Follow me on Twitter: @jimhennessylbny to get up to the minute political updates.
There are a few things that City Council Members Mandel, Goggin, Adelson,Torres and City Manager Jack Schnirman have not been telling you and that they do NOT want you to know about.
I will give credit where credit is due and the one thing that I must give the current administration credit for is their ability to drown the public with self-serving press releases, staged media events and their ability to manipulate the press, especially Newsday and the LB Herald. Nothing but good news and accusations against the prior administration comes out of city hall's public relation's office; and Newsday's Patrick Whittle (Jack Schnirman's old friend from Brookhaven) and the LB Herald eat it up without question or critique!
So what's the secret?
In October of 2012, two hugely important court decisions were rendered by the Supreme Court of Nassau County granting judgments against the City for a combined total of $20,300,000, a staggering sum indeed, and that’s without interest and attorneys’ fees that will be awarded additionally which could result in a final award upwards of $30 million (click here to see Decision 1 and Decision 2). For some reason Jack Schnirman didn't tell you about these judgements and Newsday, the LB Patch,and the LB Herald followed Schnirman's lead. Shame on them all.
Mandel, Goggin, Adelson, Torres, and Schnirman knew about the judgements because they filed a notice of appeal. But they didn't tell the public.
By law, those judgments cannot be enforced until all appeals are exhausted. That could take two to four years which is more than enough time for Mr. Schnirman and company to find cushy political appointments elsewhere. When the day of financial reckoning finally comes I’m sure Schnirman and Company will be long gone leaving the LB taxpayers to pick up the huge tab.
Newsday monitors all decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of Nassau County, were those decisions not newsworthy? Where was Newsday's story about this huge, potentially $30 million taxpayer liability? Shame on Newsday.
At the onset, let me be clear -- this administration is not responsible for the facts and circumstances that culminated in these disastrous decisions, but they are responsible for hiding the October 2012 decision from the public and not building a plan to potentially pay for it in the budget that was recently adopted. Instead, City Manager Jack Schnirman never mentioned the judgements during May's budget hearings. Why?
Trust me, if Mandel, Goggin, and especially Jack Schnirman (who some have dubbed Jack "Smear-Man") and company could have blamed it on the prior administration the blame game would have been going full throttle. But they can't blame the prior Republican administration. So why the silence? Why didn't they tell the public. With this administration, it's always a question of, "How can the LB Democrats and Company benefit politically," and if they can't benefit or the LB Democrats are to blame...keep quiet...... say nothing!just like they did when the missed the $12 million Sandy Recovery Bailout on June 30th.
To find the cause for the $20 million judgement we need to go back to 2006-2007, the last time the LB Democrats controlled the City Council and the condemnation of the Super Block properties took place. The contract with the developer required that the developer post a letter of credit to protect the City from any claims by the property owners that the compensation paid to them in the condemnation was inadequate. The City dropped the ball, plain and simple. I’m sure the developer is still laughing about.
There are a few things that City Council Members Mandel, Goggin, Adelson,Torres and City Manager Jack Schnirman have not been telling you and that they do NOT want you to know about.
I will give credit where credit is due and the one thing that I must give the current administration credit for is their ability to drown the public with self-serving press releases, staged media events and their ability to manipulate the press, especially Newsday and the LB Herald. Nothing but good news and accusations against the prior administration comes out of city hall's public relation's office; and Newsday's Patrick Whittle (Jack Schnirman's old friend from Brookhaven) and the LB Herald eat it up without question or critique!
So what's the secret?
In October of 2012, two hugely important court decisions were rendered by the Supreme Court of Nassau County granting judgments against the City for a combined total of $20,300,000, a staggering sum indeed, and that’s without interest and attorneys’ fees that will be awarded additionally which could result in a final award upwards of $30 million (click here to see Decision 1 and Decision 2). For some reason Jack Schnirman didn't tell you about these judgements and Newsday, the LB Patch,and the LB Herald followed Schnirman's lead. Shame on them all.
Mandel, Goggin, Adelson, Torres, and Schnirman knew about the judgements because they filed a notice of appeal. But they didn't tell the public.
By law, those judgments cannot be enforced until all appeals are exhausted. That could take two to four years which is more than enough time for Mr. Schnirman and company to find cushy political appointments elsewhere. When the day of financial reckoning finally comes I’m sure Schnirman and Company will be long gone leaving the LB taxpayers to pick up the huge tab.
Newsday monitors all decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of Nassau County, were those decisions not newsworthy? Where was Newsday's story about this huge, potentially $30 million taxpayer liability? Shame on Newsday.
At the onset, let me be clear -- this administration is not responsible for the facts and circumstances that culminated in these disastrous decisions, but they are responsible for hiding the October 2012 decision from the public and not building a plan to potentially pay for it in the budget that was recently adopted. Instead, City Manager Jack Schnirman never mentioned the judgements during May's budget hearings. Why?
Trust me, if Mandel, Goggin, and especially Jack Schnirman (who some have dubbed Jack "Smear-Man") and company could have blamed it on the prior administration the blame game would have been going full throttle. But they can't blame the prior Republican administration. So why the silence? Why didn't they tell the public. With this administration, it's always a question of, "How can the LB Democrats and Company benefit politically," and if they can't benefit or the LB Democrats are to blame...keep quiet...... say nothing!just like they did when the missed the $12 million Sandy Recovery Bailout on June 30th.
To find the cause for the $20 million judgement we need to go back to 2006-2007, the last time the LB Democrats controlled the City Council and the condemnation of the Super Block properties took place. The contract with the developer required that the developer post a letter of credit to protect the City from any claims by the property owners that the compensation paid to them in the condemnation was inadequate. The City dropped the ball, plain and simple. I’m sure the developer is still laughing about.
When the Republican Coalition took office in January of 2007 they discovered this blunder, then City Manager Theofan directed the Corporation counsel’s office to sue the developer and the current owner of the Super Block for fraud and breach of contract. That case is still pending and maybe if we’re lucky, some of those millions that we will have to pay will be recouped.
Did Mr. Schnirman forget to tell us about how the prior administration was protecting the city taxpayer? An oversight? Maybe he thought we wouldn’t be interested, or maybe he didn’t want to cause us any distress. Didn’t this administration promise to be open and transparent? And I have a sneaking suspicion that it might have slipped his mind and that he forgot to tell Moody’s Investors Services about the huge financial liability of $20 million this is currently not budgeted!
Maybe if we knew that the financial sword of Damocles was hanging over us we might have been more strenuous in our objections when Mr. Schnirman contractually obligated us to pay for a $45,000,000 boardwalk without any commitment whatsoever from FEMA as to what will be paid for by the federal government. Or maybe we would have been mire worried when Mandel and Company authorized a 7 year police contract that could cost taxpayers millions without any plan whatsoever to pay for it. Mandel and Company think we should all just be happy that we all get invited to media events for the demolition and the boardwalk and the opening of the first segment.
Copies of those court decisions are attached (click here to see Decision 1 and Decision 2). If you have the stomach strong enough to read them. Just go to the last sentence of the last page of each decision, $8.5 million and $11.8 million….that’s $20.3 million that taxpayers are going to have to pony up, and that’s before any pre-judgment interest and attorneys’ fees, with additional interest accruing daily. In all likelihood the taxpayer's ultimate tab will probably exceed $30,000,000.
Yes indeed we’re in a real pickle.
What other secrets are Mandel, Goggin, Adelson, Torres, and Schnirman keeping from LB residents?
Stay tuned.........
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here
