Town Council meeting
dominated by community anger at the Copar quarries
By Will Collette
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| Take this letter to the Attorney General |
The lead controversial item was, big surprise, the notorious
Copar quarry, a subject
postponed from last month.
Before opening the hearing to public comments on
a resolution
to send a letter to the Attorney General complaining about Westerly, Town
Council Boss Tom Gentz read a long letter from attorney Christopher Mulhern expressing
the legal concerns of his client, Westerly Granite which is the landlord to the
Copar quarries’ Bradford site.
The letter charges Charlestown with “bad faith” and of being
“egregiously prejudicial” for an array of offenses that range mostly related to
not accommodating Westerly Granite’s and Copar’s requests for documents, more
time, private meetings and such.
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| Stankiewicz: private meetings with Copar would have looked bad |
Mulhern also complained that the town reneged on a promise
to have a “workshop” or private meeting with Copar and its representatives and
experts before acting on a resolution. Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz said
that due to the high-profile nature of the Copar issue, he felt it would
reflect badly on the town if Town staff met privately with Copar or its
representatives. So no meeting.
Mulhern also says he will file a complaint against the Town
for a “willful and knowing” violation of the state open records law (Access to
Public Records Act – APRA) for failing to comply with an extensive records
request within the ten days allotted under the law.
At Council Boss Gentz’s request, Town Clerk Amy Rose
Weinreich described the nature of the records request – she actually read the
request out loud – and her response to it. The request was pretty exhaustive
and Amy said she has already spent 40 work hours compiling a large box full of
records, and isn’t done. She said that time estimate didn’t include time spent
by other departments and town staff.
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| Town Clerk Amy Rose Weinreich invoked the 20-day extension to reply |
Amy said that she notified Mulhern that the town was
invoking its right under APRA for an additional 20 business days to comply with
his request.
I’ve had a little experience with Charlestown and its policies on open records. Frankly, my advice to Mr. Mulhern about his threats
is “don’t let your mouth write checks your ass can’t cash.” I found nothing in
the Open Meetings Act to support Mulhern’s threat of a lawsuit. As for Mulhern’s
threat to file an open records act complaint with the Attorney General on a “knowing
and willful violation” of the Act, Amy’s invocation of the added 20 days covers
the Town (click
here, and read subsection e.).
But I suppose, from a lawyer’s perspective, there are no bad
billable hours no matter how lame and flimsy the threats.
Surprisingly, there was no mention at all of the detailed
letter of protest sent to the Charlestown Town Council by the Westerly interim
Town Manager Michelle Buck (click
here for detail; click
her to read her letter). The only reference to the town of Westerly’s anger
at Charlestown was a brief mention by TA Stankiewicz that he had gotten a
phone call from Ms. Buck following up on her letter.
Several members and leaders of Concerned Citizens of
Bradford-Charlestown testified. Lead-off batter was Joanne Ercoli who noted that
while it was fine to push Westerly to do what it ought to already be doing,
there are several things Charlestown could have done, and still should do.
Among them are enacting a “bad character” ordinance to restrict granting
permits to people and businesses with bad track records.
She also noted the town has the power to inspect the Copar
site on Route 91 and ought to do that. She also noted the lack
of empathy and responsiveness of Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz to Sue
Clayton.
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| Enoch McDonough had a productive night |
Enoch McDonough thanked the town for at least taking on
Westerly, and expressed the widely felt frustration of Copar’s neighbors with
the endless delays happening at Westerly’s end. Enoch’s suggestion from last
month – that the town needs a moratorium on future quarrying operation – gave
rise to a moratorium resolution covered later in the agenda.
Other CCBC folks spoke including Denise Rhodes, Sue Clayton,
Tina Holden-Shea, Al James and Chuck Shea. They raised an array of other
considerations that went beyond what Gentz had proposed. Sue Clayton and others
asked whether Charlestown will commit
resources proportional to what it’s spending to fight Whalerock to fight Copar.
Tina Shea and Al James and others hammered the issue of tax assessments, noting
that Copar has trashed their home values. They asked if Charlestown will give
residents a break.
Despite the very, very scary threat from attorney Christopher
Mulhern that his clients were going to sue Charlestown’s ass off, the Council
passed the resolution to send the letter to the Attorney General complaining
about what Westerly is failing to do to curb Copar. Councilor Lisa DiBello went on at length to inform the Copar resistors that the Council was being very brave in doing so.
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| Boss Gentz says all the problems are in Westerly |
Council Boss Gentz deflected all questions and statements
about Charlestown’s failures and omissions, saying that (a) Copar in Bradford
is in Westerly and (b) Copar in Charlestown took over from Morrone’s.
He said
the Copar operation in Charlestown was “grandfathered” because they were taking
over Morrone’s going concern.
That does not address Copar’s failure to obtain the required business permit to do business in Charlestown for 90 days or Charlestown's right to inspect the premises.
That does not address Copar’s failure to obtain the required business permit to do business in Charlestown for 90 days or Charlestown's right to inspect the premises.
Gentz also deflected requests from several residents that
Charlestown put a reasonable amount of resources in support of the Copar
opposition, given the millions of dollars Charlestown is spending for the
benefit of the Whalerock opponents.
This letter will certainly cause bad feelings between
Charlestown and Westerly; maybe it will spur some frivolous lawsuits from Copar
or Westerly Granite. Maybe it’s better than nothing, though not much better. But, despite Boss Gentz’s
efforts to deflect, there are many things
Charlestown could do to effectively regulate Copar. Click
here to see what I’m talking about.
The next agenda item is one of them. This is an item that
had been suggested by Enoch McDonough at the end of last month’s aborted
discussion on Copar. The Council, with little discussion and no dissenting
views either on the Council or from the audience, also passed a resolution
placing a six-month moratorium, pending the enactment of a permanent
ordinance, banning new “extractive
industries.”
It does nothing to existing operations, but it could be used to
block Copar from obtaining its third local operation, widely rumored to be the
abandoned quarry on Klondike Road owned by South County Sand and Gravel.
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| Joe Warner is now a Certified Flood Plain Manager (though not in title) and wants to save people money on flood insurance |
Housing Official Joe Warner
walked the Council through the ordinance and noted that this ordinance would
not only protect Charlestown residents’ eligibility for federal flood
insurance, but might
even led to future insurance discounts.
Joe reported that he has
now become certified as a Flood Plain Manager, an essential element of
Charlestown qualifying for the FEMA “Community
Rating System” (CRS) that rewards communities that take steps to
storm-proof the community through discounts to federal flood insurance. Joe
said that he hoped to shepherd Charlestown into CRS with a “rating” of 7 or 8.
If Charlestown gets an “8,” the insurance discount would be 10%; if a “7,” the
discount rises to 15%. The lower the rating number, the higher the discount.
The Council adopted the
ordinance with some minor amending.
Boss Gentz read the list of Commission vacancies and noted the addition of another vacancy due to the resignation of one of the Zoning Board members. However, he did not mention that, due to his actions, there are three more Zoning Board members whose terms have expired.
The Council moved on to the two ordinances (#359 and #360) to amend the town's zoning ordinance to give the town the power to regulate town businesses and their shrubbery and parking in minute detail.
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| EIC Chair Frank Glista was censored by Boss Gentz |
Economic Improvement Commission chair Frank Glista rose to speak and request that the Council postpone action on the ordinances until later. He noted that the EIC was not consulted and the business community felt left out and angry at yet more anti-business regulation.
Frank described what some business owners had said or e-mailed to him including one who asked if the next step was for the town to pass an ordinance regulating what color toilet paper his business can use.
Frank described what some business owners had said or e-mailed to him including one who asked if the next step was for the town to pass an ordinance regulating what color toilet paper his business can use.
Boss Gentz cut him off and, in a heated exchange with Frank, characterized Frank's comments as personal and objectionable. When the video is available on Clerkbase, you'll all be able to judge that for yourselves and determine whether Boss Gentz simply didn't want to hear criticism or whether something else was going on.
Since it was the toilet paper remark that set off Boss Gentz's tantrum, I was thinking to myself whether there was some deeper meaning behind his extreme reaction. Paging Dr. Freud!
Since it was the toilet paper remark that set off Boss Gentz's tantrum, I was thinking to myself whether there was some deeper meaning behind his extreme reaction. Paging Dr. Freud!
With Frank muzzled by Boss Gentz, it was left to Beth Richardson to defend the rights of small business people. Beth noted that the ordinances were so intrusive and so over-reaching that they justified Frank's characterization as anti-business. Boss Gentz was less successful at muzzling Beth, who had her say.
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| Beth Richardson scored on major points about Charlestown's hostility toward small business. |
I had commented in my previews that the town simply crossed out all of the old ordinances and then presented the new ordinances as if they were entirely new, when they were not.
At the last minute, thanks to Town Planner Ashley Hahn, the Council members had color-coded copies that showed what was old and what was new. But that was no help to members of the public who might want to have time to study the changes.
Councilor Paula Andersen (D) had comments constituents had asked her to read into the record that criticized the ordinances. Councilor Lisa DiBello said she also had extensive comments to make as well. Boss Gentz wanted to carve out more time for Faith LaBossiere (CCA Party) to speak.
Even though Boss Gentz wanted to ram these ordinances through, the combination of Frank and Beth's critiques and the lateness of the evening led to a procedural problem.
To continue the meeting beyond its 10 PM curfew, Boss Gentz needed the Councilors to vote to extend the meeting for another 15 minutes. For the first time that I can remember, the Council voted the time extension down by 3 to 2. I've seen the Council veto third or fourth time extensions, but never the first.
Gentz wanted to continue anyway, but Councilors told him that (a) there was too much more to be done and (b) what part of "NO" didn't Gentz understand?
To continue the meeting beyond its 10 PM curfew, Boss Gentz needed the Councilors to vote to extend the meeting for another 15 minutes. For the first time that I can remember, the Council voted the time extension down by 3 to 2. I've seen the Council veto third or fourth time extensions, but never the first.
Gentz wanted to continue anyway, but Councilors told him that (a) there was too much more to be done and (b) what part of "NO" didn't Gentz understand?
As Gentz finally gave in to the inevitable, several Councilors stated that they wanted to make sure proper color-coded versions of the ordinance got out and that some outreach was done to the business community.
Meeting adjourned with a lot of bumps and bruises, and a minor rebellion against Boss Gentz, even from his own allies. Just another day in paradise.
