What's Old Is New Again???

How Quickly We Are Asked To Forget, As History At The Courtesy Repeats Itself -- Again, Again, And Again!

Where is former Town Councilman Joe Kearney when we need more foot-in-mouth rhetoric from the Town of Hempstead?

How fortunate for Town Supervisor Kate Murray that we peons in the hither regions of the Town have such short memories!

Call it GROUNDHOG DAY in the Town of Hempstead. Yeah.

That's the ticket. BILL MURRAY FOR TOWN SUPERVISOR!
---
From the September 15, 2000 edition of the Three Village Times (emphasis added):

Banks: Courtesy Hotel Not Courteous
Town Councilman Says West Hempstead Hotel Is Blight on Community
By Joe Rizza

Citing the violation of the Town of Hemsptead Public Nuisance Law, which went into effect last month, Councilman N. Scott Banks publicly spoke out against the Courtesy Hotel, located on Hempstead Avenue in West Hempstead. Banks urged the town to take action against the hotel, which he said is the source of numerous criminal activities, and has become a detriment to the surrounding areas.

Banks, who was elected to the town board this past November, said he had been concerned about the hotel since 1995. "From the start of getting involved in this government, I decided we're going to do something about this because this particular facility is bringing our community down. It affects our quality of life that we have in West Hemsptead," Banks said at a press conference he called on Thursday, Sept. 7 in the hotel's parking lot.

Banks also said the presence of the Courtesy Hotel is preventing the surrounding area from being developed. "What has happened here through neglect, be it of the town ignoring the wishes and needs of the community, nothing has gotten done," he said.

In January, Banks submitted a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for the purposes of inquiring about possible criminal activity having occurred at the Courtesy. Banks said he learned that from 1997 through early 1999, there were 40 incidents involving the police either at the hotel or in its vicinity. Among some of the crimes committed, according to Banks, include drug dealing, prostitution and violent sexual assaults.

The issue of the Courtesy Hotel may have sparked a political battle between Banks and Town Councilman Joe Kearney since both are running against each other in the second councilmatic district in the upcoming election.

Banks, a Democrat, said he proposed a nuisance law to the town back in June, which was modeled after the Town of Babylon's public nuisance law, to guard against facilities that threaten the health and welfare of a community and bring that community down. Kearney said a public nuisance law was drafted at the request of Town of Hempstead Supervisor Richard Guardino, Councilman Anthony Santino and himself - all Republicans.

Banks said he found Guardino's public nuisance law to be too difficult to understand and too draconian. When it came time to vote on Guardino's proposed public nuisance law, Banks abstained, although, he said, he is in favor of having a strong law.

Despite Banks' abstention, the law was passed on August 8 and went into effect on August 17. Although the law wasn't written the way Banks would have liked, he is still urging the board to use it in the case of the Courtesy Hotel. "Since we have a public nuisance law in effect, let's use it," he said. "Let's use it right now to give the people of the Courtesy Hotel notice that they are violating our rights in the Town of Hempstead. I am sick and tired of standing around, walking past this facility and watching drug dealers on the corners. I'm sick and tired of hearing and speaking to police officers telling me they made prostitution and drug arrests."

Kearney believes it was his lead as well as that of Guardino and Santino that got the law passed.

"I'm happy that Mr. Banks has decided to get on board and follow my lead," he said, adding that he disagrees with Banks holding a press conference concerning the Courtesy Hotel. "What we did after the law became effective is what we should have done, without hoopla."

On August 18, the day after the law went into effect, Guardino and Kearney directed the town's attorney, Joe Ra, to contact the police and let them know the law had gone into effect and to look into predicate offenses, Kearney said. "The law was being enforced with respect to the Courtesy Hotel quietly, efficiently, and effectively without the need of a press conference the day after it became effective," he added.

Banks, however, has a different view of the situation. The town, he said, has done nothing about the problem. "This has been going on for years. No political leader or representative from anywhere has done anything about this facility. They just ignored it," he said. "Enough is enough. This community is getting killed by this place. I think this is the number one issue in West Hempstead right now."

Kearney said he and Guardino know of the problems at the Courtesy Hotel and they have been working with police. In fact, Kearney said the owner of the hotel has been cooperative. "He's not looking to avoid responsibility," he added.

Under the law, Kearney said, there have to be two arrests at a location from the effective date of the law. "On August 18, we asked the police to monitor the situation and to let us know if and when the two arrests occur. They are looking into that now and we hope to hear as soon as they have the information," said Kearney last week, adding that police have not notified the town as to whether the Courtesy Hotel is in violation of the public nuisance law.

Once it is determined that the public nuisance law has been violated, the town can take action. The town then can schedule a hearing for the town board to hear evidence and testimony and then consider, by vote, whether or not there is a public nuisance at a particular location. If there is an affirmative determination by the town board, the town can order the shut down of the facility, although there can be an appeal process. Another course of action for the town is to move directly into court, seeking an injunction and asking that the facility be shut down. Representatives would then prosecute the case in court under the law.

Banks said he is demanding that the Town of Hemsptead take immediate action against the Courtesy Hotel since, the hotel, he said is in violation of the town's public nuisance law.

According to Banks, an arrest made at the hotel would require the town to give notice to the facility that it is in violation. A second arrest made within the period of a year gives the town the option of holding a hearing to take action against the hotel, whether it is shutting it down, fining it or taking other types of action so as instituting conditions of operation. "If we can't close it down, we could make them clean up their act too so we have to work in any direction we can," he said.

Banks, a resident of West Hempstead, also stated he would like the town to make an effort to close down the Courtesy Hotel. However, according to Inspector William McHale of Nassau Police's Fifth Squad, the Courtesy Hotel is not yet in violation of the Town of Hempstead's public nuisance law.

The way the law is written, there have to be two arrests at a location; they have to be arrests for incidents that occurred within the actual building and they have to be for certain offenses, said McHale.

"As it stands at this moment, the Nassau County Police Department has not charged or arrested any individual in the building for any offenses [contained within the law since it took effect]," said McHale on Tuesday. "That's not to say that there have not been arrests in or about the building for various things. There have been several arrests in the building for certain things but none of which come under the categories."

Those categories in which arrests can cause a violation of the public nuisance law include prostitution offenses, controlled substances offenses, alcohol and beverage control law violations and unlawfully dealing with a child. "It has to be offenses in the law and it has to be in the building," said McHale, adding that there have been arrests for involving at least two of the offenses including possession of drugs and prostitution but those incidents occurred in the street.

"Those types of offenses are much more difficult to make arrests for [in the building] than those same types of offenses in the street."

The police inspector said the fifth squad wants to cooperate with the town the best it can and help the town deal with issues it views as important. McHale also said arrests that would violate the public nuisance law are public information. The town's attorney, he said, has been checking to see if there have, in fact, been arrests that would violate the law.
- - -
The Deputy Commander of the Fifth Precinct confirmed at the February 28th meeting of the West Hempstead Civic Association that there were a multitude of Felony arrests inside the Courtesy Hotel in 2006, certainly enough upon which to institute action under the Town's Nuisance Law.

How many Felonies -- rapes, assaults, drug and weapon possessions, prostitution, endangerment of the welfare of children -- have there been at the Courtesy since September of 2000?

Enough to have shuttered the doors to the hotel ten times over!

SEND AN E-MAIL TO KATE MURRAY. KateMurray@tohmail.org. DEMAND THE CLOSURE OF THE COURTESY NOW!