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February 23, 2012
In court, former Yonkers Council Member explains why she resisted Forest City's plan: "I truly believe that Ridge Hill had been given a sweetheart deal"
Atlantic Yards Report
An additional $10 million pledge by Forest City, on a project that could cost nearly $700 million, was under scrutiny yesterday.
Was it, as Annabi contends, significant enough to sway her vote and the best deal available, or was it a drop in the bucket? “It was essentially meaningless,” former Council Member John Murtagh said, according to the Journal News.
Former Yonkers Council Member Dee Barbato spoke similarly, using a term common in the Atlantic Yards debate: "I truly believe that Ridge Hill had been given a sweetheart deal."
With Annabi, the two Council Members represented the opposition to the project, and Forest City had to get at least one of them to change their vote.
(The trial continues at 9:30 am with former Council Member Dennis Robertson, who is expected to testify that a Forest City lobbyist told him that Jereis would ensure Annabi's vote if he got a consulting contract. Former Forest City Ratner officials Bruce Bender and Scott Cantone may testify at some point reasonably soon. In the courtroom yesterday afternoon, when I attended, was Forest City's designated lurker.)
Paying the fair share
For the size of the project, at some 80 acres, "the developer really should have and could have paid the appropriate fair share of property taxes," declared Barbato, who represents the district that includes the project.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Halperin asked her to ballpark a figure. The Cross County Shopping Center, Barbato said, was about one-third the size of Ridge Hill and pays $3 million or so in PILOTs (payments in lieu of taxes).
Forest City's property tax pledge, $1.2 million, "was just not sufficient," Barbato said. Based on the Cross County example, Forest City should be paying $9 to $10 million a year--over 30 years.
Related coverage...
The Journal News, 2 Ridge Hill foes testify on Sandy Annabi's vote
Dee Barbato was driving over the Tappan Zee Bridge one day in June 2006 when her colleague on the Yonkers City Council, Sandy Annabi, called her to say she had changed her mind and would vote in favor of one of the biggest developments in the city’s history, the $650 million Ridge Hill project.
“It’s like one of those moments, ‘Where were you when Kennedy was shot?’ ” Barbato recalled Wednesday on the witness stand at the federal corruption trial of Annabi and Zehy Jereis. “My response was: ‘Oh Sandy. Oh no. Don’t do that.’”
...Barbato and Murtagh both testified Wednesday that they had no idea that Annabi had a financial relationship with Jereis, a former chairman of the Yonkers Republican Party, and that Jereis was getting a consulting job with the developer.
Posted by eric at February 23, 2012 12:49 PM