Terrell Brown writes:
>Although I have at times disagreed with many of them, I don't think any of
>our councilmembers take action soley to be "vindictive and abusive". I also
>know that many of the Basim proposals have been extrememly unpopular with
>many in the Central neighborhood.
Especially the Motel proposal that Basim Sabri and Wizard Marks were
promoting. The Motel proposal has mobilized many within Central. CM
Brian Herron -- after much pressure from constituents, and reacting to a
stronger and clearer position from 8th ward candidate and competitor,
Robert Lilligren, said he wasn't going to push a Motel development in an
area where the residents strongly opposed the idea. CM Herron also asked
Robert Lilligren to post on CNIA-chat regarding his position about
developing mixed use housing/retail that would involve taking current
properties on the corner of 31 and 2nd.
"I just had a call from CM Herron in response to my email letter conerning
development on the 3000 Block of 2nd Ave (Baker Block). He said he supports
development of the six blocks already owned by Mr. Basim Sabri without
adding
other lots to the parcel. He supports keeping the existing structures where
they are. He supports helping Corrine Zala to continue improving her
building. He asked me to help spread the word.
Thanks to CM Herron for supporting the community.
Yours,
Robert Lilligren
Candidate for City Council
Ward 8, Phillips West
www.VoteRobert.com"
I thought it was odd that Herron had his opponent send this message, rather
than posting it himself -- or having his staff post it. Sabri apparently
is not happy with Herron on this one. I hear Sabri told Herron -- "these
people aren't going to vote for you anyway, so why are you doing this?" --
or something to that effect. Ofcourse that's not true. Many Herron
supporters have opposed the Motel Scheme, and want Sabri to come up with a
development proposal that involves land he owns -- not land he doesn't own.
The calls to Herron's office were overwhelmingly against the Motel idea.
>Lisa McDonald is not anti-developer. Look at what has happened along Lake
>Street, at LynLake, the Midtown Greenway. The Lisa McDonald that I know and
>have seen in action is very helpful. If she was infact against this
>particular proposal, history shows there was good reason and was not alone.
>
Lisa McDonald is getting increasing support from many in the Central
Neighborhood because she is willing to stand up to the bullying and
predictable tactics of Basim Sabri (of "King Basim" as he called himself
when he was posting on the cnia-chat list). Another common Sabri tactic is
to call his opponents "racist". That has been done here on this list, also
during the brief time Sabri was posting on the cnia-chat list. This is
also described in the recent City Pages article about Sabri: Street
Fighting Man:
http://www.citypages.com/databank/22/1067/article9550.asp
---------------------------------------------
CNIA update:
Some folks probably saw the coverage on Channel 9 of the annual farce
otherwise known as the CNIA annual meeting. Tom Leyden was covering the
story. Jennifer Gahnstrom was shown on the 10 O'Clock news of this story.
I understand the coverage of this meeting has again discouraged funders
from contributing to CNIA (and it should). The ballot included a slate of
candidates -- and there were spaces to write in opponents. A blank ballot
handed in would have been counted as votes FOR the slate. The slate
included: Basim Sabri, Zack Metoyer (who has denied being currently
employed by Sabri in a phone conversation with me, but Sabri's cell phone
tells people to call Metoyer with emergencies), Art Erickson of Urban
Ventures (also known as Urban Vultures to many living in Central). The
ballot was also badly designed -- there were 4 or 5 at large directors on
the ballot. Each director was listed -- then a space for an opponent --
which made it look like you could vote against each individual at large
director, rather than telling people vote for 5 directors. The ballots
were also numbered -- and the numbers corresponded to names on the sign in
sheets. Some people at the meeting did not vote because they didn't want
to be identified.
David Piehl posted the following about the annual meeting:
I taped both the 9:00 broadcast (which was longer and a bit more detailed,
less
focus on Sabri) and the 10:00 broadcast, if anyone missed it. The scene where
Basim is helping someone check off candidates is priceless!
The food at this meeting was the best ever, but the meeting itself was
nauseating! I expected something like this would happen, but had to offer the
benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to hold a fair election. I guess when
the rebuffed offers from the mayor's office for help staffing, it was a big
clue.....
Now, though, after allowing the opportunity for a fair election encountering
only the usual Sabri version of mayhem, we can remove all doubt from our minds
that CNIA is not our citizen participation group, rather it is the
political arm of Sabri Properties.....
One Somali business person commented to us that he was there because he was
lobbied, and didn't actually work in the area, he gestured to many others
and said that he knows many of them, "and while they are good people, they
do not live in Central either"; apparently someone told them to come to
the meeting - not that this is headline news, just verification of what we
already knew! It is unfortunate that some unscrupulous opportunists are
taking advantage of vulnerable immigrants.
Sabri Properties will continue to be represented by CNIA, so clearly
Central is ready for a citizen participation group that will represent the
residents, all of them. Perhaps some of the groups that have popped up in
the vacuum that CNIA left this past year are up to the task, or perhaps a
new group needs to be created. In either case, the goal should be a set of
bylaws that embrace the concept of representing the residents. Further,
the bylaws need to reflect the fact that funding sources such as NRP and
some of the former private foundations have made neighborhood groups ripe
for harvesting by unscrupulous opportunists (the term businessman would
imply that the spoils have been earned in some manner, so therefore does
not apply in this case)."
--David Piehl, posting on CNIA chat:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cnia-chat/message/603
There is now talk of forming a new neighborhood organization in Central.
There are other groups -- Heritage Homeowners, and the folks who mobilized
in opposition to the Motel (http://www.nomotel.com). The discussion at
cnia-chat is focused on that topic now. To join cnia-chat, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cnia-chat/join/ To read the messages (the
message and file archive at cnia-chat is public) go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cnia-chat/messages/
Many grievances were filed after the September 2000 meeting-- the one
called to vote the current board out. The League of Women Voters were
present at the meeting as observers, but did not help conduct the election.
Their report on the subject is available in the files section of
cnia-chat. The text of the report is posted here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cnia-chat/message/572
I would be interested in hearing an update from Bob Cooper of MCDA, and Bob
Miller of NRP about what is happening with the grievances Jennifer
Gahnstrom has submitted regarding the most recent farce known as the CNIA
Annual Meeting.
Eva Young
Central
Attached: Jennifer Gahnstrom's grievances....
On May 23, 2001, Jennifer Gahstrom, former board member of CNIA wrote:
From: "Walkerct" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wed May 23, 2001 4:48 pm
Subject: Grievances against CNIA from Gahnstrom
5/23/01
To: Bob Cooper, MCDA Citizen Participation & Bob Miller, NRP
From: Jennifer Gahnstrom
Re: Grievances against CNIA
Annual Meeting Ballots:
Notification for the CNIA Annual Meeting stipulated that candidates for the
CNIA Board who wished to pre-register should do so by calling Zachary
Metoyer. And, "pre-registration must be in no later than May 8, 2001". I
spoke with Zachary the week of May 13 and he said he did not know who was
running for the Board positions. Thus, no one had pre-registered by May 8.
At the Annual Meeting on May 22 the CNIA ballots listed one "pre-registered
candidate" under each of the eight Board seats on the ballot (and room for
one write-in candidate nominated from the floor.)
Grievance: Zachary Metoyer developed a list of candidates and printed them
on the CNIA ballots without CNIA Board approval.
Executive Committee "Emergency meetings"
I served on the CNIA Board from October 2000 until last night. I was told
that I would be involved in planning for the Annual Meeting. I was
informed of no meetings. The CNIA Executive Committee (Zachary Metoyer,
Steve Wash, Pauline Thomas and Louis Zaragoza) met repeatedly during the
time I was on the Board. In his "Presidential Message" in the Annual
Report, Zachary Metoyer wrote that the Executive Committee "attended
meetings called on an emergency bases (sic) to conduct business. Not all
Board members were able to attend all of these meetings, but did when
possible." In truth, not all Board members were informed of these meetings.
Grievance: Any Executive Committee meeting to approve putting the names of
candidates on the CNIA ballots was not an emergency and was therefore an
invalid meeting.
Where are the sign-in sheets and ballots? Did everyone who signed in live,
work or own property in Central? Since the CNIA Executive Committee has
repeatedly conducted business without Board approval there is little reason
to have confidence that they appropriately registered voters and counted
ballots.
Grievance: The Annual Meeting Sign-in sheets and ballots need to be
reviewed by Bob Cooper of MCDA and Bob Miller of NRP. Letters should be
sent to all those who signed in and the number of letters that are returned
marked "addressee unknown" should be made public.
Jennifer Gahnstrom
3733 5th Avenue South
Mpls MN 55409
h 612-821-0988
w 612-722-6612
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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