Scirocco: Entitled to power?
As voters decide which candidates to vote for in the coming municipal elections we thought voters should be provided with as much information about their candidates as possible. Thus, we write this story not for personal vindication but public knowledge. We feel that both Republicans and Democrats would be concerned if their Public Works Commissioner used his public office for personal gain.
We moved to
Our second application, however, was approved with the condition that we submit an engineer-certified storm water management plan before constructing our one car garage. There were no guidelines provided by the Board as to what the plan should entail. The only condition was that the plan had to be approved by the city engineer, who reports directly to the Commissioner of Public Works – Skip Scirocco. According to our engineer, these plans are never required for small residential building applications because the impact is negligible. As such, our designer had never made such a plan before and when they sought advice from the city engineer, he could only provide examples of commercial plans. Furthermore, after our designer completed the plans, the city engineer did not return phone calls and did not provide any information about when the plans would be reviewed. All this time and effort for our designer (made no easier by no precedents) cost us more money and delayed our construction. When the evaluation and ultimate approval by the city engineer finally came, it clearly suggested that such a plan was not necessary in the first place.
These unnecessary demands had resulted in undue stress between the Sciroccos and us. In an effort to deflate the tension between us one of us spoke to Skip Scirocco. When our conversation turned to our garage application, Mr Scirocco stated “I could have stopped your garage if I wanted to, you know.” It was his sense of entitlement that we found most shocking. Rather than demonstrating his restraint, this confession struck us as a demonstration that Mr Scirocco felt he was entitled to the power to stop our garage for his personal reasons. In the same conversation he also mentioned that he had gotten his son a job in Public Works. Again, we suppose this is considered by Mr Scirocco to be an acceptable practice. For us his comments affirm the fact that he had used his political office for personal gain – in making our plans more difficult and costly and getting a family member a job – and he felt entitled to that power. We need people in public office that will not use their political position for their personal gain. Supporting records can be found at City Hall in the Department of Engineering.
Forgive the sick color folks but it reminds me of Skips creepy campaign signs
5 comments:
What your car this winter Kelly.Scirocco's people have a habit of hitting troublemakers.
Fascinating that "an engineer-certified storm water management plan" would be required by the city from its owners before constructing a one car garage, yet the City permitted the owner of the Rip Van Dam to pave an entire parcel of land that drains directly into the street without storm water retention or storm sewer connections.
Again, no storm water mitigation was requested for a private 15 car parking lot off Regent Street between Phila and Spring streets. Where does the buck stop on these decisions that penalize some individuals unfairly while at the same time looking the other way for others? The practice of “I could have stopped your ______ if I wanted to” is not so far fetched.
I think it's Miller time.
This is an utter and complete lie. Mr. Mascarenhas came to us and asked if he could build a garage and the answer was go ahead. However, that didn't give them cart blanche to build any structure they liked. They then approached us with a revised plan to build a 2 car garage, which would've encroached within 5 feet of our house.
Firstly, there are no 2 car garages on the single lot properties in the neighborhood.
Secondly, our objection wasn't over a garage, it was over the revised plan of building a 2 car garage so close to our existing home, an agenda that was hidden when the intial question was asked and answered. This is something that he simply is omitting, for the sake of politicizing this issue.
Thirdly, the reason a 2 car garage was denied in the location he wanted to build it, wasn't because of influence as suggested, but because there wasn't enough space between the 2 structures to let emergency vehicles into the back yard.
Mr Mascarenhas omits yet another fact, by not saying that his 2 car garage WAS approved, but for another part of his property, that is, if he moved it further onto his own property and away from our house, he could've built the garage of his dreams. Yet he chose not to and is blaming others. Every citizen in this city has a right to object to any of their neighbors new building plans and is nothing reserved for a commissioner who hadn't even taken office yet.
Also, Mr. Mascarenhas is going out of his way to accuse, without any proof, a lot of other people in this false accusation. I'm sure they might have a response to such a blatant disregard for common sense and decency. Just look at this false and misleading quote provided above. He had accused my father of using he influence as commissioner-elect, of stopping the garage, my father replied that he did not influence anything. The purpose of the statement was to deny that he subjected this process to unfair treatment. Obviously, someone with a PHD could figure out such a simple statement made in the context of a 10 minute conversation. Is he lying, or is he stupid? Again, I'm not sure why this is shocking, since ANY neighbor has that power and authority. It also defies logic, because if the statement was true, there wouldn't be a garage in that spot, but as I look out my window , yup, there it is.
Also, at the time this converstion took place, I was working somwhere else. So he is also lying about that as well.
Mr. Mascarenhas has gone out of his way on several occasion to do some very nasty things to my family and my child and in no way has done anything to deflate the tension, but instead he has done several things to ramp up the tension. Including going down to the police station and insisting that they arrest me for harassment. All because he did the, tension deflating move, of calling the police station to come and ticket my car. When I asked him if this was getting a little out of hand, he went down to the sspd and embarassed himself by accusing Eileen Cotter of racism towards him because she told him that that wasn't harassment. He did not know that she is married to an african american with mixed race kids. Nor did he care, he was mad that she didn't do as he said, the same way he is mad at us because we didn't do as he said.
He has fostered an atmosphere of hate among the neighborhood kids by forbiding other kids to play with my kid and has taken verbal cheap shots at a 5 year old. Even sinking as low as to threaten to call the cops on him, simply because he asked if he could play with the other children, an utter heart breaking and infuriating moment. This has led to his kid and his friend bullying my kid, which at one point, resulted in physical violence against mine. My kid was so scared that he was going to be arrested, that everytime he would see Mike going by, he would mention being afraid of the cops and being arrested. One day, I explained to my son that the cops told Mike to act like a grown up and to stop using them, to get back at us over the garage and to not be afraid. He overheard this and exploded on me, in front of my 5 year old he called us white trash and losers. What a stand up guy. This resulted in me calling the cops on him, as was suggested by the police, where a police report exists of the whole situation and was also overheard by the neigbors in the back. He was also beligerent to the officer who responded to the call and almost found himself in handcuffs. This is such a politically motivated stunt, that it puts the birthers to shame.
If you notice in the letter, this was in November, My father had not yet taken office until January. Mike has beset upon a path of retribution and retaliation, so yes, when they say they write this story, that is exactly what it is, a story.
There is always two sides to every story. When Mike asked us to write a letter for his garage, we did ok and we did it. Every time I asked how big it was going to be I got here to maybe here. I ask the man that was doing the work on his house if he knew how big the garage was going to be and he said he did not know. So I went down to City Hall and asked. I talked to a Susan Barton, whom I didn't know. She said that he had about 18 inches on one side of his house and this would leave him about 3 feet on the other, which was a concern to the Zoning board.I felt we had to know how this was going to affect our investment. He did get to build his garage, which is 15 feet wide, we do not have any problems with that. We did ask where he was going to throw his snow, because he was throwing it on our bushes, yes we have pictures. Mike doesn't want to have neighborly niceities with us, but he continues heckel us, by not letting Schuyler our Grandson play with the other children, Mike said Schuyler go home you can't play or Schuyler (Schuyler Thomas) you in the red shirt, would you like to play with James, (his Son)Schuyler Thomas told us Mike says we can't play with you, and that not even his children. He has caled us White trash, witch was done in front of a 5 year old. Mike I don't know why you want to kept this up, I will pray for you, for you have so much hate inside you, I do feel sorry for you.
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