By Will Collette
Sources report sighting several of the key players in the Y-Gate scandal emerging from the Town Council’s closed May 14 Executive Session prior to the belated start of the regular Council
session.
Spotted were Westerly YMCA Board Chair Malcolm Makin,
Sonquipaug Association leader JoAnne D’Alcomo, and Karen Jarret and Russ Ricci,
Charlestown Land Trust President and Treasurer, respectively.
On the agenda for the closed Town Council Executive Session was Donoghue v. Charlestown, the lawsuit filed by Dr. John Donoghue to block the payment of $475,000 of
D’Alcomo and the Land Trust’s Ricci are named defendants in
the suit in their capacity as members of the YMCA land advisory group accused
in Donoghue’s lawsuit of disregarding the state’s open meetings law.
However, Makin and Jarret are not named plaintiffs, raising questions about their presence at
this closed Executive Session where they have no role in the named agenda item.
If they were there to discuss an alternative financial
arrangement for the town to put up tax dollars to enable the deal, this could
be a serious breech of the state’s Open Meetings Act. Discussing the Donoghue
litigation is an appropriate subject for a closed session, but if there was to
be discussion of a new Y-Gate deal, then that should have been posted on the
agenda or the discussion should not have taken place. The presence of
non-parties to the Donoghue suit seems to indicate a Council discussion about
Y-Gate alternatives.
Other sources say the Westerly YMCA is desperate to sell
their old campground – to whoever will buy it – because their major building
project in Westerly
is running into cost over-runs.
In my last article, I described a number of alternative
scenarios the Y-Gate scandal players might attempt to complete the deal with
taxpayer money.
The presence of all of these players in closed door
discussions with the Town Council runs counter to the Council’s stated intentions
to honor taxpayers’ right to vote. It is also a gross breech of their often
stated commitment to open and transparent government.
The Town Council needs to explain what their meeting with
non-litigants in the Donoghue v. Charlestown
case was all about.