In the article, Moore concedes that it makes little sense to expect the public to attend a meeting at which the Common Council discusses changes they know nothing about and hints that he may release the documents to the public electronically after all the aldermen have received their copies, which is expected to happen today.
In his comments, however, Rick Scalera reveals that he finds the public meddlesome. "'The document needs to be studied without public pressure,' said Scalera. 'The people asking [for the documents’ release] are directly responsible for the changes that have been made. They basically wore out a path to the Department of State. The reason it took so long was their ability to bend the ear of the DOS, and the documents will reflect that. . . . I don’t get why people are so anxious,' Scalera continued, 'a lot of the changes are things Sam [Pratt] can explain. Perhaps they will have a public session about what they’ve gone up and asked to be changed.'”
From the early 1990s until 2006, there was zero movement on the LWRP—even though the City had LWRP planners on retainer, and (ostensibly) a waterfront committee. Rick Scalera was mayor during almost all that proof of delay, inaction and secrecy.
ReplyDeleteSo it's absurd for him to complain about delays.
Moreover, Scalera never understood that the whole point of an LWRP is to reach community consensus and acceptance of it's goals; otherwise, they don't succeed. The State repeats this over and over in written guidance, and also said so on their visits to Hudson.
But of course Scalera never liked public input and participation; his closed-door methods were a big part of why he dropped out in 1999 and 2005, knowing he'd reached a point of public dissatisfaction that was electorally dangerous.
And now, with Tuesday's autocratic move to hide this public document from the public itself, Moore appears to have become a captive of Scalera's toxic City Hall culture, even as he mouths platitudes about "working together." How can people be united, if only some of them are privy to such crucial information?
--Sam P.
P.S. The Mayor's remarks also (inadvertently) reveal that he's never read the public comments received by the City in March 2010.
ReplyDeleteIf he had, he'd know exactly what changes The Valley Aliance (and other groups, and about 900 citizens) have requested.
--S.