John Frank repeated his request of DDA to City Council 7.10.12: initiate a committee to meet with Kadushin Associates

I’m John Frank; I live at 138 East Middle Street.

I am requesting that you please appoint a committee to meet with the developer, Kadushin Associates, who submitted a proposal to rehabilitate the Longworth properties. I made this request to the DDA at their last meeting and I was ignored.

The purpose of this proposed committee would be to resolve several misunderstandings that were created by a resolution the DDA passed on June 7^th.

When they presented their proposal to the DDA at a special meeting on May 31^st, Kadushin Associates made clear how they expected to finance the project, and the required timeline. At the following meeting on June 7^th the DDA passed a resolution that Kadushin perceived as having erected two insurmountable barriers. Some members of the DDA now say that the resolution did not say what they meant, and that led to a misunderstanding.

Upon receipt of the resolution Abe Kadushin asked our City Manager to meet with him to clarify these issues. Abe told me that he was stunned that the City Manager refused to meet with him. This was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” ----- Abe then took the advice of his attorney and withdrew their offer, and told me that trying to work with Chelsea was, quote, “too much hassle” – “too much hassle”.

I believe Chelsea will suffer if we are silent about what we know from experience is wrong. And what is my experience? Although I do not own a business in Chelsea, I did devote eleven years, prior to my retirement, as a Senior Partner in a 250-person consultancy that worked with large organizations, helping them to improve their business processes. I do know something about business.

My experience in business taught me that criterion number one in doing business is:

Love Your Customer. A developer is – or should be thought of as – an esteemed potential customer. This customer wants to spend 3.7 million dollars in our community to create new tax-paying business. We ought to reach out to him. Make it easy for him to do business with us. Instead of saying, as one us did, “I for one am not ready to move forward by inviting them back,” we should have said “I will meet with you at your convenience to resolve misunderstandings and I will work with you to find a mutually beneficial way for us to move forward together.”

Since the name on the deed for the Longworth property has the City as the owner, it is time that the City Council exercise leadership on this matter, in accordance with the ethical principles for the government of the City of Chelsea. A non-voting sub-committee could be appointed to meet with Kadushin for the purposes of exchanging information and resolving misunderstandings, without violating the Open Meetings Act. Surely this ought to be done.

I request that you please appoint a committee to meet with the developer, Kadushin Associates, to resolve several misunderstandings that were created by the resolution the DDA passed on June 7^th.

Thank You.