They just kind of didn't realize they had to get a license to hold these events.
And this is a special exception circumstance.
It's not a refusal.
So there's a presumption that we're okay as long as we're not harming the neighbors, right?
So technically, I'm showing you page three of my packet.
It's technically referred to as a nightclub or private club.
It is a membership club that is dedicated to the preservation and education regarding Latvian heritage in the Philadelphia area.
But the club isn't there all the time.
The board of directors are looking to continue to have these sorts of events.
I heard during our RCO meeting that they've rented it out for plays and that many members
of the community, including Ms. Monroe, the RCO chair, have been there for events.
So they're a good neighbor.
Violation notice here.
We received this on 10-17-19, L&I case number 711846.
That's what prompted this request for the special exception.
uh we just it was a couple of small things and then they they let us know hey you got to get
the right zoning for this that's why we're here we will be eventually applying for a special
assembly license and working with the local police district for that but we can't get that
until we get this done here's the zoning map members of the board page nine if you've ever
been by the area the edgar allen poe house is across the street uh right next to this is the
German society, it's all zoned CMX3. This is just kind of cool, members of the board. This is the
deed. I don't think I've ever seen a deed like this in a zoning hearing before. I can't read it.
I usually can read cursive okay, but this conveys the property to the Latvian society and nonprofit.
And it's long, so I'm going to scroll through that.
tax clearance site wasn't working but i pulled it up off of the brt here we go no taxes owed
zoning notification letter is up on the screen now page 27 proof of mailing is up at page 29
showing that on september 2 we sent out our letters here's the zoning sign that was posted
i'll just go through the photos quickly for the board's edification this is beginning at page 30
of my packet so this is it directly next door our homes directly to the right in the distance you see
the german society now at page 35 looking southbound towards spring garden the electric
factory is in the distance this is the lawn looking at page 37 of the edgar allen poe house
which is now seen here at 39 looking northbound on 7th street
this is just some photos of the interior we're not proposing any changes to it
just paging through and now at page 53 we have the floor plans we have these just for
your edification we're not making any interior changes
now page 54 55 this is the large multi-purpose room with the stage uh this is where i've
personally seen performances and if you've ever been there this is probably where you've seen
performances as well. Lastly, unless you need something specific for your testimony for the
record, if not, you can summarize. No, that's basically it, members of the board. That completes
my presentation. Mr. Mesgalis is on the line. He is on the board of directors of the society. If
he would please raise his hand, state his name, spell his last name, in fact, spell your whole
name for the record, Ivaris, and then I'll be sworn in.
Ivaris has been allowed to speak.
Can you hear me, Mr. Vizgalis?
Please identify yourself, spell your first and last name.
I am Ivaris Vizgalis.
The first name is spelled I-V-A-R-S.
Last name is M-E-Z-G-A-I-L-I-S.
you swear and affirm to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth
i do and your affiliation with this application i'm a member of the society we're working on
special project get these permitting things straightened out thank you all right mr ms
gallus you're a member of the board of directors no i'm not you have authorization from the board
of directors to speak today yes i've been assigned society yes you've heard my testimony today yes
Yes. Is there anything you'd like to add at this time? Not at this time. Okay. Is my testimony true and accurate to the best of your knowledge?
Mr. Ms. Goss, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, good. Yes. And do you adopt my testimony as your own? Yes.
Great. Members of the board, the only thing I have to add, which I believe Ms. Monroe may add, is that they requested several provisos. They have most to do with community safety. Board of Directors is talking those things over right now, and I'm continuing discussions with Ms.
Board of Directors is talking those things over right now and I'm continuing discussions with Ms. Monroe regarding a community benefits agreement. We just couldn't get it done in time for this hearing and allow the board to review it, vote on it, etc. But we're basically in agreement about the general ideas.
Questions from the board?
Anyone else like to testify in this case? If so, please raise your hand.
Chair, Ms. Diane Monroe has her hand raised. I will allow her to speak right now.
Good afternoon, Ms. Monroe. Please identify yourself with the record and I'll swear you in.
Hello. Hi, Ms. Monroe.
yes yes can you hear me yes just identify yourself please okay my name is diane monroe
and my my spelling of my name is d i a n e monroe m o n r o e
I am the chair of the 14th Ward RCO.
Thank you.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Yes, I do.
Thank you, Ms. Monroe.
All right.
I emailed, I'm going to call him Mr. Leo.
I emailed Mr. Leo all the paperwork as well as to the ZBA.
yesterday it was late around about six o'clock seven o'clock so it wasn't this morning
um we have been butting heads um mr leo and and the committee and the provisos are very
reasonable and we want we wanted to prove we wanted a cba and he did tell me
that they will do a CBA. They even said it at our committee meeting. And the CBA,
all we wanted in the CBA, and which we are proposing to accept this project based on
the provisos, we wanted them to register with the Philadelphia Police Department's
district business participation program. Provide security cameras and lights on all sides of the
existing building. Establish a relationship with nearby parking lots to alleviate potential
parking issues within the community when having events. Establish security personnel to patrol
outdoor premises after events to ensure safety to attendees and the impact, impact community.
At our meeting, they indicated it didn't have an established security plan. And the only reason
why we were asking for this is because it is still located in a neighborhood that you still
have shootings and we're not just looking we were looking for the residents but also the attendees
of you know that goes to um the playhouse i myself have been there on numerous occasions
but however they do have shootings in that community and bullets has no name do not care
um who you are if you're attending a play coming for a play and Mr. Leo is giving us a hard time
Miss Monroe Miss Monroe with all due respect I'm sorry to interrupt I don't believe any and I don't
I mean this not disrespectfully I don't believe any of the uh provisos that you spoke to are
enforceable i that's i i agree i agree i knew that and that's why i told mr leo we need a cba
because you guys will not be able to put that on a permit or whatever you grant them
we understood that i also requested mr leo to send me a copy of their security plan he said
they do have a security plan we have a member on our committee who is with this the sixth district
objection you're saying mr hold on miss monroe diane just give me a sec mr mobile hill uh yeah
Mr. Movahill, you're aware of what I just stated that, from what I hear, these provisors are not enforceable.
you're aware and what i just stated that
In order to act in good, is this time sensitive?
Yes, it is, members of the board.
We filed this appeal quite some time ago, over a year ago, if I recall correctly.
And we faced significant delays in getting this done because of multiple reasons, scheduling issues, COVID, et cetera.
I understand Ms. Monroe's concerns. I'm now sharing my screen, the email conversations that I had with Ms. Monroe, which I copied Ms. Suleta on, in which I laid out the timeline of our discussions and substantively explained, yeah, we basically agreed on what you guys want to do.
The issue is simply, we're a board of directors. Ms. Monroe gave us some ideas back in the middle
of October. The board considered those at a meeting in November, and these agreements can
only happen at these meetings when they're voted on by the board of directors. So just for purposes
of this record, which I must make absolutely clear, and I don't mean to belabor this, members
of the board, we agreed to a security plan on December 1. I'm showing you the email that I sent
at 9.55 a.m. when I advised Ms. Monroe of our hearing date, told her that the board of directors
had conferred, and they're implementing a plan. It's not done yet, but we're working on it.
On December 7, I received a voicemail in the afternoon, responded at 5.18 p.m., and I said,
sure. I tried to call you back. Your voicemail box was full. Please send over a draft community
benefits agreement, and I would absolutely reveal it with them. Friday, December 11, so Friday,
like last Friday. I received a voicemail around 1.45 in the afternoon, maybe a little earlier,
maybe a little later. I responded at 4.38 saying, I received your voicemail from earlier today.
I indicated that I felt personally that I ought to not prepare a community benefits agreement when
my obligation is to my client and the community has not necessarily conflicting interests, but
they're not my client. So I don't feel comfortable preparing a document that's supposed to protect
somebody who is not my client. I offered to speak with their counsel if they had one.
No problem. And I said, we filed an appeal, I'm sorry, on March 4, over nine months ago. And we
had all this time to try to resolve this issue prior to the Friday before our hearing. And we
want to work with the community. We're not trying to thumb our noses. We're really not. Latvian
Society has been around than any of the members of the board or of the community that were in
attendance at the meeting since the early 1900s we want to be a good neighbor we but we just need
time to do this stuff because of the board of directors and they have policies and procedures
in effect and it just takes time to do it so we're happy to continue working i spoke to miss
monroe i said hey just let me know when you have a community benefits agreement we'll continue to
talk about this and that's kind of where we stand for right now uh sharon may i respond to what he's
Ms. Monroe, just hold on a minute.
Sharon, since none of these things that Ms. Monroe is talking about are enforceable,
could the statement that has just been made and the letter or the, I'm looking at, what
Mr. Mobahill just laid out for us, could that be made just part of the record?
Well, it is part of the record, of course.
It's part of the testimony.
um but i agree i was going to interrupt and tell you that i did not believe any of the um
any of the items that ms monroe mentioned were enforceable or related to the zoning clearly
and that's ultimately the issue here chairman because i understand the concerns about uh safety
my client its attendees its membership has nothing to do with any of these there's never
been a complaint to the district about any event that's happened in this building yeah i don't think
she's suggesting that but uh anyway um and as part of our saol application we have to continue
to be in contact with the police miss monroe miss monroe you need what i'd like for you to
understand is today is the last day that this board is sitting until next but may i may i say
one thing please this is covet they cannot have any activities in there anyway and and when
And I told Mr. Leo that we will have to get a pro bono attorney when he came with, he said it's a potential conflict of interest for him.
All the other CBAs we have entered with, the council of those applicants did that.
he's the first one we have ran into that said he cannot prepare one and so so we could sign
and so he so now we have to go he said you have to get your
And so he, so now we have to go, he said, you have to get your own attorney and he'll come, he will counsel the attorney.
We don't have any money.
All right, Diane, I hear you.
Excuse me.
This is Sharon Saleta.
Can I just ask Ms. Monroe, do you have any testimony regarding the grant of the approval that, aside from the community benefits agreement,
anything that you would any testimony you would like to offer going to the criteria for grant of
a variance special exception miss let i'm sorry i'm sorry i apologize yes there it has to be the
burden of proof is on any objector to show that this isn't a permitted use let me ask tanya what
is the earliest date is it january 6th or uh if we do a rehearing chair i i understand this but i
object only because we need this permit so we can get our saol application together and as part of
that the police district gets involved they vet us they check into any history with the issue
and the longer we wait we don't know when things are going to reopen right now of course
the longer we wait the the the society is suffering as a result but we really want to
get this moving and miss monroe does raise an interesting point you're not allowed to congregate
Yes, and we're not planning on holding events anytime soon. That aside, it's going to take us a significant amount of time. Say the board votes today. I don't get a notice of decision until it gets processed, which could be 30 days or so. Then I must submit that to L&I. 20 plus days, maybe we get a permit.
And then when we have that permit, only then can we start working with the police district in the city to get our special assembly license. And that's a lengthy process as well. So we would have loved to have gotten this started a long time ago and have it in hand. They're not having events in the society building at all right now. It's totally true. We don't intend to.
but we're already very behind on this and the society wants to be able to hit the ground running
when they're allowed to start having events again and even if we push this another couple weeks
that's another couple weeks that the society is going to be stuck without being able to move
forward with their special assembly uh occupancy license application and vetting process with the
police district and the city excuse me this is sharon i have an idea if this sounds acceptable
Well, as Mr. Mulvihill pointed out, it would be the date of decision is the date of mailing.
There's some delay in that.
Once the decision is issued, there would be 10 days in which Ms. Monroe could submit a request for reconsideration.
So there would still be some time for you to work together.
Absolutely.
We're talking maybe three weeks at the max.
you got the holidays i don't know who's working the i am chairman i know i'm saying generally
speaking next week is the christmas week and new year so not much happens as you know i'll be
working all those holidays chairman i really want to get this done because we've been sitting
languishing so long we've already continued this case once because we're not trying to be difficult
and i respect you and i know you're a man of your word i'm just trying to see if we can come up with
something that gives some comfort to Ms. Monroe and her group. And I want to be clear, I don't
classify what's been going on with Ms. Monroe and I as butting heads. I feel like from my position
under the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct, I personally do not feel comfortable
drafting a community benefits agreement for another party. I know that my client's a party
to this. That's the level of my personal discomfort. Other attorneys may feel differently for that.
Counselor, can I ask you a question?
Absolutely.
Do you have a, as an attorney, do you have a boilerplate CBA that you can give to the community, give it to her?
I do not.
Thank you.
And just so it's clear, Ms. Monroe was muted.
So if she wants to speak to anything else, she has to unmute herself.
And, again, as far as the timing goes, this is Sharon Saleta.
I don't believe that we would be able to have a resumption hearing until February, which would extend to you.
I thought we were, yeah, I was going to ask Tanya what the earliest date is.