Town Board Meeting 2/5/24 Summary & Key Takeaways
“Call him out of order! He spoke once, he’s done! Can I get some back up here?!”
Feb. 5, 2024 – Town Board Meeting Summary
Good Board:
Shawn Lavin & Michael Szukala kept their laptops closed/at home.
Angela Marinucci & Szukala each asked a question regarding a public hearing. (Jacqui Berger did too, but she asked the same question in a more irrelevant way)
Kulpa didn’t scream (except for when defending Sara… come back to the Amherst Budget Minder page/blog later for more on Sara).
Bad Board:
Marinucci spoke 30 seconds of the 3 hours 46 minutes & 52 seconds.
Szukala spoke 12 seconds of the 3 hours 46 minutes & 52 seconds.
Lavin didn’t speak at all.
Berger was unhinged and seemed to be confused all meeting, and demanded to rule residents out of order (again, as usual), looking around and having outbursts.
Kulpa looked like being at the meeting was beneath his duties, head-in-hand much of the time with his classic smirks and eye rolls towards the residents.
Kulpa said he would address all questions from public expression, yet he closed the meeting without even acknowledging them.
The board, after hinting for weeks “you don’t even know how we are going to vote” for the Gleason’s project, ended up voting YES, against the community’s will, in favor of the developer – Marinucci the only NO vote.
While Rusk went back to sleep, being a compliant feeding hand to the board, residents filled up 5583 again for the 5th straight meeting. Brian Kulpa once again was caught on hot mic saying “Jesus Christ!” to resident’s wanting to sing the national anthem after the pledge. He also did this at a prior meeting in December.
22 Chateau
The agenda kicked off with Shawn Lavin’s save face “transparency” law being pulled due to an excuse of it being filed incorrectly. Keep your eyes open for this on the February 26 agenda for it to fizzle out.
It was the first time the board mentioned the unjust demolition by Benderson of the 22 Chateau Terrace garage, which opened the meeting for preservation hearing of the site. The public hearing was lengthy, and some may say it was not as exciting as debunking Kulpa’s creditability in public expression… however, this is what should be done for every public hearing. When residents come to speak at public hearings, it gets ahead of a possible problem rather than trying to fix things after they’ve been voted through, ie: 11.4%. Kulpa was very (very) careful with his word choice and often paused and rephrased his sentences as a politician would, for all to be weary of anytime he speaks, regarding if he will make any real punishment towards Benderson.
Questions at Public Hearings? NO!
The solar panel project was back and a lackluster response of answers came back from the seekers who seemed to be in shock that they were to receive any questioning or pushback for their "go green” plan to replace vegetation with metal and concrete structures. When residents did come up to ask valid questions, concerns, or follow ups – Jacqui Berger had another one of her outbursts to attempt to shut people up. She said “I make a motion to call him out of order, he spoke once and he’s done. Can I get some backup here? This is what we decided we were doing!” Residents may want to look into this… are elected officials holding backroom private meetings deciding how they will conduct open meetings/addressing public matters? This would be a major problem if so. Investigate.
The Gleason’s Vote Circus
The Gleason’s project came back for a final approval vote. A few meetings ago when it was originally supposed to be voted for (22 townhome units), residents were able to delay the vote for more time to consider the project. Kulpa even hinted at the residents stopping the vote that they would vote in alongside resident wishes when saying “you don’t know how this body is going to vote!” and then a high pitched “how do you even know how we are going to vote?!”. At first, they voted and Marinucci seemed to surpise them by voting NO to the project, for then Kulpa to say he also was going to vote NO. It looked like Kulpa was planning to be the only NO vote, which would still let the project move forward with 4 votes, but also making Kulpa look like a good soldier to the residents… aka scheming. When not knowing what to do, Berger was caught on hot mic scolding him “you just killed the project!”.
They all looked confused, as they are not used to voting beyond a unanimous agreement. Then Berger told Kulpa something to the likes of “you said you were going to vote YES”, to which Kulpa said he was surprised by the vote, the NO vote from Marinucci which dented his plan to be the only NO vote, for the project to continue forward. After they spent some time, seemingly making up some random landscape screening questions, they decided they need to try to vote again to get the project approved to fullfill their desires. They then reopened the vote for a second time and then they all voted YES with Marinucci being the only NO vote – giving the developers yet another win to build on grassy land, near resident’s homes not wishing for unit development to be outside their kitchen window. This was yet another egg in the basket of Kulpa rarely if ever giving what the taxpayers want vs what he and developers want.
FREE LEDs & Tax Overrides
Public expression began and during the second speaker, Kulpa replied that he would address all questions, to which he never did. A couple LED streetlight presentations by residents put the board to shame for spending $51 Million dollars unnecessarily on LED streetlights for their personal resume building and appeasement to Hochul. It looks as if the LED lights could’ve been replaced at no cost over time. Another presentation that captured the attention of the room was regarding the board voting 3 times, with 4 proposed times, to override the tax levy limit and noting they only need 3 of their board members to vote in favor to make up whatever tax increase they’d like.
Westwood
A work session before the meeting raised eyebrows as apparently Kulpa is now claiming Mensch contrived to have the Westwood property as a brownfield/contaminated. On the agenda, soil testing plans were presented and Westwood brownfield signs are now conveniently removed and it appears as if Kulpa is testing in very specific spots to make it seem as if the land is clear for use so he can start as soon as possible on building his field trip campus city at Westwood to build his resume using taxpayer’s money (and against many residents’ wishes). Everyone should keep an eye on Westwood, any plans, news, agenda items, etc. as Kulpa is eager to get HIS way on land that YOU paid for.
Kulpa concluded the meeting after 3 hours and 46 minutes without ever going back to residents’ questions to provide answers or acknowledgement.
Next board meeting is February 26, 2024 at 7pm. Be there. Write a good 3-minute public expression piece with facts, questions, opinions, and suggestions. Tell a neighbor, bring a friend, and shape the future of Amherst.