Monday, July 30, 2012
Several councilors say it is unfair they have no say whether the ARA appeals the recent legal defeat, but the city could be stuck with the bill.
City Solicitor Robert Mangiaratti faced tough questions and comments Monday night from skeptical city councilors about the latest Attleboro Redevelopment Authority legal battle. No councilor spoke in favor of appealing a Bristol County Superior Court judge's decision that the ARA reinstate two fired employees and provide them with back pay, including benefits and interest. Some councilors said the ARA should not continue the with expensive conflict. "Somebody sang a song about 'know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,'" Councilor Mark Cooper said. "It's time to fold … pay off what we have out there, take the loss, cut our losses and make it happen." [Watch the attached videos to see some of the councilors' comments] Regardless of how …
Friday, July 27, 2012
Sources say the meeting was originally supposed to be a closed session.
It appears City Solicitor Robert Mangiaratti and the Attleboro City Council will discuss the recent court decision against the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority in public. The agenda for the session scheduled to take place at City Hall on Monday at 7 p.m. states, "City Solicitor Robert Mangiaratti to appear before the council." It does not specify he will talk about the recent court decision, but it is widely known that this will be the topic. Sources say the meeting was supposed to take place behind closed doors in an executive session, as most discussions of legal matters do, but some councilors demanded the meeting take place in public. A Bristol County Superior Court judge ruled last week that the state Civil Service Commission was …
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The meeting will take place Monday at 7 p.m.
Attleboro city councilors' summer break will be cut short on Monday for a special meeting to discuss last week's decision by a Bristol County Superior Court judge that the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority must rehire two employees fired in 2009 and provide them with back pay, including benefits and interest. The local media was notified Thursday afternoon about the meeting, scheduled to take place Monday at 7 p.m. No agenda or further details were provided. Several sources told Attleboro Patch the meeting is about the recent court decision. It is not clear if the meeting will be open to the public or be an executive session behind closed doors, as meetings about legal issues often are. City Solicitor Robert Mangiaratti wrote in a …
Monday, July 23, 2012
Should the city/Attleboro Redevelopment Authority continue to put up a fight, or is it time to call it quits and accept the decision?
Word came out late Friday afternoon that a Bristol County Superior Court judge had sided with the state Civil Service Commission's 2011 decision and ruled the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority had wrongfully fired two staff members nearly three years ago. The judge ordered the employees be rehired and receive back pay, including benefits and interest (a total their attorney says is at least $600,000). If you take the weekend off from local news and need to catch up, go here to read the article about the ruling and all the relevant documents. City Solicitor Robert Mangiaratti says the judge's decision includes "several legal issues" that would be the basis for an appeal. The employees' attorney says any objective person is going to reach …
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Councilors side with the city solicitor's recommendation that paying $1.1 million will be the best way for the city and the troubled Attleboro Redevelopment Authority to move forward.
Following a lengthy and heated executive session in which loud voices and the slamming of a table could be heard from a closed-door room, the City Council voted 9-2 in public on Tuesday for the city to cover the $1.1 million payment a jury ordered the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority to make. The payment will go to Therese Anderson and Tamara Cullaz, who won a lawsuit in 2008 claiming they were underpaid when the troubled agency took their property by eminent domain. The decision will also settle a pending lawsuit against the ARA and the city claiming the civil rights of Anderson and Cullaz were violated by the ARA's failure to pay the jury award. The money will be released this year in three istallments of $369,000, with the first …
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
A jury determined four years ago the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority needed to pay $1.1 million for a property it took by eminent domain in 2005.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The Attleboro City Council is asking the state legislature to be able to borrow money to pay off debts for the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Documents show Attleboro Mayor Kevin Dumas held funds from the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority.
In testimony to the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission, Attleboro Mayor Kevin Dumas made it clear that without providing funds to the Attleboro Redevelopment Authority, the water and sewer project at the Industrial Business Park would be stalled. The testimony, transcribed in one of six 100-plus-page booklets, is what two former Attleboro Redevelopment Authority employees, Michael Milanoski and Meg Ross, have been saying since they were terminated two years ago – that Dumas starved the group of funds in order for them to fail and then terminated their jobs. "Did you know that without the funding being provided to the ARA that the road and sewer (to the Industrial Business Park) would not be able to be continued – whether it be through …
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Attleboro resident Ellen Parker hopes Industrial Business Park remains a place for low-traffic business.
- OPINION
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Tuesday, October 4, 2011
I was rather surprised at the answer to a question posed to Attleboro City Council candidate Richard Conti at the forum a couple of weeks ago. He suggested that one solution to the Idustrial Business Park Park on Ides Hill was to rezone it to general business, which is a smaller implementation of commercial zoning. I am not exactly sure what he is thinking, or perhaps he has forgotten the whole reason why the city embarked on an Industrial Business Park. It was not to create more fast-food chains and mini-malls. I personally feel that it is not the place to invite businesses such as a McDonald’s, Dunkin Donuts, and other small retail stores with heavy traffic. I had thought the concept of the IBP Park was to draw low traffic businesses …
41.944202
-71.281026
Attleboro City Hall
77 Park St, Attleboro, MA
/articles/increasing-business-while-preserving-attleboros-neighborhoods
501068
/locations/5514618
Friday, September 30, 2011
City Councilor Brian Kirby shares his beliefs on why the City Councilor cannot work independently of the city's administration.
- ELECTIONS
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Friday, September 30, 2011
To the editor at Attleboro Patch: I have never seen a more negative campaign season. I have already responded to Ms. Felos’s columns. This is the same individual who worked on my first campaign, voted “absentee" for me and donated to me. And I in turn helped her move back into her house after law school. Unfortunately, she is now my political opponent and she is attacking me without any facts. Tip O’Neil had said that “all politics are local,” But what I have learned in Attleboro is that all local politics are personal. A City Councilor cannot work independently of others. A councilor builds a consensus and offers compromises in order to advance legislation. We do not work in a vacuum. But we …
41.944202
-71.281026
Attleboro City Hall
77 Park St, Attleboro, MA
/articles/politics-are-local-and-personal-in-attleboro
501068
/locations/5497526
Jerry Chase
1:57 pm on Saturday, August 18, 2012
. . . and re-elected, repeatedly. But, eventually, the Feds will want to know where certain grant monies went, because they didn't go where they were allocated for . . . such as the IBP lift station, which has never been built. It's interesting that the City Council REJECTED the proposed new sewer line as the substitute for the lift station. more ›