Chumps in Charge.
By Jim Conley • Jun 30th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Now that the Brookline Selectmen have approved another $1.5 million gift to the Boston Archdiocese for their housing project at St. Aidan’s, it’s a good time to look at what costs the Town is subsidizing (using affordable housing trust funds). Looking at the Church developer’s project budget dated May 24, 2007 [click here to view], the $1.5 million correlates nicely with the budget variance of $1.6 million in “general development costs” detailed therein.
And what’s one of the big cost jumps under that line item? Unintended litigation expenses. Instead of the $325,000 budgeted before the lawsuit of 2005, the Church needs to pay lawyers $506,000. So, theoretically one-third of the money given to the Church will be used to pay the lawyers who bullied residents into a settlement that effectively silenced them from further opposing the project.
Reportedly, lawyers from DLA Piper threatened to depose each of the 75 residents who signed onto the lawsuit before exacting the settlement agreement. (Hmm, for a group who blames the rise in project costs to delays from the lawsuit, it’s hard to see how several dozen depositions speeds things along.) These are the same lawyers that Fran “The Snitch” Price alerted when the plaintiffs made contact with the Town on further funding. And no doubt DLA Piper is billing the client for the threatening letters sent to the plaintiffs that Price ratted out.
So should this project go bust, there’ll have been no more affordable housing in Brookline but the attorneys who battled the project’s neighbors will have made $500 thousand in fees. Fees made possible by the Brookline Board of Selectmen and the agents of self- interest who encouraged the Board to ply the project with more funds.
At the end of their meeting Thursday the Brookline Selectmen gushed over Price, along with the Church’s developer and the local housing mob for doing “something good” for Brookline. And I’ll bet the partners at DLA Piper led the applause. If there’s one thing a chump needs (especially when the scam has been consummated), it’s the sound of a crowd clapping.
And our clueless Board of Selectmen beamed with pride.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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HAIL MARY ACCOUNTABILITY?
Were there no dissident voices heard at the Selectmen’s meetings this week? Were all talking in unison, walking in lockstep, in support? Do we have the names of the supporters of the Town’s past and new investments in the St. Aidan’s project? If so, let’s monitor the performance at the project site as a form of accountability of the proponents of this project who are utilizing the Town’s affordable housing trust funds, perhaps on a monthly basis.
With the events of the St. Aidan’s project the past week or so, my mind has wandered to the theme of the “Blues Brothers” movie. Let’s see, with the various Town officials involved in the Town’s decision to cast mucho more bread upon the waters, Brookline might consider a production of its version of the “Blues Brothers” to reflect the Town officials’ mission to save the project. Who might be cast in the roles of Jake and Elroy, in the roles of the Mother Superior and Cab Calloway? Or Jake’s jilted-at-the-altar finance who is trying to stop their mission? And how might the lyrics to “Stand By Your Man” be changed to reflect the project’s problems? Any suggestions? If the Town can’t provide affordable housing, perhaps it can provide affordable comedy (which some may say it already has with the events of the past week).