Posted on 09/23/2005 7:01:16 AM PDT by litany_of_lies
Joplin, Goebel Have Full Support Of NLDC Board
Members say they don't expect agency's top officers to step aside
By TED MANN Day Staff Writer, Politics/Government Published on 9/22/2005
New London — On the day after the City Council gave the New London Development Corp. one week to remove its top executives or be dissolved, the embattled agency's board of directors prepared Wednesday to rally behind its leadership.
Several board members defended NLDC President Michael Joplin and Chief Operating Officer David M. Goebel, saying they did not expect the board to oust the two despite ongoing criticism from city councilors and state officials of their management of the agency.
The board's executive committee, which was already scheduled to meet Friday, is likely to reiterate its previous defenses of Joplin and Goebel, said Stephen Percy, a committee member and the board's secretary.
“The loss of their leadership would significantly undermine the ability of the NLDC or anyone to carry out the goals of the MDP,” said Percy, referring to the municipal development plan for the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
Asked what he would do if Joplin and Goebel resigned, as the council unanimously declared they must for the $73 million project to be completed, Percy replied, “I would no longer want to be a part of the board of the NLDC.”
Other board members echoed Joplin's earlier calls for calm, portraying the council's vote as a rash decision made in anger.
“This is too important an issue to be decided in the heat of the moment,” George M. Milne Jr., the former president of global research at Pfizer Inc. and a board member, said in a message left for a reporter. “If we keep in mind that the goal is the building of the economic base of New London and not personalities or rhetoric that should be guiding our words and actions, I believe it's possible for reasonable people to find a path forward, no matter how difficult or even unlikely that seems right now.”
•••
The latest dust-up between the agency and the city occurred at the beginning of the month, when the NLDC issued eviction notices to three of the Fort Trumbull property owners who challenged the takings of their houses via eminent domain without informing the City Council or the state beforehand.
City councilors were informed in writing in August that no attempt to relocate property owners was imminent, Councilor Rob Pero said Tuesday night. He then read from a memo to the council, which said, in part, “forceful evictions are not planned. Neither the city nor the NLDC want to proceed in this manner.”
The council found itself united Tuesday in its demand that Joplin and Goebel step aside.
“It's firmly in their court now,” Councilor Beth Sabilia said Wednesday. “We'd like to see our implementing agency finish the plan and work with us to get progress at Fort Trumbull, but we simply can't do it with the current leadership of their board.”
Some board members were adamant that they can't go forward without Joplin and Goebel, either.
The board, said John S. Johnson, was “unanimous in our support of Joplin and Goebel at our last meeting, and I would assume that we would continue to be that way.”
Percy added a defense of Goebel, who has come under fire for his management style, especially after his critical comments about Fort Trumbull resident Susette Kelo prompted eminent domain opponents to picket his house.
“Not only is he an outstanding negotiator, he is an outstanding administrator,” Percy said. “The city will never understand the value of what he's done.”
Joplin declined to comment. Goebel did not respond to messages left at his home and office.
The two will travel to Hartford this morning to meet with state officials, including Ronald Angelo, the deputy commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development.
•••
Joplin has said recently that state officials have assured him that they want him to remain at the agency, despite the council's objection and Gov. M. Jodi Rell's criticism of the move to evict residents.
A spokesman for the governor declined to clarify Wednesday whether she believes Joplin and Goebel should remain in charge of the agency.
“The governor made it clear last week that the governor has lost confidence in the NLDC, and that has not changed,” said the spokesman, Judd Everhart. “But she is leaving this round to the City Council.”
Councilors, meanwhile, also have heard complaints that they did not go far enough by failing to immediately strike the NLDC's authority to act on the city's behalf.
“I think there were people there that were happy there was a slap taken, but they wanted it to be knockout punch,” Pero said.
There were others, Sabilia said, who simply want peace: “The vast majority of the people I speak to just want the acrimony to end. Now it's our job to figure out how to go about doing it.”
It's getting very dicey in New London. If the NLDC is dissolved, it will be a pretty big setback for the Kelo tyrants; certainly it will slow the process down. I question whether the Council has the will to deliver the knockout punch.
Also see:
Kelo Situation Update: A Major Blowback against the Eminent Domain Tyrants?
www.bizzyblog.com/?p=542
i think that it would be a good thing for the nl city council to make good on their threats and dissolve the nldc.
returning all that money to the taxpayers would also be good.
but it doesn't solve the prob. all it does is take the heat off the legislature. if the law isn't changed it will merely be a matter of time before the whole thing happens again.
keep the heat on, and make the legislature fix the ed statutes!
Now our wonderful media finally lets us start to get closer to the truth - the political campaign contributions truth, when it comes to political taking of private land in Connecticut.
Pfizer Inc. is the prime commercial tenant in the new development and the houses being taken are being taken so that the city can give their land to a developer who will create a residential environment more suitable to the esthetic presence of the main new resident in the area - Phizer. And there on the government board making the decisions is a well connected "retired" Phizer executive. And our Supreme Souter does not see graft going on, political payola that will be well hidden in the campaign coffers over the years??
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