True To Form - And Right On Cue!

Yesterday AM I read the Cape Vincent blogs and the WDT and there was the article about the Cape Vincent town ZBA approving town supervisor Urban Hirschey's solar project.  In general the article was good but unfortunately didn't reflect very well on Mr. Hirschey or the CV zoning board of appeals in my opinion, or on the screwed up zoning process that appeared to be distorted to allow his project and another solar project in CV. 

In essence in my opinion the  ZBA basically just ignored one page of our new zoning law to make this all happen.

No real surprise there coming from the Hirschey loyalists.   

However, I was surprised that Wiley at JLL actually did a post on the article and even accepted comments...some of which were not in Hirschey's favor. 

Now that did stun me that Wiley would tolerate and post such negative press about his favoring town supervisor. 

Of course true to form... and true to his usual censorship, propaganda, and spin for the Hirschey govt. in less than 24 hours he removed the post and comments.. Now maybe there was some other reason he pulled the post, but it sure looks disingenuous.

Wonder if after a few hours of negative comments building up he received a few phone calls to pull the post? 

Well Wiley did pull the post ... so OK...now the blog world finally makes sense to me again!!!! 

Is this how he expects people to think his blog is credible on local politics and govt????   Is the Hirschey govt actually so fragile it needs this kind of PR protection?  Sure comes off that way!

Keep your eye on JLL because if Wiley isn’t reporting on some CV issue surrounding the current govt. it has been a good indicator that something isn’t going well for Hirschey or his govt.  Pulling this post appears to be another prime example, especially when the WDT is asking questions and reporting on it.

When he tells us that we are so lucky and how wonderful it is to have Hirschey and all these “zoning experts” to make a new zoning law, and to fight BP and Art 10...does he actually have the credibility and experience to back that up that claim?

Well..let see…from the record!

When the solar zoning fiasco started at a July 2013 planning board meeting (which you can see on Steve Weed video) and our PB zoning experts started going off the rails on this solar mess, it wasn’t actually about Hirschey’s solar project, but about Mr. Roger Alexander’s solar project…which was illegal as proposed in the river dist. under our new law.  I caught onto this and in my opinion it led to a CV govt. wide scramble, plus lawyers, to sanitize the decision they screwed up on and somehow in desperation and a lot of meetings make it look legitimate.

Of course little did I know then a key part of the story when I started researching this major zoning screw up. The key part was that I didn’t know that our town supervisor Mr. Hirschey already had a solar project approved, and up and running which also would have been prohibited under our new zoning.  And so much so…that to his credit he took it down as the Alexander solar fiasco became unglued!  Mr. Hirschey told me so himself in a face to face conversation at my cottage.

So who else at this point knew Hirschey had a basically illegal solar project up.

Did our zoning officials on the PB and ZBA, and town board know?  Did Wiley know???  In my opinion it his highly likely and I have heard from credible sources that it is very likely a lot of these people knew what was going on.

And most importantly did any possible knowledge of Hirschey’s basically prohibited solar project  have an impact on these zoning officials judgment when another solar project came along proposed by Mr. Alexander, especially when I started a fire storm over it that it was illegal under our new law, and especially after it became front page news in the WDT? 

That is when the CV govt wide scramble began to try to clean up the mess. Right on video of the PB from 8/13 planning board meeting you can see Dick Macsherry and Bob Brown say how much time went into this fiasco, and how many town officials were involved, including the town attorney. And that included the ZBA who would hear an appeal against the Alexander project…and in my opinion this was propably very inappropriate for the ZBA official to do and most likely prejudiced the appeal and later public hearing…which of course the evidence for that is also on video.

Now oddly enough Mr. Wiley from the JLL blog was sitting right front row center at the PB meeting when Alexander proposed his project to the PB and all this started. I thought it was odd that JLL went to a PB meeting and had little to report on this mess then or later.  He was right there as there was detailed discussion and questions on Alexander’s project. 

On the July 2013 PB video you can see all this, and see Wiley sitting in the front row, and he even leans over to his wife to make a funny comment about Alexander’s presentation to the PB.

Now question is, did he understand what was going on right in front of him.  If he is such an expert on zoning and puffing up Hirschey and the guys who drafted our new law as wonderful , how come he isn’t picking up on two critical zoning issues going on right under his nose.  Seems to me if you are going to spout off on a public blog about how wonderful and what experts these zoning guys and our new law are…then it seems to me to be credible you would actually have to have some solid understanding of our new law and the zoning process attached to be credible when making these glowing statements.

So what did Wiley miss sitting right in the front row with this screwed up zoning process passing right under his nose???

First…Wiley should have seen and reported that this Alexander project was illegal under our new zoning, and that is very obvious by a quick glance at the new law. And ironically a zoning use table in the law was actually designed to make it really easy to see at a glance what uses are legal and which are prohibited.  Alexander’s and Hirschey’s solar projects would be illegal in the lake and river front districts. Of as you can imagine a portion of this page on solar is exactly what the ZBA and new zoning committee wants to get rid, and ignoring was required to make these solar projects appear legal.  This is why former PB chairman Macsherry suggested we not take the law so literally!

Because if we do take the law literally...as the law should be taken...then it provides gross evidence of how these people screwed up on a provision of our law that is blatantly obvious...THAT THEY WROTE  allowed two illegal solar projects, one belonging to our town supervisor!!!

Wiley if he was credible should have reported that fact! He either didn’t have a clue or he purposefully chose to keep his mouth shut?????? So which is it. Either would not bode well for his credibility to be reporting glowing facts to us about CV zoning or the people who created or administered it.  It would be like a person who can't find the gas peddle in a car telling us how great the car is and how to drive it!

Second…the PB and Macsherry as chairman and Brown as a PB member are controlling this process at this meeting as if it all their jurisdiction, (watch the video)  and Macsherry goes so far as to even set a public hearing for the Alexander project for Aug. 2013.  The PB is already giving signals that they are likely to pass this project after the upcoming site plan review in Aug.  On video you can see this attitude and they appear favorable to the project.

Now had I not said anything to Macsherry about this process being screwed up and the project being illegal, it was very likely that ANOTHER  illegal solar project would have sailed right through the screwed up zoning process.

Problem is…this project according to our new law needs a special use permit.  And under our new law it is not the PB that grants those permits…it is the CV ZBA.  That is a new change from our old law where the PB previously was responsible for granting SU permits.  But these guys are the ones who drafted that change!!!!  YIKES!!  Yet they are charging full speed ahead, even setting a public hearing as if they are in exclusive control.  AND the ZBA should have the lead or at least been brought into the process, and they never were up till then!

So secondly… Wiley should have caught this too as a major screw up right under his nose and he never did, or he chose to ignore it and not report on it.

He’s sitting there in the front row of a PB meeting watching the PB charge ahead to approve a special use permit that they have NO authority to approve under our new law!!!  Yes…the PB is part of the process, but they do not give the final special use permit.  (Look it up in the new law) And in this screwed up solar zoning process for Alexander to this point the ZBA is nowhere to be found.  I even check with a couple ZBA members and ZBA minutes and they said it had never come before their board.

Of course this Alexander messed up solar zoning fiasco begs some very uncomfortable questions in my opinion if the PB members and ZBA knew of Hirschey’s already up and running prohibited solar project!!!

When I made it clear to Macsherry, the PB chairman at that time,  that that they were on the path to approving an illegal solar project for Alexander…I’ll bet it was only a few minutes and a few phone calls before the CV zoning establishment got a rude wakeup call as to the implications to Alexander’s illegal project…and how that would spill all over on their boss…town supervisor Mr. Hirschey.

I know for fact that the next day Brown and Macsherry were having a pow wow about it trying to justify what they had done on the Alexander project.  Of course the absolute worse thing for their expert zoning egos was that I was the one to figure this mess out!!! 

On the PB Aug 14, 2013 Steve Weed video you can see  both Macsherry and Brown and the PB scramble to explain away the mess they had created.  I thought it was odd behavior to go to such lengths to make it look legitimate, when it was so obvious the Alexander solar project was illegal under our new law.  Of course when I later found out directly from Hirschey himself about his project, and that he had actually taken it down as a result of the Alexander solar zoning mess…then this PB and later ZBA behavior made sense!

As for Wiley, he reported very little of this even after it hit the front page of the WDT.  So was he clueless about the new zoning law and the process…or did he know and just willing cover it up for his Hirschey loyalist readers?  And now he has removed a related post as recently as yesterday.

Consider that this was the first time our brand new shiny zoning law and zoning, and our zoning officials credibility was put to a real tough test, and in my opinion the whole system  failed miserably. That is not a good thng when the entire fate of your community against a major wind developer and the State Art. X process rests entirely on this new law and the zoning process and officials who are supposed to administer it locally and against the bigger more critical wind issue!!!   

Yet Wiley on such a critical community issue at his blog says little about it??????

Either way in my opinion this severely calls into question JLL’s credibility and puffed up opinions to be advising anyone about the credibility of our so called “zoning exerts” and new zoning law and how wonderful it will against Art. X. and BP.

Now some readers are immediately going to say I am just attacking Wiley at JLL.  nope...not really.

It has been pointed out to me that Mr. Wiley as a blog administrator can do as he pleases on  his blog.  He has no obligation to be fair or balanced.  I agree that is the case!

However, then  in fair play, I as a blogger have the same right to comment about how in my opinion he selectively censors, or spins, information in posts or comments, especially on issues that would be critical for the community to understand ALL  the details, not just the JLL pro Hirschey slant. And especially since the JLL blog has taken a highly visible roll in the community's information stream. 

I try very hard to stick with facts and documentation in my posts.  Like above I mention where you the reader can actually go and see  videos to verify what I am saying and think for yourself. I also have considerable files and documents to make my case on this an other issues.  That too was all provided last summer and fall on this blog for you to decide.

When someone regularly removes information from your view, or manipulates it to spin an issue, then they certainly don't want you thinking for yourself or questioning  the script.  That is too dangerous for whatever the agenda is!

So be care what you read at JLL…or maybe more importantly… what you don’t read!!!