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Last
week, we half-heartedly remarked that it would be the last straw if
under the less than intelligent leadership of the ZBA, they gave Dakota
Partners their extension. After all, the point was that the developer
has a less than stellar relationship with the community as a whole – it
has been well documented – and they should be told to go pound sand and
make their money off the backs of some other community instead of
litigating their way to the bank.
City boards and committees are
there to safeguard the community – to act in a way and manner which
preserves the public interest – and those appointed to these various
entities are there to make decisions which follow the letter of the law
in a way that protects our community.
This city has had its own
cast of characters over the years as appointed and elected members
entrusted with vital roles on behalf of the community, but the Chairman
of the ZBA has set the bar at a new depth. That's right, not new height
– new depth.
To listen to the Chairman of the ZBA tell people
assembled at a public meeting that if they want to stay in the
chambers, that they had better keep their mouths shut unless they're
granted permission to speak is outrageous. To then allude to police
officers outside the chambers, stationed there to ensure public safety
and stave off outbursts was a shameful display of disregard for the
community.
If you are angry reading that, wait until you read what comes next.
Later
on, this very same individual led the charge in giving the developer
the extension they were after and then actually used the silly excuse
that he was afraid that the developer would personally sue the members
of the ZBA if they didn't grant the extension. And then one by one the
rest of the members of the ZBA followed right along.
Think about
it for a minute – when a city board or committee that makes decisions
which affect the entire community treats members of that very same
community like they're the enemy and then tells every developer that
might have been thinking of coming to Somerville that they're afraid of
making a decision based on the probability that they will be sued –
then you just gave away the keys the city. The entire Zoning Board of
Appeals and its members should be ashamed of themselves and the
Chairman of that board should resign, plain and simple – before they
are given the chance to give any more of this city away based on their
own personal fears. |
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