Re: “New City Council Will Decide Farragut”
“Love Thy Neighbor”? Ilbert Phillips is losing it (sleep) as he was up at 3:25 a.m. submitting a diatribe against me.
Evidently, he was very tired or too emotionally involved as he repeatedly refers to me as “Mr. Brown” and to some unspecified “traffic study.” Let’s keep our eyes on the ball.
I am not the issue. Even so, Mr. Phillips makes such venemous, derogatory comments that he exposed himself to a legal action for defamation per se.
Our beef is with the City Council, not the Grace Lutheran Church. How could anyone have a beef with a church whose marquee states “Love They Neighbor”?
Let’s talk about the merits of my clients’ allegation that the City Council changed the Nov. 12, 2013 Procedures and Regulations for Residential Permit Parking Districts (Procedures) without public notice.
Procedures, Section 7.1.G, states: “All streets that have preferential parking restrictions … shall maintain those restrictions unless changed in the future by a separate process outlined in these regulations.” (Emphasis added.) Procedures, Section 11, states, in part:
A. The Engineering Division, Traffic Engineering Section staff may periodically review … parking restrictions, and recommend to the City Engineer, the modification of … parking restrictions….
B. The City Engineer may initiate, at his discretion, based on staff’s recommendation, a process to adjust desperate parking restriction[s]….
(Emphasis added.) Procedures, Section 11.F, states: “[M]odification of parking restrictions … shall be made administratively.” (Emphasis added.)
Now, Mr. Phillips, using the best legal thinking he can muster, should tell us where, “outlined in these regulations,” the City Council retained authority to modify parking restrictions in an established parking district.
Mr. Phillips states, “[M]r. Brown argues … that the Council gave up its right to address parking issues because the Council transferred its authority (to review the law or change the parking regulations) to the City Engineer.” Where did “Mr. Brown” argue that? Has the lack of sleep caused Mr. Phillips to confuse modifying parking restrictions with changing the law?
At page 11, the Sept. 23, 2013 City Council meeting Minutes state:
Ilbert Phillips noted the challenge of parking in the area; difficulties faced by Grace Lutheran Church; he asked the City to go back to unrestricted parking after 6 p.m. on Farragut; he discussed community activities; he asserted that public streets should not become private parking lots; and he expressed support for more equitable parking and for sharing public sidewalks.
(Note: Mr. Phillips requested “after 6 p.m.” only.) Does he recall how the experts responded? He might have slept through that part of the meeting. At the Sept. 23, 2013 City Council meeting, Traffic Engineer Gabe Garcia informed the City Council, including Andrew Weissman, in part:
Those streets that currently have parking restrictions would be adopted into the district with their current parking restrictions. … We propose that Council give authority to staff to administratively reach out to the community, propose a change, with written notice of 30 days, and then effect the change. … There are specific areas of lack of uniformity. … Also, if you look to the west … Farragut, west of Overland. We would not propose to change that. … These are all locations that have very specific impacts, that have been quantified in the past, and we would not seek uniformity in these locations.
(Video Transcript [VT] at 53:10 – 55:20; emphasis added.)
On Nov. 12, 2013, Mr. Weissman and the other current Council members rejected Mr. Phillips’s comments and adopted the Procedures.
As recently as Aug. 28, 2014, at 12:02 PM, City Engineer Charles Herbertson emailed Weissman:
[10700 block of] Farragut was “grandfathered in” when the new preferential parking guidelines were adopted about 1 year ago. That is not the only district that differs from the new standard restrictions. … [B]ecause of the sensitivity of that district and I think a few others, we stated publically at the City Council meeting that the Farragut district (and perhaps a few others) would not be proposed to be changed as part of this standardization process. … It just means that staff indicated that we were not going to pursue those as part of the standardization process.
(Emphasis added.)
Other than Ken Smith’s industrial-strength business and political connections to Mr. Weissman, what caused Mr. Weissman to change his mind? Why did Mr. Weissman fail to disclose the relations when specifically asked if any existed? Why has Mr. Weissman disregarded the city’s experts’ long-standing opinion that the Farragut Parking Restriction remain unchanged?
I respectfully suggest that Mr. Phillips gets some rest before he responds.
Mr. Greenberg may be contacted at LGreenberg@LGEsquire.com
