WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL-CHRONICLE EXAMINER. May 26, 2007: The President of the White Plains Common Council, in a statement sent to the six other Common Council members and shared with WPCNR acknowledged today that she was told in April of the Louis Cappelli Station Plaza mega complex proposed for the White Plains Metro North station district before it was publicly presented to the council in the May 10 work session.
White Plains Common Council President Rita Malmud: Admits she knew about Station Square in April, but does not give a specific date.
The model of Station Square on the site of the White Plains Transit Center, Parking Garage. In the foreground is The Galleria. Ms. Malmud Admits She Knew About It All the Way.
In Malmud's statement, she defends to other Common Council members the policy of not voting the Exclusivity Agreement outright Thursday evening, because doing so would have prematurely killed the Exclusivity option without the public being afforded the chance to hear about it in the more widely viewed forum of the regularly scheduled monthly Council meeting June 4.
. Ms. Malmud's statement:
" Last month I was apprised of the Capelli organization's proposal to develop Station Plaza. At that time I received no written documents and never received anything in writing until the Council Work Session (May 10) where the notebook of photos and drawings were distributed. I received the proposed Exclusivity Agreement last Tuesday (May 22).
At that first meeting (last month) I was assured that all Council members would be equally briefed before the public disclosure that would be soon. I specifically asked about the Battle Hill neighborhood, where I believed some of the greatest impact would occur. Again, I was told discussion would happen "soon." I volunteered the opinion then that although I believed the train station area was appropriate for the densest White Plains development, the scale being suggested was not one I was ready to endorse.
Important and controversial issues are best formally voted on at regularly scheduled, first Monday of the month meetings of the Common Council. At our Special Meetings I am quite willing to vote on routine and non-controversial issues, such as setting a date for a public hearing or forwarding documents for public and staff review. To have voted yes or no at last night's Common Council meeting on an issue of such vast importance would have denied the public sufficient time and attention about what their public servants were deliberating. This was no emergency situation, where the public would have been endangered by a delay in voting."
A Departure in recent policy
The rationale of affording the public more insight into the Exclusivity Agreement is a departure from the Council's policy of late of agreeing to a series of Special Meetings to push through the LCOR Bank Street affordable housing.
By WPCNR count, the Common Council responded to an unprecedented "hurry up offense" initiated by the Administration to get the Bank Street LCOR project approved in a month with one Special Meeting a week and at times two -- held at odd times in late afternoons -- when the public would have difficulty attending, let alone knowing about them, or even being given an understanding of the documents and agreements approved.
These hastily contrived meetings were agreed to by the Council in a frantic rush to push through the LCOR Bank Street job, despite hammered out massaging of the legal protocols on the project. The Special Meetings were scheduled and accepted by the council, even though details of the financing gave the appearance of changing after each meeting, and the final nuances of the city's agreement to buy back the land from LCOR if tax abatement was not created -- at the very last moment.
Malmud and the rest of the Common Council, also during the May 10 meeting, did not protest vehemently that the project had density problems, to this reporter who was there. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. Even Glen Hockley suggested incorporating a new City Hall into the project. There was no concern that the project was too big. The impression was one of awe.
