City give-away to convicted felon Salomonsky

Sent: Sunday, June 8, 2014 10:51 AM
Subject: city give-away to convicted felon Salomonsky

Dear Honorable Members of City Council,

According to Section 15.2-2008 of the Code of Virginia, for the right-of-way and easement to be purchased by the abutting property owner: “The price shall be no greater than the property’s fair market value or its contributory value to the abutting property, whichever is greater, or the amount agreed to by the parties.” This state code section is referenced in part 2(d) of the attached Ordinance 2014-71, which is before City Council on June 9th.

The property involved in Ordinance 2014-71 is of tremendous “contributory value to the abutting property” because the 16 story Salomonsky tower is proposed to be built over the foot-print of the city-owned property and cannot be built without it. The height of this tower would be triple the height allowed by the city’s master plan.

It is outrageous that no appraisal of this property and no appraisal of its contributory value to the abutting property, owned by convicted felon Louis Salomonsky and his business partners, was undertaken by the city administration. The price agreed upon in this give-away is actually less than the comparable value of Salomonsky’s adjacent property.

Why has Mayor Dwight Jones continued to shower Louis Salomonsky, who plead guilty to bribing a city councilperson and attempting to defraud the city concerning a tax abatement, with so many sweet-heart business deals, including a no-bid contract for architectural and engineering services and land-swaps for the Mayor’s proposed Shockoe stadium? This Ordinance 2014-71, for which the Mayor is the patron, is just the latest in a string of sweet-heart deals with Salomonsky that are threatening to undermine the integrity of our city.

I call on our honorable City Council members to uphold your fiduciary responsibility and vote against Ordinance 2014-71. It is important for Council to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and this give-away to a convicted felon who brought shame upon the City of Richmond smacks of impropriety.

Sincerely,

Charles Pool