Copar
Quarries story gets even weirder. And
it’s not done yet
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| Did something nasty happen in the basement of Westerly Town Hall? |
By
Will Collette
If
you heeded Governor Raimondo’s plea and stayed indoors today, or you didn’t get
the Sunday Westerly Sun, you may have missed some remarkable reporting by
Sun investigative reporter Dale Faulkner on the infamous Copar Quarry[*]
operation that has plagued Charlestown, Westerly and Richmond for the past
several years.
There
are three must-read pieces in the Sunday Sun.
The core article describes the web of corruption within Westerly Town Hall that showed how compromised the town’s response was to Copar’s destructive operations.
It describes former Town Administrator (and current Raimondo Administration official) Steve Hartford’s sexual adventures at Town Hall, Zoning Board and Town Democratic chief Bob Ritacco’s involvement in what looks like a cover-up and blatant conflict of interest by the town’s former zoning officer.
The core article describes the web of corruption within Westerly Town Hall that showed how compromised the town’s response was to Copar’s destructive operations.
It describes former Town Administrator (and current Raimondo Administration official) Steve Hartford’s sexual adventures at Town Hall, Zoning Board and Town Democratic chief Bob Ritacco’s involvement in what looks like a cover-up and blatant conflict of interest by the town’s former zoning officer.
There
is also a very
handy timeline that lets you track the Sun’s coverage of the story from the
original deal between Copar and the Comolli family to acquire rights to the
Bradford quarry in 2010 to the present.
Finally,
there is a stunning
Sun editorial that ends with a sentiment that we can certainly appreciate
here at Progressive Charlestown:
In close-knit towns…, reporters who dig are regarded with disdain. They are considered rude and disrespectful. And when they expose disdainful and disrespectful actions on the part of those who seek respect, they are considered the enemy and they are blamed for committing the ultimate crime in a small town — letting the outsiders in on the secrets of the insiders.
It’s
too bad that such a fine piece of work had to come out on a blizzard day. While
on the one hand, you may have time on your hands to actually be able to bear
down and read some outstanding investigative reporting. On the other hand,
unless you read this article or the electronic
version of the Sun, you may not know that it’s out there.
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Copar
stayed open by contesting the order, seeking a hearing from the Zoning Board of
Review, chaired by Bob Ritacco. Ritacco delayed that hearing for many months
until Faulkner uncovered a job offer that was made to Ritacco by George
Comolli, the owners of the land Copar has been mining.
Ritacco
reluctantly acknowledged this was a conflict of interest. At around the same
time, Faulkner revealed that Burdick had been taken off the Copar case when she
sought to recant the basis for her cease-and-desist order, and that Burdick had
apparently had also been offered a job, in her case, working directly for
Copar.
She
was allowed to resign her position, moving smoothly into her position as a
Copar executive.
These
and similarly odd events raised clear issues of public corruption. Many of the
Copar victims loudly exclaimed that this corruption pervaded the town of
Westerly, at least as far as the Copar matter was concerned.
If
you read Dale’s new articles, you will see that, just based on this new
information, those corruption charges seem well supported by the facts.
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| Many of the Burdick e-mails went to Bob Ritacco |
Faulkner
offers new details based on Burdick e-mails. In one e-mail, Burdick tells Bob
Ritacco, one of Steve Hartford’s town buddies, that she was prepared to go
public with information on Hartford’s extramarital affair with one of his Town
of Westerly subordinates. Later, she angles for a severance package from town.
Although
Burdick could have been fired for working for Copar while she was still
employed by the town (and indeed could still face charges for it, at minimum
from the state Ethics Commission), she left Westerly with 25 weeks of her pay
(almost $30,000) and 12 weeks of extended health insurance coverage in February
2013.
Hartford,
who denies Burdick’s allegations, resigned in August 2013 and was hired by then
Governor Lincoln Chafee in January 2014 as a top economic advisor. He has since
performed a number of high ranking duties for the state Executive branch, most
recently as the state receiver for the bankrupt Central Coventry Fire District.
He
was recently removed from that position. He may be out of work for a while.
So now what?
The
Town of Charlestown knew more than enough about Copar and at least the outline
of the sordid Westerly story to be alarmed when Copar
leased the Morrone sand and gravel pit off Route 91 in Charlestown in March
2013. They knew because I told them and also suggested they find a way to shut
them down for failing to obtain a business permit.
Not
only did Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz not act – he told me he had no
choice – but the town granted
Copar a business license without penalty or fine on June 4, 2013 for operating without a license for three months.
The
Charlestown Town Council – which has made a big show of saying it wants to help
the Copar victims – has failed to take any meaningful action, including failure
to enact a Charlestown “bad actor” ordinance or policy that would restrict the
ability of law-breaking companies to get licenses, permits or contracts from
the town.
I guess the CCA Party-controlled town government is comfortable doing
business with criminals.
Or
perhaps we will reach a critical mass in Charlestown where the Council finds it
has no choice but to craft a good bad actor law to protect Charlestown in the
future.
Even
though former Copar CEO, career criminal Sam
Cocopard, has been arrested for fraud and may face additional charges, the
Copar Quarry continues to operate under its new management who also have colorful
histories with the law.
I
am confident there will be additional criminal charges brought against players
in the Copar scandal and no doubt more civil actions as well, although there
isn’t much prospect of recovering damages. As Judge Stern, the state judge who has heard most of the Copar-related litigation noted, criminal issues don't generally get resolved in civil court.
The Armetta family has been trying
to revive the dying business by slowing down on bill payments and selling off
assets, such as all those purple Copar trucks that have since been showing up
on Craig’s List.
The
Copar victims have been promised swift and decisive action by new state
Representative Blake "Flip" Filippi, but he seems to be busy with other issues
and enterprises.
Besides, the election is over so they can wait until 2016.
The
new Charlestown Town Council term has produced no better results than before.
As they have done before, the Council is trying to get the General Assembly to
take the issue off their hands.
It doesn’t help that CCA Party-endorsed Town
Councilor Denise
Rhodes, who was supposed to be representing the Copar neighborhood, hasn’t
shown up for a Council meeting in the past two months and faces state Ethics
Commission action for failing to file an ethics disclosure report.
But
to his credit, Dale Faulkner continues doing his job, digging out the facts
even though he pays a price for his digging when there are those who would prefer he
let the facts lie where they are.
FOOTNOTES
[1]
Yes, the Connecticut trash tycoon Phil Armetta who bankrolled Sam Cocopard and
his merry band of outlaws to start Copar has assumed direct control of Copar
and renamed it after himself. Yes, officially the company is now Armetta LLC.
But everyone in this area who knows this issue at all still calls the quarry
operations Copar, so for purposes of simplicity, I am sticking with that name.