Deputy Dan Strikes Again

Could be worse – Deputy Dan could have declared martial law

You will respect my authority

By Will Collette

Council Vice-President Deputy Dan Slattery (CCA) has aggressively moved to place Ninigret Park squarely under the jurisdiction of anybody but the town Parks and Recreation Commission.

From his speech-making at the March 12 Town Council meeting and resolutions he has submitted for adoption by the Town Council, Deputy Dan seems to favor putting the lion’s share of the power in the hands of the US Department of the Interior.

Indeed, Deputy Dan said it is our “ethical and moral obligation” to defer to the Interior Department in all matters Ninigret.

But exactly why it is Charlestown’s “ethical and moral obligation,” only Deputy Dan seems to have the right to know.

Jon the Peeps Posse - enter the Progressive Charlestown
First (Maybe Last) Annual Peeps Contest

Among Slattery’s several actions, he wants several key documents dating back to the 1979 transaction where the federal government deeded a large chunk of the old Ninigret Naval Air Station to Charlestown put on Clerkbase. That’s not a bad thing in itself, but how Deputy Dan wants to get there is pretty interesting.

That’s because he doesn’t want anyone to actually SEE those records until the Town Council, sight unseen, has voted to grant his request.

Here is his proposed resolution:

Deputy Dan holding his secret documents

There are lots of things wrong with Deputy Dan’s whole approach, which became evident during the Town Council meeting.

Let's start with a chronic problem Deputy Dan seems to suffer from. He seems compulsive about the need to create town law when there already exists federal or state law that supersedes town law. If the Interior Department already has legal rights, the Interior Department is perfectly capable of enforcing those rights without the Town of Charlestown needing to enact anything.

Many town citizens are probably wondering why this 1979 Land Transfer agreement is only becoming an issue now. Why wasn't it mentioned during the long and laborious process that led up to the finalized 2008 Ninigret Park Master Plan? At that time, Deputy Dan Slattery was President of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance and actively involved in the process. And his Council cohort Tom Gentz was also an active CCA leader. Why have they waited until now to bring this up, and not before the 2008 Master Plan was formally adopted?

Was it a trouble-making opportunity Slattery and Gentz banked for future use?

We have a legal, ethical and moral obligation to obey
documents I won't let you see

The records Slattery mentions are public records. Yet, he has withheld them, putting our Town Clerk in the position where she can’t grant my request to inspect those records, as is my right under Rhode Island’s Access to Public Records Act.

Slattery’s council colleagues complained during the meeting that they haven’t seen the documents either, though Deputy Dan wants a vote on them.

Deputy Dan replied that he has held the records at the instructions of Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero.

“Not so fast, Deputy Dan,” said Solicitor Ruggiero, who then said that when Slattery asked whether he (Slattery) could post the two documents on Clerkbase, Ruggiero advised him not to post anything on Clerkbase without the consent of his colleagues.

As Ruggiero explained, if any council member could post anything they wanted on the town website on their own, that could lead to lots of problems.

So there sat Deputy Dan, red-faced and thwarted, having been caught in a fib when Solicitor Ruggiero wouldn’t back up his story.

This episode is reminiscent of Deputy Dan's fabled investigation of potential evil-doing by the Glista Gang, also known as Friends of Ninigret Park. Deputy Dan conducted an elaborate investigation, without Council authority, again claiming Solicitor Ruggiero told him he could do it. When his investigation was over, Deputy Dan refused to show what he found.

I challenged his decision through a formal complaint, but dropped the complaint when Deputy Dan admitted he ran his posse without a shred of authority and that he reneged on his promise to share his findings with fellow Council members.

Sometime soon perhaps, Deputy Dan will bring himself to turn over PUBLIC RECORDS he is holding without authority so the rest of the town can see them.

Then we can evaluate Deputy Dan’s claims that the town of Charlestown should really just let the Department of the Interior run Ninigret Park for us. Here is his resolution to give the Interior Department authority over Ninigret Park:

Slattery also wants to throw away the Ninigret Park Master Plan, which was years in the making and was finally completed in 2008. In its place, some yet-to-be-named stakeholder body and a yet-to-be-hired consultant will re-write the Master Plan.

Here’s his resolution:

But before anything happens in Ninigret Park, according to Deputy Dan’s resolutions, we will first have to get the approval of not only the Interior Department, but also the non-profit Frosty Drew Observatory (which is, technically, a GUEST in the town park) and the neighbors, such as the folks in Arnolda.

None of these proposals have any basis in the Town Charter. Appointing a “Stakeholder Commission” to supersede the Charter-designated duties of the Parks and Recreation Commission has no basis in the Town Charter. Relegating the Parks and Recreation Commission to a seat on this extra-legal Commission is pure insult.

Deputy Dan Slattery worked as a bureaucrat in several federal agencies in Washington before retiring and gracing Charlestown with his brilliance. Part of his wisdom, it seems, is a highly developed preference for federal authority over the town's, and for authoritarianism over democracy.

I don’t know if he practiced the same sort of independent spirit and creative interpretation of the law and regulations during his DC federal experience, but it may explain why he moved from agency to agency. And why he is no longer there.

As we have seen in the 17 months since Deputy Dan took office here in Charlestown, he is not deterred by law or nature in his battle against evil-doers, real or imagined. No law, no Town Charter, no rule or procedure will stand in his way.

He’s Deputy Dan and he has to get his way. When you finally get to see the March 12 meeting on Clerkbase, please watch Deputy Dan for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

At this writing, the raw video footage of the March 12 Town Council meeting had just been posted on Clerkbase, but without markings that allow you to focus on specific parts of the meeting. It's four hours long and pretty awful. But to understand how badly our Town Council is run by Council President Gentz and the abusive conduct of Deputy Dan Slattery, watching the video is an education.