UPDATED: Councilor DiBello withdraws from Town Council race

Jim Mageau and George Tremblay spar over details in Westerly Sun letters column

By Will Collette

Jim Mageau is certain he knows it all

According to the Westerly Sun, Councilor Lisa DiBello has decided to end her bid for re-election for a third term on the Charlestown Town Council. Read the details here in the Westerly Sun.

In recent letters to the Westerly Sun, former Town Council President Jim Mageau has been talking a lot about Charlestown’s $450,000 settlement agreement with current Council member Lisa DiBello. 

If you haven’t been paying attention for the past four years, DiBello was once Charlestown’s Parks & Recreation Director until she was fired in May 2010 by former Town Administrator Bill DiLibero with the support of the 2008-2010 CCA Party-endorsed Town Council.

After she was fired, DiBello ran and won a seat on the Town Council and is currently running for her third term.

In 2011, she also filed charges that morphed into a civil lawsuit charging a conspiracy between a dozen present and former town officials, lead among them ex-Town Administrator William Sartor and ex-Town Administrator DiLibero to wrongfully discharge her. Her lawyer offered to forego the litigation if the town paid DiBello $1.5 million. Click here to read my original coverage of that offer which includes a copy of DiBello's original settlement offer.

Mageau is charging the $450,000 settlement totally vindicates DiBello – though it actually gives her less than one-third of what she wanted and no one admits blame. Nonetheless, in several recent letters, Mageau claims there is a “whispering campaign” going on about DiBello having to do with the terms of her settlement. Such whispers and rumors can be scotched by simply reading the documents linked in this article.

In his counter-letter to the Sun, CCA Party Council member George Tremblay says there’s no whispering campaign, or at least no one has whispered in his presence, and that Mageau is, as usual, full of caca de toro.

But one central point both Mageau and Tremblay overlook is that the settlement does not settle the question of whether a crime took place. 

At the heart of DiBello's lawsuit is her claim that in 2009, two former Town Administrators, Richard Sartor and William DiLibero, entered into a criminal conspiracy - where Sartor allegedly pledged to line up the Charlestown TA job for DiLibero in return for DiLibero's pledge to fire DiBello. 

That claim was central to her now-settled civil suit, but nothing in the settlement agreement actually resolves this bribery conspiracy charge is true.

If this conspiracy actually did take place, why isn't it being prosecuted? If it didn't, why are Charlestown taxpayers paying DiBello $450,000? DiBello's allegations are a bell that can't be unrung.

It helps if you actually read the documents that came out of the settlement, as well as DiBello's actual lawsuit. You'll find links to all these documents in the article below.

The $450,000 settlement payment ends all past and future
claims she might bring against the town or individuals

Here is what the documents actually show. Let's deal with the purely civil matters first.

First, the settlement amount is indeed $450,000. It is payment in full and ends any and all potential future claims DiBello might bring against the town based on her past employment. The settlement notes that Ms. DiBello collected the full 99 weeks of state and federal extended unemployment compensation benefits while this case roiled on.

When the settlement was first announced, I crunched some of the numbers to see how much DiBello would actually have in her pocket after lawyer’s fees and taxes. Fees and taxes are taking a big bite out of that $450,000.

However, the final settlement paperwork structures the settlement payments in a way that will somewhat lighten and spead out the tax load. Click here to read the “Allocation of Settlement” that lays out how the money will be handled.

Right after the settlement was signed, she received the first payment of $129,846. She also received $29,154 to cover out-of-pocket medical costs caused by the case. Her lawyer Robert Savage received his fee of $132,000 in September.

The second and final payment of $159,000 is due to be paid in the first week of January 2015.

By spreading the payments over two years, DiBello also spreads the federal and state income tax burden over two years and may actually save money by dropping down a bracket or two (depending on her other income and deductions) from where she would have been if the payment was done all at once.

Having the $29,154 for medical costs paid separately allows that part of the settlement to become tax deductible.

Town Solicitor Peter Ruggiero has billed Charlestown an extra $3,146 for work down on the settlement deal. Click here for Ruggiero’s supplemental bill.

Charlestown’s liability insurance carrier, the RI Interlocal Trust will pay $50,000 of the total $450,000 settlement. Click here to read the confirmation of that payment.

Charlestown taxpayers will pay the rest as it will come out of town funds, draining the account the town had allocated for such legal costs, and then some. Contrary to claims by the Town Council, this will have an impact on your taxes, though not in the current tax year that began July 1.

DiBello also releases all present and potential claims arising from her employment in Charlestown against all of the individuals, named or unnamed.

Her major enemies, as named in her court complaint, include not only Sartor and DiLibero, but former town Councilors Forester Safford and Gregg Avedisian (both on the CCA Party ticket in 2008) and retired Charlestown Police Chief Jack Shippee.

One major antagonist, Tax Assessor Ken Swain, was often named in DiBello’s complaint but was not on her list of defendants. I have never heard any denial of DiBello's allegation that this affair started with a 2005  lewd, not-suitable-for-work conversation between Swain and Dick Sartor. That offensive conversation started the nine-year daisy chain that ended up costing taxpayers $450,000. Where do we go to get our money back?

Click here to read the Full and Final Release of Claims.

There were bit players in the suit – former Councilors Marge Frank, Candi Dunn and Richard Hosp, GIS Specialist Steve McCandless, and Town Treasurer Pat Anderson (in her official capacity).

All are absolved and face no future claim or liability. But I am reminded of a classic Paul Newman line from his great film Absence of Malice, where after being similarly absolved, Newman asks “where do I go to get my reputation back?”

The tough part: what about the alleged conspiracy?

Richard Sartor - the central figure. His lewd remarks made
to Ken Swain in 2005 led to DiBello's 2006 complaing and
then the alleged 2009 conspiracy with DiLibero. The
record on the 2005 incident is sealed. The alleged 2009
conspiracy remains unproven. He remains head of the
Charlestown Budget Commission.

Apparently, we will never know the truth of the key part of DiBello’s lawsuit – her claim that Sartor and DiLibero met secretly in Hopkinton where DiLibero was Town Manager in spring 2009 and formed a bribery conspiracy. 

According to DiBello, Sartor offered to get DiLibero hired as Charlestown Town Administrator in return for DiLibero’s promise to get rid of DiBello.

This is not only the central element in DiBello’s civil suit, but a very serious criminal matter - one that remains unresolved.

In a civil settlement, the parties agree to terms that usually include no blame attached to anyone and that the parties agree never to talk about it again.

But did this conspiracy happen or not? I think Charlestown taxpayers have a right to know and there's more at stake her than DiBello's interests. We are paying for the settlement and I think we deserve the truth. 

To date, no criminal action taken on that alleged 2009 conspiracy, and that in itself says something about the merits of the claim. It usually doesn't take this long for the State Police to investigate or the Attorney General to bring the matter to a grand jury for an indictment. Presuming this alleged crime was ever brought to their attention.

Under Rhode Island law, the statute of limitations is ten years for bribery, but since the alleged conspiracy occurred five years ago and no charges have been filed, it seems unlikely we will ever know if that Hopkinton meeting ever took place, or if it did, what actually happened. 

If it didn't happen - or there was no proof to back up the claim - why settle a case hinged on that alleged but unproven conspiratorial meeting? If it did happen, and can be proven, there should be action taken by the State Police and the Attorney General while there is time remaining on the statute of limitations clock.

While most of DiBello’s antagonists are no longer in town service or in some cases like Bill DiLibero, are no longer in the state, some still are. Key among them is Richard Sartor whose raunchy remarks to Ken Swain in 2005 launched this whole affair and who allegedly instigated the 2009 bribery conspiracy. He still serves as Charlestown’s Budget Commission chair.

After extensive, closed door Executive Sessions in 2006, Sartor escaped being fired for those lewd remarks that DiBello overheard in December 2005 on a 3-2 party line vote. Democrats Donna Walsh and Deb Carney voted against Sartor, but Republicans Avedisian and Safford and independent Kate Waterman voted to keep Sartor on.

No similar action has even been taken in Charlestown to examine DiBello’s bribery and conspiracy allegations against Sartor – at least none that is on the record even as a subject for a closed Executive Session.

While many of the named and unnamed parties to this case can, to the best of their abilities, move on, I don’t see how there can truly be closure while those conspiracy allegations hang suspended in the air.