It has come to my attention that many of my fellow residents don’t understand why I am suing the Village and the Board of Trustee’s.

My primary allegation revolves around the actions and demands of Gregg Wasser, principle of G&S Investors, who is the “preferred developer” of the downtown revitalization project known as “The Waterfront at Port Chester”.

In 1999 the Village entered into an arrangement with G&S under a contract called “The Land Acquisition and Disposition Agreement "(LADA). One of the terms of this agreement states that the “Village” will pursue by using eminent domain proceedings at the request of the preferred developer on parcels designated in 1999.

In March 2003, I made a deal with CVS for a state-of-the-art Drug Store with drive through access, something that Port Chester, City of Rye, Rye Brook and nearby Greenwich, Ct, did not have.

Beginning in the summer of 2003, CVS and I completed our plans and submitted them for approval by the Village’s Planning Commission. As with any application to the Village, we attended many meetings including with Mayor Logan in his office and the Board of Trustee’s as a whole at a regularly scheduled meeting.

During the early Fall of 2003, I came across Mayor Logan at a local gas station, at which point Mayor Logan asked me to have a meeting with Gregg Wasser in regards to my CVS project.

I explained to Mayor Logan that I did not understand why I should attend such a meeting because –

·        I had a fully executed contract with CVS

·        I owned all the needed property

·        I had the financial ability to complete the project

·        My application was well on its way to receiving all required approvals

Mayor Logan begged me to have the meeting by telling me that G&S and Gregg Wasser had certain rights to develop my property and he wanted me to meet with Wasser. Only after repeated requests that day, did I agree to have the meeting.

November 2003, I had the meeting that Mayor Logan requested. At this meeting in the offices of G&S, was Gregg Wasser, Mark Weingarten (Wasser’s attorney), Dick Bologna (my partner), Richard O’Rourke (my attorney) and myself.

It was at this meeting that Wasser set forth his demand, to be a 50/50 partner with us in the CVS deal that he did nothing to create. I could not understand this demand until Wasser said that either we agree to this deal or he will condemn our property and then we would have no deal left with CVS. When we explained that we were not interested in a partnership, we asked if there was another way to avoid him condemning our property and there was.

PAY $800,000.00 DOLLARS to Wasser.

We declined claiming that that is extortion and that we were not interested in buying back our rights to our own property.

We also did not understand how Wasser could sell us our rights back when it is the sole right of the Village to Condemn property. We should have been talking to the Mayor, rather it was the Mayor that sent me to Wasser.

The very next day Wasser caused the Village of Port Chester to begin the taking of our property by eminent domain and condemnation.

Next I attended the December 2003 Board of Trustee’s meeting, at which I recounted these same events which I have written here about my meeting in November with Gregg Wasser and the extortion demand for a partnership or payment to maintain my property.

In my opinion, the Trustee’s all (Logan, Colangelo, Ciccone, DiRoberto, Napoli, Crane and Sorenson), ignored my plea’s to take responsibility for the actions of the Village.

The New York State Eminent Domain Procedure Law conveys the right to condemn real property to governmental agencies only, not to individuals. The contract, LADA, between the Village of Port Chester and G&S, permits the “preferred developer” to compel the Village to process condemnations to acquire land to further the re-development project in the down town area.

The issue here is simple, the Village Leadership, chose to follow the advice from attorney’s paid for by G&S, Mark Tulis (villages attorney, paid by G&S) told the Mayor and Trustee’s that they were bound to take my property, even thought G&S was in default of the contract, the LADA, at the time.

So why am I suing the Village and the Trustee’s?

·    The Village and its Trustee’s had the responsibility to take my allegations and investigate them to protect my constitutional rights from being extorted by a private individual using the Village’s SOLE right of eminent domain to extort money or property from me, to line his OWN POCKETS.

·    The Village Trustee’s by its own Laws, had the obligation to process my application to move the project lines, so that my property would not be able to be taken by eminent domain or condemnation. They chose to ignore my application and reject it even though Trustee Napoli wanted to follow the law. Here again my constitutional rights as a property owner were violated.

·    The mere existence of words a contract, the LADA, is not sufficient to transfer the rights of eminent domain and condemnation, reserved for lawful government agencies, to a private individual for his own personal profit or any other reason. It is just not permitted!

Here is an example to demonstrate what happened to me, in different terms. Could this happen to you?

• You’re driving your car and your speeding.
• A Village police officer stops you and is going to right you a ticket.
• A stranger approaches you’re car while the police officer is standing there.
• The stranger say’s that if you pay him $800.00 dollars he will guarantee that you will not receive the ticket.
  • This is an illegal extraction or extortion
  • The stranger is a private individual and has no governmental authority to make you any such offer
  • The police officer would be guilty of the same crime as a conspirator if when you paid the demand, he did not write you the ticket.

In the above example, the Village Trustee’s were the police officer and Gregg Wasser was the stranger. He has no rights to make me the offer to pay him off and the Trustee’s had the responsibility to uphold my constitutional rights as the officers of our local government.

Mayor Logan put me in the position to be extorted by insisting that I go to the meeting. The Board of Trustee’s ignored my cries of wrong doing. These two facts only leads me to believe that our elected officials are as guilty as Wasser, such as a conspiracy to a crime. The crime here is extortion, illegal extraction (as defined in Nolan by the US Supreme Court) and robbery, the taking of my property.

I hope, while it might be long, this explains to you why I am suing the Village and the Trustee’s.