Kelo New London Update: A Deadline, State Money, The Day’s FOI Request, and a Residents’ Petition Effort

Yesterday’s New London Day (link requires registration after one day, and a paid subscription after seven days) appears to be the only publication paying attention to the Kelo holdout situation at the moment, even though:

• Yesterday represented an important settlement deadline.
• Connecticut’s governor reiterated the state’s intention to stick with its promise withdraw money from the Fort Trumbull project if settlements aren’t reached.
• The New London powers that be refused a Freedom of Information request with what appears to be little justification.

First, about the deadline and the state money:

Fort Trumbull State Deadline Runs Out Today

City and state officials continued to hold out hope Wednesday that they could reach a deal with Susette Kelo and Pasquale Cristofaro, the two remaining holdouts in the Fort Trumbull redevelopment project, as today’s state-imposed deadline approached.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said late last month that the state would withdraw additional funds it has offered for settlement packages unless the former property owners and the city reached agreement by today.

Rell also said the City Council should offer to relocate the houses of those who do not agree to settle to a single parcel in the 90-acre development site, and should allow the former owners to transfer the properties to their children. The council rejected those recommendations.

Mayor Beth A. Sabilia said Wednesday that negotiations with Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to the state eminent domain law used to seize the properties in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood, were “ongoing,” but would say little else, citing the sensitive nature of the negotiations.

A spokesman for the governor declined to comment.

If I’m reading this correctly, I’m stunned. It appears that the City is so bent on not giving immediate-family transfer titles back to the holdouts, and so insistent on eviction, that it will stick to its guns even if the Governor, as promised, takes state money off the table.

It’s hard to see where this makes financial sense. It only appears to make sense in the context of what Investors Business Daily last week called “the city’s fixation with throwing out residents for a tarnished trophy” (i.e., “we have a Supreme Court ruling, therefore, we must win.”). E-mail me is I’m missing something obvious here.

Now to the Freedom of Information request:

The city cannot yet disclose the terms of settlements because the settlement agreements include that condition and because the plaintiffs who have settled do not wish the terms to be disclosed at this time, NLDC President Michael Joplin said last week.

City officials denied a request under the Freedom of Information Act for copies of the settlement agreements this week. The Day has appealed that decision to the state Freedom of Information Commission.

Based on this previous post that excerpted a Day editorial, it appears that the plaintiffs don’t have the right to impose the gag on settlement information that they and the city would prefer. Hence the appeal.

It’s not too tough to see where Michael Cristofaro stands at the moment: “May 31st didn’t mean anything to my family,” Cristofaro added, a reference to the city’s original deadline for plaintiffs to settle and surrender their properties. “June 15th doesn’t either.”
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UPDATE: Today, The Day reported that the state-imposed deadline passed at midnight without a resolution. It also noted that “The Coalition to Save the Fort Trumbull Neighborhood plans to submit petitions early next week calling on the council to either repeal its June 5 authorization to Londregan to evict the remaining plaintiffs and collect use and occupancy fees or submit the matter to voters in a referendum. Thirteen people have collected hundreds of signatures of city voters, Coalition Co-Chairman Neild (sic?) Oldham said Thursday.”