Saturday, May 3, 2014

DEVELOPER RULES AND CANDIDATE INTIMIDATION

SPOILER ALERT:

Tonight at Fort Erie Town Council, developer Ed Lenchyshyn (Friend of Dougie and campaign donor) has asked for and will probably get, a zoning change to allow his company, Park Lane Homes to cram townhouses on a parcel of land on Rebstock Road.

Listen in or attend the meeting as nearby residents express their opposition to the plan. 

Ed Lenchyshyn has publicly bragged that he can get anything he wants in Fort Erie.

UPDATE: Despite dire warnings of an expensive OMB appeal, council did not approve the shortened set-back of a proposed town house development on Rebstock Road. Neighbours of the proposed site of the development cited that when they built their homes, the set-back was much deeper than what Park Lane Homes requested. They feel that the development will not be in character or at the same level as all the other homes on large lots in the block between Ridge Road and Rebstock Road. The proposal is for 23 units on a large lot, although set-backs and space between units is much smaller than earlier zoning requires. A similar development on Hibbard Street raised the concerns of neighbours as due to an "error" the set-back was far less than the zoning required.

I think Donnie Lubberts showed great courage in standing up for his constituents. Mayor Martin got all pissy once again and Stephen Passero dragged out his Eddie Haskell persona to make sure that everyone knew he was a candidate for something.



Re: Candidate Intimidation

I thought that Fort Erie had a lock on candidate intimidation.  It seems that the Town of Pelham has gone after a candidate for excessive Freedom of Information requests.

In an article published in the Welland Tribune, the Town of Pelham has sued former employee and council candidate Tara Druzina for $20,000 for breaching an agreement made when she left her job in late 2013.

Since I am only going by what is published in the article, my opinion is that Ms. Druzina is looking for the answers to a lot of questions she has about the Fenwick beutification project and a Fonthill development plan and getting stonewalled by TPTB in Pelham.  Her earlier request for six FOIs was granted by the town, but a subsequent request for six more prompted the lawsuit.

In her termination agreement, Druzina received $20,000 severance "and was required in 

return to not interfere with Pelham's operations or business practices" according to the 

article written by Maryanne Firth.


In the letter she received informing her of the lawsuit:



“It is evident that your requests are part of a pattern of 
conduct that amounts to an abuse of the right of access
and would interfere with the operations of the Town,” 
the letter reads.
“In addition, given the nature of your requests in view of
 recent past experience with you, therequests are
 regarded as having been made in bad faith and for a
 purpose other than to obtain access.”

How jacked up is this lawsuit?  


12 comments:

  1. Watched the White House Correspondents Dinner last night and Rob Ford was even the butt of jokes at that venue.

    "Welcome to DC, the home of the first crackhead mayor." The emcee (Joel McHale) went on to a couple more jokes at Ford's expense.

    This is why Rob Ford needs to step down - permanently. He has brought a lot of negative attention to Toronto which is now the subject of endless jokes and derision. It is beyond whether he did a good job or not; it is a matter of a city's reputation and economic future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. CorruptionFighterMay 5, 2014 at 9:17 AM

    another concerned citizen has recently posted Jimmy T bags association with the White Mountain Academy for the Arts (you don`t want that out do ya jimmie...).

    She has an equally low opinion of him`and seems to wonder how he has manged to burrow in so deep around here with his questionable schemes that cost us so much for almost nothing in return while answering to no one.

    Just one of many WTF`s that I wonder about locally. Many people have called FE stupid and I have always defended the town but I`m starting to think they`re right. What other explanation can you have for the obvious graft greed corruption and lunacy we have here. Just take one glance at our 2 so called leaders, dougie n jimmie as that is enough for anyone of half decent morals and intelligence.

    You might want to go back a couple issues Madam Editor to read for yourself and or re post.

    Oh and btw there is no way the Dark Side Asswipes, ol boys club, Chamber of Horrors or their cling ons and wannabes are practicing candidate intimidation here.....yeah right, it`s been in overdrive, no better re phrase that, hyperdrive for almost 4 years now .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I saw that. Working on a new post with one of the original snoop sisters. She has taken offence at remarks by Jim Thibert in Niagara This Week print edition regarding the reason for the scrapping of the slots program at Fort The Auditor General's report states that "the impetus for scrapping the program was a lack of oversight on how track operators and municipalities were spending their 20 per cent cut of the slots revenue." There were only "guidelines" in place.

      Thibert said, "profits from the local track stay local."

      "There is no big pool of money that went back to Israel, or went into someone's pocket, and I'm really insulted that they've taken that approach."

      Really, Jim? How can you say that when most of the money ($2 million from province; and millions from the Town of Fort Erie) is paid directly to Nordic El-Ad, owned by Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tsuva.

      Jim seems to be using code to distance himself from the Israeli owner. He's also trying to blame everyone but himself for the failures of his hobby race track. Part of the reason the slots were pulled was that they were not making enough money and that money was being used whatever way the town/operators wanted.

      Great business acumen there, Jimmie. Could the auditor general not be pleased with your track's financials?

      Delete
    2. CorruptionFighterMay 5, 2014 at 11:33 AM

      personally I love working my a$$ off so various levels of government can take anywhere from one third to one half my hard earned wages to give to jimmie n dougie so they can give it to rich not even local billionaires.

      Works for them, just doesn`t work for the other 99 per cent or so of us. WAKE THE F"CK UP FE.....you work ur ass off so they can waste it on their very rich friends and themselves. We are just their slaves with a tiny chance every 4 years to hold them accountable.

      Delete
  3. A question has to be asked. WTF is going on??????

    This Political degeneration between two blogs is absolutely insane.

    Where doe the average citizen turn for some legitimate, honest, unbiased debate or information.

    The Ninja site is irresponsible beyond control. They broke away from another site, then totally trashed their former friends.

    This site is not particularly different.

    WHERE can a concerned Fort Erie resident get unbiased, truthful information in this town?

    Think about it ...... not a Dumb Question.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Frank - Create your own site, go to town meetings and any other meetings that allow public members in and if you can volunteer in some. Good Luck.

      Delete
  4. I agree with you Frank. I've been following both sites and have concluded that we should toss out the lot and star with a fresh slate.

    ReplyDelete
  5. CorruptionFighterMay 5, 2014 at 8:24 PM

    good question Frank......I for one am not taking being ripped off lied too or threatened any longer....so if you`re possibly waiting for some sort of apology for my anger. don`t hold your breath.....as for unbiased opinion, just try and see if the dark side pricks that have run this town into the ground forever will even publish your statement.

    You want unbiased,(but angry) your here. None of us here has anything to gain except saving a beach and maybe a town.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The problem I believe nobody had a clue on Town Council what to do with the millions flowing into the Town via the Slots program, when it was good I remember some years we had $5 million dollars coming in, The Town decided to go on a hiring spree , hiring a lot of high priced , out of Town people , to tell us what to do with our own money, The Town Council of the day only had to look around to see what we needed here, just take off the blinders and see, we needed serious upgrades to the Fire Halls , The Town could use at least three larger swimming pools and splash pads at the various Parks, the Towns debt of 9 million dollars could have been paid off, also our Transit system is none existent. We could have bought the entire Fort Erie Race Track and have a Fairgrounds like Erie County Fairgrounds in New York State. The money just dribbled away , and the Province knows this, and they don't trust us, to do the right thing. We are a poster child of what not to do with a windfall.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just listening to council in committee meeting and the politicking has begun in earnest. Wow. The development on Rebstock is on the docket. Looks like the council is caught between a rock and a hard place. If the council sides with the neighbours and rejects the staff recommendation, there is the obvious threat of the OMB and we know what the OMB's track record is like. The conflict comes down to whether the zoning by-law takes precedence over a developer's desires.

    As we have seen before, present zoning by-laws mean nothing when a developer wants something else. If the council turns down the zoning change, they will face the OMB because developers usually have money to take it to the developer-friendly OMB.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sharon you are correct, the Town will lose at the OMB, the best the Town can do is to come to an agreement with the developer to change the scope of the plan. Either way the homes will be built the question is how to make it more acceptable to the neighbours.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What is happening in Rebstock Road has happened before, exactly the same deal, also the same builder, it went to the OMB, and the people won, so Ed had to keep his lot's the same size as the neighbourhood. He did get to sneak in a" cul-de-sac" in, and those people will have no fire service as the trucks are unable to go in there. Rick Shuler, Paul Fell and Redekop broke another decision of the OMB. Anne Marie was outvoted. Ed caused raw sewage to be pumped into Black Creek.a violation of the Clean Waters Act.

    ReplyDelete

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