Thank you.
Chair, we have 36 attendees, and we can begin as you wish.
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Bill Bergman, and I will be chairing this morning's DBA hearings.
With me is our vice chair, Northampton.
President, Mr. Chairman.
Our board member, Thomas Holliman.
Present, Mr. Chairman.
And our board member, James Snell.
Present, Chair.
Also present is Hillary Emerson, our attorney, and our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Here's our virtual format.
Be advised if the proceedings are being recorded.
The video will be available by contact, TanyaSunkett at phil.gov.
For the benefit of our court sonographer, we ask attorneys and witnesses to identify themselves before testifying.
If you're participating by phone and you wish to testify, press star nine to raise your hand and star six to unmute.
To enter an appearance statement, call 267-270-5548.
Leave your email and the address of the property in question.
And finally, the question answer box on screen is not for comments or testimony.
All comments should be directed to our executive director, Tanya Sunkett.
Let's look at our schedule this morning.
Number one, MI 2023-002-691-7040 Woodland Avenue.
That case is continued.
Number three, MI 2023-001-071-3929 Pine Street.
That case is continued.
Number four, MI 2023-002-854-7727 Castor Avenue.
If the interpreters in the audience, please come forward, please.
Good morning, Chair.
This is Doreen Blakey, and I will co-host this morning.
No one has a hand raised at this time.
So MI 2023-002-854-7727, cast revenue.
That case is continued.
Number five, MI 2023-006-986-7868.
325 South 18th Street. This case is continued, attorney moving party.
Number 14.
MI 2023-002-863-2528 North Jessup Street. That case is continued.
Number 15, MI 2023, 002-685-408-South 45th Street.
That case is continued.
Number 17, MI 2023, 002-750-6930 Ardley Street.
That case is continued.
And number 19, MI 2023-002-780-3122-26 West York Street, Joseph Consul is the attorney, and also Strawberry Mansion Community Concern, the coordinating RCO, has asked for a continuance.
Would someone from Strawberry Mansion come on, as well as Mr. Consul?
Yes, Chair, we'll allow both of them to speak.
joseph console first morning mr console good morning could you spell your name for the court
sonographer please yes it's joseph j-o-s-e-p-h last name is console c-o-n-s-o-l-e all right do
All right. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
you swear for him to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth i do chair and
I do, Chair.
And who's the one from Strawberry Mansion, please?
Bonita Cummings.
Good morning, Ms. Cummings. Could you state your name and spell it, please, for the court stenographer?
Bonita Cummings. B-O-N-I-T-A-C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S. Coordinating R-O-C-O for 3122-26 York Street.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I understand you have a request for continuance.
Could you please explain it?
Presently, this property is under two failed L&I inspections from November the 15th and November the 30th of 2023.
They have open violations, and our community has the right to feel safe.
we are able as the ROCOs to get to this matter. However, we are asking for continuance to do so
because of the violations of this property. And also we have information where the community has
been harassed to not get on the public meeting. So when that happened and it didn't go the way
that the attorney expected it to go, they then sent people running around the community now
collecting signatures, further harassing this community and help making people feel afraid
to be participating in this process. So we're asking for the continuation so that we can,
as the community, we can do this matter in a way where we know that our community is safe.
Those violations are major violations, and we need to be able to address them for our community.
All right. Thank you. Mr. Consul.
We met with the RCO on November 13th at 6 p.m. We sent 206 pieces of certified mail.
At that time, there were no violations against the property.
However, the RCO, specifically Ms. Cummings, had it in their mind that my client had attached electrical service to this abandoned property without a permit.
Because of this, the RCO refused to even discuss the merits of our project, nor would they discuss what it would actually take to have them be willing to discuss the merits of the project.
There were no violations at the time, and it seems completely inappropriate to not even discuss the project at that time.
Ms. Cummings just kept vaguely emphasizing that we had to continue the ZBA hearing, but there was no actual reason stated besides what she thought was electrical service that shouldn't have been hooked up.
After the meeting, as is her right, she reported my client to L&I.
They inspected the property and issued a violation for hooking up the property to the electrical service without a permit.
This has nothing to do with what we are in front of the board for today, except for the vague opposition of the RCO. We have nothing else preventing us from presenting our case.
It appeared to me at the time, and it appears to me now, that there is another motivation that I don't understand as to why there is an attempt to delay it here.
My client has building permits submitted.
We could pull them, which would rectify the electrical violation situation, which should make the RCO happy, but we can't do that unless we can discuss the approvals today.
So, Mr. Consul.
Excuse me.
Sorry.
Excuse me, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Consul, did you say that you did not give your presentation at the meeting on the project?
She allowed us to give our presentation, but just kept emphasizing that she wasn't willing to vote, and we needed to continue the ZBA with no specific reason, because there were no violations at the time.
And they came onto the property after the meeting and after she had reported that to L&I, which she's within her rights to do, of course.
okay all right thank you i just wanted to clarify that you were able to give your presentation
we can give it and we can meet with them again i'm happy to do it it doesn't
so mr consul i'm going to continue this miss cummings i'm going to continue it
but this is mark must be tried thank you thank you
okay that was 19 i also have
case here number six
Number six, MI 2022-006-992-711 South 23rd Street.
This is the second listen.
We have no exhibits.
Is Michelle Yu on the line?
Is Michelle Yu on the line?
Michelle Yu, if you're an audience, raise your hand, please.
I see no hands, Chair.
All right.
So Mr. Chair, sorry, this is Hillary.
I just wanted to note for the record that the applicant did reach out to the office about rescheduling today's hearing,
although she did not submit an official continuance request but she it may be that
she was not available to attend today thank you I appreciate that MI 2022 006 992 711 South 23rd
Street that case is continued mark must be tried and also case number 16
MI 2023-001-048-42-68 Church Lane, that case has been withdrawn.
And also number 18, MI 2022-003-407-4811 Woodland Avenue, that case has been withdrawn.
is there any other request for continuances in the audience
yes chair i have adam shapiro with his hand raised i will allow him to speak
mr shapiro could you please state your name and spell for the court stenographer
Sure. Yes, Mr. Chairman. My name is Adam Shapiro, S-H-A-P-I-R-O. I'm here on MI 2023-002-685. The property address is 408 South 45th Street.
okay okay so could you could you listen up do you swear or affirm to tell the truth the whole
truth nothing but the truth i do okay proceed okay i'm i'm the attorney for the applicant on
this we had sent in a late continuance request okay this is number 15 mr chair we did continue
this case already we already continued that earlier sir okay i just didn't see it on the
on the child.
Yeah, it is.
It is.
It's been continued.
Thank you.
We appreciate it.
Anyone else in the audience?
No hands, Chair.
We're going to go to number 13 first.
MI 2023-002-227-7923 Charles Street.
Miguel and Margetta Giagu are the owners pro se.
It's the application for use as a multifamily household living, three dwelling units, and an existing detached structure.
The proposed use of multifamily household living is prohibited in the RSA 3 zoning district.
Miguel Giagu has been promoted to panelists.
good morning sir could you state your name please and spell for the court stenographer
unmute yourself here all right can you hear us yeah could you state your name and spell please
for the court yes my name is ronaldo jogu r-e-n-a-l-d-o last name g-j-o-g-u and this is
My dad, Mikel Jogu, M-I-K-E-L-G-J-O-G.
Are you the one going to testify, sir?
So do you swear for him to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, sir, I swear.
Our vice chair has a few.
Sorry, Mr. Chair, the property, we need the property owner to testify.
Yes, of course.
Of course.
Yeah, so you can assist him.
You can assist your father
But he needs to be the one that testifies
You cannot testify for him
Okay, I'll let him know
My English is a little bit broken
That's why
Okay, so state your name for the record
Please and spell it
It's Mikkel
M-I-K-E-L
And last name Jogu
And my wife is here with me
Okay, now
You're going to testify, we're fine
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth
the whole truth nothing but the truth yeah only the truth okay our vice chair has a few questions
for you yes question yes they're going to ask questions oh and we're here on the
the meeting was here today good morning sir have you emailed in all the required documents that is
good morning sir have you emailed in all the required documents that is needed
to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing yes i i i i mailed to you
thank you uh can you you could please proceed and share your screen
well i guess we have to to to show on the screen uh all right so so at the bottom of the screen
there's a green button hit the green button with your documents and then he's going to testify off
the documents okay but we weren't we weren't prepared for that unfortunately okay all right
all right so so here's all yeah actually we're here at the meet at the zba hearing we came at
the location so we were a little lost sorry for that all right all right so so so here's what
we're going to do this is the this is the first listing we're going to continue it again and then
what you can do is call the office and they will make sure that you have everything you need to
turn in okay okay but we have everything but we didn't know we have to share it okay well you're
gonna have to share it on your computer okay i understand all right all right and thank you for
calling in we appreciate it no problem thanks a lot thank you very much thank you sir okay have a good
day I'm going to go to number two MI 2023 004 787 4015 Green Street Alok Sokoloff is the attorney
uh there's there was there's no RCO letter but there was a meeting held 11 923
The applicant also has put in 29 form letters of support from neighbors.
Oleg Sokolov is coming in as a panelist, Chair.
Good morning, Mr. Sokolov.
Good morning, Chairman.
Hi. Good. Could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Absolutely. My name is Oleg Sokolov from Rabinovich Sokolov Law, O-L-E-G-S-O-K-O-L-O-V.
Right.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
I do, Chair.
Could you identify your client, the relationship to this property?
Yes, I'm here entering appearance on behalf of Nadir Sharif and Malika Subramanian,
owners of the property located at 4015 Green Street.
And our vice chair has just a few questions, sir.
Good morning, Counselor.
Do you agree to waive the reading of the refusal and stipulate to its accuracy?
I do, Mr. Shahid.
Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case in advance of this hearing?
I have. There was one item missing that was emailed this morning and has been added to the exhibit packet.
And as an aside, we did actually after the exhibit packet was due to receive a formal letter from the RCO.