Did Tom Gentz keep his campaign promises?

The Y-Gate Scandal, “Kill Bill,” the Battle for Ninigret Park – is this how Gentz kept his 2010 campaign promises?

By Will Collette

Tom Gentz took the position of Town Council President in 2010 by virtue of being the top vote-getter. In a bitter, ugly campaign that pitted Gentz’s “new” CCA faction against the four formerly-CCA-endorsed Council members who were seeking re-election plus Jim Mageau and his running mate David Mars, Gentz made a popular choice.

An outwardly jocular, glad-handing former health insurance executive, Gentz made a wonderful first impression, kidding around and slapping people on the back. He came off like your favorite Uncle Fluffy, who would show up at Christmas to hand out ten-dollar bills to the kids, but not before giving each a painful pinch of the cheeks. 

In his first few months, he seemed to relish the ceremonial aspects of being Council President, leading the Pledge of Allegiance, handing out proclamations to Boy Scouts and generally yukking it up. He left the real dirty work to his henchman and CCA slate-mate, Council Vice-President Dan Slattery.

But that changed. Before our eyes, Gentz changed from the bumbling Uncle Fluffy who blundered his way through Council agendas and prepared statements into a thoroughly unpleasant Boss Gentz. We should have seen it coming, but it was nonetheless shocking when Gentz dropped the Uncle Fluffy act.

Click to enlarge - Read what Gentz promised when he ran for office in 2010.
Compare it to his actual record.

He showed early signs of it. Early in his term, the Town Council considered a ceremonial resolution of support for a piece of environmental legislation Rep. Donna Walsh was pushing. Several other towns had already passed resolutions. 

The legislation called for the manufacturers and sellers of products that were either dangerous or difficult to dispose of to be held responsible for those products. Gentz adamantly refused to support the resolution of support, calling the whole idea “onerous.” Lisa DiBello voted with him, but Dan Slattery didn't. The resolution passed 3-2.

Beating up local business

What ever happened to Uncle Fluffy?

There was the surprise evening when all hell broke loose during what is usually the most boring part of any Town Council meeting – review and approval of liquor licenses. The Breachway Grill, fresh off its hot start-up, wanted to expand the scope of its license, which nearly all of the neighbors thought was just fine, since owner Craig Marr ran a nice establishment.

But Gentz was incensed. He had heard that Marr had held a function on the outside deck of the restaurant even though he was not licensed to do so. He dressed Marr down in terms that, coming from anyone never mind ole Uncle Fluffy, were shocking. Click here to see for yourself.

It turns out that Marr was hosting a birthday party for his grandmother and since the restaurant was crowded, he took this private family function out onto the deck. He apologized if this was a violation, but said he thought it was ok because it was a family affair.

Nah-uh, said Gentz as he continued to berate Marr and then was the only “no” on the motion to approve the Breachway’s request.

No Democrats Allowed!

Then there was another surprise, again in the most unlikely of settings, the Town Council’s agenda planning meeting which is normally even more boring than the liquor license reviews. It seemed that there was a request from Tim Quillen to speak under “Persons wishing to be heard” as a representative of the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee.

No way, said Gentz and his henchman Dan Slattery. No political party spokespeople can speak before the Council. Not acceptable, even though both Gentz and Slattery frequently spoke before the old Town Council as CCA representatives. Gentz was later told by Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero the Council could not censor the CDTC. At the meeting, Gentz and Slattery both had the nerve to deny they ever tried to censor Quillen, but after shouts of “Liar!” from the audience, Gentz backed down and apologized.

Nobody really needs affordable housing

Gentz receiving instructions from Planning Commissar Ruth Platner

Late in 2011, Gentz totally bought into Planning Commissar Ruth Platner’s hatred of affordable housing and became her waterboy for proposals to try to scrap the state’s affordable housing act. Even though Gentz often embarrassed himself by not being able to explain Council motions on affordable housing that he himself sponsored, his devotion to Platner’s belief that affordable housing is a bad thing was unshakable. Indeed, from the fall of 2011 to the present, Gentz has become a true believer in the evils of affordable housing[1]. 

Which is a nice position for him to take as the owner of two Charlestown homes worth more than one million dollars.

Gentz also violated the often-repeated CCA pledge to respect and involve town commissions on all matters within their jurisdiction. On affordable housing, Gentz ignored the Affordable Housing Commission (and was repeatedly disrepectful to its chair). He ignored the Economic Improvement Commission on the lighting ordinance. He ignored the Conservation Commission on Y-Gate. He and Dan Slattery tried to strip the Parks and Recreation Commission of their jurisdiction over Ninigret Park and give it instead to a hand-picked committee of CCA allies.

Waging class war against the middle class, dividing the community

Gentz’s final meeting of 2011 saw the famous “Riot of the Rich” where wealthy non-residents organized by the CCA and the RI Statewide Coalition stormed the Council meeting, incensed at the idea proposed by town Democrats to give each homeowner who makes Charlestown their permanent home a $1000 Homestead Tax Credit. Gentz joined with Slattery to denounce the very idea of giving middle-class permanent residents a break at the expense of our rich vacationers and killed the Democrats’ proposal.

As we got into 2012, we saw a lot less of Uncle Fluffy and a lot more of Boss Gentz. This past year has been a terribly divisive one for Charlestown as we saw the CCA through Gentz and Slattery, with support from Councilor DiBello, crank up the Battle for Ninigret Park and then the “Kill Bill Campaign” that led to the ouster of Town Administrator William DiLibero.

In 2011, Gentz couldn’t praise DiLibero enough, lauding him at almost every Council meeting, bragging about DiLibero’s acceptance into an elite town official training program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, commending DiLibero for gallant service in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and giving him a glowing annual review and big raise. Click here for an example.

But in 2012, DiLibero had to go. Gentz now hated DiLibero so much that, when DiLibero finally handed in his resignation but offered to stay on long enough to smooth the transition, Gentz wanted DiLibero out of the building immediately.

DiLibero’s greatest offense was pursuing, under Gentz’s direct orders, efforts to site two municipal wind turbines in Ninigret Park.

Early in 2012, Gentz went along with Deputy Dan Slattery’s campaign to strip the Parks and Recreation Commission of the powers it has under the Town Charter to oversee Ninigret Park. They proposed transfering those powers to a hand-picked ad hoc committee of CCA allies and US Fish and Wildlife exec Charlie Vandemoer.

Gentz bought the completely fictitious idea that the town had offended the federal government through a proposal to install dark-sky friendly sports lights in Ninigret Park and that the federal government might retaliate by taking back Ninigret Park.

NO LIGHTS. No discussion, no debate, no vote.

At the March Town Council meeting, Gentz declared from the Council dais that because of this grave (though totally imaginary) danger, “there will be no sports lighting in Ninigret Park.” Gentz further decreed that there would be no discussion, no debate and no vote. Any person who dared to even mention sports lights in Ninigret Park would be ruled out of order (and presumably removed from the meeting).

The Chariho boys Pop Warner football team were all in attendance to speak in favor of having a lighted field so they could get in a couple extra hours of practice. After Gentz made his decree (which, by the way, he had no power – or right – to do under the Town Charter), the kids dejectedly left the room.

Beating up local business, Part 2...also, poking your nose where it doesn't belong

The mean Boss Gentz also poked out of the bunny suit when Gentz used his public office to intervene in a neighborhood feud against the Ocean House Marina, owned by Rob Lyons, for some unspecified slight.

In Charlestown, especially in the last few years, neighbor versus neighbor fights often end up drawing in town government. One common way neighbors fight against each other is by filing complaints and trying to get the town to take sides. Responsible town officials are careful not to get sucked in.

But not Tom Gentz. In one really ugly episode, Gentz sided against the Ocean House Marina and actually introduced a new ordinance designed to hurt its business by banning parking on Town Dock Road. Even though Gentz promised to give the two warring sides a chance to negotiate a resolution to their grievances, he introduced the ordinance over Marina owner Rob Lyons’ objections.

Lyons argued that Gentz didn’t even give them a chance to work it out, and instead gave his neighbors exactly what they wanted – and made any negotiations pretty pointless.

To drive it home, Gentz permitted the neighbors to engage in almost an hour-long rampage of character assassination against Lyons and his business before pushing his colleagues to vote to enact the ordinance.

By the way, there was collateral damage. Shellfishermen who were building a growing aquaculture business in the pond begged Gentz and the Council to not kill their new business by banning parking. But it didn’t matter. Gentz had his mind made up that his ordinance needed to be enacted.

I can’t begin to comprehend Gentz’s rationale for his unhealthy intervention.But you can listen to the discussion here and here and read Gentz’s ordinance for yourself by clicking here.

And then there's the Y-Gate Scandal

As if all of these issues weren’t enough to convince you that Tom Gentz should not be re-elected, there’s his central role in the Y-Gate Scandal. Click here for all the coverage of Y-Gate.

The plan Gentz killed

Gentz killed the original proposal to put a beautiful conservation development at the abandoned Westerly YMCA campground on Watchaug Pond. He had originally encouraged Veazey, but when it came to a final vote in May 2011, Gentz switched sides and killed Veazey’s dream.

He then switched his support to a Ruth Platner scheme to use public money to pay for the camp purchase, but not its ownership – the taxpayers would pay for the camp, but the Charlestown Land Trust would actually own it. Under the “conservation easement” that Gentz wanted Charlestown to pay $475,000 to purchase, residents could go on the land “by appointment only[2].”

This is what the conservation easement actually says, as opposed
to what Gentz, Ricci and the CCA claims

If you’ve read anything at all about the Y-Gate Scandal, you know that there was sharp resistance from all across Charlestown to this deal, and that resistance ultimately forced the Westerly YMCA to look elsewhere for a buyer.

What’s significant about Y-Gate and Tom Gentz is that this is exactly the kind of rip-off Tom Gentz promised to fight against. In his 2010 campaign bio, and again this year, Gentz bragged about his business academic degrees and extensive experience in the insurance industry. He talked about his skills and abilities to make sound financial decisions for Charlestown.

Click to enlarge - does this description match the record?

Yet the Y-Gate Scandal became a scandal because Tom Gentz failed to do one iota of due diligence. He either missed or ignored the land appraisal that was based on implausible hypotheticals. He either missed or ignored the lack of an appraisal for the worth of the secondary[3] conservation easement. He either missed or ignored the “bait and switch” the Land Trust played on the town, first telling DEM they would raise matching funds from private sources, but then putting most of the cost on Charlestown taxpayers.

Click to enlarge: based on an appraisal using these conditions as the
foundation, Gentz got the Council to authorize spending $475,000 in
Charlestown tax dollars. Despite his MBA and claims of business
acumen, Gentz was willing to let taxpayers get hosed.

Gentz sanctioned a secret, illegal process that allowed parties who stood to gain from Y-Gate to be the committee that crafted the plan that Gentz convinced his colleagues to accept. Then in a letter to the Westerly Sun, Gentz denied there were any secret meetings, despite sworn depositions by two participants – Councilor Gregg Avedisian and Charlestown Land Trust Treasurer Russ Ricci – attesting that there were.

At last February’s monthly Town Council meeting, Gentz pushed the vote to authorize the $475,000 vote, in violation of the Open Meetings Act, according to Judge Stern who had halted the sale and gave community opposition time to gel.

But before that February vote, there was the embarrassing spectacle of Boss Gentz browbeating Chariho Schools Superintendent Barry Ricci, demanding that Ricci reduce Charlestown’s share of the Chariho budget[4] by just about the same amount of money Gentz later in the same meeting gladly voted to spend on Y-Gate.

The person in the bunny is former Town Administrator Bill DiLibero's
daughter who was forced out of office by Porsche driver Tom Gentz

Click here to see and listen to Gentz browbeat Superintendent Ricci. Click here to see and hear the Y-Gate “debate” and Council vote later in that same meeting.

That juxtaposition of priorities – the demand that Chariho cut programs to the bone, but while pushing to spend roughly the same amount of money on a taxpayer rip-off like Y-Gate – provides the most compelling case why voters should send Tom Gentz back into full retirement so he can pursue his hobby of restoring classic Porsche sports cars.

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FOOTNOTES

[1] Even though Gentz and Slattery recently voted to approve two non-profit developments, contingent on receipt of state funding. Here’s the “having your cake and eating it, too” part: on the CCA’s official website, Gentz’s CCA running mate George Tremblay has written to urge defeat of State Question 7, which is where that state funding would come from. So while the CCA claims they supposed these two projects, they also want to choke off the state funding that would make them possible. I predict that if the CCA retains control of Charlestown government in the upcoming election, they will kill the Shannock Village and Churchwoods projects dead.

[2] Ricci and the Land Trust’s lawyer kept saying the dawn to dusk access was written in the “management plan.” Except that management plan was never introduced into the public record. What IS in the public record is the easement itself that specifies access by appointment only.

[3] The RI Department of Environmental Management was to hold the first easement.

[4] Gentz was repeatedly challenged by Superintendent Ricci and by Charlestown’s two representatives on the Chariho School Committee to at least give some examples of specific cuts he would make to the Chariho budget. Gentz would not, and just kept repeating his demand that Charlestown’s share of the Chariho budget be cut.