Link to D&C article.
I was pleasantly surprised to see
an article about the $500,000 not being paid yet.....
I am confused about the date that this $500,000 was to be paid, as the article quotes Town Officials as saying they thought it was September 1st that the payment was due. As far as I could see from the PILOT agreement, it was supposed to be on April 7th, 2009.
Page 6 of the PILOT:
The "effective date" is the "7th day of April, 2009".
Page 28 of the PILOT, Section 8.3 - DEFINITIONS:
"As used herein, the Entitlement Date means the Effective Date" (which is April 7th, 2009) - UNLESS there is litigation - then the date gets pushed up 12 months, which means IF there was litigation the "Entitlement Date" would be April 7th, 2010. But, there hasn't been any litigation.
Page 27 of the PILOT, Section 8.1.4 - CONSTRUCTION IMPACT PILOT PAYMENT:
April 7th, 2009 - THAT is the date he was supposed to pay the $500,000 regardless if demolition or construction commenced or not. There were no "provisions" in that section to say otherwise. There were no "conditions" or "triggers" that demolition or construction has to start before this $500,000 payment is made, which should have been paid ON the entitlement date, as it says in the agreement.
The fact that no demolition has occurred, no financing has been secured, and this half a million payment to "address impacts resulting from the construction and development of the project" has been ignored tells me that there isn't going to be any construction or development going on for a long, long time. It also screams "Failure". Really, really loudly.
Page 26 of the PILOT, Section 8.1.1:
Demolition was supposed to have started in the beginning of June. 60 days from the entitlement date, which was - say it with me now - April 7th, 2009.
"No later than sixty (60) days following the entitlement date (defined below), the company shall commence demolition........."
All of these things are listed under Article VIII - Milestone Provisions - and there are penalties for failing to meet those milestones.
Page 29 of the PILOT, Section 8.5 deals with Failure To Satisfy Milestones; Supplemental Payments, and after that in Section 8.6 explains the Options To Extend. (as far as I know, no "option to extend" has been filed).
So, we should expect Congel to be held accountable to the agreement he signed and pay the penalties under Section 8.5 because he failed to meet two milestones: The $500,000 payment, and the commencement of demolition.
Any other person who didn't satisfy the milestones in their signed contract would be penalized......correct?
Technically - those two issues aren't listed as "milestones".....even though they are under the heading Article VIII - Milestone Provisions. So, unfortunately, I don't think there will be any "supplemental payments" because he hasn't satisfied those two things yet. Why they are listed under the "milestone" heading if they aren't "milestones"...........beats me.
Maybe he couldn't make the payment on the entitlement date because he had to contribute $10,000 to the Monroe County Democratic Committee, and since no banks want to risk financing this project, or the project in Syracuse, he's running a little short on cash?
I don't think I need a crystal ball to see what the future holds for this $260 million dollar promise (not progress).I don't think any of you have a magic wand, but there is a magic lever you could pull in November to make some people disappear.
*poof*
Link to March 17th, 2009COMIDA meeting.
"Mary Ellen Heyman, Supervisor of the Town of Irondequoit, felt the PILOT and milestones protect the taxpayers, and noted that the PILOT was approved unanimously by the Town Board."
It protects the taxpayers only if you enforce the P.I.L.O.T and milestones. Otherwise, it's just a piece of paper with worthless words on it.
