Ever since the six-foot high fence went up on the Franklin Court property that the village sold to an LLC of private citizens, (that would be the Franklin Court Mews LLC), there’s been lots of rumor, innuendo and neighborhood discord going on. Part of it undoubtedly has to do with the seemingly hush-hush manner with which business was conducted between both parties of the sale and the lack of disclosure with the public. No announcements detailing any kind of invitation to citizens to weigh in ever went out either on the village website or to the local media.
And while Trustee Richard Silver made a statement at a board of trustees meeting last month saying, “…that it is appropriate to enhance the public notice procedures going forward in order to assure even greater transparency when it comes to the proposed sale of village-owned properties,” secretiveness continues to be the guiding principle going forward. The Franklin Court Mews LLC continues to exist in the shadows as veiled negotiations are going on between the aforementioned group and the village, according to the very neutral updates village counsel Peter Bee has given at recent board of trustees meetings. Silver even went so far as to issue a very eloquent letter called Franklin Court: A Trustee’s Perspective. The title is pretty self-explanatory and I would love to have shared it but it was never sent to Garden City Life for publication and wound up running in only one publication. It’s this kind of selective transparency where only a small number of people are aware of what’s going on that gives way to residents having perception become reality.
—Dave Gil de Rubio
