PAWTUCKET – Owners of the downtown Apex properties have sued city officials in their personal capacities, saying the lawsuit is meant to “stop the systemic abuse of power deployed by the defendants.”
The lawsuit, filed in District Court April 14, says Mayor Donald Grebien and others “have relentlessly singled out the Apex Companies, interfered with their property rights and their businesses, and tried to coerce them into giving up their properties in violation of the law.”
The city, working with the state, “has engaged in a coordinated attempt to pass unconstitutional legislation and leverage the power of eminent domain to acquire the Apex Companies’ private property for a fraction of the true market value,” it states. “These efforts include improper conduct and the passage and attempted application of legislation, ordinances, and (amendments) to the city’s redevelopment plan that specifically, and unconstitutionally, single out the Apex Companies’ properties
PAWTUCKET – Owners of the downtown Apex properties have sued city officials in their personal capacities, saying the lawsuit is meant to “stop the systemic abuse of power deployed by the defendants.”
The lawsuit, filed in District Court April 14, says Mayor Donald Grebien and others “have relentlessly singled out the Apex Companies, interfered with their property rights and their businesses, and tried to coerce them into giving up their properties in violation of the law.”
The city, working with the state, “has engaged in a coordinated attempt to pass unconstitutional legislation and leverage the power of eminent domain to acquire the Apex Companies’ private property for a fraction of the true market value,” it states. “These efforts include improper conduct and the passage and attempted application of legislation, ordinances, and (amendments) to the city’s redevelopment plan that specifically, and unconstitutionally, single out the Apex Companies’ properties
PAWTUCKET – The City Council last week moved to decrease the size of a proposed supplemental tax increase by about one-third, with members saying they’ll work with Mayor Donald Grebien’s administration to find cost savings to make up the difference in lost revenue by the end of the fiscal year June 30.
The increase per $1,000 of assessed property value will be 25 cents instead of 35 cents, from $20.89 to $21.14. The resulting increase for the majority of residential taxpayers is less than $50 per year.
Finance Committee Chairman Mark Wildenhain said he wished former Chairman John Barry III was still here to deliver the bad news, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, but this was what had to be done to make up for the unavoidable woes of this past pandemic year. The committee asked the administration for some alternatives to the full increase, including tweaking tax percentage rates. It won’t be easy to make up the difference of about $600,000 in revenue, he said, “but