Mount Vernon City Council files its strip club petition
The Mount Vernon City Council filed its Article 78 petition in the state Supreme Court today.
The council wants the court to reverse the Mount Vernon Zoning Board of Appeals’ approval of an expansion for Sue’s Rendezvous, an adult entertainment club at 96 Gramatan Ave.
The council argues in its petition that the zoning board’s process was capricious, flawed and in violation of the law.
Here’s what the council’s law firm filed today:
Mount Vernon City Council’s Petition vs. Sue’s Rendezvous
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this is a business that has been around for a long long time…expansion of its use
should not pose a problem for the city…because the use doesn’t change..even
expansion of non conforming uses are usually allowed assuming they have no
adverse affects on traffic etc…you certainly cannot argue that the zoning board
was arbitrary if they went through a hearing heard testimony and made a factual
determination ….the time to prevent the strip club was when it originally applied
for approval…that time has long since past
This is clearly a PR move by the Mount Vernon City Council. Like Sue’s or not, they are a legally operating business and have a right to expand like any other business. If the ZBA had turned Sue’s application down, then that would have been grounds for the applicant to sue the city.
You have a $87,000/year part time legislative aide who has consistently been giving you bad legal advice which has caused you great embarrassment every time you get your butt handed to you in court and, even worse, wastes the taxpayers’ money on legal fees.
As Judge Cacace stated in her decision against the fools who sued the city over the Atlantic Development project, “just because you do not like it does not make it arbitrary and capricious.”
Yuhanna Edwards and Karen Watts stop wasting the taxpayers’ money on your PR stunts.
Incoming City Council President Karen Watts owes over $20,000 in back property taxes and Comptroller Maureen Walker is holding that over her head in order to control Watts’ council votes. That is even more obscene than anything that happens at Sue’s Rendezvous. Can’t wait for your installation next week Karen.
How much is this lawsuit files by an outside law firm going to cost the taxpayers for Yuhanna Edwards’ and Karen Watts’ PR stunt? How much does Silverberg and Zalantis charge per hour?
Everyone has a right to sue if they feel they have been harmed. Some cases are lost, some are won. The City Council has a right to bring actions when it beleives they are doing what is best for the City of Mount Vernon and the taxpayers. I encourage you to research the issue regarding Sues Rendezvous and adult entertainment in Mount Vernon and then make an informed comment on it. The Council has purposely stayed out of the media and does not take action for “PR”. Please educate yourselves on the issues you comment on, or run the risk of being another person that talks about something you do not fully understand. The question is, does Mount Vernon need an expansion of adult entertainment in Mount Vernon’s downtown district?
‘informed’ seems rather uninformed. Yuhanna Edwards has been quoted in The Journal News of his desire to hire a PR firm to write press releases, hold community meetings and increase media exposure. At $3k/month the council will get little if anything. The hook is the PLUS expenses part of the proposal which will certainly be many more thousands.
So ‘informed’, the city council is indeed seeking more media exposure and will waste taxpayer money to do so and this “lawsuit” is just the beginning of their PR effort.
An important question remains though, this ZBA case has been in the works for a while now, why hasn’t Edwards, Watts, Munro, Horton of Apuzzo spoken out about this and made a big deal until now and not while the ZBA was debating the case? Puzzling indeed. Smells like a cheap PR effort to me.
Oh yeah ‘informed’, care to opine on the failure of the incoming City Council President Karen Watts and her failure to pay property taxes?
Whatever PR firm that the Mount Vernon City Council selects, they will have to spend a ton of money just to overcome the bad PR that will result from wasting taxpayer dollars on hiring a PR firm to begin with.
Question Karen must be prepared to answer at City Council meetings in 2011: “So Council President Watts, just how many billable hours, postage and expenses went into that fancy dancy PR piece Sheinkopf produced?”
Great PR for Sues, I hadn’t heard of it before, and now a lot more people have heard of it.