Parshall Ethics Scandal Crosses Pond

NYC Community Board 8's (CB8's) Landmarks Committee co-chair Jane Parshall's ethics scandal - the conflict of interest over Marx Brothers Place which she confessed to on the public record and then cast aside like a fallen eyelash - is no longer a domestic issue.

The unctous details of Parshall's public transgression have blown across the pond scum and landed safely on the shores of The Marx Brothers Council of Britain.

You can read Britain's Matthew Coniam's entire post by simply clicking on the following link and scrolling down the left hand margin to the Parshall CB8 ethics scandal:

http://marxcouncil.blogspot.com/

CB8 Landmarks Co-Chair Jane Parshall's Ethics Breach Taints Vote on Historic Marx Brothers Place in Carnegie Hill

Will NYC Community Board 8 do the right thing & toss the tainted full board vote on historic Marx Brothers Place?

After CB8 Landmarks Committee co-chair Jane Parshall publicly confessed to a conflict of interest - which ethically barred her from participating in the matter of historic Marx Brothers Place - this public servant - appointed by NYC Council Member Dan Garodnick - thumbed her nose at the public she serves and aggressively inserted herself into the matter anyway thereby poisoning the full board vote.

Now it's up to NYC - whether Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio or CB8 itself - to make sure the Community Board 8 vote compromised by Parshall is immediately vacated and that historic Marx Brothers Place finally gets the process it is due.

Read more by clicking on this link:

http://the-marx-brothers-place-report.blogspot.com/2010/08/nyc-cb8-landmarks-chair-jane-parshall.html

CB8 Landmarks Co-Chair Jane Parshall Confesses to Conflict of Interest - then 48 Hours Later Thumbs Nose at Ethics & Wages War on Marx Brothers Place

On Monday, July 19, 2010, Community Board 8's (CB8's) Landmarks Committee Co-Chair Jane Parshall - a Public Servant appointed to the Board by NYC CM Dan Garodnick - announced publicly that because she has a conflict of interest regarding historic Marx Brothers Place she would have to recuse herself from the vote on this beloved NYC block.

With Parshall out of the mix, the 93rd Street Beautification Association's Request (RFE) - to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District one block east - sailed through CB8's Landmarks Committee 7-0 (with Parshall's 1 abstention) following several heartfelt apologies from Committee Members for not having designated this important historic block years earlier.

Mysteriously however, within a mere 48 hours, CB8 Parshall's confessed conflict of interest had somehow evaporated into thin air: And without the slightest hint of qualm, CB8's Parshall dove right into the thick of things on Wednesday, July 21 in a very obvious attempt to derail the vote on historic Marx Brothers Place.

This was the very same vote that just 2 days prior had prompted Parshall - a Public Servant appointed to the Community Board by NYC CM Dan Garodnick - to publicly confess to a conflict of interest which ethically barred her from participation.

In what most generously might be called one of the most dramatic lapses of memory on public record CB8's Landmarks Committee Co-Chair Jane Parshall inexplicably cast aside her recorded conflict of interest and aggressively inserted herself into the matter of the Marx Brothers Place vote scheduled for a Full CB8 Board Meeting on Wednesday, July 21, 2010.

Parshall's outlandish antics and overt attempts to subvert the vote - while completely ignoring her own confessed ethics conflict - stunned the public and sent shock waves through the room. Parshall's failure to follow procedure was so egregious that it finally led CB8 Landmarks Committee Member and Co-Chair of the Defenders of the Historic Upper East Side Teri Slater to publicly read Parshall the Riot Act. A stickler for process, Slater's public tongue-lashing of Parshall, however, came after the fateful Marx Brothers Place vote - which Parshall had successfully poisoned - had already been tallied and officially recorded.

There can be no question that the July 21, 2010 full CB8 Board vote on historic Marx Brothers Place was tainted by fraud and abuse of process. So the 93rd Street Beautification Association has no choice but to call upon Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer - who oversees the workings of Community Board 8 - to do the right thing and demand that the July 21, 2010 vote on historic Marx Brothers Place be immediately vacated due to fraud.

This historic block has earned its place on the calender of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Marx Brothers Place should not be denied a public hearing at the LPC because of the egregious irregularities perpetrated by CB8's Landmarks Committee Co-Chair Jane Parshall.

Please click on the following link now & let Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer know that the tainted vote on historic Marx Brothers Place must be immediately vacated: http://the-marx-brothers-place-report.blogspot.com/2010/08/vacate-cb8-vote-on-marx-brothers-place.html

Thanks for your continued support of historic Marx Brothers Place in NYC!

NYC Must Vacate CB8 Vote on Marx Brothers Place

Please help save historic Marx Brothers Place by just cutting & pasting the message below & sending it to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer - bp@manhattanbp.org with a copy to the 93rd Street Beautification Association - 93rdst.beautification@gmail.com. Many thanks for your continued support of Marx Brothers Place!

Now here's the letter for the Borough President:

Subject Line: Please Vacate CB8 Vote on Marx Brothers Place

Dear Borough President Scott Stringer,

We know from previous correspondence, that landmarking historic Marx Brothers Place has your full support. We also know that as Manhattan Borough President you have a strong and abiding interest in the public business of Community Board 8.

Therefore, in the interests of fairness and good public policy, we hereby respectfully request that you demand the July 21, 2010 CB8 Full Board vote on Marx Brothers Place be immediately vacated as the facts surrounding that particular CB8 vote require.

Sincerely,

NAME & ADDRESS ARE REQUIRED

NYC Council Member Dan Garodnick takes Aim at Marx Brothers Place Constituents & Defeats Plan to Landmark MBP

It seems NYC Council Member Dan Garodnick must be working for somebody other than his constituents these days.

Following Monday's impressive 7-0 vote (with one abstention) by which Community Board 8's (CB8) Landmarks Committee decided to support the 93rd Street Beautification Association's Request (RFE) - asking the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to extend the Carnegie Hill Historic District one block east so as to include the historically significant structures on Marx Brothers Place - Garodnick took it upon himself on Wednesday to contact Jane Parshall, Co-Chair, CB8 Landmarks Committee, saying that he had been sitting on a letter from the LPC - since May - in which the Commission had already rejected the Marx Brothers Place RFE.

Neither Parshall nor Garodnick bothered contacting the members of CB8's Landmarks Committee before the meeting or the members of the 93rd Street Beautification Association about this letter or about their intention to brandish the Garodnick letter prior to the full board vote - on Marx Brothers Place - at Wednesday's CB8 Meeting.

Garodnick - who did not attend the CB8 Meeting in person, but instead sent a representative - provided Parshall with 3 copies of the letter - a letter he had been sitting on for nearly two months - just in the nick of time for Wednesday's CB8 Full Board Meeting. Garodnick did not provide the 93rd Street Beautification Association with a copy of the letter, nor did he provide the Association with a heads up as to his intentions to drop the letter on the Full Board just before the vote on Marx Brothers Place.

Parshall - the one and only abstention from Monday's 7-0 vote - grabbed the Garodnick letter and ran with it. Visibly excited at the prospect of throwing a wrench into the vote, Parshall began her presentation by having her Co-Chair David Liston read the Garodnick letter to the Full CB8 Board from the podium on stage. Parshall chose to lead with this, blunting any opportunity for Landmarks Committee members to first tell their fellow Board Members the reasons they had voted to support the RFE and why the full Board should too.

As one might suspect, the dramatic reveal and recitation of the Garodnick letter had a very powerful impact on members of the Full Board who have never read the 93rd Street Beautification Association's RFE and who are unfamiliar with the unique and significant history of the block. So, once Liston finished reading the Garodnick letter from the podium, it was, of course, all about the letter. Marx Brothers Place had suddenly become an unspoken memory.

And so, without even the courtesy of a heads up to his own constituents, NYC Council Member Dan Garodnick successfully defeated Marx Brothers Place in one fell swoop - and sold out his constituents in the process.

The 93rd Street Beautification Association would like to thank CB8 Board Member Teri Slater who had the temerity to read Parshall the Riot Act for her blaring breach of protocol. Slater went on record saying that Parshall should never have presented the Garodnick letter - which could only serve to prejudice the CB8 Full Board vote on Marx Brothers Place. Adding that the letter from the LPC to Garodnick was premature - as it denies CB8 the opportunity to weigh in on an RFE in its own district - Slater said the letter should have been ignored.

While many members of the CB8 Landmarks Committee agreed with Slater, the full CB8 Board had already bought the Garodnick letter that Parshall was more than happy to sell to them.

On Monday, Parshall chose to abstain from voting on the Marx Brothers Place RFE saying that she has a conflict of interest: A wiser woman would have steered clear of the matter on Wednesday as well.

It is curious: Why would CM Garodnick have waited until after there was a successful Landmarks Committe vote (7-0 is nothing to sneeze at) before he finally shared a letter - that he sat on since May - and which he now claims he suddenly felt compelled to reveal?

There's a reason your mother told you to never trust a politician.