<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">Can we all assume that this is just more lies to attract attention and cast aspersions on the reputations of those neighbors who have over the last almost 10 years put their blood, sweat, and tears into making the annual festival a success? The festival raises thousands of dollars each year to benefit the community, plus it attracts media attention and publicizes what a great place Charles Village is to live. And it's a lot of fun. And, most incredibly of all, it's all put together by volunteers, a dedicated corps of neighbors who set aside other priorities for the good of the community. Now you want to start slinging your mud on them too?<BR>
<BR>
What sort of people would say such ugly, awful, untrue things?<BR>
<BR>
I'm out of town a lot these days, so maybe I missed some pretty inflammatory information at the meeting. For your sake, I hope so. For the sake of your honor and reputations, I hope you have a pretty damn good basis to say something so outrageous. If not, then you are again exposed as being just as irresponsible, destructive, and downright nasty as in the past. <BR>
<BR>
On the one hand it's a sad spectacle. It's as if you've become so frustrated with how powerless you are, so you tell even more outrageous lies than the ones that turned people off on you in the first place (about the URO, the CVCA, the CVCBD, etc. -- a very long list going back several years). But to say that it's sad does not excuse such conduct. If, as usual, there is no basis for your latest scurrilous accusations, then you owe everyone reading this an apology. <BR>
<BR>
Matthew Weinstein<BR>
3001 Abell Avenue<BR>
<BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
In a message dated 3/31/04 9:24:33 AM, portlight@compuserve.com writes:<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE CITE STYLE="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px" TYPE="CITE"></FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">To all:<BR>
<BR>
Last night's budget hearing was a farce. The community could not even ask<BR>
questions of the budget committee. (Like why are there vast declines in<BR>
bugeted insurance costs when liability and other insurance products are<BR>
increasing every where else? An explanation would have been appreciated<BR>
but Morgan Allyn's gag rule extended to even the budget.) We had to assume<BR>
that Janet Levine, the "Executive Director", has not fulfilled the first<BR>
and most important duty of her legislated position of "Administrator" since<BR>
no one on the budget committee was allowed to answer the question "Did Ms.<BR>
Levine provide the committee with actual receipts of grant and fundraised<BR>
monies this past year?" It was more like facing a panel of soviet<BR>
ministers than what should have been an informative dialogue between the<BR>
community and the governmental entity which is supposed to serve it.<BR>
<BR>
Last night's meeting was an opportunity for three people to tell the world<BR>
how great they were and what they do. (Nothing was true. Nothing was<BR>
achieved. You know the Charles Village area is filthy. You know that it<BR>
is full of crime. Nothing has changed in 10 years.) However, the Benefits<BR>
District did learn last night that they are not a Foundation, but a<BR>
governmental agency. If you want to prove it to yourself look up the City<BR>
Charter, it is right there in black and white. They also learned that the<BR>
position that Sandy Sparks and the by-law committee wants to give so much<BR>
power to (and it's anyone's guess why) is called the "Administrator", not<BR>
the "Executive Director", or the proposed "Chief Executive Officer", but<BR>
simply Administrator. <BR>
<BR>
They also learned that the community is concerned by the great increase in<BR>
crime and that we now know they eliminated $20,000. from their budget for<BR>
off-duty cops. What we didn't tell them<BR>
last night is that the audit shows that the Benefits District/Foundation<BR>
lost $20,000. on the Festival and therefore CVCA surely lost the $2,000.<BR>
they loan to the Festival every year without any contract. <BR>
<BR>
The CVCBD's budget is "voodoo" and is built of wishes, hopes and fund<BR>
raising which they have never been able to accomplish despite Frank<BR>
Januzzi's statements to the contrary. The only way that they will be able<BR>
to fund the Benefits District is to change the wording on the surtax<BR>
limitations which by-law committee members Sandra Sparks and Morgan Allyn<BR>
are working on at this minute. <BR>
<BR>
So the CVCBD wants to impose a non-working, voodoo budget on the community<BR>
for services and programs that have proven to be completely unsuccessful<BR>
and they want to be able to increase the amount of surtaxes they can<BR>
collect from all of us as soon as the legislation passes and your homes get<BR>
reassessed. You can do nothing. You can sit complacently. Or you can<BR>
demand from your elected officials that enough is enough.<BR>
<BR>
Christian<BR>
<BR>
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