The New Rochelle Reform Club will host a special forum Wednesday May 22nd featuring former Yonkers City Councilman John Murtagh who will speak and answer questions about his years of experience with Forest City/Ratner, the developer of the proposed Echo Bay Project in New Rochelle, NY.
This is a “can’t miss” event for New Rochelle residents concerns about the appalling track record for the Cleveland-based developer whose projects have frequently been the subject of state and federal corruption indictments.
Murtagh will share his unique insights into the business practices of Forest City/Ratner and the implications for New Rochelle in the wake of the City Council’s recent 7-0 vote to move forward with an MOU extension for Forest City/Ratner’s proposed Echo Bay Development in New Rochelle.
Murtagh opposed the Ridge High project and testified in the public corruption trial of Sandy Annabi and Zehy Jereis where the pair were convicted of bribery and corruption charges.
At the time, Murtagh said that Forest City Ratner has “little or no regard for public opinion”, adding “Their entire business model is to exploit every tax loophole and taxpayer-funded subsidy that they can. Promise the world and deliver far less, and do it all by manipulation.”
John Murtagh was the Republican candidate for Mayor of Yonkers in 2011. He served two terms on the Yonkers City Council. Earlier this year he joined the White Plains law firm Gaines, Gruner, Ponzini & Novick as a senior counsel.
As a child, Murtagh and his family were targeted as part of an assassination plot by the Weather Underground to kill his father, a New York State Supreme Court justice was presided over a trial of members of the Black Panther Party who had been indicted in a plot to blow up New York landmarks and department stores.
Also scheduled that night is Republican State Senate Candidate Bob Cohen who is running in the 37th State Senate district.
The event will be held on Tuesday May 22nd at 7:30 p.m. and take place at the American Legion Hall Post 8 at 112 North Avenue in New Rochelle, NY. Parking is available in front of the building and across the street at the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints at 111 North Avenue.
All our welcome. Seating is limited so get their early.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to an error, this article originally stated the date as May 18th. That was incorrect. The event is May 22nd.
5th Avenue Guy — A Few Highlights
Athogh not too heavily attended, it was a fine meeting and I want to express my thanks to Lorraine, Peggy, etc. for setting it up.
Bob Cohen is an impressive guy. He arrived a little late so likely his talk was curtailed.
He was positive in his talk and mentioned his personal philosophy which is essentially “knock on every door” to meet the voters and gain support. He suggested he would be more involved with City affairs to the degree that Home Rule and his assigned role would allow.
He was particulary sensitive to the issue of Property Tax and very much understood the issue of burdensome taxes and the need for additional revenue procurement. He has not lived here long, but expressed amazement at his water bill as well as the high property tax rates in New Rochelle. While cautious in his use of words, he gave the real impression that he would be an active advocate for New Rochelle.
You could sense his frustration at his earlier defeat by Oppenheimer in the last election. He made a point of speaking about unfunded State mandates in education and vowed to work hard to reduce or eliminate some of these.
He only briefly mentioned a piece of George Latimer’s legislation record but took the high road preferring to spead about what he offered as opposed to what his opponent did not.
A formidable guy.
John Murtagh was a revelation and was enthusiastically received by the audience. As you may know his father was a famed and courageous jurist in New York State and handled presigious trials such as the Weathermen, Black Panther and Lenny Bruce. John Jr.is a chip off the old block.
While cautious with his words, he came down pretty substantially against Forest City/Ratner sharing many points of both interest and warning about their dealings in Yonkers and elsewhere. Nothing rose to the limit of being perceived as either accusatiorial or prejorative. He carefully phrased his responses toward the “alleged” or “it could suggest.” Some in the audence, John D’Alois comes readily to mind, offered a good deal of information on his fact gathering on Ratner in Brooklyn and elsehere. It nicely dovetailed with Murtagh’s earlier comments where he listed a series of politicians, for example, Carl Kruger of Brookyn, who are now serving sentences and all who have been associated with Ratner.
I ventured the opinion that the trial in Yonkers suggested to me that Forest City/Ratner were “unindicted co-conspirators.” He smiled and I took that, perhaps wishfully, as an agreement.
He kept on the theme of citizen involvement. He reinforced what a number of us have been saying — active advocacy and alleged that the power of collective neighborhhood associations would be very effective.
Someone in the audience wanted John to speak to te assemblage at the citizen’s portion of the Council Meeetings. Of course he cannot and should not do that, but we learned enought to be sharper in this effort going forward.
The evening closed with an unexpected update by Ron Tocci on his group’s work on the Armory. It was very impressive. His points covered what many of us have talked about for over a year. It is sound and deserves full community support. More will come from this in the future and I urge all readers to pay particular attention to what will appear in this teams project plan.
He covered a number of other subjects but I would prefer not to put words or interpretations in his mouth. He will do this for himself. I will say two things on this point: (1) he was, as always respectful of City governance whether in agreement or otherwise and (2) concerning the DPW yard, think of what you know or have heard about the old Tuck Tape area abutting the Echo Bay area. I want ot close with our good friend, Bob Cox, in attendance and Bob had a comment on this and other matters and he, too Fifth Avenue Guy and others, is more than capable of speaking for himself and likely will.
Bob was very organized, prepared, and was not the rabid beast some in the City point him out ot be. He was journalistic, factual, spoke to Ron and other’s views and I would very much like to get his perspective on his observations.
I will close with a very private, personal opinion and not one based on any factual knowledge on hand. Here goes.
I don’t think Echo Bay will be put into play by year end at lesst through Forest City/Ratner. I think it will not receive a super majority, perhaps not even a majority vote by Council. They are more involved with the conditional consequences of approving thi MOU based on funding, community sensitiment, and other measures. I think it is more as a favor to Noam to proceed and that is fine. Keep in mind that this effort is much too small to warrant the normal Forest City attention unless there is some “shadow deal” on some other developmental opportunity. If so, that puts the DPW yard back in play and I see no reason why an enlghtened council can weigh without pressure the obvious disadvantages of Beechwoold.
Shari, on your radio comments on Forest City firing the two executives involved in Ridge Hill, respectfuly, that is not the case. They resigned to form a ‘partnership consulting firm” and its like an onion…. peel it carefully and you will see some proprietary or contractual business relationship with Ratner. My comment.. fine, but not here.
Again, get off your duff and huff and puff and support the Armory committee who have put together WINNER. Thanks to Peggy, Lorraine, Joyce, Bob Cox and Bob McCaffrey in attendance, John D’?Alos and msot of all, the two excellent speakers and the good legionnaires for their hospitality. I am sure that Ron and friends will have made an appropriate place in the Armory for paying homage for past and present men and women who serve. And people, as an interesting review, check the City Council meeting tape of a few months earlier and listen to Abe Napersenk.
Abe, of Forest City/Ratner was very effective and pretty open with his comment. Pay attention to what he said about maintaining the integrity of the Armory domain and especially, the parking issues. He made some concessions to public parking possibiiites for the Armory in the spaces provided for the proposed commercial and residential facilities.
And, to my recent oft-cited point of a potentially outstanding City Council, see how correctly Ivar Hyden positioned the Armory as the primary and not secondary clause (emphasis) of Echo Bay. He correctly sees its potential to lead or draw people to the commercial shops and even I think, the businesses on the other side of East Main. May get my pedestrian bridge at some point.
Hope this helps Fifth Avenue Guy.
Anyone go on Tuesday night or know what was said?
Anyone go on Tuesday night or know what was said?
I’m surprised there’s no write-up or follow-up. Kind of like how the story on Judge Kettner’s political contributions fell to the way side. I guess she got off or the allegations weren’t correct or serious enough to bring charges.
I know there’s not a lot of local news lately as there’s been way too many obituaries.
New Rochelle citizens need to speak up and stay informed!
I went the other night. Not much more was said that we didn’t already know. Only the information came from a source that has had past dealings with Forest City and their antics. The main point I came away with is that the citizens of New Rochelle need to step up and get involved. Our voices need to be heard. If we don’t keep pushing for The Mayor and City Manager to look at other options, it will be just another development that Forest City finessed it way into by donations and back room politics. New Rochelle has no ethics rules on the books. They can paint a horse white with black strips and call it a zebra, but in the end it is still a horse. Perception was that you have a beautiful zebra. Sorry, a little stained but still a horse.
Forest City Ratner is Westchester’s own Al Capone in real estate and development. Only thing is, we don’t have a team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables to help us out. They can’t tie any of the Ridge Hill and political corruption to Forest City Who Ever. They make sure of that. They even cooperated with the prosecutor so they come off as not having anything to do with it. It was someone else’s fault and they left the company for better opportunities. Like their own lobbyist company or consulting firm. That is how their empire survives making all of the sweet heart deals with municipalities like New Rochelle, Brooklyn and Yonkers. Like oil and water, keep the mixture moving and you see nothing wrong with the fresh made salad dressing. When you have used what you need, you move on to another course and the dressing is left alone to settle by itself on the side. The oil and water separate and you have two no longer viable byproducts. Water that can’t be drunk and oil that has been wasted. You have invested your money and time and are left with a mixture that still needs work or is thrown out. I guess we have a new Teflon don. Like Al Capone, Forest City will eventually slip up and get caught playing games. The intelligent thing to do is not go near Forest City or any other subsidy of the company. Eventually the dust will settle and the truth will come out. Look at the number of politicians that have been found guilty of corruption and fraud just in the last year.
Sorry, perception is everything and New Rochelle needs to walk, no run away while we still have a chance. There are other viable options out there that can work. Some have already been stated. Some are even interesting possibilities and should be looked at as stated by some. We have been going about this all wrong and need to put the brakes on and cut our losses. Get a fresh start like with the RFP’s for the Armory. Make smart choices and decisions. Be known for that rather than the failures of the past and present.
“Common Sense for the Common Good”
New Rochelle needs better Life Guards/Better Council Judgment!
We have a Mayor and City Manager that want a water front. The only problem is they keep missing the boat. So we continue to be up a creek without a paddle. While the citizens of New Rochelle struggle to keep their heads above water and swim against the tide, the developers and the politicians go boating and sit by the pool. Forest City was given a nine month free membership extension for the MOU Shore Club. The Citizens of New Rochelle were given a nine month life preserver. That preserver has a slow leak so we have not been saved and aren’t out of the water yet. Now it is up to the citizens to step up and learn to swim before there is no coming back up for air. The City Council has not proven that they can swim by themselves in the deep end. Look at what poor choices they have already made. Improve the neglected old club called Downtown New Rochelle. Fix and polish Downtown New Rochelle before you even attempt to venture out into deeper waters in the swamps of Echo Bay. Wake up before it is too late or we will be having memorial service to remember the sinking of New Rochelle and not the historic 325th Anniversary next year. Make sure you try to get to Citizens To Be Heard on Tuesday May 15th at 7:30. If you can’t make it at least write a note to your City Council Member to voice your concerns. We can make a difference but we need to move now.
Murtagh Meeting
Old Timer, thank you for your post. I am making some progress. I attended Lou Trangucci’s community meeting last week albeit briefly and I am going to try to speak at the Citizens to be Heard on May 15. I have more than 3 minutes of words and will leave copies with the City Clerk and if anyone likes what they hear they can contact me at Yowlse@optonline.net. If I cannot make it, copies will still be available.
But the big news is Mr Murtagh. I remember his father very well and clearly the apple has not fallen far from the tree in this household. He is a gift to our community and it will be interesting to hear what he has to say, his take on Judge McMahon’s seeming issues with the prosection (think that his her name) and other matters.
I see Forest Hill under whatever pseudonym literally as an unindicted co-conspirator. I attribute this in part to a very ambitious US Attorney looking to build further on his record.
I may not be as vocal as usual, but I am really going to give this a shot. People like you, John, Bob Mc, Bob C and many of the people who live via alias for good reason, are the heart of this community.
The victory is in sight although I will fight it in my way which is as compassionately as I can. Know that inside I am as furious and angry as the next person.
Once more, thank you for the kind wordsm of invitation and whoever wants a copy of what I am doing need only to ask. Of course I will post it after May 15, but I still leave the option open.
Hope to see you soon.
warren
I hope Warren can weigh in
I request every New Rochellian to contact their council representative and implore them to attend. If the council is interested in gathering information before deciding New Rochelle’s future they will sit front & center and listen intently. I know Warren has taken a medical leave but I’m sure he reads TOTS as often as possible. Warren, if you are well enough, please weigh in. Council absence disrespects their constituents and the city as a whole. We hear all council members promoting “one city” while attempting to break down the “north / south divide”. If their bond is their word all council members, including Mayor Bramson, will attend.
This is HUGE
This is important because we will now hear from someone from outside of New Rochelle who has experienced the machinations of Forest City first hand. I urge all to her what Mr Murtaugh has to say to help inform New Rochelle about the path before us. Don’t miss it.
Mayor and Council
We the Concerned Citizens, Should request, Councilmen and women to attend this meeting.
Better yet lets insist !
They can draw there own conclusions. But at least be informed, Not led around on a leash By Mayor Bramson.