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Let taxpaying "investors" view business plan for Ramapo BallparkCommunity View in Journal News March 23, 2010 There are problems with the facts in Supervisor St. Lawrence’s Community View, "Baseball will lift up region." He says a formal business plan for the $25.5 million project does exist. On Feb. 17, Preserve Ramapo submitted a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request for all documents, notes and communications concerning this project. A month later, Tuesday, March 16, we were given 48 pages and a large technical drawing. No business plan—in fact, no documents or papers that might be part of a business plan, were included. Either the Town is illegally withholding information in violation of State law, or Mr. St. Lawrence is violating the public trust with a serious lack of candor. His editorial compounds the issue with other "misstatements." He wrote, "If a formal business plan doesn’t exist, and minor-league facilities are not money makers, as the editorial asserts, individuals would not be investing millions in our project." No documentary evidence of these "individual investments" was in the papers returned, and since they would be part of this record, is this another violation of the State FOIA law, or is it simply not true? Also, the Can-Am League, with which the Town is partnering, is not a minor league. They are an independent league with no affiliation with Major League or Minor League baseball. And as to the "minor-league facilities that are moneymakers" to which the Supervisor alludes, Can-Am, unfortunately, has had a disastrous financial history. They have fielded 7 teams in New York State and every one has failed. Overall, they have fielded 22 teams and 16 have folded. That’s a 73% failure rate and a foreboding 0 for 7 in our state. The average life expectancy of a failing Can-Am league team is 2.6 years, and you can’t recoup $25.5 million taxpayer dollars in 2.6 years. This is a train wreck waiting to be switched on to local rails. (A complete historical survey of the teams is in "Playing with House Money" on our website here.) Meanwhile, there’s the serious legal question--Is the Town withholding information that should have been returned with the Freedom of Information Act request? The statute is very clear: "Any person who, with intent to prevent public inspection of a record pursuant to this article, willfully conceals or destroys any such record shall be guilty of a violation." We believe the violations would constitute felonies. If there is, in fact, a "formal business plan," and the public is expected to invest $25.5 million of its own money in this project, then we ask that the Town post it on the website. Or send a copy, as required by our FOIA, and we’ll post it online for the investors.
Michael Castelluccio |