Response to Hal Brown's AG referral on the Laus/submitted to Mtn Mail
Oh, the irony! Councilman Brown claims the Lau's letter to their tenants “appears to constitute intimidation". I would say that Mr. Brown, Mayor LiVecchi and attorney Kahn have been trying to intimidate their opponents at every turn. Referring the Lau's letter to the attorney general seems like yet another attempt to silence the opposition.
I have been acquainted with the Laus for over twenty years. I know them to be hard working, frugal, and smart investors. Knowing a couple of folks who rent from the Laus, I also know they try to be good landlords and keep rents reasonable.
While I have not seen the body of the letter and can only project from the excerpts in the Mountain Mail article, nothing seems particularly intimidating. Rather, I believe, the Laus exercised their first amendment rights to express their opinion. Additionally, I think they would have done a disservice to their tenants not to warn them of the possible consequences. "Surprise, we have to raise your rent or close the trailer park because the city has interfered with our needed land purchase".
If I were a business owner, could I not let my employees know that if so and so wins, I might have to move my business elsewhere?
I don't believe Mr. Kahn's letter was meant as a helpful warning to the Laus. More likely the city was looking to disrupt the sale by the NRCDC in hopes that they can destroy the value embodied in this property and somehow prove they are right and supporters of the NRCDC are wrong.
Let’s end this wastefulness! Plenty of mistakes have been made during the Vandaveer saga, but now the city and NRCDC need to work together to return value to Salidans. This likely requires a new mayor and council.
Tom Jacobson
Comments
Thank you Jake I appreciate your vote of confidence in us and our goal of not talking about affordable housing but proiding it. , I have been asked for copies of my "letter" . I will post that, first I would like to post the letter to the Editor that Merle refused to put in the Mountain Mail which meant that I had to hit the streets with a similar but longer letter. Then he did me the favor of posting parts of it on the front page:
When Mayor Livecchi originally campaigned, he promised to retire the Vandaveer debt, bring the council together and exemplify accountability. Livecchi has made a mockery of these promises bypassing council members and wasting tax dollars on Attorney Kahn’s ridiculous legal battles.
By purchasing The Vandaveer land, Salida acquired valuable water rights, now worth about $3,000,000. However, Livecchi and Kahn are threatening to sue the NRCDC for the expenses incurred from acquiring the water.
The NRCDC has buyers ready to purchase the Vandaveer land. Livecchi/Kahn are obstructing these sales by threatening the NRCDC’s closing agent any sale of Vandaveer land would be legally contested by the City.
Ironically, now Livecchi’s supporters are calling the NRCDC the enemy for wanting to sell Vandaveer land, retire the debt and return the remaining 100 acres to Salida to help solve its housing problems.
We are now paying Salida to sue itself since NRCDC legal costs will come out of the proceeds of the sale of the Vandaveer land. The citizens will pay for the lawsuits twice!
Naïve and believing Livecchi supported affordable housing, my husband and I still purchased the land from the NRCDC. Our goal was simply an easement to connect our mobile home park to city utilities, ensuring it’s future and and creating more affordable spaces. Now Livecchi /Kahn are threatening to take this land and future housing from our tenants.
Mayor Livecchi is NOT working for the people of this town. At $500k+ in spent in legal fees in less than 2 years, Livecchi’s legacy is the Kahn Castle of Fawn Ridge.
Stop Livecchi, his council supporters and Kahn. VOTE: PT Wood for Mayor. VOTE Shore, Kaspar, and Critelli for council. The citizens of Salida deserve a fair, honest, intelligent, city government that puts fiscal responsibility and our citizens needs above personal grudge matches.
Lorri Lau (Affordable housing landlord)
*"providing"