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No Country For Sane Men
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- News That Matters - December 3, 2008
News That Matters
Brought to you by PlanPutnam.Org"They just can't help themselves, can they? Call it "retention pay" or "cash bonuses" or some other euphemism -- but the fact is that your tax dollars are going to reward people who are lucky to even have jobs." - Jonathan Tasini
Good Wednesday Morning,
The Proposed Tilly Foster Contract
Wow. Talk
about a sweetheart deal! Over the past few months, Kent
resident George Whipple has been in discussion with County Executive
Bondi over an idea Mr. W had regarding the management of the Tilly
Foster Farm. Those discussions led to a draft contract, dated November
of
this year which would allow Mr. W to run the farm for 40 years. Sounds
good, no? Here are some of the details of this sweetheart of sweetheart
deals:
Disclaimer: No matter how much my mother wanted me to be one, I am not a lawyer nor have I ever played one on television, radio or stage. In fact, I probably know nothing about the law whatsoever and when it comes to legal things I'm probably just talking out my butt. Keep that in mind while we wend through the legal language of this contract. Any misunderstandings or mistakes are the sole responsibility of the reader and not the writer of this article. That, according to Section 6, subsection A, paragraph 4-E, I'm off the hook for anything that might become a legal issue at any point during the next 40 years whether it has anything to do with me or not. The following is strictly opinion and not meant to be surmised as learned, educated or factually known to the writer. In fact, just consider that this is all an hallucination and that you're really reading Yachting Magazine.
- The county would lease the entirety of Tilly Foster, all the buildings and all the lands to Mr. W until December 21, 2048.
- Mr. W gets to do all the hiring for any position he feels is required to meet his goals. He promises to keep the farm an open public amenity and says that he will meet the county's vision for the farm to the best of his ability.
- Once a year Mr. W will send the Tilly Foster Advisory Board an update on how things are going. There is no other mention of the Board in the contract so I'm guessing they're out of the picture.
- Article III states: The LESSEE [Mr. W] shall not be
required to provide the LESSOR [the County] with a monthly monetary
amount in exchange for the use of the premises. Rather, LESSEE
agrees to the following: (A) To use its best efforts to achieve
self-sufficiency at the Tilly Foster Farm operations as an open public
farm and museum by December 2011..."
- All the equipment at the farm, tractors, watering tanks, sheds, etc., will be there for the sole use of Mr. W and his new enterprise.
- While Mr. W says that the public will be allowed on the property from 10AM to 4PM every day, save holidays (which are not listed or defined), the contract also states that he has the right to decide what type of access and when. [Article 8]
- The contract states that if a fire should occur Mr. W will take care of the damages but if the damages are too great, and his business enterprise cannot continue, he can cancel the contract with 5 days notice and the county ends up with the mess minus the insurance payout. [Article 9-A]
- Article 9-E talks about insurance. In effect, if insurance costs more than $1000 a month the county can, if it wants, shell out for the difference. If not, they can cancel the contract within 20 days.
- Article 10 states that the county is "responsible for the payment of utilities, including electricity, fuel, oil, gas and water. In other words, the taxpayers foot the utility bills for whatever goes on there.
- Article 11 says, "The LESSOR (which is the County) shall maintain said premises, parking areas and sidewalks in good repair and in tenantable condition, during the continuance of this Lease, except in case of damage arising from the willful misconduct or gross negligence of the LESSEE (which is Mr. W), or as otherwise provided herein." Then, "LESSOR, shall also be responsible for the removal of snow and/or ice and sanding of the parking areas, driveways, exterior stairways and sidewalks appurtenant to the demised premises". In other words, we're footing the bill for that, too.
- Article 12 is missing.
- Article 13 says that the county must undertake normal maintenance of the buildings and grounds.
- Article 14 says that Mr. W will not take out any trees or shrubs unless it's part of "ordinary farming operations" consistent with the Watershed Agricultural Council. For the record, logging is a consistent use.
- Mr. W can 'sublet any portion of the premises which [he] deems necessary to [his] ongoing operations..."
- The Putnam Arts Council will be moved to Building 6 and pay rent - to Mr. W.
- Article 17 says, [The County] agrees that {Mr. W} shall hereafter be entitled to all revenues realized from agreements with the County entered into with the Putnam Arts Council and Community Gardens, provided that such revenue is handled in accordance with "Article III" herein.
- Article 19 is the termination clause and it works like
this: The LESSOR, upon twelve (12) months notice to LESSEE, may
terminate this Agreement in whole or in part when the LESSEE has
violated any of the material terms hereof..." And if the county does,
we have to reimburse Mr. W for whatever capitol improvements 'cannot be
removed' from the premises.
Bearing in mind the disclaimer above, I shall make no further comments
and I'll leave that up to the Legal Beagles among us. Still, it's a
sweetheart deal for Mr. W if there ever was one. As for the taxpayers,
it ain't so good. There are some supporters of this deal,
people who are usually vocal about things but have been pretty quiet on
this one. I wish they would jeff@planputnam.org?Subject=Why%20I%20Support%20the%20Tilly%20Foster%20Deal">write
in and tell us just why they believe that 'selling the farm' to the
lowest bidder is good for the county. - News That Matters - December 2, 2008
News That Matters - <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href=<a c
Late yesterday afternoon I had gotten a 'head's up!' on how the Legislature would deal with the CAP issue at the county Legislature's meeting later last evening. There was nothing really new:
CAP stays in their main offices at 121 Main and the storage issue is resolved, for now. There's no word about how and where the County will store its records. In the JN article (see below) about the vote, the paper, as has become its usual, gives you a base, gives you half the result and walks away satisfied that they've done their job.
If you only get your news from the JN you're left with questions that were easily answered, questions such as, what are the terms of the lease? What of Denis Sant's plea for record's storage space? Answering those and others left open from the copy would have given the story depth and detail and yet, one could read the article and say, "What really happened?" It's a fair question.
Over at the Blog, yesterday's article, "To CAP It Off" generated a good number of reads but it's still in second place compared to "PV Officials Sued - Chickens Coming Home to Roost" which maintains the top spot, followed by News That Matters from November 5th. A little further down the list is the poem, "The Goldman Sackers" from Mahopac poet, Pat Byron.
Anyway, business is good there and getting better and we've had more than 1300 visits over the past 6 weeks. Remember, there's more there than here. Log on, sign up and get involved. It's easy, free and sure to be entertaining.
And now, the News:
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