Not quite a Live Blog
By Tom Ferrio (with updates from Will Collette)
The meeting started without much excitement. The Council returned from their Executive Session about 10 minutes after 7 pm with the announcement that no votes were taken.
We were waiting for something more substantial since some important topics were on the agenda, including a discussion of Councilperson Lisa DiBello's lawsuit against the Town and whether there was going to be a settlement.
Read more below the break.
Then Tom Gentz proposed a motion for a vote, still in the Executive Session but publicly, that we will have to verify from the video when it's available. What I heard is that the town lawyer has been asked to draft a request to the State Attorney General to investigate the behavior of the Town of Westerly and COPAR quarries with respect to the various legal violations and Westerly's handling of them. The idea is to have this available for action at the August Council meeting. (I repeat, we will have to verify that. We will also have to evaluate whether such a request would even be considered or if it is just grandstanding.)
This motion and its charge to the Town Solicitor did not include any mention of Charlestown's mishandling of Copar's take-over of the operations of the former Morrone sand and gravel pit on Route 91 in Charlestown.
Lisa DiBello was not present for the Council meeting and was probably not present in the Executive Session.
Note: the attorney for the insurance agencies that insures municipalities in cases like DiBello's was apparently called into the closed session. Obviously, we don't know exactly why that is the case, but it is not unusual for the insurance company to dictate terms of a settlement simply to put an end to a lawsuits that drag on. The insurance company for the Town of Hopkinton entered into a settlement with a fired town employee with a case similar to DiBello's over the town's objections and perhaps we might see DiBello's long-running case end in similar fashion.
In the biggest news of the evening Tom Gentz announced at the very outset of the regular meeting that there would be no resolution, indeed no discussion, of the bombshell issue of putting the purchase of the Whalerock property before the voters.
Gentz said that "negotiations continue" so the a tentative deal, subject of course to voter approval, between the town and developer Larry LeBlanc is not done. Gentz gave no further explanation other than to make it clear that since the deal was not done, there was no point in a resolution authorizing a special election. Gentz gave no indication whether the amount listed on the agenda - $2.7 million - is the point of contention.
Evelyn Smith announced results from a meeting today at Rhode Island Housing today. RI Housing still does not anticipate our projects ranking high enough to be funded. That because the list of requests is expected to be long and the available money is not expected to fund many.
Because tonight's agenda turned out to be unexpectedly light, Evelyn was given enough time to lay out the problems Charlestown has had in moving the popular ChurchWoods elderly housing project forward without being constantly hectored and interrupted by Tom Gentz. She was able to lay out the problems and then describe the options for dealing with them in depth but with clarity.
The discussion today was about what might be done to make the projects more fundable. There was a general recognition that the ChurchWoods site is ideal for senior affordable housing. RI Housing proposed using another program to fund that, using other Federal funding sources that do not go through RI Housing or to use additional Town bond funds. This other funding is less competitive and more likely to result in success but the project would probably need an additional million dollars to make the project work financially. But this is all new information and still needs study.
After considerable time (much more than necessary) the Council charged town lawyer Peter Ruggiero to research how our affordable housing bond can be used to purchase the land necessary for these projects so the land could be saved until funding to complete the projects can be available. This will be discussed at the August meeting.
Tom Gentz moved to continue these re-appointments until the Whalerock hearings are concluded. Tom Gentz asked Peter to explain that the current members would be held over even though their terms expire. Gentz's argument was that this should be delayed for continuity of the Board.
I don't buy that. Reappointment of the existing people would not cause a continuity issue. I view it as intimidation of the Zoning Board and a threat that Gentz (CCA) intends to remove as many current members as possible if they don't reject the Whalerock application. I can't fault him for having an interest in the outcome but I didn't think he really wanted to hand the future court victory to Larry LeBlanc in this way. The ZBR is supposed to be making the decision based on law, not what Tom Gentz wants.
That's it; the meeting ended at a nice early time - 9 pm.
The meeting started without much excitement. The Council returned from their Executive Session about 10 minutes after 7 pm with the announcement that no votes were taken.
We were waiting for something more substantial since some important topics were on the agenda, including a discussion of Councilperson Lisa DiBello's lawsuit against the Town and whether there was going to be a settlement.
Read more below the break.
Then Tom Gentz proposed a motion for a vote, still in the Executive Session but publicly, that we will have to verify from the video when it's available. What I heard is that the town lawyer has been asked to draft a request to the State Attorney General to investigate the behavior of the Town of Westerly and COPAR quarries with respect to the various legal violations and Westerly's handling of them. The idea is to have this available for action at the August Council meeting. (I repeat, we will have to verify that. We will also have to evaluate whether such a request would even be considered or if it is just grandstanding.)
This motion and its charge to the Town Solicitor did not include any mention of Charlestown's mishandling of Copar's take-over of the operations of the former Morrone sand and gravel pit on Route 91 in Charlestown.
Lisa DiBello was not present for the Council meeting and was probably not present in the Executive Session.
Note: the attorney for the insurance agencies that insures municipalities in cases like DiBello's was apparently called into the closed session. Obviously, we don't know exactly why that is the case, but it is not unusual for the insurance company to dictate terms of a settlement simply to put an end to a lawsuits that drag on. The insurance company for the Town of Hopkinton entered into a settlement with a fired town employee with a case similar to DiBello's over the town's objections and perhaps we might see DiBello's long-running case end in similar fashion.
Whalerock Land
In the biggest news of the evening Tom Gentz announced at the very outset of the regular meeting that there would be no resolution, indeed no discussion, of the bombshell issue of putting the purchase of the Whalerock property before the voters.
Gentz said that "negotiations continue" so the a tentative deal, subject of course to voter approval, between the town and developer Larry LeBlanc is not done. Gentz gave no further explanation other than to make it clear that since the deal was not done, there was no point in a resolution authorizing a special election. Gentz gave no indication whether the amount listed on the agenda - $2.7 million - is the point of contention.
Affordable Housing: ChurchWoods and Shannock Village projects
Evelyn Smith announced results from a meeting today at Rhode Island Housing today. RI Housing still does not anticipate our projects ranking high enough to be funded. That because the list of requests is expected to be long and the available money is not expected to fund many.
Because tonight's agenda turned out to be unexpectedly light, Evelyn was given enough time to lay out the problems Charlestown has had in moving the popular ChurchWoods elderly housing project forward without being constantly hectored and interrupted by Tom Gentz. She was able to lay out the problems and then describe the options for dealing with them in depth but with clarity.
The discussion today was about what might be done to make the projects more fundable. There was a general recognition that the ChurchWoods site is ideal for senior affordable housing. RI Housing proposed using another program to fund that, using other Federal funding sources that do not go through RI Housing or to use additional Town bond funds. This other funding is less competitive and more likely to result in success but the project would probably need an additional million dollars to make the project work financially. But this is all new information and still needs study.
After considerable time (much more than necessary) the Council charged town lawyer Peter Ruggiero to research how our affordable housing bond can be used to purchase the land necessary for these projects so the land could be saved until funding to complete the projects can be available. This will be discussed at the August meeting.
Zoning Board of Review re-appointments
Tom Gentz moved to continue these re-appointments until the Whalerock hearings are concluded. Tom Gentz asked Peter to explain that the current members would be held over even though their terms expire. Gentz's argument was that this should be delayed for continuity of the Board.
I don't buy that. Reappointment of the existing people would not cause a continuity issue. I view it as intimidation of the Zoning Board and a threat that Gentz (CCA) intends to remove as many current members as possible if they don't reject the Whalerock application. I can't fault him for having an interest in the outcome but I didn't think he really wanted to hand the future court victory to Larry LeBlanc in this way. The ZBR is supposed to be making the decision based on law, not what Tom Gentz wants.
That's it; the meeting ended at a nice early time - 9 pm.
