CVCBD Reauthorization

When you read the latest "The Charles Village" keep in mind that sometimes Mr. Frank Januzzi gets things a little confused, like the time he was President of the Charles Village Community Benefits District and wrote a letter to community members announcing the upcoming Quad Elections.  In the letter he said next year the community would have a vote on reauthorization.  Wow!  First of all, even though he was the CVCBD President he forgot that the community cannot have another vote on the CVCBD because the legislation doesn't allow it even though it was originally sold to the community with the promise, "Vote it in and don't worry, you can always vote it down in 3 years" was the cry of the supporters.  Also, Mr. J. forgot that a few months earlier than his letter, he and a handful of the CVCBD's inner circle went to Annapolis to get our representatives to hand over the State's reauthorization powers to the City.  You would think a President of the CVCBD board would remember those important issues.

Now, I read in "The Charles Villager" a article entitled "At 20, CVCBD Moves Forward for 4th Reauthorization" and who wrote this article, none other than the Frank Januzzi who just a few years ago stood up in front a group of residents and exclaimed how the CVCBD successfully negotiated with CSX to clean up their area along 26th Street.  Not so.  Didn't do it and was not involved in it.  I remained a gentleman at that meeting and later told him privately that if he ever again attempted to take credit for getting this area cleaned up, I would publicly out him.  I did several years later on the old "Charles Village Discussion List" and when he denied it, members from the community got on the list and said, "Yes, Frank you did make that remark."   I was the person who in 2001 was greatly distressed to see the condition of the CSX railroad property from Huntingdon Ave. to Greenmount Ave. and I was to the who "lobbied" CSX (which in this article Frank J. credits to the CVCBD), via its then President Snow, to clean and maintain it.  After meetings with representatives of the railroad they agreed with us and provided an army of dumpsters for an initial clean up.  They then tasked me with overseeing (at no salary or other remuneration) their monthly crew who cleaned, mowed and repaired broken fences along that entire corridor.  I would receive a call from headquarters that the men had finished their work and my wife and I would walk, often in blazing heat, the entire area to be sure the job was satisfactory.  The crew would not be paid until I sent a fax okaying the job.  If something was not satisfactory, they had to come back until I approved it.  Then the CVCBD got involved and the railroad pulled out of the agreement leaving the area to fall into disrepair again.  The CVCBD decided they could get extra funding by doing the clean up themselves and getting CSX to pay a small amount compared to what the railroad was paying their own contractor.  The CVCBD even put up small signs on the railroad fencing claiming they were responsible for the work which so many of us laughed at because despite what their signed claimed, the property abounded in weeds and trash.  When neighbors clamored for maintenance the CVCBD finally persuaded CSX to again give them a chance to do the work.  Mr. J. was far gone from the board by then.

Further in Mr. Januzzi's article on the CVCBD's reauthorization he states that he was a resident "who went from opponent, to skeptic, to board member, to board president".  Again, I think Mr. Januzzi was confused about his involvement in the CVCBD and that rather than being an "opponent" or a "skeptic" he was really right in the forefront of its supporters.  He was not only a board member very early on but became President of the CVCBDMA based on a claim that he was president of the South Charles Village Partnership.  This was a business association started in 1993, just prior to the establishment of the CVCBC to allow Mr. Shafer, one of the CVCBD's founders and the first President of the Board, to fill one of the business association seats on the board as provided by the legislation.  Since the South Charles Village Partnership never paid the State's Annual Personal Property Returns for 5 years the South Charles Village Partnership forfeited its State Charter in 1998.  Yet Mr. J., who was not a local businessman, as one would assume he should be in representing South Charles Village businesses, used that organization's name to get his board seat.  But my wife can attest to the fact that when she served on the CVCBD board Mr. J. was teased by other members who asked, "Frank, when are you holding meetings?" and "When are you getting members?".  In other words his confusion about the legislation meant that he was violating the legislation that enacted this governmental entity and sat in a voting seat representing no one but himself while performing a serious fiduciary responsibility of taxing the community.

If someone who is so out of touch with the facts is the best recommendation supporters for the CVCBD to be reauthorized can find, outside of the support by the CVCA, then the residents of our community should seriously consider NOT supporting reauthorization of the Benefits District. 

As for the CVCA, remember it was the CVCA that went behind the backs of the residents of Old Goucher, and wrote letters that were critical of those who opposed and/or make constructive suggestions on the 25th Street project, involving WallMart.   In another article in The Charles Villager CVCA president Sandra Sparks writes about the CVCBD Safety Program but this Program would not have existed without a big uproar from community members that finally forced the CVCBD to employ the "off-duty police officers".  The "Court Watch Program" really now ceases to exist since Stephen Gewirtz, who as a resident was the one community participant running this program, can no longer be involved.  Mr. Gewirtz continues as a member of the "Safety Advisory Committee", as is the undersigned, but that is to make sure that the community knows of what is taking place at the meetings so that members of the community can be advised.  What is most likely unknown to the residents unless they bother to read The Charles Villager is the fact that president Sandra Sparks of the CVCA is in charge of getting the CVCBD reauthorized, which makes me wonder if she is getting paid for this position, as she was when 20 years ago when she pushed for the creation of the CVCBD and was paid a stipend for this service.

Let us put an end to this CVCBD now and please send emails to:

mayor@baltimorecity.gov
Mr. Bernard "Jack" Young - councilpresident@baltimorecity.gov
Mr. Carl Stokes - Carl.Stokes@baltimorecity.gov
Ms. Sharon Middleton - Sharon.middleton@baltimorecity.gov

Let them know that we do NOT support the reauthorization of the CVCBD.  Tell them that you do not want or need the CVCBD as it has never functioned as legislated.  This is our community, we do not need a small group to control us as they have attempted to do during these last 20 years.