Feud spills into water fee fight
Ballston Spa village trustee, developer have new issue to dispute
A routine look at water revenues in the village is complicating an already strained relationship between Village Trustee Liz Kormos and landowner and developer Frank Rossi Sr.
The two, who have been locked in a separate legal fight since October 2019, are arguing over what Rossi is paying in village water and sewer fees.
Kormos is questioning if the fees for his 96-unit Mohican Hill Apartments align with village code on water and sewer, which requires multiple-residences t ru ctu res with 90 or more dwelling units to pay a $45 annual fee per unit — one for water and another for sewer. That would mean the apartment complex would pay the village about $8,640 for water and sewer each year.
Speaking for his father, Frank Rossi Jr. said he doesn’t know how much his father pays for water now. Moreover, since the complex consists of 12 separate buildings — 10 built in 1996 and another two in 2010 — the son said that law does not apply to his father’s complex.
“They are two separate projects,” Rossi Jr. said. “Each building has two meters on it and that is the law of the village. We pay our bills.”
Saying his father is doing anything less “is slanderous,” Rossi Jr. said.
Kormos said the village is leaving it to its attorney to determine if Rossi is underpaying the rate. If he is, she said she does not want to force Rossi to pay back water and sewer fees but would like to correct it going forward.
“If you have this part of the code over 90 residential units,
you should be paying a per unit rate,” Kormos said. She said she would leave a final determination up to the attorney.
Village attorney Stephanie Ferradino said Monday that she has yet to look into the matter. Mayor Larry Woolbright said the investigation of water and sewer fees is part of a larger effort to modernize the village’s billing, which currently depends on residents reading their own meters and mailing in a card declaring their usage — a system that not all residents comply with.
The water and sewer bill review intensifies the ongoing battle between Kormos and Rossi that started in 2015 when Kormos’ group, Smart Growth Ballston, blocked Rossi from building a Walmart in the village. Tensions between the two escalated in October 2019 when she and another Democrat, Keith
Lewis, canvassed for candidates — those that Republican contributor Rossi Sr. was not supporting — at his Mohican Hills apartments.
Though Kormos and Lewis left the complex after Rossi demanded they do so, Rossi had them arrested and charged with trespassing, saying that canvassers need his permission to leave campaign material at Mohican Hills. During the incident, Rossi’s daughter, Gina Marozzi, who was also there, threatened “to bury ” Kormos and Lewis.
But since Rossi has donated to many Saratoga County Republicans, including justices, all courtrooms assigned the charge in Ballston Spa and the towns of Ballston, Malta and Milton have recused themselves of the matter. The trespassing charge has recently landed at Galway Town Court. Kormos does not yet have a court date to appear.
The charge is a political hot potato because past court decisions in federal and state courts appear to lean toward the right of citizens to petition for political purposes. For example, a 1984 federal court struck down an ordinance in Hempstead on Long Island that restricted canvassing to certain hours of the day.
Kormos said the examination of the water fees is not an attempt to get back at Rossi. However, she said she is tired of the legal chase that Rossi has forced them into.
“It’s ridiculous, the whole thing,” Kormos said. “It is costing taxpayers money and it’s not costing the Rossis anything. It’s been more than a year. I figure by the time we get through all 23 municipalities (in Saratoga County) it will be another four years. ... It’s getting very old. Both Keith and I would very much like to see this resolved.”
Rossi Jr. is unsympathetic and would not consider dropping the trespassing charge.
“They should be prosecuted for breaking a law,” he said. “Hopefully, Galway will hear it.”