What Happened at the Commission Meeting?


The October 2, 2018 Commission meeting held a few noteworthy items. The work session, which is to promote transparency and give the commissioners and the public a chance to ask questions, lasted 1 and ½ minutes, yes only 90 seconds. Team Santiago must not need to know what is going on and obviously there is no transparency.

During the commission meeting, Mayor Santiago read a lengthy engineering report.  He said the Pennoni engineering firm refused to certify the integrity of the whole building at 105 E. Main Street, only the shared wall. Mayor Santiago went on to say that 105 E. Main Street should be certified but no one has asked the firm to do so, not the owners of the building or the city. What does this mean? Is the building safe? Should it be inspected or is Pennoni washing its hands of any liability for the demolition? When the mayor was done reading the engineering report he stated that in the past 4 ½ years there had never been an engineering report like this. Where was Mayor Santiago during his last term? At every work session the engineering department delivered such a report and answered any and all questions from the public and the commissioners. The Mayor was there; maybe he should have paid more attention.

Team Santiago had an agreement with Anthony DeSantis to pay the city $50,000 as part of the purchase of the Wheaton Property from GGI. As part of the agreement the city would drop the pending appeal. Team Santiago sent their political crony, city solicitor James Schroeder to negotiate with Anthony DeSantis regarding the deal. Why if a deal was already in place? Mr. Schroeder negotiated a new contract for the city reducing the agreed upon $50,000 to $25,000 as stated in this excerpt from the resolution:


            WHEREAS, a Letter of Intent was signed by DeSantis and by James E. Schroeder, Esquire on behalf of the City, for a sale price of $25,000 rather than the previously contemplated $50,000;


 Isn’t Team Santiago supposed to approve all contracts in the open at a commission meeting? Who gave James Schroeder blank check authority to sign contracts without commission approval? Thanks to Mr. Schroeder and his unauthorized conduct the city is out another $25,000. After a while these things start to add up. Yes, the political plum paybacks are costing the city but according to Mr. Parent, Mr. Schroeder is “one of the best”.  

The other question is what happened to the half a million in unpaid taxes that GGI owed the city? That’s several cents on the tax rate. Until some official action is taken by the Commission that money is still due and remains a lien on the Wheaton property.

Can’t wait for the director of Revenue and finance, Jim Parent’s explanation on this one.


Comments

Anonymous said…
And so the beat goes on! Cannot wait to see our tax bills.........we are being kept in the dark just like mushrooms!
October 8, 2018 at 11:08 AM
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