We're your neighbors in Westworth Village. We read the agendas, file the records requests, and show up to the meetings, so decisions about our town get made in front of us, not behind closed doors.
What happened: A tax-exempt nonprofit bought the village's biggest remaining tract, the 27.73-acre Kite Farm, for a $350 million development that would need a rezoning the village already rejected once. Since May's election, decided by margins as thin as 2 votes: the mayor's evidence got a dissenting councilman arrested over pastries (the DA reportedly passed), the council voted city money for a colleague's legal fees in a lawsuit the city isn't even a party to, and six of seven Planning & Zoning seats changed hands in a single month, with no cause ever stated.
Why it matters: P&Z takes the first vote on every rezoning. Whoever controls it controls what gets built here, and what falls off the tax rolls. A formal demand now sits with the city to undo the removals as an Open Meetings Act violation, and records pried loose through the Attorney General keep contradicting the official story.
What you can do: Read the timeline below, check any claim against the documents, get email updates, put a sign in your yard, and show up on the second Tuesday. Everything here is labeled: facts carry documents, opinions say they're ours.
Three council seats were on the ballot; the closest was decided by 2 votes and is now in court. That same day, pastry boxes carrying campaign flyers landed on doorsteps. The election.
By the mayor's own account, he took resident reports, personally followed Council Member Griffith to collect evidence, and handed it to police. Griffith was arrested for felony bribery; the DA reportedly declined the case. Pastry Gate.
The council voted 3 to 2, mayor deciding, to reimburse Fitzgerald's legal fees in the election contest. The city is not a party to that lawsuit. Misuse of public funds.
A motion to leave the boards alone failed 2 to 3; the removals then passed 3 to 2, no cause stated. Six of seven seats changed hands in a month. Our notes.
A formal demand, joined by all three removed commissioners, asked the council to rescind the removals as an Open Meetings Act violation. That evening the reconstituted commission met anyway and advanced its first rezoning. Planning & Zoning.
Two complaints pried loose the legal opinion behind the fees vote (written three weeks after the vote) and the "PILOT agreement" (an unsigned 2023 draft). Both contradict the official story. Read them.
Seven days after its first public hearing, the rebuilt commission's first recommendation became law: single-family to gated development. Nothing on the agenda answered the demand letter. Our notes.
One sign, one message: Keep our single-family zoning. Free, delivered to your door by a neighbor, placed with your permission on your own property. Every sign carries the QR code that brought you here.
Already have a sign, or don't want one? Get an email when something happens: a meeting worth showing up to, a record the city finally releases, a new page on this site. No spam, no chain letters, just the occasional heads-up from your neighbors.
Council Chambers, Municipal Complex, 311 Burton Hill Road. The council meets the second Tuesday of every month; the first tax-rate hearing is September 8 and the second is at the special meeting September 15. Citizen comments are near the start. You don't have to speak; a full room speaks for itself.
And a word about quiet meetings: the pattern here is that the big moves happen at the meetings nobody attends, after a dull agenda has thinned the room. Showing up on the boring nights is how there stop being surprises on the loud ones.