The Municipal Arts Commission will hold a Special Meeting Wednesday night July 28th at 6:00 PM in Meeting Room, B-1, City Hall, 90. Beaufort Place. The meeting has not been publicly announced, as required by New York State law, which raises questions as to the legality of this meeting. Given the short notice, it is not even clear that the MAC can achieve a quorum to act on a request from Capelli Enterprises.
The special meeting was called at the request of Michael Freimuth, the New Rochelle Commissioner of Development. Municipal Arts Commission will be asked to approve plans by Capelli enterprises to fix up the building located at the intersection of North Avenue and Anderson Street per the LeCount Square MOU Extension granted to Capelli last month.
As Talk of the Sound reported in June, Capelli Enterprises has until July 31st — this coming Saturday — to satisfy the Department of Development that exterior improvements have been made to 5 Anderson Street.
The owners of 5 Anderson, who have been locked in a legal dispute with Capelli Enterprises for months, initially sought to block Capelli from gaining access to the 5 Anderson building, sources say. Witnesses tell Talk of the Sound that Capelli employees from New Roc City were seen attempting to enter the building within the last two weeks. They used bolt cutters to remove heavy locks that barred their way. After bypassing the heavy locks, the New Roc workers then tried keys they had brought with them. They were unable to gain access to the building because the owners had previously changed the locks. Later that day, representatives of Capelli Enterprises applied for a building permit but the request was denied on the grounds that the developer did not own the building and thus was not permitted to apply for the permit. The owners of 5 Anderson were contacted but initially refused to sign for a building permit.
After various negotiations and legal wrangling, the owners of 5 Anderson relented and agreed to allow Capelli Enterprises access to the building for the purpose of complying with the MOU agreement to make exterior repairs to the building. In just the past few days, several workers were seen measuring the windows at 5 Anderson.
Upon approval of the Municipal Arts Commission and receipt of a building permit, Capelli Enterprises will have 72 hours to make the required exterior repairs at which point the Development Commissioner is required to certify that the exterior improvements have made by July 31, 2010 at which point the LeCount Square MOU will run until December 31st, 2010.
Talk of the Sound is betting Capelli will make the Saturday deadline. Any takers?
(NOTE: the screen grab from the City of New Rochelle web site was taken at 6:00 PM on Tuesday July 27 at 6:00 PM)
As of 9 AM on the day of the meeting, still no notice has been given of the meeting scheduled for tonight.
PUBLIC OFFICERS LAW, ARTICLE 7 OPEN MEETINGS LAW
§104. Public notice.
1. Public notice of the time and place of a meeting scheduled at least one week prior thereto shall be given to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at least seventy-two hours before such meeting.
2. Public notice of the time and place of every other meeting shall be given, to the extent practicable, to the news media and shall be conspicuously posted in one or more designated public locations at a reasonable time prior thereto.
3. The public notice provided for by this section shall not be construed to require publication as a legal notice.
4. If videoconferencing is used to conduct a meeting, the public notice for the meeting shall inform the public that videoconferencing will be used, identify the locations for the meeting, and state that the public has the right to attend the meeting at any of the locations.
5. When a public body has the ability to do so, notice of the time and place of a meeting given in accordance with subdivision one or two of this section, shall also be conspicuously posted on the public body’s internet website.
When it comes to Cappelli
When it comes to Cappelli the City of New Rochelle, its Politicians, City Manager and now a second Commisioner will go to levels that almost border Unethical. Its like this guy is the parachute for a City falling out of a plane. In the end the City is still hitting the pavement at a thousand miles and hour because the Parachute they are reaching for is simply not capable of breaking or even slowing the fall. We watched King go to the end of the earth and now we see the new guy. Hello is this the only game in town. “Hey Frei” smile and breathe then throw this bum out and find another way to advance this City without all the theatrics, 3 card monte games of chance and without bordering on desperate unethical actions. See IDA report those around you are really stupid and desperate. Cappelli is not the way. Move on! Why is this so obvious to Johhny Q Public. That Emperior Has no clothes.