APB Archives

REMARKS TO PLANNING COMMISSION (Oct 30 03)

I DELIVERED THESE REMARKS TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION TODAY

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On September 12 I wrote the Chairman to ask whether public testimony would be
accepted in connection with the Elichondo's Bazaar matter, that was continued to October 16. Commission Secretary Lugano telephoned shortly after to say it WOULD be accepted. On October 16, the Chairman first argued with himself about closing testimony, then lost the argument with himself, then imposed a 1-minute limit on speakers. That was wrong. We are entitled to know the rules in advance. We asked. We were told. The Chairman should keep his promise.
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Two Commissioners expressed the outrageous notion that this Commission can force a community planning group to obey orders. You and I know, Mr.
Chairman, that community planning groups are independent of the Commission, and properly so. Commissioners unaware of that simple fact of life or unwilling to respect the integrity of the community planning system are Commissioners unfit to serve.
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One Commissioner was disappointed that the parties had not made progress
between September and October. If you had let us testify that morning, as you
promised we could, we would have told you the situation. To the contrary, Mr.
Chairman, it was the parties who deserved to be disappointed - disappointed that this Commission abandoned its duty; that you asked US to do what you didn't want to do; that you tried to foist your burden onto us. The Commissioner should have been disappointed that you abandoned your duty and exceeded your authority, not that we didn't do your job. The parties were not to blame for this Commission's failures.
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One Commissioner was snidely triumphant, remembering that we, who defended the rules on Euclid Avenue, had earlier asked for deviations for the Central Policy Facility. The smirk was wide and obvious. We know both cases well, Mr. Chairman. We fought both battles. The Commissioner, who wanted deviations at Elichondo's Bazaar, had earlier demanded rigid conformance with the rules at the Central Policy Facility, even delivering herself of a tirade
to the City Council. We made the same recommendation in respect to the Bazaar
that the Commissioner made in respect to the Police Facility. To gripe at us
for doing what she herself did is rank hypocrisy and betrays a bias so intense
that it should have occasioned a recusal.
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The Planning Commission disgraced itself on September 11. It abandoned its duty to make a decision it was appointed to make. It tried to usurp the authority of a community planning group. It took sides in a case before it. It destructively interfered with a position presented by private citizens. It disparaged honest and honorable people who believed in the process, who played by the rules, who treated the issues professionally, who gracefully bore this Commissions' insults, who were entitled to a level of dignity and respect, Chairman Lettieri, less and less often found at THIS Commission's proceedings.

Thank you