If you want to read the entire article, it looks as if you'll have to buy the paper because, if it's on the MLT web site, I wasn't able to find it. Maybe they'll post it later.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Monday's Council Meeting (continued)
Cheryl Allison has an article on page 6 of today's Main Line Times in which she describes a discussion Monday night about whether or not Mayor Grady should be included in discussions of certain subjects before Narberth's Council after some people interpreted a recent letter from the mayor as implying that he was considering litigation against the Borough. According to the MLT article, "The discussion that ensued, at points, had the mayor's attorney, Larry Silver, persisting in trying to make his points, over council President Mary Jo Daley's repeated attempts to halt the interruptions. It continued to the point that Daley, declaring Silver out of order, raised the possibility of calling in borough police to remove him from the council chamber."
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I have to credit the Main Line Times for sticking pretty well to the skeletal facts of the meeting, and, in a separate article, one Councilman’s and Mayor Grady’s conflicts with the Borough solicitor. What didn’t get discussed in either article are some serious issues that will likely affect the Borough’s efforts to secure uncontested ownership of the building, and to thwart the Lower Merion School District’s efforts to landbank the property . The great majority of Narberth’s citizens (and most constituents of the School District) still do not understand one major fact: If title passes to the LMSD, all bets concerning the present tenants of the building, including MELC and the Nalls architecture firm are off, and the leases with the Borough are essentially worthless. Under the option agreement, the LMSD may take the property for "for use as a public school only." The School District, under the terms of the option agreement, can’t just step into the landlord’s (now the Borough’s) shoes and start collecting rent from the existing tenants, which are businesses, not public schools. Although (as I suspect) the present tenants may have been led to believe that nothing will change if the Borough loses ownership, it is more likely that the building simply goes dark (remember Belmont Elementary?) This speculation is made even more interesting by the fact that MELC receives substantial income from the LMSD, and that MELC’s Council champion is Narberth’s most vocal apologist for the School Board. This sounds to me like a couple of great examples of conflict of interest.
ReplyDeleteThe MLT also did not capture the full extent of the drama created by the Mayor’s procedural spat with the Council and the Solicitor, or get the Mayor’s explanation of why he felt he needed defense from outside counsel at the Council meeting. The resulting disrespectful shouting match, and clear disregard for Council rules of procedure, personally embarrassed me, and completely overshadowed any substantive point the Mayor had to make. Perhaps the Borough will make available the audio tape of the meeting so that the voting public can get the full flavor of the confrontation.
Finally, hold on to your wallets, Narberth. We may never know the full extent of the “deal” that was finally struck with MELC (under a lot of organized pressure), and what that entire arrangement will ultimately cost the taxpayers. Sorry, but the lease agreement isn’t a public document until it’s signed, so you don’t get a chance to second guess. Again, if the Borough loses ownership of the building, the issue becomes moot.
While a good many Narberth residents have taken the time and trouble to investigate the ownership issue, and to bring the fight to the School Board (where it belongs), a lot of us can’t seem to see past our own parochial special interests. This is sad in a town which is so full of intelligent people, and sadder still when those intelligent people can’t sort out the forest from the trees.