Comments on Mayor Ron Belmont Conversation (2016_06_27 13–24–44)
No Concern for Resident’s Health or Well-Being

For an overview for this post, see:
For the transcript and recording of this call, see:
0:00
Note that this call came about 2 hours after the conversation with Kerry Marrano, which contains more background:
2:00
This is where I really learn who Kerry Marrano actually is, and that the previous conversation was not just about leaving a message. Of course the significance of this didn’t dawn on me until sometime after this conversation concluded.
3:00
I have no idea what to make of this. You really need to listen to it to get the full impact. My best guess is that he thought maybe he’d actually have to do something based on other case law, and was not happy about that.
4:08
He’s sort of right here. Eventually I paid a lawyer to research some of this for me, and what it came down to is this: If you’re in an apartment or condo, you can break your lease and move out if your apartment suffers smoke infiltration from a neighbor, but your dispute is with the landlord, not the smoking addict. In a suburban residential neighborhood, there is no landlord, so existing case law that applies to apartment/condo situations, doesn’t apply here. The equivalent and the only thing that would hold sway, would be local city ordinances.
As I said in the comments on the Kerry Marrano call:
There’s a local law against barking dogs. At some point in this town’s history, the government passed a law against barking dogs. Now, I can understand why someone might want such a law, but barking dogs DON’T KILL ANYBODY. As such, smoke pollution in the neighborhood and smoke infiltration into residents’ houses is much worse, because IT KILLS PEOPLE.
So, if generic nuisance or whatever laws are not sufficient to stop it, then pass a law against polluting the neighborhood with toxins like cigarette smoke. It’s really very simple. But Ms. Marrano and Mayor Belmont did everything they could to eschew this responsibility.
But remember, Mayor Belmont is the guy who pushed “spot zoning” laws to make way for a retirement home at the Lake St. quarry (and allowed that quarry to operate illegally for so long), over nearby resident’s very strong objections, including objections to smells that would rise from it. He’s clearly not very concerned about quality of life in West Harrison.
MRB: “His freedoms have to be protected or her freedoms…”
Again, there’s no right to smoke:
And no one has the “freedom” to kill other people.
4:35
MRB: “…there’s no town ordinance against smoking…”
SO MAKE ONE! You made one against barking dogs, not to mention your spot zoning, so deal with this! It should be much easier, as the science is clear that secondary smoke kills.
5:52
MRB: “I don’t know the codes verbatim, believe me…”
The mayor himself admits to this, yet Kerry Marrano was expecting me to search the town codes for something applicable. Right. Obviously she knew I don’t have the background to do that in any useful way.
MRB: “But something like smoking, there’s room for discrepancy on behalf of the building inspector…”
Well, his building inspector at the time, Ed DiBono, never returned my call.
That afternoon, 2016–06–27, I sent Mayor Belmont a few of the links I was referring to, but on 2016–06–30, I got an email from him saying formally that he wasn’t going to help me. He’s a Republican, and he’s clearly siding with his own kind — those who pollute and corrupt and run roughshod over other people’s lives to satisfy their own wanton desires and addictions.
