New Castle County Literal “Back Room Deal” Caught on Tape
Check out the sheepish Stolz representative caught emerging from a literal back room deal session during the Barley Mill meeting last night. The rezoning was tabled. There is more at Nancy’s blog.
That doesn’t show anything unless you know who those people are. So who are they?
Voldemort and Draco Malfoy meeting with Darth Sidious.
This must be the new blog feature, “Daily Dela-who.”
Brilliant!! How about a public meeting on County Council “corruption of the public process”? Let every member running for election or re-election understand that they will be judged on their vote or inaction on this project. It MATTERS and will be noted! Every candidate forum should highlight the PROCESS!
Frances West
I’m no body language expert, but the negotiator from Stolz gives away a lot with that reaction.
I really love that “I am SO busted” look in the doorway…
Wow. That was better than most surveillance footage in conveniece store robberies. Live crime action caught as it happens!
Comment by anon on 12 October 2011 at 9:07 am:
That doesn’t show anything unless you know who those people are. So who are they?
The bad guys.
It was incredible what Councilwoman Kilpatrick tried to pull last night. ANY modification or amendment to a rezoning has to go back through the process. It has to go back to the Planning Board (which has recently had what I consider a Clark house cleaning) and the Land Use Dept. has to re-review it, before Council can even consider revisiting the issue…. And she initially appeared to try to do it on the fly and have Council vote on it.
I and others who work on these things, couldn’t believe what was going on!!!
As you can see on the video, in the end, they realized they couldn’t vote on the plan with any modifications, so they introduced the proposed County Council added, deed restrictions and tabled the vote.
What Stoltz should do, is have the long-requested meeting with both local community groups, the three surrounding umbrella groups (CCOBH, MLCA & GHADA) and the Civic League for NCC and see if a compromise amongst ALL parties can be reached. I truly think it can. But it’s up to Keith Stoltz and his attorneys to decide if it’s worth the effort.
Dela-who?
Keith Stoltz himself is the bald guy recoiling back out of view when he saw he was on camera. He quicky caught himself, collected his composure and marched on out of the room. The guy with the pouffed hair is land use attorney, John Tracey and the dark-haired fellow is from APEX Engineering, Steve Davies.
So who were they meeting with? Themselves?
Anon’s comment is important. If they were meeting with members of county council and the public was not invited, would that be a violation of the open meetings act? Given Keith Stoltz’s reaction, I think someone should ask what was going on in that room.
It would be a violation if they met with a majority of the council members – 50 percent plus one.
If that didn’t happen, I’m not seeing what the issue is here.
The developer and his attorney met privately. There is no need, or right, for the public to be present for that meeting. To say it’s a dirty back room deal is incorrect.
Crunchy, are you certain that no one else was present in that meeting and didn’t leave afterward?
can someone please explain to me why any of this even matters. Why can’t they build the fucking Taj Dela Ware right there for all we care?
Maybe it will free up all the lower new castle county trash from frequenting my north wilmington digs for one.
two, I’m sure the people in that area would appreciate something nicer than lantana square and whatever other crappy crap stores in the area. It’s not like you are going to impact the Walmarters or the BJ’ers in Elsmere.
Wouldn’t this also be a good thing for all the folks living in the Apartment complex right near Pathmark on RT 48?
Build away is what I say….make it more difficult for the lawyers to get downtown.
With any luck, maybe the helicopter business will pick up and all the important people in the area can start commuting to work like Cawley and the MBNA guys did back in free money days.
We need more shopping areas and less places for schools anyway!
Geek, Crunchy is talking out of his/her ass. But it isn’t as if that clip couldn’t be interpreted that way so he/she can be forgiven for the error.
There are 5 different video clips.
One shows the NCC Council attorney Carol Dulin and Paul Clark’s Land Use Manager also leaving this closed meeting at midnight. It was not simply Keith Stoltz meeting with his attorneys. It was Stoltz meeting with NCC Council’s attorney and Paul Clark’s appointed manager privately late at night during a regular meeting of NCC Council right in the middle of a vote on his rezoning that wasn’t ‘going his way’.
Another clip shows Roger Roy, a lobbyist working for John Burris (Dave’s father) attempting to go into the midnight meeting until he realized he was on camera. And yet another clip interviews Kovach.
If you had clicked over to my site above, you’d have gotten the story:
“Amid rumors that Chris Coons had successfully lobbied at least one NCC Council member during the day yesterday to vote in favor of the Barley Mill Plaza rezoning, at midnight, Janet Kilpatrick made a last ditch effort to save her Ordinance by calling for an oral amendment to partially attach private deed restrictions to the rezoning plan.
A form of ‘all hell broke loose’ broke out among the exhausted members of the public. I know that I called from my seat for NCC to table the thing rather than try to cram such fundamental changes onto the plan at that hour without public notice. Penrose Hollins noted highly irregular activities during the evening with Kovach insisting on two breaks (at nine and midnight) that allowed for lobbying and side bars without even a motion and vote. What a mess!”
and from Dave Carter:
“Tonight was a rather eventful evening at County Council, with the late
night efforts to amend the ordinance on the Barley Mill Rezoning. For sometime, we thought they would vote without giving the public adequate time toreview and comment on what they changed, so collected some video of theaction. In the end, they tabled the ordinance after its introduction. A few of the iphone clips are below.”
More slamming on Kovach from News Journals this morning:
“The manner in which this meeting was conducted exposes many disturbing things that go far beyond this particular land use issue. Thank goodness many councilpeople did not want to be a part of it.
To be clear, the drama only started when Kilpatrick left the room during the course of the actual meeting, motioning for several people to join her. She was joined outside by at least Dave Culver and John Tracey, Stoltz’s attorney. (Even Kovach implies under questioning in the youtube video ex parte meetings before a vote may not be kosher). Her excuse here is absurd; the issue regarding the lousy deed restrictions has been kicking around for ages, could have and should have been addressed long ago and in any event could have been raised in an open forum. Ask any council member where the vote was going at that point. Now at least everyone will see her for what she really is. We won’t even go near her long time association with Roger Roy, now a registered lobbyist for Stoltz and the Woodlawn Trustees.
The fact that Kovach permitted this debacle after publicly declaring his intention to vote with Stoltz, as supported by Charlie Copeland, Priscilla Rakestraw, Tom Evans & other GOP celebs in attendance, on the same day he announced his candidacy for the GOP congressional seat is mindblowing.
Just when you thought the GOP couldn’t self-destruct any further?” – by gr8t4thekids
When Kilpatrick walked out of the meeting, she motioned to Paul Clark’s appointed attorney Gregg Wilson to come out for a chat in the lobby with Culver, Tracey and Stoltz. The problem with their “fix” is that the private deed restrictions are so full of loopholes that they are worthless. Just placing the 5 that the private “caucus” produced for an amendment isn’t going to make any difference in what the opponents are describing here.
and another good one from RDanneskjold;
“I guess sympathetic here. I’m a little spiteful about what happened back in the 90’s with the Brandywine Town Center when it replaced the horse track, which is the “megamall” that we were all told it wouldn’t be- with all the high-end retailers that were supposed to be there but never materialized. The movie theater there evidently replaced the Tri State Mall theater as the dirty rathole theater where your car stereo will get stolen (if the thieves are clever enough to evade the rentacops who patrol once an hour). The carpets and upholstery are all covered with soda, candy, and anyone’s guess what else. Your shoes stick to the carpets and floors as you walk through (wear disposable tyvek coveralls if you plan to sit down) and the clientele is just as dirty. It makes for an upscale night out for the Chester crowd I suppose. While you’re there, you can take your date across the multilevel concrete parking deck and watch the colored fountain with the scenic backdrop of Naamans rd traffic, mcmansions, and seagulls.”
It was Stoltz meeting with NCC Council’s attorney and Paul Clark’s appointed manager privately late at night during a regular meeting of NCC Council…
Who cares?
The county attorney and the land-use manager are staff. They don’t make the decisions – the council does. Developers and county staffers meet together ALL THE TIME to discuss projects. That doesn’t mean they’re all making back-room deals.
This is a total tempest in a teapot, and Nancy et al know it. Nothing illegal or even wrong was done here.
Even Kilpatrick leaving the meeting to talk with people outside wasn’t some illegal thing. She’s allowed to do whatever she wants and talk to whoever she wants on her own.
Any meetings between developers and any part of the County, whether it’s Council members, Planning and Zoning members or the County Attorney and the County Executive’s manager should be done in the open and not behind closed doors. The people have a right to transparency when it comes to land deals, anything less appears unseemly.
She had the option of tabling her ordinance to further work on it in the proper venue without having tried to ram through an oral amendment that night. She was absolutely in the wrong. I stand with Penrose on this one.
More stuff for contemplation on the subject from Fritz Griesinger:
“coincidence and dueling deed restrictions”
Richard Beck is the attorney for CRG and is also the attorney for the ONIX group in their attempt to overturn deed restrictions, to which New Castle County is a party, in order to convert the Three Little Bakers Golf Course open space into 288 dwelling units, 60,000 square foot commercial with deed restrictions for the remainder which is steep slopes, mature forest, riparian buffers, and resource protection areas. Beck estimates that legal costs to the county so far is $500,000 including outside counsel. To the county’s credit, they have agreed to cover the costs so far. Mediation failed and this now goes to court (Superior I think) on November 16 at 500 N. King Street. With all of the clever and experienced attorney’s involved in this extensive litigation over many years, no attorney has been able to generate non contestable deed restrictions.
John Tracy, ex county attorney, who currently represents Stoltz and suggested deed restrictions last night at council meeting if the county would be a party, so residents wouldn’t be exposed to their own extensive legal costs to enforce. Tracy is also attorney for Stoney Creek Plaza. This is the first by-right mixed use option in the Office Neighborhood classification developed in 1999. It too has deed restriction to prevent this project from becoming Kirkwood Highway extension. In this case, the developer appealed in 2000 to the Board Of Adjustment for signage similar to Commercial even though the overall zoning didn’t permit that. BOA granted a compromise which was included in notes on the record plan. John Tracy was able to delay action on 7 violations for 7 months and now has appealed to the Planning Board to lift all deed restrictions without contacting PCVCL on what he wanted other than a blank check! This was heard by the Planning Board at their monthly meeting 10/4/11 and will be voted on at their business meeting 10/18/11 Even worse, the owners applied for an illegal sign without telling Land Use the sign was illegal. When this was discovered, it turned out that the newest record plan deleted all references to the restricted signs but no one would respond as to who had the authority to do that.
Deed restrictions are of little comfort when skilled attorneys routinely are able to circumvent them and know that few communities have the resources to legally pursue violations. A simple vote by 7 members of a sympathetic County Council is enough to lift deed restrictions.
@Nancy Willing… That wasn’t Mr. Stoltz in the video…
ACKKK! My bad. I double checked with the person who took the video clip who thought it was Stoltz. So, seeing the comment above, when I finally checked with someone who actually knows Keith Stoltz, he verified for me this morning that the bald guy isn’t Keith Stoltz. I’ll be asking him for his name when I see him on the 25th when this rezoning comes back for a vote.