A LETTER TO THE GAZETTE FROM PAUL STEINBERG..............
To the editor:
David Hume said that free will is the most difficult of the metaphysical questions, but Hume never lived in Croton. It may be true that “nobody is being forced to live here” and yet eight thousand people do live here. Most of them quietly pay their steep property taxes, shovel their sidewalk in the winter, and don’t ask questions. On occasion some of those eight thousand are curious as to what is going on inside the offices of the Municipal Building. New apartment construction is one of those instances of resident inquisitiveness.
I personally think that development of Lot A is a good idea. Some people disagree, and that is where a community-oriented government would put the options on the table and work to build a consensus. When those running the government believe that residents are best seen and not heard, there is no transparency, let alone consensus.
Croton government has a history of operating in the shadows, particularly when it comes to real property decisions. Lot A continues this tradition. In response to a solicitation, the village got proposed development options for Lot A. What was proposed? Nobody knows. We are told that a particular developer had a proposal which was selected by a task force and that the Croton Board of Trustees is engaged in “present or imminent contract awards” for development of the property.
What are the details? What was in the rejected proposal? Is the contract presently awarded, or is it imminent? If the latter, how “imminent” is the award?
In a government lacking transparency, it is common to use the Freedom of Information Law to get the data necessary for informed citizen participation. Unfortunately the folks who run Croton believe in neither freedom of information nor in citizen participation. So it is not surprising when in response to a journalist’s inquiry, the village refused to disclose the proposals to develop Lot A.
The technicalities of the village refusal are based on Public Officers Law section 87(2)(c). But let us remember a critical point: the decision to keep residents in the dark is a choice made by the Village Manager, and he serves at the pleasure of the Mayor and Board of Trustees. Leaving aside the merits of the FOIL rejection, the fact is that the people who run our village have made a choice to keep us in the dark.
At some point in the “imminent” future, our rulers will present us with a fait accompli and there will be no legal basis for keeping the Lot A development documents secret. Of course by then our input will not matter. Some might argue that our input wouldn’t matter anyway, but it might be nice for appearance sake to pretend that we have a say in large-scale housing developments which will—for better or worse—become a permanent part of our village.
The Mayor is correct: Nobody is being forced to live in Croton. Nor is anyone forcing the Mayor and Village Manager to govern in secret. The FOIL law does not prevent disclosure of the Lot A proposals. Refusal to disclose the imminent development plans (and rejected development plans) for the village-owned land is a choice made by the Village Manager and trustees.
--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson
David Hume said that free will is the most difficult of the metaphysical questions, but Hume never lived in Croton. It may be true that “nobody is being forced to live here” and yet eight thousand people do live here. Most of them quietly pay their steep property taxes, shovel their sidewalk in the winter, and don’t ask questions. On occasion some of those eight thousand are curious as to what is going on inside the offices of the Municipal Building. New apartment construction is one of those instances of resident inquisitiveness.
I personally think that development of Lot A is a good idea. Some people disagree, and that is where a community-oriented government would put the options on the table and work to build a consensus. When those running the government believe that residents are best seen and not heard, there is no transparency, let alone consensus.
Croton government has a history of operating in the shadows, particularly when it comes to real property decisions. Lot A continues this tradition. In response to a solicitation, the village got proposed development options for Lot A. What was proposed? Nobody knows. We are told that a particular developer had a proposal which was selected by a task force and that the Croton Board of Trustees is engaged in “present or imminent contract awards” for development of the property.
What are the details? What was in the rejected proposal? Is the contract presently awarded, or is it imminent? If the latter, how “imminent” is the award?
In a government lacking transparency, it is common to use the Freedom of Information Law to get the data necessary for informed citizen participation. Unfortunately the folks who run Croton believe in neither freedom of information nor in citizen participation. So it is not surprising when in response to a journalist’s inquiry, the village refused to disclose the proposals to develop Lot A.
The technicalities of the village refusal are based on Public Officers Law section 87(2)(c). But let us remember a critical point: the decision to keep residents in the dark is a choice made by the Village Manager, and he serves at the pleasure of the Mayor and Board of Trustees. Leaving aside the merits of the FOIL rejection, the fact is that the people who run our village have made a choice to keep us in the dark.
At some point in the “imminent” future, our rulers will present us with a fait accompli and there will be no legal basis for keeping the Lot A development documents secret. Of course by then our input will not matter. Some might argue that our input wouldn’t matter anyway, but it might be nice for appearance sake to pretend that we have a say in large-scale housing developments which will—for better or worse—become a permanent part of our village.
The Mayor is correct: Nobody is being forced to live in Croton. Nor is anyone forcing the Mayor and Village Manager to govern in secret. The FOIL law does not prevent disclosure of the Lot A proposals. Refusal to disclose the imminent development plans (and rejected development plans) for the village-owned land is a choice made by the Village Manager and trustees.
--Paul Steinberg, Croton-on-Hudson
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Another great letter from Paul Steinberg, and there's one with a related theme by Myra Oney that is also very good.
ReplyDeleteyeah but they don't care.
ReplyDelete