The Adult Student Housing project on Grandview Ave, at the site of the old Nike Base, was built, but it remained empty and tied up in court. Surrounding villages had sued the Town and the developer for violating the requirements of a proper environmental impact study. The villages had won the first round, and now there was an appeal by Zaks and also an RLUIPA lawsuit thrown into the mix.

Then the Yeshiva Mosdos Chofetz Chaim of Radin (full name of the development) moved 16 Israeli families into apartments in the complex. This was a direct violation of a court injunction, but Judge Nicolai and the villages agreed not to take immediate action extending a humanitarian gesture to alleviate the temporary hardship of homelessness for the families.

But in order to protect the villages against a long, expensive procedure if the tenants later refused to move out after the final legal decision, the judge demanded from the developer a $75,000 cash surety bond that could be used for legal proceedings.

The 16 families settled in but no payment arrived at the court.

Ten months later, the residents were still illegally on the property, and the patience of the court had run out. Zaks had not put up the money, and the headline (July 15, 2010) in The Journal News read "Israeli families being evicted from yeshiva housing in Ramapo."

The mayors of the villages involved in the lawsuit spoke out. "We have nothing but sympathy for the 16 families living on the site," Chestnut Ridge Mayor Jerome Kobre wrote in a press release. "We cannot, however, ignore Mosdos’ willful disregard of the court’s order." Wesley Hills Mayor David Goldsmith told the Journal, "Mosdos has taken advantage of the court’s humanitarian gesture. First they invite the families to live on the site where there is an injunction in place, and now they refuse to post the undertaking (bond) which was ordered by the court."

In that same newspaper article, the Journal reporter incidentally offered this comment about one of the relationships in this affair. "The Zaks are supporters of Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, who advocated for the yeshiva and for the adult-student-housing zone." The writer probably could not have guessed that just a few days later, that bond between the Supervisor and the developer was about to be tested.

The two documents that appear below connect the dots between two of the three town departments that got involved in this transaction. There’s the Supervisor’s office, the Director of Planning and Zoning, and the Legal department.

Letter One—An Appeal
Two things to notice in this first letter are the timing and the fact that it appears to arrive unsolicited. Rabbi Zaks apparently seems comfortable asking for the $75,000 from the town. This does not seem to be a desperate last attempt after a number of other solicitations. (It reads: "I received this early this morning and am trying to find a solution for the $75,000 cash."

It would seem reasonable to assume that Mr. Simon would not be signing a personal check for this much money for the developer. So who would be able to help in this situation?

Pledging $75,000
The answer to the problem appears in a hand-written memo (below) from Alan Simon to the Ramapo Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence. Apparently, at this point, St. Lawrence had signed on to the transacton.

Body of the text reads: "As per your instructions informed Alan Berman of Town Attys office to place on agenda for Town Board meeting resolution authorizing the town of Ramapo to pledge the $75,000 necessary as per Justice Nicoli (sic) for the appellants bond and to D. (draft) a letter conveying a copy of said Resolution to the court and all parties to the law suit.

CC Town Atty"

[PDF copy of the original memo here]

The cc to the town attorney probably ended the process. In a story in today’s Journal News, attorney Michael Klein said he blocked the move because it would have been an "inappropriate use of public money." That’s Clarence Darrow-speak for "illegal." You can be pretty sure that Mr. Klein would not have stepped in between St. Lawrence and the Zaks were it not only an illegal misappropriation of public funds, but an outrageous one as well.

The questions that remain unanswered in all of this are disturbing.

In today’s article in The Journal News, the newspaper has an entirely different set of legal questions about the Ramapo Planning Department and the Nike site ASH project. Did Alan Simon illegally sign the Certificates of Occupancy to get those 16 families into those apartments? This investigation is just beginning, and hopefully there will be some answers from the court and whatever agency looks into the issue. Michael Klein was asked that question in the form of, Do you think Simon was legally empowered to sign the certificates? Klein gave a "no comment" response, elaborating "attorney-client privilege precluded him from talking about any discussions or correspondence with Simon on the issue." The question wasn’t about correspondence or discussions—it was, Can Simon, an attorney who is not an engineer and not a building inspector, legally sign Certificates of Occupancy? It’s critical that this question get answered.

Journal News story: "Lawsuit: Ramapo official OK’d unsafe yeshiva housing."

Michael Castelluccio
Preserve Ramapo
www.PreserveRamapo.org 　

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