Appointments, Designations, FOIL’ed—Items on the Agenda for City Council Wednesday – February 11, 2009
The city council's agenda is out for Wednesday, February 11, 2009. See you at 8pm in the Council Room at Rye City Hall or on Cablevision Channel 75 and Verizon Channel 39. We'll also see you on the Internet (next day) at https://rye.peg.tv.
Let's check the batting order and highlights from the 21 agenda items.
- Open Mic. Never dull. Residents may be heard who have matters to discuss that do not appear on the agenda.
- Appointments. You'd think its the final days of someone's presidential term. Come and get your appointment to the Board of Appeals, Conservation Commission, Landmarks Advisory Committee, Planning Committee, Recreation Committee and Traffic & Transportation Committee.
- Designations. Not sure why these are different than appointments but there will be designations of Chairman of the Board of Appeals and Chairman of the Board of Architectural Review.
- FOIL'ed Again. Appeal of denial of FOIL request by Timothy Chittenden.
The next regular meeting of the City Council will be held on Wednesday February 25, 2009.
Call Me Crazy…but my bet is someone brings up last week’s attempt by the City of Rye to muzzle or marginalize Bob Schubert by calling in the guys in the white suits on him. See the front page story from The Journal News here:
https://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090206/NEWS02/902060358
(This one is currently in the top 3 for countywide comments at The Journal News site.)
And if anyone’s still wondering if Schubert is in fact wacky please be sure to view the video interview with him done by The Journal News and embedded on their site in the video section. That’s the guy I know and you’d have to be dishonest to try and manufacture a mental impairment charge on someone like him. He’s just old and determined – two states I personally aspire to be some day.
And in case you think otherwise, I know the granular facts of this matter personally and the City here is in violation of its own laws – specifically Chapter 195, Wetlands and Watercourses. If you pull it off the City site you will find specific sub-sections which control this matter and in each case a violation has occurred. Here are a few places to start –
195-3.Definitions – “WETLAND/WATERCOURSE BUFFER – a specific area surrounding a wetland/watercourse extending 100 feet horizontally away from and paralleling the wetland/watercourse boundary.”
Here I personally measured at City Hall with the City Planner this distance on official City maps. The result? 93 Feet.
195-4.Permit Requirements – C. Regulated Activities – “(7) alteration or modification of natural drainage patterns, (9) installation of any pipes or wells.”
In this case the neighbor installed a totally new drywell to their existing sub surface drainage system. This was not a repair – it was new construction – there was no drywell at this location before. And this one is huge.
195-5. Permit Standards…read the whole section and then consider:
No Wetland/Watercourse permit was ever applied for or granted, no Planning Commission hearing was ever held, no visit and follow up report from the City Naturalist ever took place, no City Conservation Commission/Advisory Council visit was scheduled nor report ever generated.
I will not bore readers with additional references; this tired local administration has little use for such laws when they protect the politically un-connected. This matter does not “waste the councils precious time,” rather is reveals them for what they are.
There’s much more under the surface here (pardon the pun) than meets the eye and none of it reflects poorly on Bob Schubert who is a courageous and determined citizen. Bob is the true American hero. This is a cover-up and unfortunately for Rye taxpayers like me and you it’s not the only one.
In my opinion no one can argue that Shew should not be fired immediately. What Shew did in his attack on Mr. Schubert, along with exposing the taxpayers to untold liability, is unexplainable and intolerable.
In my opinion if anyone on the Rye City Council does not agree to fire Shew immediately, I suggest that perhaps the crisis team needs to go to their house.
This is the most despicable thing I have ever heard of.
Mr. Floatie and I must be public enemy #1 and #2 in Rye. I wonder what the City has in store for us.
Otis will probably just pay the taxpayer paid Attorneys more money to come up with an explanation for Shew’s stupidity and for Shew’s retaliation of Mr. Schubert. Then the rest of the City Council will discuss it in secret, come out from their secret meeting like sheep and make believe they are listening to the public. This act is very old.
I wish someone would knock that smug look off Otis’s face.
This is the FOIL that is being appealed. Connors refused to provide the report.
All reports and all other records submitted by Robert Falk or any other member of the Rye Police Department or any other Police Agency concerning the death of a man at the residence of Robert Falk approximately 20 years ago.
Robert Falk is a Lieutenant in the Rye Police Department.