable him to build an additional 24 units* with a suggested sales price of $500,000 each. Several Republican Council members (particularly yours truly!) suggested that if the town grants the easement, the town should receive fair market value for it.

In response to my suggestion, Councilman Ecke said I was "extorting" the developer:



When Mr. Ecke made this outrageous statement, Councilman Ruocco reminded me about another easement granted by this Council.

You may recall the March 11, 2008 meeting at which I also suggested the Council receive value in exchange for an easement - an easement that led to absolutely no changes on that particular parcel of land:



So at least one Council member is being consistent. Though I can't say that for all Council members. But hey, at least we can see where some Council members get their bread buttered!

Happen to see any inconsistencies between last night's comments and the comments made regarding the AT&T easement:



So it's OK to "extort" money from AT&T, as long as you don't dare suggest asking a developer for compensation?

From my perspective, I'm being consistent and trying to represent the voters of Cheshire in both cases. On the flip side... in one case I see two Council members representing the Town and the taxpayers by being very clear that a telecomm company needs to offer "consideration." But if it's a developer, then it's a different story.

I wonder why?

Cui bono?

November can't come soon enough for Cheshire's newest "good ol' boy network."

Tim White

* With the easement, the development will have 41 units. Without the easement, the development would have 17 units.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Watching our GANG OF 5 - - the Dem majority - - one could easily come away with mental images of hordes of blue collar types happily working at building a wonderful new neighborhood for this town.

Local blue collar trades people, capable of paying taxes in town, making high wages building 41 or so $500,000+ homes for old folks. The image continues on with old folks actually lining up hoping to be first in line to offload their half million to get a unit before they are sold out. Then the new home owners happily writing out an annual $10,000 check for property tax to the town.

Awakening from this day dream one becomes somewhat skeptical that anyone will actually be selling 40 or so yet to be built $500,000+ housing units anywhere in Central Connecticut over the next 5 or 10 years.

The November elections cannot come soon enough.

Anonymous said...

Sheldon Dill should resign NOW. He recused himself some months ago on the AJ waste hauling issue because AJ was a member of the Chamber.....in other words AJ's dues pay Dill's sallary. Hurray for Dill to think clearly....doesn't happen often.
So now he votes on a Brodach deal...when Brodach is also a member.
What's the difference Mr Dill? THERE IS NONE....except the Dem bosses needed the fifth vote to pass this travesty.
Cheshire was always known as a pretty "clean" town. Its getting dirty....fast.

Anonymous said...

At what point do we call in outside sources to investigate the corruption going on?

The only one doing any "extorting" is the Democratic TC Members. They are taking money out of the tax payers pockets and some of them are putting it right into their pockets.

I would also like to hear why Sheldon Dill would recuse himself from one vote because the business is a member of the chamber, but not from this one?
Tim, have you asked him that?
I bet the answer is the other 4 members told them they needed him to stay in on this vote.

Do the Republicans have a slate of people running yet?

Anonymous said...

And the liberals would have us believe that only evil Republicans are in bed with greedy bankers, Big Business, and developers.

Anonymous said...

Now that Brodach has his $10 easment and the town has completed the sight improvement work on Wease Rd, when the hell is Cheshire going to get the $70,000 that was agreed upon for sight improvements, or are we going to wait until hell freezes over.

tim white said...

At what point do we call in outside sources to investigate the corruption going on?There's no corruption here. It's much more subtle. For instance, the Plan of C&D was changed due to inaction on the Council's part. And most of the things that led to this were simply "understood." Words need not be spoken. And therefore everyone has "plausible deniability."

Cheshire needs a change, IMO.

Anonymous said...

Has Ecke announced whether or not he is running again?
Perhaps he can "extort" some, oops I mean solicit,contributions from some of these businesses who will profit from this $10 easement.

If he is running, I know some kids in Darcy who can probably give him a run for his money. Too bad they won't let 5 year olds run, they may prove to be better suited for the job.

tim white said...

My money is on Ecke wanting Hall to step down as Chairman. Then he'll want Sheldon Dill to run... transforming the Rubber Stamp Party into a party that governs from the center... and Ecke thinks that will return a Dem majority with him as their "fearless" leader.

There is wisdom in the political strategy. But the sad thing is that Ecke's not interested in good government. That's plain as day for any regulars of this blog.

Anonymous said...

"Ecke's not interested in good government."I don't think Ecke understands government at all.He has the dumb, rolling eyes look anytime someone says something he doesn't agree with. Not the way a real politician should be.

We know he reads this blog, unfortunately he doesn't comprehend what the people here are saying. He sits in his chair and rolls those eyes as he reads these. Not understanding that there are a lot of people like us who live in this town.

Lets hope the Republicans can come up with a viable canidate.

Breachway said...

Will Ecke have the words...Certified Public Accountant on his re-election flyers?????

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know who the puppeteer is that pulls the strings of the "Gang of Five"? Does he also have a big bag?

Robert DeVylder Jr. said...

Great job extorting $400,000 from the tax payers and the residents. Couldnt have done it without you Tim!!

Anonymous said...

DeVylder, I am so sick of your arrogance. Why don't you run for the TC if you think you can do better.
You do notjhing but bash Tim here when he did exactly what the town is suppose to do when a contract needs to be renewed.
Many times, the bids will be lower, but when you are dealing with the trash hauling business, you never know.

I would love to see you try to be a member of the TC, I am sure you can tie a string to your head and nod up and down like the 5 idiots do now. What's 1 more...

I also don't recall AJ's offering more than a 1 year extension on the contract. Tell me how $400,000 was extorted?
The only one extorting the tax payers that I can see are those who allow a developer an easement for $10, but try to charge AT&T for a similar easement in another part of town.

Give it up DeVylder, nobody really cares what you have to say!

Robert DeVylder Jr. said...

The solid waste committee was told by other towns and haulers that AJ's offer was competitive and should be considered. The Republicans didnt care about this information and turned their noses to the current hauler. They even leaked the bid waiver amount to the public. They forced Milone to prepare a budget with an unknown meaning that whatever adjustments were made, more would probably be needed.
The solid waste committee also sat on their thumbs until the last second to solicit bids. That should have been done in January at the latest to award the contract intime for budget hearings.
As far as dealing with the trash industry, Dattco Bus offered a lower rate for a bid waiver. The council again said no and sent it to bid at the last second. Dattco came in again as the low bidder but raised their bid by $200,000 (roughly the same amount that AJ Waste raised their bid)

MATH LESSON!!
$200,000 + $200,000 = $400,000 (Thank you Cheshire School system!)

AJ offered a 1 year extension as they pointed out to the town that bids had not been solicited at that time. That was a charge of the Solid Waste Committee which Tim is a member. The prior contract was for 5 years, meaning they had 5 years to prepare for the next round of bidding.

Now for the development. - The developer made a 2 part offer on the land. Part 1 was $10.00 to the town. Part 2 that everyone seems to forget was $70,000+ to reimburse to town for upgrades to Weise Rd. Parts 1+2 were based on the town agreeing to sell them the land. Being a useless plot that could not be developed and was set aside 10+ years ago for this very reason, the real value to the town was $70,010 for a 50'X500' piece of land. Being that an acre of land in Cheshire sells for roughly $100,000 and this piece of land is just over half an acre, the developer should have offered about $40,000 for the road improvements.

You're right, Tim deffinatly worked in the best interest of the taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad the trash and bus contracts went out to bid. Every contract should go out to bid and if whoever in the town hall had been doing their job and following the rules, they would have prepared all the necessary paperwork for new bids well before the current contracts expired. Maybe now they'll be on the ball and start following the proper process.

Anonymous said...

Having the capability of Town sewers use was huge for the developer. It will save him hundreds of thousands of dollars and eventually cost the taxpayers more in the long run. Think about for one minute. $70,000 was a bargain. Give me a break. Somebody should make sure that these so called money makers for the Town(55 and over) will never be open to all age groups because we will be in hot water. Our Taxes will go sky high and they (developers)will be long gone.

Anonymous said...

"You're right, Tim deffinatly worked in the best interest of the taxpayers"

He is the only member that does work for the tax payers. The rest work for themselves. We have a TC Chairperson who is a lawyer in town and represents developers. he also does many closings. We have the president of the Chamber who picks and chooses when to recuse himself from voting.

These are not small contracts that can be automatically renewed each year without going out to bid. This town will be even more corrupt if we allowed that to happen.Thank God the republicans won't let it happen.

I would question AJ's and ask why they bid so much higher? I would look into corruption on the bidding process. I love how people like DeVylder think AJ's was above all the corruption, but he knows more than he is telling. I would question all those involved in the process.

It's too bad there aren't other companies who would bid.

By the way....Definitely is not spelled "deffinatly"...Thank You Cheshire school system!

Robert DeVylder Jr. said...

I agree with the person who posted that Tim is an idiot numerous times... God bless you for finding my spelling error. I am glad people like you can hide behind the anonymous button and criticize others. Grow a set and let your identity be known.

Anonymous said...

I "definattly" have seen you spell that word the same way before. You thanked the Cheshire school system for you brilliant math skills, I am just wondering if you learned any logic in school. It doesn't appear so.

To remain anonymous is my perogative as it is yours to let everyone know how stupid your thoughts are here.

You seem to want to attack Tim for doing what he suppose to do for this town. Why not attack the others who just rubber stamp everything through? They are the ones who cost us the most.

Anonymous said...

Not only did Brodach win, Hall will most likely more realestate closings and Dill should get a big hug Brodach, a member of Dill's Cheshire of Commerce.

It's good to have friends. That's the way Cheshire works.