It looks like Fadde, Bowman and their friend Molloy have risked taxpayers over $7,500 through poor contract management and an inability to manage money, and yep! You guessed it, they want to blame me for it.

It appears Trustee Bowman & the PCN&R would have you believe that financial consequences of the Village Board’s change in consulting services are mine to pay.   

They would be wrong.

I have no personal liability for Trustee Bowman’s or Trustee Fadde's questionable financial initiatives that appear to be in service to their personal and political agendas.

Unfortunately, the Village as a whole appears to bear that burden.

We should all be watching closely as they continue to sponsor actions that can cost our Village time, money and quality service, and continue to oppose initiatives that represent real savings, meaningful service, real revenues & efficiencies!

***

As a consequence of replacing planning consultant, GreenPlan, with Barton & Logiudice for work on the NYSERDA grant / Code Update project, the Village received a bill from GreenPlan for more than $7,500 for the work involved in preparing the grant application.  

At last night's meeting the Village Board took advice of counsel on the matter.

(Watch the video of last night's meeting here.)

Thereafter, the Village Board voted to table the matter so the Village Attorney can reach out to GreenPlan in an effort to settle the dispute.

Unhappy with the consequences of his and Trustee Fadde's initiative to replace GreenPlan  (the professional consultant unanimously voted on by the Village Board in July of 2013) with the now-discredited Barton & Logiudice, and unhappy with the legal advice from the Village attorney,  BUT unwilling to take responsibility for those consequences, Trustee Bowman voted against settling the dispute ....

….but not before clumsily attempting to shift blame away from himself and Trustee Faddee –  and onto me – by asking for  Mike Armstrong’s well-known opinion of a funding opportunity he and his colleagues on the Special Board asked the Village Board to secure in service to their continued work.

…and not before suggesting I should ‘get out my checkbook’ and pay for GreenPlan’s bill myself. 

Our Village doesn’t have time or money to indulge anyone’s squandering of our Village’s limited resources:  our taxes , our staff’s time, our real property or the hard work of our volunteers.

Of course, I responded.  Dumbass:  Not as precise a word as it might have been – but it sufficiently conveys my opinion of Trustee Bowman’s financial acumen relative to this matter.

***

On June 27^, 2013, the Special Board discussed funding needs for completion of our Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan, its suspension of further work on the LWRP, and it voted to notify the Village Board of available funding thru the New York State Consolidated Funding Application process  - deadline for which was August 12. (Minutes of that meeting are here.)

At the Village Board Monthly Meeting on July 9, 2013,  Mike Armstrong, Chair of the Special Board pointed out that funding to draft land use laws is available through the Consolidated Funding Application. Armstrong reported to the Village Board that Ted Fink of GreenPlan offered his services in preparation of that application.  IMPORTANT NOTE:  If he believed at the time the Village Board should not accept Fink’s offer, Armstrong remained silent.  (Minutes of that meeting are here.)

At its workshop on July 25, 2013, the Village Board voted unanimously (including Mayor Falloon & Trustee Campbell) to hire GreenPlan to work on the Code Update Project if GreenPlan's application for the $75,000 NYSERDA grant was successful.   (Minutes of that meeting are here.)  

The grant application was successful.  The Village was awarded the funding.

Both NYSERDA and the Village Attorney confirmed for the Village that an RFP is not required for the hiring of a consultant on this project. 

On a telephone conference call with NYSERDA on July 1, 2014, NYSERDA confirmed again, that an RFP for consulting services is not required for hiring of a consultant on this project.

However, Trustees Bowman & Fadde insisted the Village draw up an RFP for consulting services to replace GreenPlan.   (Minutes of that meeting are here!)

GreenPlan applied.  AKRF applied.  Barton & Logiudice applied.

On October 7, 2014 the Village Board voted 4-1 ( I dissented. ) to hire Molloy's preferred planning consultant, Barton & Logiudice, to replace GreenPlan – again, the professional consultant who had been unanimously voted on by the Village Board in July of 2013. (Minutes of that meeting are here.)

***

If the current composition of the Village Board believes the $75,000 NYSERDA grant for the Code Update project should be declined, the Village Board should vote to do so.  

I am one of 5 votes on the Village Board and Trustee Campbell and Mayor Falloon have demonstrated their openness to persuasion on less critical issues than those that currently serve as political football for Trustees Bowman and Fadde and those around them with similar interests.