137- Planning Board Public Hearing on Revocation of RUPCO Special Use Permit

The "public hearing" was pretty predictable.  Many people attended, some spoke, mostly complained of RUPCO's illegal and blatant disregard for private property and the terms of their Special Use Permit.  The glaring and disgusting and unfortunately also expected aspect was that Planning Board Chair Paul Shultis, Jr. asked RUPCO personnel to stay away.  Now, it seems as though the point of a public hearing is so that RUPCO can actually HEAR the complaints, however it is obvious that Shultis wants to string this out as long as possible, in order to give RUPCO two more weeks to violate the terms so that they can then, two days later, do what they want, when it becomes legal (Oct. 1).

By way of clarification, the bats are protected on the site until Oct. 1, so by giving RUPCO until Sept. 29 to respond to complaints, the planning board will have only one more day before RUPCO can come around to the other side of the project, which is where they were supposed to be working the last two months.

Woodstock Land Use attorney Drayton Grant was there, sleazy as ever, claiming that she was not prepared to produce the notice of revocation that would be required to get the ball rolling to revoke the special use permit.  She claimed more research on the documents needed to be done.  To this I must counter that this public hearing was set two weeks ago, and any person who was taking this seriously would have prepared by reviewing the documents on the topics of the already alleged violations.

I remember a couple of year ago when I first attended planning board meetings.  My neighbor Iris York told me who all the RUPCO personnel were, and their functions.  Then I asked her who that woman was who frequently showed up and worked for RUPCO.  Iris said that it was Drayton Grant, and that yes, it did appear to an outsider that she does work for RUPCO, not for the town.  She had a great time last night, laughed a lot.  That's because she lives in Rhinebeck, where there are no trucks driving over her property, none of her trees being cut down, no trucks idling in her driveway, etc. Plus, she gets paid, unlike everybody else in the room last night except for RUPCO's attorney.

RUPCO's attorney, Michael Moriello, reported that he was trying very very hard to get the DEC to allow RUPCO to build the bridge over the creek before October 1.  This is the equivalent of trying very very hard to get the DEC to NOT protect an endangered species.  He also said that in his opinion, RUPCO was not violating any terms of the special use permit.  All one has to do is hear that to know that these are NOT people with whom we want to negotiate.

So, of course, at the end of the meeting, Moriello asked Shultis the chair to sit down with the attorney Drayton Grant, and one other planning board member, before Sept. 29, to try to work some things out.  Yes, in the face of violations, the town is going to sit down and negotiate, instead of enforce the terms of the special use permit.

RUPCO is a bunch of bullies, and central to their arguments these days is "responsibility to investors," which seems to have taken the place of their angelic self-representation as providers of affordable housing for the people in need.

Last night, I introduced myself anew to the planning board, citing my professional experience with cars, urban issues, planning, and that experience is ample.  I told the planning board that many lawsuits as a result of accidents would occur, and there I will be, with everything on tape, and ready to repeat everything, and there they will be, called to testify, with no good reason they did not listen to reason and stand up to the violations when they had the chance.  Paul Shultis Jr. once said to me, "What are you going to do to me, Robin, I'm a volunteer!"  Well, volunteer or not, he chose to work on the planning board, to uphold town law, to protect the public safety through his decisions.  So what is going to happen to him and others in the town who cower to the bullies with the deep pockets, is that he will have to face the music when accidents, resulting from these violations, occur, and when legal action against the town, and him, occur.

What nobody is talking about is that what results from violations are accidents.  Sometimes.  Sometimes it is merely a truck running over a lawn, or pollution coming into somebody's house, but the RUPCO that does these violations and does not have any construction oversight is certainly violating codes and regulations in other ways.  And the town should be much more interested in stopping these violations immediately.

I tried to explain this last night.  It appears that Shultis is penny wise pound foolish.  This will result in his being pounded later on, and I will have done my part to prevent it.