5-1-18 meeting
Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: City Council
Forum Description: Discuss individual members and council as a legislative body.
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6746
Printed Date: Nov 24 2024 at 8:10am
Topic: 5-1-18 meeting
Posted By: MattR
Subject: 5-1-18 meeting
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 1:29pm
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This is not a criticism of council, they did an honorable thing regarding the Vickers contract. I hope, however, that the judge will allow me to show the video of the 5-1 meetingto the jury so they can get a sense of what it is like to work the squirrel cage that is One Donham Plaza. The looks on the council members faces says it all.
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Replies:
Posted By: middletownscouter
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 2:10pm
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At what point in the meeting did this occur? Trying to find it in the youtube feed. ------------- There are two types of people: those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don't talk at all, 'cause they walkin.' |
Posted By: middletownscouter
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 2:19pm
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Nevermind, I found it about 53 minutes into the youtube video. ------------- There are two types of people: those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don't talk at all, 'cause they walkin.' |
Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 4:53pm
| Whomever at the City authorized this work to commerce WITHOUT City Council approval needs to be fired ASAP. |
Posted By: Analytical
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 5:35pm
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Matt R, thanks for exposing this example of Doug Adkins and Kyle Fooks "AMATEURISH HANDLING" of the Strand-Studio Theater demolition and the ADDED EXPENSE OF $157,100+ IN CITY FUNDS. And. Middletown Scouter, thank you for identifying the exact timing of this EMBARRASSING SEGMENT of YouTube's video of last Tuesday's city council meeting. It's DISTURBING watching Doug Adkins throw Kyle Fooks under the bus and EMPHASIZING his absence (during this crisis) due to a two-week Hawaii vacation. Are we to believe that Community Revitalization Department staff were all CLUELESS in his absence? And, with a "GIVE ME THE POWER AND I'll MAKE THINGS HAPPEN" city manager, how is this possible? After all, two recent "FLUFF STORIES" from Eddie Richter includes quotes from these senior city staff members detailing contract signings, notices to proceed, humorous explanations for cancelling contracts, concerns over water damage to Mike Robinette's adjacent property, etc., etc.! It's disturbing that Adkins apparently is unaware of city charter requirements governing the award of contracts and city council approvals. To say that the original approved contractor and later Vickers Wrecking were given notices to proceed is bad municipal government management practice at the least. How sad that only Steve Bohannon was active in seeking facts from Doug Adkins at the council meeting. Ami Vitori, Joe Mulligan, Talbott Moon and Larry Mulligan were notably silent for the most part. Provided hereafter for your reading pleasure is information that summarizes the failure of Adkins and Fooks. Maybe some MUSA registered members and guests will pay more attention this time?
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Posted By: Analytical
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 5:41pm
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Posted: 4 hours 52 minutes ago at 5:08pmPosted By: Analytical
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 5:46pm
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MIDDLETOWN CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS Please explain how a $485,000 contract with Vickers Wrecking to demolish the Strand-Studio Theater DOES NOT require your authorization? Additionally, your March 6, March 20, April 3 and April 17 city council meetings DO NOT include any consent agenda item for this purpose. The citizens of Middletown deserve to know more about this curious matter!
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Posted By: Analytical
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 6:12pm
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For those naysayers and city shills, you've been provided with a treasure trove of factual information on questionable city actions over the past nine years by Vivian Moon, VietVet, Buddhalite, Matt R, Acclaro, Mike Presta, Spiderjohn, Whistlersmom, myself, etc. This latest public escapade ought to raise serious doubts as to the ability of Adkins and Fooks to continue to manage (let alone plan) housing & community development activities. The sad state of certain, much discussed city-subsidized "downtown" deals speaks much of the ability of some senior city staff to undertake successful projects on a highest/best use and cost-effective basis. How much longer are the citizens to wait for the oft-promised renaissance to arrive and at what ultimate cost? It was recently suggested to me that the Middletown USA Blog might be on its' last legs. Given the pathetic performance of the Middletown Journal and other "sanitized news" emanating from One Donham Plaza, the efforts of John Beagle and co-workers is your only source for independent thought and public scrutiny. While Mike Robinette has the ear of Doug Adkins regarding Strand-Studio Theater water seepage into his Liberty Spirits building, what's the status of his promised Phase II Plan for the former city-owned property in the 1300 block of Central Avenue that Doug Adkins proposed and city council approved for the lofty amount of $1.00? Will the soon-to-be cleared theater real estate also be conveyed for $1.00 to Mr. Robinette? Lastly, Steve Bohannon appears to be the only current city council member who is genuinely concerned with legitimate oversight of One Donham Abbey priorities, policies, programs and plans. He alone deserves your full support.
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Posted By: Analytical
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 7:15pm
Excellent comment, swohio75. Now, it's high time for City Council to finally begin providing legitimate oversight of One Donham Abbey operations. Thanks to Steve Bohannon for speaking out on behalf of Middletown citizens. Doug Adkins performance in explaining this fiasco was rather disappointing for a decently-paid city manager.
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"Originally posted by swohio75";"swohio75 wrote:Posted By: whistlersmom
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 8:04pm
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Actually Doug Adkins was hired having NO EXPERIENCE as a city manager and has been PROGRESSIVELY OVER PAID. ------------- "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing" Edmond Burke |
Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: May 04 2018 at 9:05am
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This whole fiasco is embarrassing. The original council
packet posted toward the end of last week did not include this piece of legislation. https://www.cityofmiddletown.org/AgendaCenter/PreviousVersions/_05012018-215" rel="nofollow - https://www.cityofmiddletown.org/AgendaCenter/PreviousVersions/_05012018-215 Not sure when it was updated, but I can tell you the packet wasn’t uploaded until Friday or Saturday. The
original article in the J-N with the bid amounts ran back on March 16. There
were THREE Council meetings between
the article and the last May 1 meeting.
You mean to tell me staff was unable to draw up legislation for council
to consider PRIOR to May 1 but staff was able to authorize work to commence? It’s also worth noting that the repair to the roof to stop the
damage was under $100,000. Yet the city
decided to proceed with the demo order. Also to note: - It was under Mike Robinette’s tenure that the
city acquired the Studio in a back-door deal with the Finkleman family and property
around the train station. -
The city sat on the property without actively
soliciting bids until the last six to nine months - The city repeatedly has stated that this
building does not qualify for and is not a listing on the NRHP which is a FALSE
statement. |
Posted By: buddhalite
Date Posted: May 04 2018 at 3:01pm
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What a travesty. Council should fire Adkins and any/all personnel involved in this matter immediately. There is no good reason or purpose to this - but....I just gotta know.....what happened that made this old decrepit crap-hole of a building so important so fast? Did Robinette want the property that bad? It's bad enough that due to deception, lies and using the cloak of 'redevelopment' that the taxpayer has to be on the hook for this - but to hike the price 50% overnight due to a 'timeline' issue when this property has been vacant all my life is preposterous. Fire Adkins - and his ilk. It's time. I'm working on a campaign slogan for my run for Mayor in 2019. I'm thinking - "Vote for NO!LAN - the candidate of NO!" Nice play on my name, eh? It's time my friends to rise up and slay the beast that is One Donham Albatross. The majority of seats up for election in '19 - who's going to join me? ------------- "Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions." -Ludwig van Mises |
Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: May 04 2018 at 5:16pm
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I'd never vote for the
"No" candidate. It's so short-sighted. I don't disagree with Adkins in every
situation. However, this alone does make me lose
confidence. In a nutshell from what I understand: 1.)
Both Mike in his
capacity as ED Director and Judy in her role as City Manager thought there was
too much obsolete commercial space in the downtown area. A rough downtown
master plan has commercial development focused west of Clinton (I believe)
and up near the train station, which was positioned become passenger rail again
under Obama’s American Reinvestment Act 2.)
City wanted a piece of
property up by train station owned by Finklemans 3.)
Studio Theater was considered
blight and obsolete due to lack of maintenance and care by Finkleman family 4.)
Trade was done with the Finklemans—took
property off hands in exchange for property near the station 5.)
City anticipated large $
from Neighborhood Stabilization Funds—of which a portion would be used to demo Studio 6.)
City did not receive funding
but was stuck with the building 7.)
Robinette acquired building
one-level, three storefront building attached the Studio (Liberty
Spirits). This building was not owned by
the city and not given to Robinette by the end. 8.)
Studio continued to
deteriorate under city ownership to the point where roof and heavy rains are/were
damaging Robinette’s property |
Posted By: Analytical
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 4:00am
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SWOhio 75 - In response to your preceding post, please consider the following verifiable timeline facts: 1) Via the HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), the city received $2,100,000+ in Round One funds through an "automatic formula allocation". 2) Later on, when a Round Two competitive application was submitted to HUD for $20,000,000+/-, it was denied since senior city staff failed to spend Round One funding on a timely basis. In fact, most of the documented highly wasteful citywide residential purchase-rehab-resale and destructive Ward 2 mega residential demolition blitzkrieg programs had not yet been significantly commenced. 3) Your premise that Judy (Gilleland) acquired the Strand-Studio Theater property for $1.00 because of its' proximity to the hoped for high speed passenger rail depot and the likelihood of millions in additional NSP funding is interesting. HUD does not and never will continue providing additional funding for its' grantees if any recipient cannot prove capacity in undertaking original funded project activities. And, just how close is the Strand-Studio Theater to the former railroad passenger station anyway? 4) It should never be forgotten that $220,000+ of these original NSP "residential foreclosure prevention funds" were siphoned off to acquire/demolish Barb's Pub and a Central Ave. storefront mission in the 1300 block of Central Ave. As is known, these properties plus the Vail Avenue woodworking shop ($90,000 city purchase price) were later sold to Liberty Spirits LLC for only $1.00. $1.00. Addendum How fortunate that Vivian Moon obtained NSP financial records from former Finance Director Russ Carolus. Sadly, when she and others raised some ultra thorny questions, the two most involved senior city staff failed to respond.
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Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 1:30pm
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hey swo75---you remember well the Finkleman/OfficeOutfitter/Clark station/pool hall swap with Duncan-----can you guesstimate how much this failed swindle cost the taxpayer from initial Duncan deal to it's ending(including land swaps, legal hours and city employee wrangling)with exactly what to show for it all. Amazingly I was contacted back then, inquiring if I would close my Central business location to manage the proposed Duncan strip center(initially planned for the Office Outfitter/Finkleman tracts! Can you iimagine my response, esp considering the possible impact on my business? |