Showing posts with label Jerry Pasternak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jerry Pasternak. Show all posts
Friday, July 25, 2014
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Brickyard Coalition and its Convenient Memory Lapse
Yesterday, I received an odd email from the Brickyard Coalition, here in Montgomery County.
So - did the Brickyard Coalition simply forget? Has Doug Duncan changed his mind about the property? Is Jerry Pasternak still Doug's right hand go to man? Or does Doug still want to use the property for housing? If I were a member of the Brickyard Coalition, I would think carefully before I would endorse an official who generated much angst and huge legal bills for my neighbors.
Memory lapses seem to be abundant this election year.
Maybe the motto of the Parents Coalition should be "We keep files so you don't have to."
Here is the 'breaking news" from the Coalition - they have decided to endorse Doug Duncan in the upcoming Democratic Primary for County Executive.
Are they serious? I asked them, and have yet to get a response.
Remember back to 2003 when Steve Silverman, then a County Council member, went public with his plan to bring affordable housing to the Brickyard site? Here is the Gazette article from November 19, 2003.
Remember back to 2003 when Steve Silverman, then a County Council member, went public with his plan to bring affordable housing to the Brickyard site? Here is the Gazette article from November 19, 2003.
Turns out, that a few weeks before, the COUNTY EXECUTIVE DOUG DUNCAN demanded that the Montgomery County Board of Education turn over all property not currently planned for school purposes. You can see the March 22, 2004 Board of Education memorandum below.
Even more surprising at the time - the County and the Board of Education had been turning over numerous school sites, in secret, without any public hearing or notice. We were only tipped off to this transfer because of Steve Silverman's slip of the tongue.
Without going into all the history, many of us learned a lot about our elected representatives, who we thought we could trust. The resulting battle also cost a lot of folks a substantial amount in legal fees.
Even after the property was "saved" from housing, the ever trusted right hand to Mr. Duncan, Jerry Pasternak, subsequently tried to turn the Brickyard property into soccer fields. With more legal fees.
What has changed? Can we trust Doug now?
Even more surprising at the time - the County and the Board of Education had been turning over numerous school sites, in secret, without any public hearing or notice. We were only tipped off to this transfer because of Steve Silverman's slip of the tongue.
Without going into all the history, many of us learned a lot about our elected representatives, who we thought we could trust. The resulting battle also cost a lot of folks a substantial amount in legal fees.
Even after the property was "saved" from housing, the ever trusted right hand to Mr. Duncan, Jerry Pasternak, subsequently tried to turn the Brickyard property into soccer fields. With more legal fees.
What has changed? Can we trust Doug now?
So - did the Brickyard Coalition simply forget? Has Doug Duncan changed his mind about the property? Is Jerry Pasternak still Doug's right hand go to man? Or does Doug still want to use the property for housing? If I were a member of the Brickyard Coalition, I would think carefully before I would endorse an official who generated much angst and huge legal bills for my neighbors.
Memory lapses seem to be abundant this election year.
Maybe the motto of the Parents Coalition should be "We keep files so you don't have to."
Thursday, March 15, 2012
"MCPS should be part of the solution by keeping... acquisition of a private site or...its own land at the old Montgomery Hills Junior High School site and the old Lynnbrook Elementary School site
"...MCPS should be part of the solution by keeping on the table acquisition of a private site or repurposing existing private uses on some of its own land at the old Montgomery Hills Junior High School site and the old Lynnbrook Elementary School site..."
~Member of BCC Middle School Site Selection Committee from Parks Department. Her full statement on the BCC Middle School Site Selection Process is below.
Minority Report: Farquhar
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Brickyard Middle School Lease to Leggett is a Disguised Surplusing of the Property
The letter below was hand delivered to all Montgomery County Councilmembers on December 12, 2011 by the Brickyard Coalition.
The letter discusses the surprise lease of a 20 acre public school site by the Board of Education to Montgomery County at the request of County Executive Ike Leggett.
At a time when public school land is a precious resource for public school students, County Executive Ike Leggett has taken 20 acres of public school land and plans to turn it over to a private club.
UPDATE: Response from Montgomery County Director of Public Information.
Brickyard Coalition Letter to Berliner and Council
The letter discusses the surprise lease of a 20 acre public school site by the Board of Education to Montgomery County at the request of County Executive Ike Leggett.
At a time when public school land is a precious resource for public school students, County Executive Ike Leggett has taken 20 acres of public school land and plans to turn it over to a private club.
UPDATE: Response from Montgomery County Director of Public Information.
Brickyard Coalition Letter to Berliner and Council
Monday, July 25, 2011
Pasternak is on MCPS Foundation too
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| MCPS EF Form 990 for 2010 |
Q. What do the Crossway Montessori School (that wants the former Pleasant View Elementary School building for a charter school), MSI Soccer (that wants the 20 acre Brickyard Middle School site for a private soccer club) and the MCPS Educational Foundation (that just took in $11,000 from the United States Golf Association) have in common?
A. Jerry Pasternak.
But you wouldn't know that by looking at the MCPS Educational Foundations website. The website doesn't disclose the complete list of foundation directors. The website only shows 11 Directors.
For the complete list of the 16 Directors for the MCPS Foundation one has to go to IRS Form 990 shown below. On that list Jerry Pasternak's name is disclosed along with the names of directors Jerry Weast, Pat Baptiste, Barry Meyer, and Mitchell Paul. According to the IRS Form 990 each Director spends an average of 2 hours per week on Foundation business.
2 hours a week average? What's going on at the MCPS Foundation?
2 hours a week average? What's going on at the MCPS Foundation?
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
What do Crossway and MSI have in common?
Crossways Community has put in an application to run a Charter School out of a closed Montgomery County public school building. [Pleasant View Elementary School]
MSI Soccer is interested in leasing 20 acres of public school land and turning it into private soccer fields. [Brickyard Middle School site]
Both plans would take dedicated public school land out of the inventory of available land for Board of Education use.
And in 2009, both organizations had the same lobbyist according to the Montgomery County Ethics Commission records.
Lobbyists 2009
MSI Soccer is interested in leasing 20 acres of public school land and turning it into private soccer fields. [Brickyard Middle School site]
Both plans would take dedicated public school land out of the inventory of available land for Board of Education use.
And in 2009, both organizations had the same lobbyist according to the Montgomery County Ethics Commission records.
Lobbyists 2009
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
NBC 4 reports on Leggett's removal of land from school system inventory
With this transaction, County Executive Ike Leggett and former County Executive Doug Duncan will have moved the use of over 160 acres of public school land from the school system to private interests.
This is not about the kids, its about the developers. The kids are still in classroom trailers outside of their school buildings.
NBC 4 VIDEO AT THIS LINK
This is not about the kids, its about the developers. The kids are still in classroom trailers outside of their school buildings.
NBC 4 VIDEO AT THIS LINK
Saturday, April 2, 2011
178.66 acres of school land declared surplus since 1994
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For your information, here is a listing of MCPS school sites that have been declared surplus by the Board of Education.
The yellow highlighted properties were declared surplus since 1994.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Peary HS Deal: What Really Happened
At the Montgomery County (MD) Council Public Hearing on the proposed sale of Peary High School property (19-1/2 acres) to the private parochial Berman Academy, held on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 23rd, Mr. Drew Powell testified against the sale. He was challenged by the councilmembers as to his testimony but not allowed time to respond. That exchange was recorded in the RockvillePatch by reporter Sean Sedam, as follows:
Here is Mr. Powell's response.
November 29, 2010
"If you have evidence to the contrary I urge you to bring it forward. If you do not, I suggest that linking these very disparate situations in the manner in which you did does a disservice to this community and to yourself."
"I would like to respond," Powell said.
"There is no response," said County Council President Nancy M. Floreen..."
Here is Mr. Powell's response.
November 29, 2010
Montgomery County Council
100 Maryland Avenue
Rockville, MD 20850
Re: Requested response to Montgomery County Council regarding possible sale of MCPS property
Montgomery County Council,
Per Councilmember Berliner’s request, I respectfully wish to respond in writing, regarding the proposed sale of Peary High School and its relationship to the sale of Belt Junior High School as well as other similar transactions involving publicly owned Montgomery County School properties. I would have provided this information live at the November 23rd hearing, but after being asked to produce information on this subject, was silenced by County Council President, Nancy Floreen.
Before I begin, I would again wish to state that the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy is, by all accounts, an upstanding educational institution and a good neighbor in the Aspen Hill community. I am not aware of any
wrong doing on the part of the Academy, but am very concerned with the process that has bought the
Montgomery County Council to point of selling off county this school property. I am very supportive of the
Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy leasing Peary High School for the term of the lease (2023) and possibly
decades longer as provided by mutually agreed upon lease extensions.
According to Councilmember Leventhal, “…some elected officials and some community members might
confuse the Yeshiva Academy with the Hebrew Academy.” I can assure you that there is no confusion.
My journey on this matter started in 2002, when researching campaign contributions on behalf of the citizen based county watchdog group Neighbors for a Better Montgomery. At that time many citizens were concerned with the possible role of potential developer influence on land use decisions made by the Montgomery County Council. It was thought that some of this influence might present itself in the form of campaign contributions from developers and development related interests to county council candidates.
It came as a great shock to Montgomery County citizens, when it was found that in many cases more than half of many candidates’ political contributions came from development related interests. In some cases, as much as 70% or more came from these sources. Neighbors’ researchers continued to explore the sources of campaign contributions. As part of that investigation, a seemingly innocent contribution of $4,000 from, of all places, Guam, made to then County Executive Doug Duncan in 1999, caught our attention. As is well documented in three articles by the Washington Post, other contributions were discovered, which linked that money and donations from the Pacific island of Saipan to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff (Post-1, Post-2, Post-3). The Post articles then connected the dots regarding contributions from Abramoff and other Yeshiva board members, including Dennis Berman and Jeffrey Lee Cohen. According to the Post “The Saipan contributions occurred a month before Duncan signed a lease -- over community and school system opposition…” The Post articles delineated the role of then Duncan aid, Jerry Pasternak, in the engineering of the Belt Junior High School deal.
Although there may have been no wrong doing on the part of the Academy, its operatives or sympathetic elected officials, it appears that many of the same people involved with the Belt Junior High School transaction are now and have been involved with the Peary transaction. Additionally, many of the same methods and instruments used to guaranty the purchase of Belt have been employed in the efforts to secure Peary.
Foremost is Mr. Pasternak’s role. The Post was most explicit regarding Pasternak’s role in the Belt Junior High School sale. Concurrently, Mr. Pasternak vigorously promoted the lease and sale of Peary High School. I attended an MFP meeting in 2006, where Councilmembers Praisner, Denis and Andrews received lengthy, enthusiastic support for the sale of Peary High School from Mr. Pasternak. In his presentation, sitting next to a Berman Academy representative, Mr. Pasternak continued to refer to himself and the Academy as “we,” even though he was acting as the representative of the Montgomery County Executive and theoretically the citizens of Montgomery County. The sale was tabled at that time, partly because of prior Planning Board rejection of the sale, the Belt/Abramoff revelations and the recommendations of the ZHA report, which advised the county not to sell the property.
Also at issue is Mr. Pasternak’s seemingly unlimited access to the County Executive’s office and close working relationship with the County Executive’s Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Diane Schwartz Jones. As a former county employee, Mr. Pasternak enjoyed numerous meetings and information exchanges with Schwartz Jones concerning the sale of Peary High School. Additional exchanges may have occurred with Schwartz Jones and the Academy’s representatives from Garson Claxton, LLC (law firm), Mr. Pasternak’s current employer.
Also keep in mind that the Peary lease predated the Belt Junior High School lease by a little more than two years. Both leases were approved and signed by then County Executive Doug Duncan, an elected official the Post cited for taking campaign contributions in return for selling county school land. Both leases are extremely similar in their language and lease/purchase terms. It has been stated by some that one or both leases were prepared by Garson Claxton, LLC, the “go to” law firm in the Washington, D.C. metro area regarding leases.
For future county land sales, it may be prudent to start with a county written “boilerplate” lease, making future leases more taxpayer friendly. Sale of Montgomery County school property to the aforementioned parties is not limited to Peary High School and Belt Junior High School. Other properties include, Arcola Elementary School, Town and Country Day School and Montgomery Hills Middle School. In each of these transactions, many citizens were concerned with the low sales price and other related costs to the county. The Post documented County costs regarding Belt Junior High School in a 2006 article “Yeshiva Facility Deals Costly for Montgomery.” It is easy to see why many might ask if these are “cookie-cutter” deals at the expense of taxpayers.
It must also be noted that in addition to contributions to former County Councilmembers and the former County Executive, Berman Academy interests have donated more than $31,000 to current Montgomery County Councilmembers as well as the current County Executive since the first proposals were made to convert the Peary lease to a sale. Most notably are contributions to County Executive Leggett for more than $17,000 and Councilmember Leventhal for over $9,000 (provided upon request). These donations do not include contributions, which may be reported in January, 2011.
Troubling, too, in this process, the sponsor to sell Peary comes in the form a lame-duck councilmember, not to mention that the proposed sale will be voted on by a lame-duck council, immediately after an election.
Although there may have been no wrong doing on the part of the Academy, its operatives or sympathetic elected officials, it appears that many of the same people involved with the Belt Junior High School transaction are now and have been involved with the Peary transaction. Additionally, many of the same methods and instruments used to guaranty the purchase of Belt have been employed in the efforts to secure Peary.
Foremost is Mr. Pasternak’s role. The Post was most explicit regarding Pasternak’s role in the Belt Junior High School sale. Concurrently, Mr. Pasternak vigorously promoted the lease and sale of Peary High School. I attended an MFP meeting in 2006, where Councilmembers Praisner, Denis and Andrews received lengthy, enthusiastic support for the sale of Peary High School from Mr. Pasternak. In his presentation, sitting next to a Berman Academy representative, Mr. Pasternak continued to refer to himself and the Academy as “we,” even though he was acting as the representative of the Montgomery County Executive and theoretically the citizens of Montgomery County. The sale was tabled at that time, partly because of prior Planning Board rejection of the sale, the Belt/Abramoff revelations and the recommendations of the ZHA report, which advised the county not to sell the property.
Also at issue is Mr. Pasternak’s seemingly unlimited access to the County Executive’s office and close working relationship with the County Executive’s Assistant Chief Administrative Officer, Diane Schwartz Jones. As a former county employee, Mr. Pasternak enjoyed numerous meetings and information exchanges with Schwartz Jones concerning the sale of Peary High School. Additional exchanges may have occurred with Schwartz Jones and the Academy’s representatives from Garson Claxton, LLC (law firm), Mr. Pasternak’s current employer.
Also keep in mind that the Peary lease predated the Belt Junior High School lease by a little more than two years. Both leases were approved and signed by then County Executive Doug Duncan, an elected official the Post cited for taking campaign contributions in return for selling county school land. Both leases are extremely similar in their language and lease/purchase terms. It has been stated by some that one or both leases were prepared by Garson Claxton, LLC, the “go to” law firm in the Washington, D.C. metro area regarding leases.
For future county land sales, it may be prudent to start with a county written “boilerplate” lease, making future leases more taxpayer friendly. Sale of Montgomery County school property to the aforementioned parties is not limited to Peary High School and Belt Junior High School. Other properties include, Arcola Elementary School, Town and Country Day School and Montgomery Hills Middle School. In each of these transactions, many citizens were concerned with the low sales price and other related costs to the county. The Post documented County costs regarding Belt Junior High School in a 2006 article “Yeshiva Facility Deals Costly for Montgomery.” It is easy to see why many might ask if these are “cookie-cutter” deals at the expense of taxpayers.
It must also be noted that in addition to contributions to former County Councilmembers and the former County Executive, Berman Academy interests have donated more than $31,000 to current Montgomery County Councilmembers as well as the current County Executive since the first proposals were made to convert the Peary lease to a sale. Most notably are contributions to County Executive Leggett for more than $17,000 and Councilmember Leventhal for over $9,000 (provided upon request). These donations do not include contributions, which may be reported in January, 2011.
Troubling, too, in this process, the sponsor to sell Peary comes in the form a lame-duck councilmember, not to mention that the proposed sale will be voted on by a lame-duck council, immediately after an election.
Many have asked why a majority of the Montgomery County Council would go forward with the sale of school property for pennies on the dollar in these austere economic times, when the Montgomery County Board of Education and even your own staff (Montgomery County Council Staff) has strongly recommended against it.
There may not have been wrong doing, but the sale of this valuable and irreplaceable Montgomery County asset is a textbook example of special interest access and potential manipulation of local government. It is a sad day indeed in Montgomery County, when concerned citizens come before the County Council to express their apprehensions about the sale of public school property and are summarily booed, jeered and dismissed with the tacit approval of councilmembers. Which of you will stand up for taxpayers and ALL the county’s children?
Most sincerely,
Drew Powell
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