2006/07/09
The bad movie that is the mall expansion
I posted earlier in the week about the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency's (SIDA) vote to approve a new mall expansion settlement deal, and added some details a little later.
It's erupted since then, and it really does read like a movie script.
To recap: On Wednesday, with no public notice, SIDA – an appointed board – met and voted 3-0 to approve a settlement deal that would exclude the Common Council – a group of elected representatives – in any dealings on the expansion. Not present at the SIDA meeting was the city's corporation council, Terri Bright, who was against the settlement.
Bright was entertaining the mayor at her home, because for whatever reason, he wanted to meet there, instead of her office. He asked her to withdraw an appeal of a court decision reached March 9 in favor of the mall's developer, Robert Congel and his Pyramid Management Group, which she did. Then she asked her to sign off on a statement that said she believed the vote SIDA was taking was legal, as was the settlement they were approving. That, she would not do.
So, Driscoll brought in another lawyer to sign those documents.
Later in the day, the six common councilors who had voted against the settlement deal asked Bright to continue with the appeal, and as she felt she represented the council as well as the mayor, she faxed a letter to the courthouse asking the court to ignore the previous document withdrawing the appeal.
The mayor was asked about the move at a press conference, and had not heard anything about it. Later that evening, Bright was fired.
You can read about the oh-so-dramatic deception here.
But, wait! There's more! On Thursday, now without a lawyer to continue the appeal, The Common Council hired its own lawyer to help the city.
Friday, it came out that a grand jury is investigating whether the six common councilors who voted against the settlement agreement might have met illegally before the meeting at which the vote was taken, though it's not clear that even if they did, any effect would be seen on the settlement agreement, since that was a separate meeting and held legally.
The council may also challenge the legality of Wednesday's SIDA meeting, at which they took the vote on the new agreement; if they did meet illegally, the vote will be nullified – and the later vote of approval by the Onondaga County Legislature will also be nullified, because they technically will have no document on which to have held that vote.
This is that life imitating art thing again, isn't it?
It's erupted since then, and it really does read like a movie script.
To recap: On Wednesday, with no public notice, SIDA – an appointed board – met and voted 3-0 to approve a settlement deal that would exclude the Common Council – a group of elected representatives – in any dealings on the expansion. Not present at the SIDA meeting was the city's corporation council, Terri Bright, who was against the settlement.
Bright was entertaining the mayor at her home, because for whatever reason, he wanted to meet there, instead of her office. He asked her to withdraw an appeal of a court decision reached March 9 in favor of the mall's developer, Robert Congel and his Pyramid Management Group, which she did. Then she asked her to sign off on a statement that said she believed the vote SIDA was taking was legal, as was the settlement they were approving. That, she would not do.
So, Driscoll brought in another lawyer to sign those documents.
Later in the day, the six common councilors who had voted against the settlement deal asked Bright to continue with the appeal, and as she felt she represented the council as well as the mayor, she faxed a letter to the courthouse asking the court to ignore the previous document withdrawing the appeal.
The mayor was asked about the move at a press conference, and had not heard anything about it. Later that evening, Bright was fired.
You can read about the oh-so-dramatic deception here.
But, wait! There's more! On Thursday, now without a lawyer to continue the appeal, The Common Council hired its own lawyer to help the city.
Friday, it came out that a grand jury is investigating whether the six common councilors who voted against the settlement agreement might have met illegally before the meeting at which the vote was taken, though it's not clear that even if they did, any effect would be seen on the settlement agreement, since that was a separate meeting and held legally.
The council may also challenge the legality of Wednesday's SIDA meeting, at which they took the vote on the new agreement; if they did meet illegally, the vote will be nullified – and the later vote of approval by the Onondaga County Legislature will also be nullified, because they technically will have no document on which to have held that vote.
This is that life imitating art thing again, isn't it?
