The Little Mall of Horrors

Posted by Daniel Jones on November 14, 2008 - 2:17pm

Tagged in

Well folks, we have another Mall fiasco (they just don't stop), the Mall Maiteniance Association (MMA) is creating massive shenangins over next to nothing again. This time though, the basis of their decision is laughable. They want to remove the City's representative, Mr. Tim Paine from the committee for being "disruptive" and "questioning the integrity of the minutes". Excuse me while I nearly fall of my chair laughing, is this serious?

This all must be a major joke that the MMA is playing on us via the media, I mean honestly, normally you have to have an actually legitamte reason to remove someone from a committee, such as assault or not showing up to meetings. Truly they have creativity than this.

This action is both funny and an incredibly frightening misuse of power on behalf of Dr. Mitchell Chess, who has shown his intentions by attemtping to circumvent Jason Molino, the City Manager, in the past. He now wants to have Tim Paine removed from the committee because he doesn't agree with them and wants accurate minutes, how on earth is this so terrible? If the MMA had nothing to hide, then they would have no objection to the tape recordings of their meetings and if they really cared about City input, they wouldn't object to the representative from the commmittee, well, giving input.

Mr. Paine is not the representative on behalf of those in power at the MMA, he is the City's representative, he exists in that capacity to give the input of the people, not the powerful. He is also there to make sure that the MMA is telling the truth when it comes to its matters that involve the city. Perhaps the MMA isn't being totally forthcoming?

The real question, to me at least, is this, what is the MMA hiding? I have much respect for Dr. Chess, its chairman, because of his education and his running a great service for the community, but doesn't this make you wonder what exactly is really going on? Could this be why he tried to enlist the city council to help him bypass negiotiating with Jason Molino?

Perhaps the MMA could attempt to remove him for a more credible reason, such as the color of his shirt or the brand of sneakers he wears. I realize that no one is perfect and I don't want to sound like I'm questioning anyone's character....but I have to wonder if this group is living in the same world that the rest of us are.

daniel.jones
Login or register to post comments

Posted by Daniel Jones on November 14, 2008 - 3:54pm

Note: I noticed a few errors in my first draft, so I did make some grammar and spelling changes.

Posted by John Roach on November 14, 2008 - 6:59pm

This appears to be a political move. Mr. Paine ran for City Council last year and almost won against Bob Bialkowski. Mr. Bialkowski wife is the Mall Manager and Mr. Bialkowski has been a Mall employee in the past. He also has started attending the Mall meetings. Mr. Paine has said he is thinking of running for office again and there is a good chance he’ll run against Mr. Bialkowski again. Mr. Bialkowski wants more money for the mall for such things as cleaning up bird crap on the roof, something Mr. Paine does not think tax payer money should be used for and Mr. Paine asks questions. I think we would all be better off if Mr. Bialkowski stayed away from the mall.

Another thing I don’t like is that the President of the MMA, Dr. Chess, has been listed by the City of Batavia, in the Daily News, as still not having paid his Mall property taxes. This, while he wants us to pay more of our taxes for the Mall. And now he and the MMA want to get rid of Mr. Paine, the public’s representative to the Mall committee. Dan, your right, this is a “Mall of Horrors”.

Posted by Russ Stresing on November 14, 2008 - 7:10pm

What does the Mall cost the City of Batavia? How does it compare to refuse pickup? Or ambulance service? Or sewage processing? Or public safety?

Is it a sufficient percentage of the city's expenditure to justify the press it garners, or is it just a strawman that doesn't require much in the way of math?

Posted by Charlie Mallow on November 17, 2008 - 6:59pm

I’m sorry Russ. I just can’t devote any more of my life to talking about the MMA. Doing so serves no useful purpose. Did you ever watch the movie Groundhog Day?

Posted by Daniel Jones on November 14, 2008 - 7:52pm

Russ, that's an excellent question, from my understanding the cost potential could be high given some of their orignial proposals, they wanted the City to fix the roof and sell it back, with the concourse to the MMA for one dollar. I also do know that we just spent over 10,000 dollars to give them a new sign.

I'm not sure of the exact amount, it's something better to ask of Charlie or another public official. I do agree though that they seem to want to use this as a focal point for attention with these kinds of antics.

Posted by Russ Stresing on November 14, 2008 - 8:43pm

No, seriously. Does the actual expenditure on the City of Batavia's part equal the coverage?

Posted by Daniel Jones on November 14, 2008 - 8:59pm

Russ, the total amount as per the 08-09 adopted budget is $20,000.

http://www.batavianewyork.com/documents/2008-2009CityofBataviaBudget_000...

Posted by Daniel Jones on November 14, 2008 - 9:09pm

Hold on, on page 114 it says that we spend 209,200 dollars total on Mall Maintenance.

Posted by Russ Stresing on November 14, 2008 - 9:09pm

What does the City spend on fuel for police cars? What's the cost of the City's dental contract for its employees? What does the City pay for salt?

Posted by Daniel Jones on November 14, 2008 - 9:25pm

That was sort of the point of my blog, this small group is raising so much Hell by plainly refusing to cooperate on simple matters, granted 200 some thousand dollars is small compared to the rest of the budget, I would like them to have some cooperation with the City's representative.

Posted by John Roach on November 15, 2008 - 7:36am

Russ,
Go to City Hall and get a copy of the budget for your questions. Or, contact council member Bil Cox or Frank Ferrando. They are members of the new budget audit commmittee.

However, it does not matter what we pay for gas. The Mall was a bad deal for us when it started. The mall property owners made it worse by poor management and failing to work together even on hours of operation. Even now, the businesses do not all have the same hours to make the place a go. Then, the Republican Party forced us to build a new City Hall there, making it even harder to tear it down.

Is this political, yes. You have to councilman trying to give the Mall more money to throw down the pit and who want to run for At Large positions next year, Bob Bialkowski and Bill Cox, members of the same party that got us into this mess.

Does this sound bitter, maybe. I am just tired of the MMA wanting more of my money with Bob and Bills's help and then some property owners, Like the MMA President, Dr. Chess, being listed by the City of Batavia as not paying their taxes.

Posted by Jody Lutey on November 17, 2008 - 5:38pm

Alright maybe I can get some answers here seeing I see council people responding. We have two businesses in the "mall", we mind our own business and don't get involved in the drama BUT what exactly are we getting out of my mall maintenance fee, anyone know. We pay a monthly fee, if its for garbage pickup we can take it to the dumps, someone want to enlighten me? We pay rent, utilities so what are we getting out of that mall maintenance fee. And Tim don't feel bad, when I asked if we could attend meetings, I was told we could only attend the annual meeting in January. So we pay monthy fees but apparently need to stay away from meetings...

Posted by Jody Lutey on November 17, 2008 - 5:40pm

Let me clarify...my mall maintenance fee gets paid to the City of Batavia.

Posted by Charlie Mallow on November 17, 2008 - 6:56pm

Jody, the City of Batavia is only a conduit for the collection of fees for the MMA. The city does the book keeping as well. We have no control, the MMA is an independent body. The City also pays a large maintenance fee for our spot in the mall. The city has only one representative on the MMA, which would be Tim Paine.

I hope that helps.

Posted by Richard Gahagan on November 18, 2008 - 5:02pm

Everytime I come back to Batavia the Mall makes me laugh. No one cares so stop writing stories about it and just knock it down.

Posted by Jody Lutey on November 21, 2008 - 9:03pm

Thank you Charlie for the clarification.