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Update from Lisa Ledbetter:
Good morning,
Here is an update for your association members:
The City has signed a stipulation and agreement that will be presented to the Board in the action against the New Plaza. It is a very comprehensive agreement which calls for more than a dozen sanctions which the property owner has agreed to comply with including installing security cameras, a six foot tall security fence completely enclosing the premises, and utilizing licensed uniformed security from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am seven days a week to name a few. The city believes that these sanctions will effectively abate the nuisance activity occurring on the Premises and, with diligent monitoring for compliance by our community service officers, we feel this is a positive step forward for the community.
Your members' participation in this whole process made it easier for the City to get the owner to agree to all of the sanctions which might have otherwise been ordered by the Board without having to engage in an 8 - 10 hour hearing. Please thank them on our behalf. The e-mails we've received so far and any others I receive before the hearing will be presented to the Board. Also, any member who appears will be given an opportunity to speak, however, we anticipate that the hearing will be over before a lunch break is needed. Please inform any of your members who might have desired to come to the hearing after work, that the hearing will not last that long.
As always, thank you for your assistance with this matter, Lisa.
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Hello,
I just returned from the Nuisance Abatement/New Plaza Motel Hearing at city hall today. Todays meeting was changed from a hearing on the motel to a decision on the stipulations agreed upon by the police dept., city attorney and the owner of the motel.
The agreement between the city and and the owner seems to be a good one. I don’t know that we would have gotten anything better had we been allowed to speak. That is the only rub. Because this was changed to a stipulation agreement hearing no testimony was allowed. Comments from the public were not allowed even though Lisa’s e-mail says they would be. Many who came to speak were very upset at not being allowed to speak. The loudest was Brian Longstreth who was previously on the NAB and said public comments were allowed in the past during such agreement hearings. He did not send in a e-mail because he was going to speak in person. The vote was 5 to 4 to approve the agreement. The 4 who didn’t agree said they believed the public should have been allowed to speak before making a decision. I talked to 2 board members who said they didn’t like the way this was handled and would like to see an additional meeting where the public can speak. I suggested to Lisa that in the future she needs to send a disclaimer that says “Please send in your comments to me early as if there is an agreement no more public comments will be permitted.” She said it was a good idea.
So, now we need to monitor the motel. As with the other two, if we see problems please call them in to the police or e-mail them to Lisa so we can hold this owners feet to the fire. All in all, a good day for our neighborhood and 34th St. It was good to see CONA represented at the meeting by its president Kurt Donley
Bill