Town's Whalerock lawyer forks over details on what he did for $44,381.22 of YOUR money

But still doesn't disclose who he actually represented

By Will Collette

At the marathon four and a half hour long October 7 Town Council meeting, former Council President Deb Carney patiently waited until the very end of the meeting to pose a challenge to the Councilors.

Deb noted that all of Charlestown’s lawyers provided detailed billings that show what they did for their fees. All except one: John O. Mancini who was hired by the CCA-controlled Council under irregular circumstances to represent Charlestown, and apparently some private citizens, for up to $50,000 in taxpayer dollars. Click here to read her statement.

Mancini made several awkward appearances at last summer’s Whalerock hearings before the Zoning Board of Appeals. He interrupted Whalerock’s testimony, violated the hearing rules that had been agreed to by the ZBR and the parties and presented several pseudo-scientific “experts.” 


In my opinion, his conduct of the town's case created such a circus atmosphere that if the ZBR had denied Whalerock's application for a special use permit to build the turbines, the town would have lost in court. Then the turbines would have had clear sailing. Those awful ZBR hearings - for which Mancini bore significant responsibility - made the town's $2.1 million purchase of the land the last chance the town had to stop the project. 

One of Mancini's errors during the ZBR hearings was to announce that he was appearing before the ZBR not just representing Charlestown but also a group of anonymous abutters. 

Despite repeated demands, Mancini would not reveal who these anonymous abutters where – or who was paying for them. 

Mancini’s original bills to the town – bills that were paid by the town – offered no explanation and indeed offered no detail at all about what he did for the money. 

This lack of information actually violated his contract with Charlestown which specified that he would provide detailed invoices. The town overlooked that little detail and paid the bills until Deb brought it up.

After Deb spoke, even the CCA Party Councilors had to admit that what she said made a lot of sense and they directed Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz to get detailed bills.

Mancini has finally provided some detail in his new set of bills that now show a break-down of the time spent on the Whalerock case and the amount each piece of work cost the town.

We still don’t know for sure who the “anonymous abutters” are

Who are Mancini's anonymous clients?

We still don’t know who those anonymous abutters are – even though I think everyone who has followed this case knows they are Ron Areglado and his followers on Partridge Run. In the new version of Mancini’s bills, we can see a little detail about work that Mancini did with or on behalf of them.

There are six separate listings showing times when Mancini or one of his associates talked, met or did work for these abutters. These occurred on May 25, June 11, June 17 and June 25. The amount of time billed is up to 11.5 hours at a cost of $2,800.

But those are only the direct charges. Essentially, Mancini presented the Areglado group's entire case.

From Mancini invoice: $13,590 for junk science

In addition, Charlestown reimbursed Mancini for $13,590.75 for the pseudo-experts he hired to present junk science as testimony.

Charlestown also paid $783.26 for photo copies that were made in what Mancini described as his “War Room.” I wonder if he let Tom Gentz, Dan Slattery and Ron Areglado to go into this War Room and prance around in medal-bedecked uniforms.

From Mancini invoice: "War Room?" Really? Well, Charlestown, you paid for it

Knowing that the Areglado group had run up large legal bills (bills they were having trouble paying) with private attorney James Donnelly of Wakefield, I was curious to see whether any money went to Donnelly to cover his overdue bills.

Gentz: money to fight Whalerock but not Copar

Actually, after hearing from reliable sources that Donnelly is taking collection action against the former Ill Wind group that Areglado ran for failure to pay him for his services, I doubted it.

It seems pretty clear to me from the newly revised Mancini invoice that Areglado and Ill Wind got the taxpayers of Charlestown to foot the bills for a legal battle they themselves could not or would not be able to pay themselves, including picking up the tab for pseudo-experts.

Members of Concerned Citizens of Bradford-Charlestown have asked Town Council Boss Tom Gentz (CCA Party) to do the same for them in their struggle with the Copar Quarry, only to be rebuffed. 

Gentz owes the neighbors of Copar an explanation why their struggle with a real life environmental problem doesn't qualify under the precedent he has set by funding private citizens to fight Whalerock.

Still Lots of Unanswered Questions

The whole way that Mancini was hired, used and paid raises a lot of questions about proper procedure in the spending of Charlestown taxpayer money. The announcement by Town Council President Gentz that he and his colleagues had decided to spend $50,000 on another Whalerock lawyer was done without proper notice. Where in the budget did this money come from?

How was Mancini hired? Who did he actually represent? Did he violate the lawyer’s Code of Professional Responsibility by representing two client groups with potential divergent interests on the same case? How did he resolve this conflict of interest, if indeed he resolved it at all?

Mancini violated his contract with the town by not itemizing his costs -
and the town let him get away with it until Deb Carney called them on it

Why did he violate his own contract with the town by failing to provide detailed invoices until after a citizen (Deb Carney) complained about it? 

Why did the town pay his bills without the proper paperwork - paperwork required in his contract?

And since Charlestown has put itself into the business of funding lawyers to represent private citizens, why doesn’t the Town Council pay for lawyers for other aggrieved citizens, such as Copar’s neighbors?