Peter M. Wlodylo

 

 

 

 


February 23, 2004

Mr. Orman Whitcomb, Director

Department of Economic and Community Development

59 State House Station

Augusta, ME 04333-0059

 

 

 

 

Dear Mr. Witcomb,

This letter is our appeal as per our: phone conversation of 02/13/04. It is my understanding you are our final appeal for the Gardiner CDBG Housing Rehabilitation Program. I just cannot get a fair appeal with the City of Gardiner I have tried and keep ending up at the same committee repeatedly. The fact is I have been turned down twice (2 times) by the same housing committee and have been referred again a third time (3 times) to the same committee by the city manager Jeff Kobrock. I have enclosed a copy of the denial letters as proof of these appeals being denied. I have also enclosed a copy of Jeff Kobrock’s denial letter of 02/05/04. If you read and examine this letter, piece by piece, you will discover the following

1.         Jeff Kobrock city of Gardiner Manager has altered the appeals process.

2.         Has denied my right to file a final appeal with the State

3.         Has violated the states right to hear the final appeal

4.         Has violated the program directors (Orman Witcomb) right to carry out his responsibilities as final appeal decision maker

This content of Jeff Kobrock’s denial letter dated 02/05/04 is clearly designed to present the most negative and gray image of the applicant as possible, in fact Mr. Kobrock tries to shift his own wrongdoing to that of the applicant by use of the following statement.

“You admit to having a copy of, but not following our complaint guidelines, which details the appeal process. You have discussed your circumstances with both state and federal housing officials before allowing the city to respond to your concerns as detailed in these complaint guidelines”

            Excuse me, am I suppose to take the advice of a man who violates his own written rules, lies and allows his staff to lie, violates my appeal rights and then tries to shift his wrongdoing onto me? I think not. In fact. Is it any wonder that I have to call state officials? Yes, the part about his staff lying is real; I actually recorded it and I will let you listen to it. (wave file)  When I complained to Jeff Kobrock about Chris Paszyc lying his response is “I do not want to talk about this, let’s talk about your problem”

 

I have enclosed a copy of the appeals process they sent me so that you can look at it and decide for yourself. Are they indeed following their own written rules? Are they saying and doing something very different?

 

 

 

Emergency Assistance Appeal

Our appeal to the city manager Jeff Kobrock is based on the emergency assistance provision.

    Jeff Kobrock has turned this provision into disaster relief and has altered this provision, has denied us based on his altered interruption, has sent us back to the housing committee for the third and final round, as he has terminated the appeal process with the housing committee having the final say.

There is something defiantly wrong with the way they run this program; it’s like this program is for the benefit of the city and not for the people who really need it. The emergency assistance provision of this program is for those people who need it.

How can someone who has had a foundation cave in (winter 2002) not qualify? How can we prove it? We had to jack up the house with steel cellar posts and we ended up charging the posts at LaPointe Lumber otherwise that part of the house would have caved in. Is this a serious emergency? I think it is, however Kobrock simply ignores this problem and says “your house has always been bad” so does this mean that the foundation caving in, never happened? How are we suppose to know that the man who poured this foundation decided to leave steel posts inside the foundation walls and therefore had weakened the walls, this is exactly where they broke. The photos that we gave him, when we first applied for this program shows these same steel posts that we installed to keep the building from collapsing in winter of 2002. Does this event meet the emergency criteria?

 

How can we deal with a man on an intelligent level that refuses to talk about issues that he does not like?

 

The Tax Issue

The fact that we paid the city nearly $1,600.00 in property taxes in one lump sum in Nov/2003 is never mentioned in any correspondence ever and he gives the impression that we didn’t pay our 2001 taxes, in fact our 2001 taxes are paid in full. Mr. Kobrock is misleading the reader deliberately. We simply do not have the$4,000.00 needed to pay everything. There are reasons for this, these reasons will be discussed.

 

According to our denial letter of 02/05/04 Mr. Kobrock has made an issue of our past tax history in an effort to add creditability to his denial decision, he states “Your history of tax and sewer liens is not recent, and have been recurring since 1993”

1.         Exactly what does this have to do with the Emergency Provision?

2.         Because of the bad condition of our home, we had to spend our money on critical repairs that pertain to safety and health issues. At no expense to the city I might add.

3.         It takes us months and years to do piece meal repairs on our own.

4.    Our priorities, heat, heating system, insulation, electrical wiring, bathroom fixtures, water heater, some vinyl windows, roofing.

5.    These types of expenses are on going and essential and have put a strain on our budget.

Mr. Kobrock says, “you have made investments in your property (without addressing the foundation condition)

How exactly are we suppose to piece meal a foundation that costs thousands of dollars? Can you explain that to me Mr. Kobrock? He simply ignores this question, makes it into an issue, and tries to incorporate this statement into his overall decision making process of denial, of Emergency Assistance that, we are rightfully entitled to, according to my understanding of the definition of Emergency Assistance, that just happens to be the same meaning and intent of HUD.

Mr. Kobrock’s denial letter states “However, your claim that life and safety are an immediate concern is compelling enough to remand the question to the housing committee” That statement concerns me, because he has trampled our right to a fair hearing and has denied our right to Emergency Assistance, and yet he is concerned about our health and safety. Something is just not adding up. I am concerned that he will try to condemn our property and kick us out of our own home in addition to denying us access to government funds that were intended to be used to rehabilitate property’s like ours according to HUD’s definition of the rules, not his.

In addition to our constant repair expenses, we are also faced with, medical bills, prescription drug bills, funeral expenses, and all the other bills associated with constant doctor visits that are not covered by Medicaid. The fact is we had two terminally ill kids, one of them died, the other one is in the same boat and has lived in a bunk bed for 21 years and still does. I would like to see him in his own room before he dies. This is why we are doing some remodeling in another part of the house. We simply do not have the money to do it, we are piecemeal it as we go. We have been working on this for several years and this had nothing to with our application for emergency assistance. Mr. Kobrock states in his denial letter “I am aware of new construction of an addition permitted in October 2002 presently started but unfinished”

1. Again Mr. Kobrock tries to mislead the reader into thinking there is a new addition by the use of the above statement.   

Exactly where is this addition? Answer THERE IS NONE,WE ARE NOT ALLOWED BY CITY ZONEING ORDANCES TO BUILD ANY KIND OF ADDITIONS EVER.

2. Mr. Kobrock tries to blame us for not fixing our foundation.

Our foundation problem cannot be piecemealed. Mr.Kobrock does not understand construction. You cannot add a cubic yard of cement whenever you have money to add to it, the foundation would be worthless. 

 

3. Mr. Kobrock tries to imply that we are wasting our money by trying to fix our building, by using these types of statements Mr. Kobrock specifically leads the reader to conclude that the people involved  are just wasting their resources and therefore  substantiate his  denial of our application of Emergency assistance.   

The fact is this, this was an existing building in a state of collapse, and has no connection with our application for emergency assistance, our decision to repair and or replace parts of this building was based on the fact that my son who is 21 years old had no place to live other than his bunk bed that he has been living in since he was born, he is going to die in this bunk bed, if we do not reconstruct this building, he is terminally ill, his brother has already died.

In addition to dealing with family problems, I now have to deal with people at city hall that lie to me. People that are suppose to be helping me, people that are suppose to be following the rules, people that are paid by my tax money, people that are abusing the very public they that they are sworn to serve. I find these kinds of actions reprehensible. The system of lying and deception cannot continue. Justice has to prevail at some point; maybe it is time for justice to prevail now. Making accusations and being able to prove them are two different things. I have taken the liberty to record certain conversations at city hall between myself and other people namely, Chris Paszyc, Lynn Paul, Jeff Kobrock. I have informed them of this fact, some of them were not to happy about it, some of them refuse to talk to me at all, some of them try to throw everything they can at me, and are very, very annoyed that I have contacted officials in connection with HUD to complain about their behavior and misconduct. There is simply no justice at the city hall, your complaint is simply thrown in the trash or is ignored or you are told they do not want to talk about it, there is no one to complain to, it is a type of a red neck system that Gardiner has had problems with for years and has been publicized in the KJ. It is my hope that there is some type of investigation that changes are made, so that the next person that comes behind me can be spared the grief that I have to go through to get equal justice.

I complained to Jeff Kobrock about Chris Paszyc lying in reference to the housing program.

The response is “I don’t want to talk about it”  “lets not point fingers at people”  “fill out a complaint form”  “that is not your problem” “we have no form”  

“file a written complaint”

I have even filed a written complaint in combination with my written appeal, this complaint is against Mr. Paszyc in connection with his responsibilities as OCD manger, Mr. Kobrock will not hand over the official complaint forms, will not mention the complaint in any of his dealings with me, he simply ignores the complaint “That is not enough information” “you need to file a written complaint” is his response, however when confronted with the specifics of the complaint; he (Mr. Kobrock) does not want to talk about it and will not acknowledge the written complaint that I have filed. I am tired of going around in circles. The city of Gardiner has a complaint policy and complaint forms for this purpose, He refuses to hand over these forms when I asked for them, and ignores the written complaint that I have filed as some how being unofficial, it is like the complaint never existed in the first place and is not an issue.

It is not possible to file a complaint against Chris Paszyc in the city of Gardiner, because Mr. Kobrock is covering Mr. Paszyc’s backside. Mr. Kobrock used to be the OCD manager in Gardiner, and therefore is quite familiar with the responsibilities of that department, he knows the OCD regulations, so what excuse is there not to follow the rules?  

It appears to me that Mr. Paszyc is lying and trying to cover it up.

1.Chris Paszyc audio clip 1 11/24/03 9:11 AM “Everybody that we looked at to date, there have only been 2, and your one of them, that don’t have property taxes up to” (full version  11/24/03 9:11 AM also included on cd)

 

2.Chris Paszyc audio clip 2 12/05/03 9:47 AM “There were no other applicants, period that did not have back taxes paid” (full version 12/05/03 9:47 AM also included on cd)

 

 

These are recorded statements with time and date stamps.    It certainly looks like they are trying to hide something.  You will notice the word period, he (Chris Paszyc) is saying, There were no other applicants, period  There is no question about the meaning of the word period. He then makes matters worst as he tries to hide the fact that he made the 12/05/03 statement by making up a new statement on 00/00/00 to cover up the original statement he made on 12/05/03. So is it any wonder, why I feel, that they are lying. In addition to this Jeff Kobrock, say’s, “now let’s not point fingers at people” and then denies me my appeal rights, and throws my complaint in the trash. In my opinion, these people in Gardiner are not following the rules, including Lynn Paul; she keeps changing people’s application numbers (see Lynn Paul audio files). I am getting tired of this whole thing, It is my hope, that changes are made, that people start following the rules, and the people that need help, end up getting it, all to often the people in power get everything and the poor people get nothing.

Sincerely,

 

Peter M. Wlodylo