For those of you that may have missed the KVOA report on Vestar's construction crews working at 3:00 AM, you can see the clip here, courtesy of OV1st. According to OV spokesperson Mary Davis, "it was a misunderstanding." Will it happen again? No guarantees according to Ms. Davis.
Once again, Vestar shows total disregard for the neighbors that sadly, are in close proximity to their Marketplace.
Actually, the neighbors might want to get used to noise in the middle of the night. After all, Wal-Mart is coming with their 24/7 operation----courtesy of Vestar and the Oro Valley Town Councils.
Watch & listen here.
http://www.ov1st.com/WakeUpCall.wmv
10 comments:
Since I've been "in the loop" regarding Vestar working at OVM at 3 AM every day, making noise, kicking up dust, lights blaring, etc., and disturbing the nearby residents sleep every night, I have some information that was not presented in the KVOA report.
When neighbors first complained to the Town about what Vestar was doing and they inquired as to who gave Vestar permission to start work at 3 AM, they were told that the police dept. gave Vestar the permission.
When the police dept. was then called, they said it was NOT them who gave the permission, but rather that it came from "a higher source" whom they would not divulge.
But in front of TV cameras, the town claims that the whole thing was a miscommunication. They claim that no one ever gave Vestar permission to start work at 3 AM. They claim that Vestar asked for permission and the town neglected to respond to the request.
That's 3 different stories...so far!
Sounds to me like everyone is playing a game called "cover my ass."
The mantra that has become the cornerstone of Oro Valley seems to be 'so sue me'! When are the residents going to wake up and join together in a GENERAL action against the Town, I've tried, under certain circumstances, to point out how they continually and arrogantly misuse, misrepresent, misinterpret, and blatently violate the AZ State constitution as well as our own zoning ordinances - over and over again. These are the only challanges that do, in fact, have reasonable footing. I havebeen 'chastised' wrongfully by the Mayor in a public forum, and seemingly brushed aside in this tactic by the public, too. Yet, these are ,in essense, restrictive covenents, they are real rules and regs and they are laws!
Terry Parrish runs at the mouth aping what the Mayor says or thinks in private (not so private in the case of the Mayor's diatrabe towards me); Dankwerth is all over the place; Gillaspie works a good game; Kunisch seems saturated in ignorance or apathy. The Staff keeps in lockstep with the Mayor and his lackeys; the DRB (as a whole) fights for nothing and lacks the will to rock the Council's boat at the end run. And the public in general, until it becomes THEIR NIMBY, remains silent. Yes we can comment, we can go before the council and speak to a deaf body, confront their egos and try to penetrate their mentally challanged schemes, we can write letters to the eds that remain without publication, we can picket, we can bitch and moan to each other and hope that we get a new Council in the Spring, but things are happening now - can we wait while, at this juncture, they simply go on their merry way? We need a citizens' meeting (no, absolutely NO OV government participants allowed!); any ideas out there?
Cowgirl, I would bet that somebody told Vestar that they could start work early and I don't think it was the police dept.
Developers own Oro Valley.
Zev, most are just fed up with all this xxxx that goes on here in Oro Valley.
Personally I would help collect signatures to recall the majority of the council
Most only care when a situation direct impacts them.
However there have been so many issues involving so many people, maybe this time they will vote the incumbents out of office.
We need a new mayor and a new council!!
UNLAWFUL ACT OF OFFICER; LIABILITY OF COUNCIL, AZ State Legislature, 9-255 (relative to municipalities:
"A member of the common council of a town incorporated under provisions of this article shall not be personally liable in damages or OTHERWISE for an unlawful act of an officer or employee of the town, UNLESS the act is committed by the authority of the member, or he has notice or knowledge thereof, or unless the act is committed under circumstances which would cause, or would have caused, a reasonable or prudent person to have knowledge of the act" (format document, AZ State Legislature).
Cowgirl, file a formal complaint; was this not an illegal act?
I'd like to clarify the discussion with respect to the night construction that took place last week.
The accusation that there have been three different stories from Town staff is simply not true. Town staff has been working together for several days to assess what took place and implement measures to assure residents it doesn’t happen again. Further, we responded to Mr. Bill Kingsley on several occasions to answer his questions and let him know what had taken place. This was not represented accurately in his KVOA interview.
As per the Town code, a company must notify the police department when construction needs to occur after hours, and that request is reviewed based on several criteria, including business need, time of construction, character and design of surrounding neighborhoods, etc. Foresight Construction followed the Town code in that they did notify the police department of their intention to pour concrete. However, the message they left not received until the next morning--after the concrete had been poured. There was a misunderstanding on their part in that they believed they needed to simply notify the Town--not receive approval.
Two calls were received by the police department in the night during the pour, including the one from Mr. Kingsley. Because none of the officers on duty that night knew of the pour, they didn't know of any approval that had been given. No one on staff stated approval came from "a higher source." If you have the name and other information of the officer to whom you spoke, we can clarify that, but no one we have spoken to recalls making any such statement.
Immediately the next morning Town staff researched the situation--including responding to Mr. Kingsley, who spoke with both our Constituent Services coordinator and Council member Al Kunisch. Town Public Works staff notified Foresight that they had not applied the code properly and were not to engage in any after-hours construction until they had filed a formal request and demonstrated a scientific need as to why concrete had to be poured at night. We further had our legal department follow up with a letter to both Foresight and Vestar. They have apologized and stated they will follow all requirements in the Town code. Further, we will be updating the code to clarify the process so that there is no opportunity for misunderstanding the process in the future. We will also clarify the contractor’s responsibility in notifying residents of any approvals to conduct work after hours.
We stated in the KVOA interview and will reiterate here--we apologize for any inconvenience this caused our residents but you should walk away from this knowing that we responded immediately to residents’ concerns and mitigated the situation as soon as we'd heard there had been a problem. Any falsehoods or other misrepresentations of what took place is simply conjecture and doesn't recognize the efforts of the staff who worked diligently on citizens' behalf.
Well, Mary Davis, it seems that the muddle continues; no one knows, no one admits, and NO ONE ADVISES THE DEVELOPERS PRIOR TO THEIR APPLICATION PROCESSES, DURING THEIR APPLICATION PROCESSES, OR AFTER THEIR APPLICATION PROCESSES, what they can or cannot do. Know why? 'Cause this town council and staff don't really give a damn about the residents of this town or the laws
that should govern. It's the money (and an over-the-top park) and we just don't believe you any more!
Ok Mary, sure ya we believe ya.
You think anybody is going to believe that this was a misunderstanding!!
too funny!!
Developer's know the rules, they know when they can bend or break or push the rules to the limit.
They did so because they figured why not? They tried and took a chance on
nobody compplaing.
Well most are sick to death of this type of thing going on.
Not blaming you, you are just trying to do your job
But in your heart you know it is BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last week was not the first time OV Gov't was notified of the early morning work.
Records will show that they were notified months ago, responded as to the actions they were going to take, and were to monitor the site.
Why are they making it appear as though the first they heard of this early morning construction was last week? Thank goodness there is email documentation of the earlier communication.
Yes, the Town is trying to act like last week was the first they'd heard of this problem. Not true. It was weeks ago when a a resident called the Town to inquire who gave permission for Vestar to begin work at 3 AM. This is when they were told permission was given by the police.
When the 3 AM construction continued, this person called the police to find out exactly who had given this permission. This is when he was told that it was not the police who gave permission but a "higher source."
Of course the person who made that comment is going to deny that conversation. They have to cover their ass! They didn't want to reveal who the higher source was which means they do not want to get involved in this mess which is why they deny the conversation ever took place.
So it IS TRUE that there have been 3 different stories...it was the police...no it was a higher source...no it was a miscommunication.
Mary Davis says the town has been working on this for several days. They should have been working on it for several weeks since the problem began several weeks ago and they were notified several weeks ago.
Mary also says the town responded to citizens concerns immediately and mitigated the problem as soon as they knew of the problem. Actually, the town did not respond until Mr. Kingsley contacted KVOA and KVOA in turn contacted the town.
Mary also says that the town's contacts with Mr. Kingsley were also not represented accurately in the KVOA interview. Well, here's something else that wasn't represented accurately.....Mary Davis never mentioned during the interview that the developer was Vestar and the site was Oro Valley Marketplace, a development that has been a bone of contention in this town for over a year now.
Why did she deliberately leave out that important fact? I can only assume it was because she didn't want to give Vestar any more bad press. So this is yet another example of this town covering for Vestar.
And that's why we don't believe the town's explanation.
Mary, Mary, quite contrary - so why
is it taking so long to 'find the answer'? Another CYA by the Town?
Mary, 3 AM construction and the failure to KNOW the law by licensed contractors is NO mistake!
Please refer to the liability laws and refresh the developer, the council, and the police department
as to their obligations and ultimate responsibilities relative to them!
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