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| Mouhab Rizallah is not sure if his reputation will recover. |
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By James Reddick
Mouhab
Rizkallah is a man at the end of his wits. There have been sleepless
nights, he says, and too much energy spent trying to clear his name in
the wake of a nasty battle over additions to the property out of which
he practices orthodontistry. In one comment on The Somerville News
Blog, he is nicknamed the "Teflon Ortho'DON'tist" and in another a
"Sheep in Wolf's Clothing." His critics hearken back to the days when
corruption in Somerville was a given, accusing Rizkallah of greasing
the pockets of local officials while ignoring the wishes of his
neighbors. While such rumors gain momentum, Rizkallah now finds himself
defenseless, as he is forced to continue with construction, but unable
to affect the sway of popular opinion.
Rizkallah's troubles
began in 2006 when he was notified by the American Disabilities
Association of a requirement to provide access to the handicapped. The
required compliance dated back to a 1989 construction project on the
building, a stipulation never brought to Rizkallah's attention when he
bought the property in 2004. "That was what I would call the first
knife", says the Doctor. After looking into possible options, all of
which required an elevator large enough to fit a gurney, Rizkallah
found that the construction costs would amount to a whopping $750,000
on a property he purchased for less than $2 million. To offset these
expenses, he proposed an addition of a third floor which could then be
rented out. After gaining the necessary approval from the City and
paying for notices to be distributed to residents in the area,
construction began in the spring of 2008. And then, on that same day,
it stopped. "The City of Somerville kindly and respectfully called me
and said that there was a problem they had to look into," Rizkallah
said. "Being a decent neighbor I said 'of course, I'll let you get your
ducks in a row." The problem was simple enough: the indirect abutters
had never been notified, due to a "computer glitch", said City
spokesman Tom Champion. This would prove to be a small mistake with
outsized consequences.
At a neighborhood meeting to address
the concerns of residents, Rizkallah first saw the wall of opposition
that he was facing. "I went in thinking that the project 'is what it
is'," he explained. "It's not my choice and I figured people would
understand that." Instead, the accusations of corruption and of
profiting at the expense of neighbors began. One resident demanded to
know "What is the relationship between the Mayor and Mouhab Rizkallah?"
All the while, in a "catch-22" worthy of a Kafka novel, as the city was
postponing construction, Rizkallah continued to receive letters from
the Architectural Access Board pressuring him to make the necessary
changes to his building.
A year later, construction has
finally recommenced after having gained a second approval from the
zoning board. The additions are mandated to be done by 2010; however,
they should be completed by December of 2009. The Doctor is not sure,
however, if his reputation will recover. "All of this has an impact
further reaching than the construction project," he said. "I fear that
some will believe that I'm the villain people make me out to be. That's
simply not who I am."
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