So this past Tuesday,
September 24, 2024, some form of conference was held before the Court
in New City in the Piermont litigation regarding the wrongful CBM Zone and, by transitivity, the awful 447-477 Piermont Avenue overdevelopment:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/04/how-to-access-court-file.html
Troubling, was the fact that few residents were given any prior notice of Tuesday’s conference. There was nothing in the news sources about it. Nothing was posted to the court website in advance, alerting us to the Tuesday conference, either. And no one present at the conference posted any timely wrap-up of what went on.
But
when I phoned the Court Wednesday morning to check status of the case, this is what I was
told, and I posted this message to all relevant Piermont Facebook pages:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/04/how-to-access-court-file.html
Troubling, was the fact that few residents were given any prior notice of Tuesday’s conference. There was nothing in the news sources about it. Nothing was posted to the court website in advance, alerting us to the Tuesday conference, either. And no one present at the conference posted any timely wrap-up of what went on.
“The Court confirmed to me by telephone this morning that Justice Greenwald issued a bench decision to the parties yesterday in this case, and that the decision, already and currently written in draft form, shall be posted to the court file website shortly”.
Hey. Someone has to, right?
In all likelihood the
issuance of the rushed Lyons letter re-printed below, was instigated by Piermont Garmento Mayor
Bruce Tucker after reading one of my many identical Facebook posts. At minimum, the Lyons letter should have been approved for
issuance by Garmento Mayor Tucker in advance.
The Lyons letter - meaning, the Tucker letter - read like this:
But WAIT a minute.
"... The Village is continuing to explore options..."?
"... In light of our ongoing efforts..."?
"... additional time to reach a resolution of this matter..."?
"... schedule a further conference..."?
Those statements make it sound like settlement discussions were continuing. Yet I was told that same morning by the Court that Justice Greenwald was about to rule in writing. The Lyons letter didn't check out.
So, I
immediately posted the Lyons letter to all relevant Piermont Facebook pages yesterday evening,
with this accompanying comment:
“This document was just uploaded to the court website in the Piermont litigation. Looks like the ‘Village Defendants’ are trying to pre-empt or forestall the issuance of Justice Greenwald's written decision emanating from Tuesday’s hearing. Perhaps that is because the ‘Village Defendants’ are afraid of that decision and its consequences.”
“Piermont residents should be very grateful to Attorney Brian Condon for responding so quickly. (Please see below). It is now apparent that on Tuesday, Justice Greenwald indicated from the bench that he intended to rule in favor of the residents and against the hapless village government. It is therefore now clear what an outrageous and misguided stunt the "Village Defendants" tried to pull on the Court, and on YOU, when they filed their antecedent yesterday letter with the Court, subsequently blogged yesterday... The fact that the ‘Village Defendants’ panicked about a ruling about to go against them, is no defense. This is not a game. This is for real."
So imagine, for a moment, that you are a venerable New York State Supreme Court Justice reading what Bruce Tucker and the "Village Defendants" tried to do with the Lyons letter yesterday.
How would YOU react?
Thursday, the Mayor stepped in it. But why not? Once Tucker's counsel reported back to him on Justice Greenwald's bench ruling Tuesday, Tucker already knew that he was the loser. He probably thought, "What more does a loser have to lose?"
