“It never occurred to me,” says Tremblay about questions
raised about his pending land deal
By Will Collette
In a small town like Charlestown where everybody is into
everybody else’s business and only a small percentage of people engage in civic
affairs, it sometimes seems hard to avoid potential conflicts of interest or
the appearance of impropriety. After all, it’s usually people with land
interests who run for office or join commissions, so sooner or later, they’ll
run into a potential conflict.
More than a few Charlestown political careers have been
ended by turning a deaf ear to the demands for utmost care when dealing with
those potential conflicts. As most Progressive Charlestown readers know, I
rarely have anything good to say about CCA Councilor Dan Slattery and think he
is a terrible Council member. However, he is very good at avoiding even the appearance of conflicts of interest.
At the other extreme is Councilor Lisa DiBello, who seems to think that no laws
or rules apply to her.
And now there’s Planning Commission member and CCA Town
Council candidate George Tremblay.
While most recent attention has been focused on Tremblay’s outrageous fictional research report on affordable housing and its insulting
references to imaginary elderly embezzlers, Tremblay was also working a land
deal that came before the Planning Commission without any public notice that he
was a partner.
The deal in question is a proposal by Bill Barney to
subdivide a large parcel of land he owns off Route 2 near Pasquiset Pond into
five buildable lots with a sixth parcel of more than 25 acres – almost the size
of the YMCA camp – going to George Tremblay.
The details of the deal between Barney and Tremblay are not
in the record. That would be good to know, since it would be even more unseemly
if Tremblay is paying less than fair market value for the parcel.
Nor was there any mention in the public notice of the agenda
item on the Planning Commission’s agenda for September 26. To find out that Tremblay was a partner in the deal, you'd need to find out who owns AP 23, Lot 8. Here's how the deal is described in the Town Planner's memo:
When you go to the Charlestown Tax Assessor database to look up AP 23, Lot 8, here's what you'll find:
Not only does George Tremblay own that property, but he also gets a very sweet deal on his property taxes under the FFOS program. Compare Tremblay's $295,100 assessment for a 1,910-square-foot house with almost 30 acres fronting on Route Two with your own assessment. We'll return to that subject at a later date.
Sussing out the one
other clue to Tremblay's involvement requires a magnifying glass, a good pair of eyes and knowing where to look.
If you look on the last page of the memo attached to the Clerkbase agenda item, you’ll see a map and on that map in
the lower right, there’s George’s name listed as a trustee.
Here it is:
During the regular discussion of this item[1],
Tremblay muttered that he was recusing himself. Beyond that, there was no further
mention of his involvement in the project.
Town Planner Ashley Hahn-Morris
noted that this project could be problematic since it is right on the
borderline between being reviewed as a minor subdivision or a major
subdivision. Minor subdivisions are those involving five lots or fewer.
Ashley noted that with the inclusion of AP 23, Lot 8, that
pushes the proposal over the line into major subdivision territory. And most
Planning Commission watchers understand that major subdivisions generally
undergo a major subdivision of body parts from the Planning Commission’s
version of the Spanish Inquisition.
Except that sixth lot is going to George.
Since this project is still at the pre-application stage,
Bill Barney’s lawyer was told to take these factors, especially the sixth lot, into consideration before
coming back with a full application. Again, the involvement of one of the
Commission members in the deal was not mentioned.
At the very end of the meeting, at the 2 hour, fifty-nine-minute
mark[2], [update: here is a direct link to the video] Evelyn Smith stepped up to the podium during the Public Comments section –
waving off Tremblay’s effort to get a vote on his motion to adjourn[3]
– to challenge the failure to give public notice about Tremblay’s involvement
in the Barney project equal in prominence to Tremblay’s prominence in the
Barney deal.
Evelyn and Commissar Platner then engaged in a surreal duel
over whether or not the public really had a right to know that a Commissioner
was a player in what could be yet another controversial project coming before
the Commission.
Platner noted this was just the pre-application stage and it
was just as well that Tremblay’s name was left out of it. Tremblay himself
seemed stunned that this was even an issue. “It never occurred to me,” he said
and volunteered that his involvement in the project should be entered into the
minutes.
One of his fellow Commissioners then said “it already has,”
meaning that by saying it, Tremblay put it into the record.
Based on what sounded like genuine surprise on Tremblay’s
part, I’m open to the possibility that he didn’t intend to pull a fast one –
although, given the CCA’s sanctimonious positions on open and transparent
government, he should have known better. Then there was Tremblay’s obvious
eagerness to end the meeting even before working through the whole agenda.
But his statement that “it never occurred” to him that there
might be a transparency issue in the lack of public disclosure of his
involvement makes Tremblay seem, at best, tone-deaf. Just as tone-deaf as he
has been in his attacks on senior citizens.
[1] It
took five days and several complaints by me before the Clerkbase audio/video
was posted. In the past several months, there have been a number of Clerkbase
failures, nearly all during Planning Commission meetings. Just saying.
[2] (update: here is a direct link) This section of Clerkbase is not separately indexed, meaning that you have to
start at the nearest index mark, which begins with a discussion of the Churchwoods affordable
housing project and then, coincidentally, of George Tremblay’s poorly done affordable housing research project and then
fast-forward to the 2:59:20 point to hear Evelyn speak.
[3]
Tremblay actually made several attempts to get a vote on a motion to adjourn
well before all the items on the agenda were covered. It almost seemed like he
couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Normally, Commissar Ruth Platner would
accommodate her CCA apparatchiks, but she’s also quite devoted to covering
every agenda item and is loath to adjourn a meeting until it’s run its full
three hours and then some.
Let that be a warning, Connie Baker. Connie is another member of the CCA 2012 slate. Her claim to fame on the Affordable Housing Commission, aside from being against affordable housing, is pushing a new AHC rule that meetings can only go 90 minutes.
