Thanks Niiki,
I think that its pretty clear what TBE and Rubino want, gaming. That's where their agendas come together.
Here is another Johnson not Related to James Oliver Johnson 111 who has dealings with Greg Rubino
More Rubino as Erie Zoning Board articles:
Google :
Greg Rubino 2009 News Reports
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090302/NEWS02/303029965
3/02/2009 Records: Johnson asked Rubino for help
'Struggling' business needed $30K advance
BY ED PALATTELLA
ed.palattella@timesnews.com [more details]
Published: March 02. 2009 12:01AM
Jeff Johnson, photographed October 10, at the Erie Port Authority meeting.
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In November 2003, when he was head of the Erie Zoning Hearing Board, real estate broker Jeffrey J. Johnson needed money.
According to newly filed court records, he helped solve his problems by asking for $30,000 from Erie real estate agent Gregory J. Rubino, who had business before the Zoning Hearing Board at the time.
With his real estate business "struggling," Johnson in November 2003 went to Rubino for financial assistance, Johnson testified at a Jan. 12 deposition, a transcript of which was recently filed at the Erie County Courthouse.
Johnson testified that Rubino responded by having one of Rubino's companies, Tecnica Development Corp., write Johnson a check for $30,000 on Nov. 18, 2003. Johnson said the money was an advance for prospective real estate deals involving him and Rubino.
"I went to him and said, Hey, you know, I could use some money, we have these deals in the hopper, would you advance me some money on it, and he said, Sure, there's enough of them that he'll get it back," Johnson testified.
Four days before getting the money, on Nov. 14, 2003, Johnson was part of a 2-0 Zoning Hearing Board decision that approved the zoning for a state prison pre-release center on West Second Street, a project in which Rubino was involved through another company, Baldwin/Rubino Associates. The deadline for the center to open was Nov. 15, 2003.
Three weeks after he received the money, on Dec. 9, 2003, Johnson was part of a 2-0 formal Zoning Hearing Board decision in favor of the pre-release center, which nearby Gannon University opposed.
Referring to the pre-release center votes and his receipt of the $30,000, Johnson testified, "One thing had nothing to do with the other."
He acknowledged that he needed money at the time, and that he was facing tax liens and other debts.
"I was struggling along," he testified. "Business was slow."
Johnson repaid the money to Tecnica in May 2005, according to a check he presented at the deposition. He said he had not received such an advance from Rubino before November 2003, and he said he has not received such an advance from Rubino since.
Johnson said he was uncertain about who came up with the figure of $30,000.
"I would assume that I did," he testified, "but I'm not sure."
Neither Johnson nor Rubino publicly disclosed the $30,000 payment until October, when the Erie Times-News asked them about it for a story published Oct. 12. Johnson left the Zoning Hearing Board in August to take a seat on the city Planning Commission, from which he resigned Oct. 31.
He left the commission, he testified at the deposition, because he "felt uncomfortable" over the publicity concerning the $30,000.
Details under seal
Johnson's deposition testimony, filed Thursday, provides his most detailed comments to date about the $30,000. He and Rubino previously told the Erie Times-News the money represented an advance, and that Johnson repaid it, but they have declined to provide more information to the Erie Times-News about the transaction.
During the deposition, which lasted about six hours, Johnson, 59, testified at length about the $30,000, which he said he received at no interest, and he offered details about the prospective real estate deals between him and Rubino, 57.
Those details, however, were blacked out in the deposition filed at the courthouse. Johnson has sought to keep the information under seal, claiming it is proprietary. Erie County Judge Michael E. Dunlavey is to hear testimony on that request Friday.
The deposition is part of a court filing submitted by Erie lawyer Leonard Ambrose, who wants the information unsealed. Ambrose filed the deposition as part of a breach-of-contract lawsuit that his client, local developer Nick Scott Sr., filed against the Erie County Convention Center Authority in 2006.
Scott is claiming the authority in 2003 wrongly rejected Scott's plans to build a hotel on the east bayfront as part of the Bayfront Convention Center project. The authority said the suit is meritless.
Regarding the $30,000, Johnson -- who owns Jeffrey J. Johnson & Associates, a real estate firm -- testified he deposited the money in his personal account rather than his business account. He said he used the money to pay personal bills, including for utilities, and he said he returned the $30,000 to Rubino's Tecnica Development in May 2005.
Johnson said none of the prospective deals had materialized by then. He said he had "an extra" $30,000, so he wrote the check to Tecnica on May 26, 2005.
"There was enough time passed from November till then, and these deals didn't look like they were going anywhere, so I just decided the right thing to do is to give him his money back," Johnson said.
Johnson said he saw no need to disclose the payment publicly in light of his role on the Zoning Hearing Board and Rubino's business before the board on the pre-release center.
"I had no conflict on voting on this," he testified.
Rubino: Deals never happened
In other records filed in the Scott case on Thursday, Rubino commented on whether the $30,000 payment between Tecnica and Johnson was secret.
"Sure it was secret," he said. "Why would we sit around and tell people about our business affairs?"
Rubino's comments are contained in a transcript of an interview he gave Jan. 12 during a morning talk show on local radio station WJET/AM-1400. The hosts were Barry Dain Steinhagen and Jim LeCorchick. Rubino has declined repeated interview requests from the Erie Times-News.
During the program, Rubino said the $30,000 advance was for prospective deals on the heavily developed upper Peach Street in Summit Township, among other areas. Steinhagen asked Rubino whether Rubino was saying it was coincidental that Tecnica made the $30,000 payment to Johnson around the same time the Zoning Hearing Board was considering the zoning for the pre-release center.
"It's not even rising to the level of coincidental," Rubino said. "It just happens to be that's the time when I had all the sites on upper Peach Street. I don't think it's any big secret that I was involved in almost every development up there."
Rubino on the program provided no details as to how the $30,000 transaction originated in 2003, including who approached whom and why.
He explained how Johnson came to return the $30,000, which Johnson said he repaid to Tecnica in May 2005.
"Those deals didn't come to fruition," Rubino said. "So within a matter of months, we determined the deals weren't going to happen, so what we simply did say was, Hey, these deals aren't going to happen, time to return the advance. He did, and that was that."
ED PALATTELLA can be reached at 870-1813 or by e-mail.
