______________________________________						
						     )
Applications for License Renewal and for	     )
Termination of Voluntary Agreements between )		   		
and Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance,      )
Inc. and the following Licensees:		     )
						     )
Jaime T. Carrillo t/a Don Jaime’s Restaurant;     )		License No.  21915
						     )
NHV Corp. t/a Haydee’s Restaurant.		     )		License No.  24663
______________________________________ )

Statement of James T. Carillo
Hearing of February 13, 2008

My name is Jaime T. Carrillo. I have operated Don Jaime restaurant on Mount Pleasant Street since 1995. I am also a long time resident of Mount Pleasant Street and raised my family there. I still live there with my wife and the younger of my two sons. I have served on the Board of Mount Pleasant Main Street and was Vice President of the Mount Pleasant Business Association.

My restaurant is small, with a capacity of 50. My family and I operate the restaurant with just one other employee. I have never received any complaints of any kind from any of my neighbors.

Before I began operating the restaurant, I had bought the small building it occupies. By the time I obtained the license and opened the Don Jaime Restaurant, I had lost 40,000 dollars in back rent that my original tenant had never paid me. When that tenant vacated is when I opened my restaurant. It was very difficult for us because of our financial situation and because of my health: I had been attacked, stabbed seven times, and nearly killed. This attack caused me serious health problems for many, many years and necessitated 11 surgeries between 1994 and 2005.

At renewal time one year I was very shocked to receive a letter from MPNA saying that they were protesting my license and that they would require me to sign a “Voluntary Agreement” with them if I wanted them not to attack my license. I did not even know who they were. They said they were objecting to my license based on my restaurant’s negative effect on the “peace, order and quiet” of the neighborhood. I was completely shocked by this, because I had always done everything I needed to run a good place, and I had never done anything that could harm the peace, order and quiet of the neighborhood.

The letter contained an agreement I was supposed to sign. The agreement was long and complicated, containing many requirements. My son wrote a letter back to MPNA explaining that our restaurant was small and caused no problems, and stating that we did not want to sign this agreement. We declined to sign. Laurie Collins then asked me to come to her house to talk about her demands.

At this time, I was extremely ill, and suffering extreme weakness and pain from the after effects of the injuries I had received in the stabbing. But I felt that I needed to go talk to Laurie Collins or else I might lose my license and my business. Again, she gave me an agreement that I was supposed to sign. I was at her house for several hours. I did not want to sign the agreement. Eventually, after I scratched out many items, I signed the agreement containing the changes I had made. I signed the agreement because I had no choice. I could not afford to risk my business and my ability to support my family. My health was so terrible at this time that I could barely walk. The pain was so bad that I could sometimes not even roll over in bed. Many days I spent almost the whole day in bed, unable to work or do anything else. Our financial situation was desperate. Because of the lost 40,000 dollars in lost rent and because of my health situation, we had not been able to get the business off the ground. I had had to take a loan to stay afloat, and we could barely make the loan payments. I did not have a lawyer and there was no way I could afford one. Laurie Collins said she represented the community, and I was in no position to fight back. My family was in trouble. I had no choice but to sign. Laurie Collins said she would send me a copy of the revised agreement, but she never did.

Last year, in 2007, an ABRA inspector came to my restaurant. She asked me how many times a week the trash was picked up. I told her 3 times a week. She said I was in violation of my “Voluntary Agreement” because it required 7 times a week. I knew I had never signed any agreement requiring 7 times a week. I told my attorney about this and he obtained a copy of the agreement that is in ABRA’s files and brought it to me. I immediately realized that it was not the agreement I signed. It did not contain any of the revisions I had made. Today I am even more upset because I now know that the agreement she filed is false, and I that she concealed that from me by never sending me a copy of what she filed.

Currently my business is on the margin. I have only one employee. My capacity is just 50. I need to be able to attract customers in order to survive. If my right to offer music is restored, I will have the freedom and flexibility to work on new ideas to attract customers and to be able to compete. I will also be able to give more to my community by offering things the community wants, such as live music and community, family and cultural events and celebrations that include live entertainment. This is what I want – To be successful both in my business and in being a true asset to my neighborhood.

I want to terminate the old agreement with MPNA. It was not voluntary at all. And what ABRA has is a false document. I do not want to be part of any agreement with MPNA.

My attorney and I have worked for well over a year with other groups in the neighborhood to work out the terms of a new agreement. That is the agreement called the “Hear Mount Pleasant Agreement.” I ask that the Board terminate the MPNA agreement that has harmed me and our community for over 7 years now, and replace it with the Hear Mount Pleasant Agreement which the majority of the community wants and supports.