Cape Vincent Councilwoman Oswald Is On The Money On Zoning Reappointments - But There Is A Lot More To This Story!

I reviewed the video of last Thursday’s Cape Vincent Town Board meeting. Something very interesting came up in the meeting discussions.

The issue of the reappointment of CV Zoning Board of Appeals chairman Dennis Faulknham was discussed, as well as the reappointment of Planning Board member Paul Docteur, and PB alternate Karen Bourcy. 

To her credit CV Councilwoman Michelle  Oswald questioned the reappointment process indicating these positions should not be renewed simply because a person already holds  the position, but should be advertised to the whole community and then each candidate, including the ones up for reappointment should be interviewed, then voted upon.

I agree.

However, there is a more insidious side hidden in  this than apparently Ms. Oswald really wanted to get into.

There was a great deal of discussion on this point, and if you have been paying attention the past couple years to CV politics surrounding the new zoning law and the zoning officials who are supposed to uphold it, there is a lot more here than meets the eye...or was discussed… or this board is probably unwilling or too embarrassed to admit.  And like many things I report on, it is all in the record to be reviewed, and should be very carefully reviewed before these appointments are given, as well as other future zoning appointments that may be given away because you have been a ‘good boy”!

I’m sure some people on the Hirschey board (the Hirschey loyalists) hoped these appointments would just slide through with little question.  Apparently Ms. Oswald was not willing to let this just slide and had some very pertinent points to discuss that go right to the heart of “open govt”. and good ole boy politics.

For the sake of this discussion let me state I have no particular issue with Mr. Paul Docteur of the PB, other than two summers ago during the solar zoning fiasco I think he failed to grasp the depth of the problem evolving before him on his board and how his board failed in its responsibility as did Faulkinham and most of his ZBA except for ZBA member Hester Chase who Councilwoman Oswald brought up as a very pertinent point.  More pertinent than some may realize.

There was an assumption or false premise voiced by Oswald and others, however, when she raised her concerns. 

That was that the people in the current positions to be reappointed where competent or were doing a good job and that was not the question. 

I disagree, and the record shows why, but I’m sure she did this to smooth over what she would really have liked to say in more depth.

I am not going to put words in Ms. Oswald’s mouth. But there is much more to the story in my opinion and it hinges on the treatment of ZBA member Hester Chase.  And Oswald was very smart to invoke Ms. Chase into this discussion to make her strong  point! It was a well timed blind side that gave her a ton of clever leverage to back her case.

Note in the video that Ms. Oswald makes a point of fairness and consistency, indicating that when Ms. Chase was up for reappointment to the ZBA she WAS re-interviewed for the position she held on the ZBA when she was up for reappointment, when  the appointment of Faulknham, Docteur, and Bourcy were going to be voted on now with no interview or even an announcement that these positions were open for appointment.  Other appointments have also been handled in this manner by the Hirschey board as well.

Good point Michelle…but the whole issue of WHY was avoided because to dig into it exposes some uncomfortable truths. 

So why did this happen to Hester Chase?  Why was she forced to interview for her reappointment when some other Hirschey loyalists aren’t???

To put it bluntly, in my opinion… it really comes down to whether you are a Hirschey loyalist and willing to keep your mouth shut or not, and not ask the tough questions on critical issues that actually promotes the open and transparent govt the Hirschey crowd is so quick to point to.

In the summer and fall of 2013 many of our town officers were up to their eyeballs in a solar zoning fiasco that got out of control, even involved the town supervisor Mr. Hirschey and his own illegal solar project, as well as another solar project belonging to Roger Alexander of Lazy Acres Trailer Park. 

I uncovered this mess and it even reached the front page of the Watertown Daily Times and became a huge embarrassment to the town and it’s zoning process and officials and their brand new zoning law. And that would be after I had repeatedly told them they were likely to screw up the solar zoning in the draft law because I felt they had not researched it carefully.  They were simply in love with solar.

 The crux of the matter was that the town officials who had created the law failed miserably in understanding and applying the zoning they had written and passed only a year before.  A law that was the shining center point of their very election!

If you would like to see this in detail and documentation why Mr. Faulknham and some others of the Hirschey zoning establishment should NOT be reappointed, go back on this blog archive to about July – Oct. 2013 and read the issues I uncovered involving the illegal solar project of Mr. Alexander, and his neighbor Mary Grogan who was protesting the illegal project, and how Mr. Hirschey the CV town supervisor was also directly caught up in it. All the documentation is there.

The CV Planning Board, particularly Mr. Brown and Mr. Macsherry, and Faulknham and most of his ZBA failed miserably in my opinion to conduct proper zoning practices, and when caught in the zoning fiasco they and other town officers did nothing more than damage control trying to sanitize the mess they created.  Of course a lot is at stake when the town supervisor has unwittingly put up his own prohibited solar project.  One he on his own temporarily took down till the zning could be re written to allow such projects like his and others.  Geee Imagine that!

For example when Mrs. Mary  Grogan wanted to challenge this process and the illegal project proposed next to her property by Mr. Alexander, ZBA chair Faulknham could not clearly delineate how she should bring an appeal before his board (probably a stall), AND indicated the permits were legal and she probably couldn’t win the appeal anyhow.  What about fairness and impartiality did Mr. Faulknham not understand?  How did he KNOW the permits were legal and she couldn’t win BEFORE he and his board had even heard Mrs. Grogan’s appeal????  It was a sham! Faulkham could even find the proper paperwork for Mrs. Grogan to start her appeal and it was finally sent to her by Hirschey only a few days before the deadline for her appeal.  Maybe they were hoping Mrs. Grogan would go over the official deadline and the whole mess would just go away.

Because behind the scenes many town officers had in my opinion improperly conferred trying to clean up the huge zoning mess they had created (including their town supervisor) well before Mrs. Grogan’s case was even heard.

So how does Hester Chase figure into this and the points Councilwoman Oswald made about her and appointments and reappointments??? 

It is quite simple.

Do you keep your mouth shut, or try to run responsible open and fair  govt?  Chase opted for good govt and it almost cost her  her ZBA position and Councilwoman Oswald knows it!

 During the solar zoning fiasco that swept across the town zoning establishment Ms. Chase started asking some uncomfortable questions.  Not only about this mess and how it occurred but about how certain records of the planning board and ZBA were being handled and who should have access to them and how. 

Some of this put her head to head with the ZBA chairman Mr. Faulknham and PB member Robert Brown and Dick Macsherry.

During the Mrs. Grogan’s ZBA appeal on the solar project, Hester voted against the permits and approval of this illegal project indicating that the permits and the process had become such a mess she could not vote in favor of it.  And she was the only one in all of CV town govt to officially questioned what was going on and supported Mrs. Grogan’s appeal.

It is important to note here that ZBA chairman Faulknham and a couple of his ZBA officers even admitted this zoning mess was not carried out correctly and probably would not hold up in court…but approved the permits anyhow!!!!! Pure genius!!

Do we really want to reappoint people who admit a process would probably not hold up in court but approve the process  and put the town in legal liability anyhow? Really???

And keep in mind that Ms. Chase who was willing to stand by the law and the proper process, in my opinion was later hassled and intimidated when her reappointment came up.  A point to which I think Ms. Oswald is eluding to.

So when Hester Chase’s reappointment came up, you can damn well bet they were going to give her grief.  Thus as Oswald points out…she was re-interviewed to hold her ZBA position AND there were a number of town officials who probably did not want to see her reappointed perceiving a lapse in “loyalty”.

Interview some people, don't interview others???  That system is flawed, and full of potential abuses.

That is the backstory Councilwoman Oswald was not revealing at last Thurs. CV town board meeting, but I am willing to get into, and everyone should know before these appointments are considered.

Of course I’m sure the fact that Ms. Chase was a woman who had strong opinions and would stand by them and against the boys club…that was working against her at that time.  Fortunately she was ultimately reappointed.

In my opinion Oswald is correct on the appointment process to keep it open and transparent and open it to all and interview all. 

It is also my opinion that based on behavior during the town’s embarrassing solar zoning fiasco that these men created, that Faulknham should not be reappointed, nor should Brown or Macsherry of the PB when their terms are up.  Their behavior was inexcusable, as was the legally questionable solution they and other town officers came up with to sanitize the mess. 

These men and others involved in this zoning mess at a minimum should be grilled and questioned thoroughly before they are given any sacred responsibility to be stewards of the town’s land use.

As for Mrs. Bourcy, in my opinion she does not even deserve the PB alternate position after her questionable votes with her wind conflicts of interest on the old Edsall planning board.  Votes that significantly moved along the wind agenda and created legal and social havoc for this community and even became the subject of a NYAG investigation.  Why Hirschey and his previous board reappointed her is beyond logic for me.

Even Mr. Paul Docteur of the PB should be questioned as to why he sat quietly as this solar zoning mess unfolded before him.

These appointments all have major baggage attached to them and should be scrutinized very carefully, not just given a pass as Councilman Bragdon implies simply because they hold the job now. That is reckless.

And note on the video when Councilwoman. Oswald raised this question of simple reappointment and invoked Hester Chase’s name that Mr. Hirschey the supervisor seemed to become a bit flustered about the vote and issue losing track of what was going on. 

He in fact after initially favoring the lopsided  appointment process because that is how they have done it, then changed his position to agree with Oswald as did Byrne.  I’m guessing that when the Hester Chase issue was brought into the argument, Hirschey probably didn’t want to explore that issue much further and where it might lead.

And as an interesting side note, as long as we are talking about the judgment  of people we are about to appoint to important town zoning positions…then take a closer look, because the fiasco continues.

During the original solar zoning fiasco involving Mr. Alexander’s illegal solar project, one of the KEY justifications of zoning officials and I suppose the town lawyer as well for allowing the permits, was that Alexander was heavily vested in the project, and some of them had supposedly visited the project claiming Alexander had a significant investment in equipment so the permits should be approved so he could move forward ASAP.  This was a pressing issue and a big deal in the justification. 

 I said it was a lot of nonsense, and the courts have overridden that justification in some case law as well.

Problem is Alexander took the town for a real embarrassing ride on this one too.

 As of last summer and after this entire zoning  fiasco on his behalf he had done virtually NOTHING of consequence on his solar project!!!  And in fact Alexander applied last summer to extend his permits once again and was finally refused.  When I left in mid November it appeared still nothing had been done on the project.

Ooooppps!!! 

I would like Mr. Faulknham, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Macsherry to explain that one away before they get reappointed!

I guess Alexander was not as vested in his pressing project as the town claimed he was.  That was a shaky zoning scam in my opinion to justify a real embarrassing zoning mess…to which Alexander took these zoning officials and the town for a real ride!!! 

Actually it is the second time Alexander has taken the town for a real zoning ride.  You will note he has a private wind turbine that has never worked and has sat there inoperative since 2009.  Something else the Hirschey zoning establishment has refused to deal with.

That is one of the reasons Mrs. Grogan as a neighbor was protesting the new illegal solar project on the same property as the defunct wind turbine.  Yet our CV zoning officials have just turned their heads on the entire zoning disaster.

Once again...time to start asking some tough questions.