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April 20, 2005
Ridge Hill: Pols concerns could hold up land deal
The NY Times, State Comptroller Questions a Yonkers Development Plan
By Michael Slackman
The state's top financial watchdog, Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi, has sharply criticized a plan by Yonkers officials to have a nonprofit corporation, which is free from government oversight and not answerable to voters, control $6.2 million a year generated by a development project.
The Journal News, Speaker may halt land deal
By Michael Gannon
Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, yesterday said he and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon, had advised Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, against signing off on the proposed $8.7 million sale of the property to Ridge Hill Development Corporation — the entity created by the Yonkers IDA to foster development of the site — unless written assurances were made that it directly benefit the city.
Silver's blessing of the sale is needed. His is one of three votes on the Public Authorities Control Board, the state entity that must unanimously sign off on the sale. The board, also including representatives of Republican Gov. George Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Rensselaer, is scheduled to vote on the sale today.
NoLandGrab: Forest City Ratner (FCR) spokespersons are busy claiming to be a separate entity from the Ridge Hill Development Corporation (RHDC), whose structure and role is now under scrutiny, however there are many connections that indicate otherwise: * The former Mayor's twenty-something son-in-law left the payroll of the RHDC in a storm of protest, only to appear a year later on FCR's. * Last week, joint PR campaigns were launched by FCR and RHDC to drum up support for the deal in the local media. * Negotiations between the two groups have not been subject to the state's open-meetings law. Promises to make records public from quasi-governmental RHDC were made after public outcry for transparency.
WHAT'S THE CONNECTION TO BROOKLYN?
This culture of corporate/government connections has left Brooklynites vulnerable to Ratner, a developer who refuses to meet with the entire community, and to a state that wields the coercive power of eminent domain for a private corporation, not public use. Lack of transparency in these two deal is so rampant that even the NYC's Independent Budget Office claims to not have enough information to analyze a deal that, politicians in support of the plan herald, is a fait accompli.
Posted by lumi at April 20, 2005 7:07 AM