Letter To The Village Of Lancaster Board

[mark blazejewski]

Mark Blazejewski
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Lancaster, New York 14086

November 13, 2023

The Honorable Mayor and Members of the Board of Trustees
Village of Lancaster
Municipal Building
Lancaster, New York 14086

Dear Madame Mayor and Honorable Trustees,

This is written in connection with concerns held by some village residents, small business owners, members of my family, and myself resulting from recently published reports which raised questions involving possible ethical issues regarding the relationship between the Lancaster Village Board and the Lancaster Community Development Corporation.

In that regard, I am requesting a very timely response to the following questions:


(1) Does the Village Board have any oversight responsibilities over the Community Development Corporation?

(2) According to a news story published in the Lancaster Bee in its October 26, 2023 edition, a Village Trustee resigned over issues relating to the CDC.

In that connection, consistent with the Board's relationship, ex-officio or otherwise, with the CDC, I am requesting a true and complete list of the names of the Secretary, Treasurer, and the Executive Director of the CDC at the time of the Trustee's resignation?

(3) It is my understanding that the Mayor, in her previous capacity as Trustee, purportedly termed an appointment to the CDC a "potential conflict of interest". I further understand that Trustee Ruda subsequently supported that exact same appointment.

In that regard, without intending to suggest any wrong doing whatsoever, will the Board please advise me what actor, if any, publicly advised, or strongly suggested, that the CDC appointment referred to herein, raised no a "conflict of interest" issue?

(4) I am given to understand that purportedly, the exact same CDC appointee referenced in three (3) above, now serves as a Member of the Village Historic Preservation Commission.

Will the Board enlighten me if there were any "conflict of interest" concerns expressed in non-privileged venues over that specific Village Historic Preservation Commission appointment?

(5) Will the Board convey to me any regulation or similar prescription, by whatever term known, specified in the CDC's Bylaws, that governs the operations of the Community Development Corporation?

(6) Will the Board kindly assert that the CDC has, for the last three years, faithfully complied with all of the New York State time mandates regarding the filing of New York State financial reports, and if so, what member of the CDC made those filings?

(7) Will the Board provide the names of each and every Director(s), if any, who resigned from the CDC during the time period commencing on April 1, 2021-November 14, 2023.

(8) Will the Board relate the names of each and every member of the Village of Lancaster Board, individuals who regularly publicly meet with, or serve, the Board in an official capacity, and each and every CDC Director, who may have publicly suggested the dissolution of the CDC?

(9) Will the Board provide me with the names of each and every member of the CDC that sits on the Village of Lancaster New York Forward Committee?

(10) Will the Board kindly provide me with the names of each and every member of the CDC who may have a personal business interest in the allocation of New York Forward funds?

Kindly respond to me by return email.

Yours very truly,

Mark Blazejewski

[gorja]

This is from the ABO's July 1, 2023 annual report.
Public Authorities That Have Failed to File Reports in the Public Authorities Reporting Information System
This report constitutes an official warning to the authorities that appear on this list.
As of June 30, 2023, these authorities had reports due in 2022 and are still past due.



This very well be due to the Authority had no meetings between October 6,2021 until June 7, 2023.
They are looking for new members, Mark. President, treasurer and secretary. There you go. You'll have a say of what goes forward

The VOLCDC do have their budget reports in for 2022 and 2023

[mark blazejewski]

This is from the ABO's July 1, 2023 annual report.
Public Authorities That Have Failed to File Reports in the Public Authorities Reporting Information System
This report constitutes an official warning to the authorities that appear on this list.
As of June 30, 2023, these authorities had reports due in 2022 and are still past due.



This very well be due to the Authority had no meetings between October 6,2021 until June 7, 2023.
They are looking for new members, Mark. President, treasurer and secretary. There you go. You'll have a say of what goes forward

The VOLCDC do have their budget reports in for 2022 and 2023

Thank you for the posting Gorja.

Your information in part answers item six (6). But your comment...

They are looking for new members, Mark. President, treasurer and secretary.

...compels me to ask:

(11) Will the Board provide me with any insight it may have as to why the CDC seems to have difficulty in retaining member Directors?

[mark blazejewski]

BTW,

My letter was sent via email to the Clerk-Treasurer, under this request that it be placed in the Board's public communications.

Dear Mr. Clerk-Treasurer,

Please include this in the Public Communications and disseminate a copy to the Mayor and each Trustee.

Thank you,

Mark Blazejewski

[mark blazejewski]

In addition to some issues surrounding the circumstances referred to in my posted letter, I understand that the VOL Board meeting last night was rather contentious over a number of issues, including liability regard flooding damage to homes.

Does anyone have any insights?

[gorja]

Mark, I guess, I don't know what you're getting at with the Village CDC.

Like the town - Leary and his co-horts on the town board put Leary and the conservative chair's spouse on the LIDA.
What's the difference if the village board endorses someone for the village cdc if that is what happened, as I don't know what you're fired up about, I guess?

[mark blazejewski]

Mark, I guess, I don't know what you're getting at with the Village CDC... don't know what you're fired up about, I guess?

"Getting at" and "fired up about," are your pejorative terms Gorja, with which I entirely disagree. I am not "getting at" anything other than answers to my questions, and I am certainly not "fired-up" about any issue or actor.


You need to bear in mind Gorja, the revitalization of the village has been a focal point of resident life for 62 years, and most probably will always be a front and center concern of life-long residents, such as myself.


In that connection, I believe that my questions are pertinently reactive to a spate of events starting with the Mayor's rather curious comments during the October 10, 2023 LIDA meeting. You may remember this post:

BTW Gorja,

When LIDA Member Rinow asked LIDA Member Ruda "Did you help support Mr. Sweeney getting a seat on the CDC Board," do you think that LIDA Member Lynne Ruda was fully transparent in her response?

Wasn't Ruda's response to Rinow's question "I don't agree with that"?

Didn't Mrs. Ruda vote in favor of the Allein Motion to appoint Mr. Sweeney as a CDC Director on February 25, 2019?


References:

LIDA Meeting, October 10, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms9LNUAJ210

CDC Meeting, February 25, 2019, https://ecode360.com/LA0609/document/492515895.pdf

Reference:


Post #10, https://www.speakupwny.com/forums/sh...-IDA-extension


Furthermore, was it not you specifically that led some in Lancaster to believe that a rather prominent CDC officer and LIDA applicant may have been actively seeking election to town office in 2023?

Do you not remember this message that you repeatedly posted on this forum?

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As such, if the level of concern of some had been, and remains, raised, you need to recognize your own role in creating such confusion, deceptions, diversions, and anxieties.

Finally, the Lancaster Bee article of October 26, 2026 speaks for itself, and remains of interest to the numerous village residents that I have previously spoken with.

You have posted your inaccurate characterizations and flawed questions, and I hope that I have answered them to your satisfaction.

[Breezy]

Pretty pathetic, Mark.



I can see what he's getting at, same ole, same ole.

Just more mud-slinging.

Where's Frank Lee Blunt to add more - just like the VOL elections, where even worse was tossed out there, over and over and over.

Your letter so sooooo over the top!

Seems like a nuisance foil to me.

Readers, could you imagine Mark as a board member ??? YIKES!!!

[Breezy]

And gorja was merely being helpful with the state doc, then Mark bites her head off.

STRANGE.

[mark blazejewski]

Pretty pathetic, Mark...

…I can see what he's getting at, same ole, same ole...Just more mud-slinging...Seems like a nuisance foil to me.

My letter was directed to the attention of the Mayor and the Village Board, and not to the Records Custodian.

As such your term "FOIL" is misplaced.

Your weird name-calling is a classic DEMOCRAT/LEFTIST tactic to intimidate and CANCEL a citizen who is exercising its right to question the government; kind of what the WOKE Left is all about.

devilish:

Five insults and four emojis is par for the course from you, Your Emojiness

[mark blazejewski]

And gorja was merely being helpful with the state doc, then Mark bites her head off.

STRANGE.

I politely thanked her for her information, but maybe the Board should be answering the questions, eh? :

Thank you for the posting Gorja.

Her helpfulness aside, I think this was uncalled for:

Mark, I guess, I don't know what you're getting at with the Village CDC...

I don't know what you're fired up about, I guess?

[Lee Chowaniec]

Hey Mark:

Watched the livestreaming of the LIDA meeting yesterday. No new business, no old business, short and sweet.

Mayor Ruda was absent, Tom Sweeny made an appearance and addressed the board declaring that he would not be seeking a project extension. He already had been denied that extension. Do you read anything into that? Like, attempting to turn down the temperature.

[mark blazejewski]

Hey Mark:

Watched the livestreaming of the LIDA meeting yesterday. No new business, no old business, short and sweet.

Mayor Ruda was absent, Tom Sweeny made an appearance and addressed the board declaring that he would not be seeking a project extension. He already had been denied that extension. Do you read anything into that? Like, attempting to turn down the temperature.

I agree that in the one's absence and the another's comments, it may be seen as an attempt to lower the temperature, or avoid further controversies. Perhaps both were attempting to avoid a tangential reference to the previous night's night's VOL Board meeting?

Or perhaps it was a classic exertion of the metaphor, "You didn't fire me, I quit"?

BTW Lee, straighten me out if you will, but didn't LIDA's October 10 decision to table the extension request, to all intents and purposes, effectively deny any such an extension?

[mark blazejewski]

Your letter so sooooo over the top!

So, you believe asking questions of elected leaders is "over the top"?

Do you prefer the residents and taxpaying citizens of the Village of Lancaster, of which I am one, be kept in the dark and draw conclusions based on incomplete or inaccurate information?

I believe strongly think that the Mayor and the Board are deserving of an opportunity to present the facts, especially if those opportunities would accurately clarify any possible misconceptions and ambiguities, eh?

Good grief, I must have missed something, way back when, in my elementary school Civics lessons, eh?

[mark blazejewski]

...just like the VOL elections, where even worse was tossed out there, over and over and over.

Do you mean stuff like this?

image (20).png