UPDATED: Follow the money, Charlestown campaign 2022

As usual, the CCA counts on money from out of state as well as its old supporters

By Will Collette

UPDATE: I added an excerpt of the financial disclosure for Trumplican candidate Westin Place who is running for state Senate District 38. He admits he is in debt to the IRS for unpaid federal taxes. See below. - W. Collette

In case you were wondering where Uncle Fluffy Tom Gentz ended up, the Charlestown Citizens Alliance campaign finance reports tell us. Our former Town Council Boss sent the CCA $500 from his retirement home in Sunset City, Arizona. 

Another CCA regular, Peter Hernstein is now in Fountain Hills, AZ and he sent in his check for $100. Former CCA leader and co-founder Kate Waterman sent in her $500 from Connecticut. Nothing from Deputy Dan Slattery wherever he may be (maybe he’s on undercover assignment for the CIA).

As I read through the CCA’s report for the quarter going from July 1 to October, aside from the out-of-state money, I was amazed at how much the CCA took in from its candidates, past and present, various ward-heelers as well as prominent players in many of the CCA’s controversial land deals. Very little money came from newcomers.

People who stood to gain from the aborted Y-Gate Scandal are still giving, including Joanne D’Alcomo of Boston ($300) and Russ Ricci ($250). 

So are Sachem Passage Association folks who benefited from the town’s $2.1 million bailout of their botched resistance to the Whalerock wind turbine project (we bought the land where the turbines were to be built). 

Later on, the SPA tried it again, attempting to get Charlestown to take a bug-infested parcel off their hands for many times its assessed value – we dubbed that one “SPA-Gate.”   

In addition to Peter Hernstein, listed above, the CCA received $100 donations from SPA members Donna Chambers (seeking another term on the Chariho School Committee), Town Councilor Susan Cooper (SPA Trustee for the duration of Spa-Gate), and first-time donor John Kaptinski (SPA founding father), presumably holding out hope that Attorney Cooper can somehow engineer one last CCA bailout for the SPA should she be re-elected.         

Conspicuously absent is SPA El Presidente Ron Areglado, who “managed” the campaign against Whalerock and the bait-and-switch SPA-Gate scam, although his moneyman in both scams, Joseph Quadrato, coughed up $150 to reserve a slot in future CCA cash & carry do-overs.

Arnolda is well represented with donors but oddly, Councilor Bonnita Van Slyke donated nothing. She is not running for re-election, as she is trying to sell her Arnolda estate on the pond for $2.4 million to someone who will develop the land into “your own palatial coastal retreat.” 

Not only did Van Slyke stiff the CCA party, but she actually took $535.72 reimbursement for mailing expenses rather than make it an in-kind donation. 

In past years, the CCA attempted to hide the high level of out-of-state donations by reporting their absentee donors not at their actual addresses, but at their Charlestown vacation homes. 

They only did that once in this election cycle (so far), listing $1000 donor Robert Thavenius at 10 Dudley Lane when his mailing address is listed on the Charlestown Tax Assessor database as Avon, Connecticut. His family owns two properties in Charlestown assessed at $5,071,700.

In sum, the CCA began the campaign season with $7,911.24 and raised another $8,750 for a total campaign war chest of $16,701. Of that, they have spent $9,790 so far, most of it to produce and mail those laughable 6-page, trifold, fine-print graphic novels they’ve mailed to everyone – twice.

Though the CCA seems to be incapable of competently managing Charlestown’s money, they seem to have a good handle on their own cash. 

You can look up campaign finance reports for any candidate on the Board of Elections website HERE. If you enter “Charlestown,” you can see the files for anyone who has run for office from Charlestown going back to when the BOE set up the database. You can also enter a person’s name. 

I think campaign finance reports tell you more about a candidate than any other piece of information. For example, Trumplican Westin Place of Westerly is running for Senate 38 against Charlestown’s Victoria Gu (D) and former Republican Caswell Cooke of Westerly. 

Westin Place started out as a joke candidate, but his prospects came alive when the state GOP did some fund-raisers for him. In last quarter’s financial report, Place says he took in $2,100 from people he can’t identify. He also took major donations from big GOP donors statewide. In his last filing before the election, the only named donor is Gunowners PAC who gave him $200. 

One reason I didn't take Place seriously is that he was late in filing his organization report with the BOE and thus missed the cut-off to file a quarterly report. However, he did file his ethics disclosure statement with the Ethics Commission where he made this disclosure:

It's not a very good look for a candidate for state Senate to start campaigning while showing unpaid federal taxes.

A remarkable amount of money gets spent on political campaigns. It’s only loosely regulated and only occasionally do offenses get caught, like Charlestown’s Sen. Elaine Morgan who ripped off her campaign account to pay for personal expenses. Though she admitted the offenses, she threw her recently deceased husband under the bus by blaming him for her misdeeds. 

She got off with a fine, but I hope the voters will take this into account when they decide whether to re-elect her or replace her with her fine challenger, Charlestown’s Jennifer Douglas (D).

The Curious Case of Councilor Cooper

Caught in Sachem Passage!

By Robert Yarnall                       

Councilor Cooper’s thumbnail portraits above
were added as a visual aid for our readers. The original
image sans thumbnails, from the CCA Elections page,
are presumably attributed to Cliff Vanover.

Over the next fortnight plus, Charlestown voters need to be very curious about the candidacy of incumbent CCA Councilor Susan Cooper. 

Susan was the Town Council Liaison to the Budget Commission, chaired by former Town Administrator Dick Sartor, when $3 million flew the coop. CCA Mother Hen Ruth Platner tried to bail out the Budget Commission, comparing the situation to a car parked in a garage. (So, the money was locked safely away in the trunk then? Ooops…)

Councilor/Attorney Cooper must have gagged as she heard Ruth go all-in Freudian: a perfect 4K High-Def image of the proverbial Bonnie & Clyde Getaway Car, hubby Cliff Vanover behind the wheel, sidekick wifey Ruth packing heat, careening through the woods to the secret CCA clubhouse with yet another trunkful of taxpayer cash to subsidize the CCA Spot Zoning Master Plan, deftly cloaked in faux environmentalism.

It certainly wasn’t the first time Susan Cooper Esq. had a front row seat during a clownish soliloquy. Exhibit A would be my email to her at the top of this story. At the Sachem Passage Association’s 2021 Annual Meeting, Joseph “Fredo” Quadrato let everyone know the extent of the CCA’s corruptive influence on the lives of town employees.

Attorney Susan Cooper is the only CCA Town Council member running for re-election. If she gets the most votes, she will be the next president of the Charlestown Town Council. Ruth Platner’s thoughts and prayers will have been answered. 

At this point in the political campaign cycle, voters have been inundated with multiple mailings of the CCA’s oversized, high-gloss trifold campaign brochures, paid for largely by a trifecta of wealthy people: retired baby boomers who have relocated here; out-of-state property owners who maintain vacation homes in Charlestown; the uberwealthy who maintain multiple homes in other states, likely even in other countries.    

For the past decade, CCA candidates have lip-synched the same Platnoidian-mode three verse chorus: low taxes, rural environment, groundwater protection (as if the rest of don’t care about those things) which illustrates the simplistic soul of their collective personas. 

CCA Councilor/Attorney Susan Cooper, however, has proven herself a much more sophisticated candidate since she became active in the CCA’s proxy neighborhood, Sachem Passage, in 2018.  It’s no coincidence a lot started happening in the Sachem Passage Association that year. 

In mid-October, 2021, while researching the Progressive Charlestown miniseries  Muddy Genesis detailing the Sachem Passage Association’s aborted attempt to abscond with over $400,000 in taxpayers’ money to bail itself out of financial turmoil, I downloaded Charlestown Town Councilor Susan Cooper’s Rhode Island Ethics Commission Financial Disclosure Report for years 2019 and 2020, respectively. 

Councilor Cooper self-identified as a Trustee of the Sachem Passage Association. A digital image of the pertinent pages of Susan Cooper’s RIEC Financial Disclosure Reports appears at the top of this story.  

I have been a member of the Sachem Passage Association since its incorporation as a non-profit business entity, June 15, 2000, and never knew my homeowners’ association had a trustee. I spoke to a handful of long-time neighbors, none of whom recalled the SPA ever having a trustee. 

During the SPA Annual Meeting on June 9, 2022, I told SPA President Ronald J. Areglado that I had come across paperwork which indicated the SPA had a trustee.  I further stated that neither I, nor anyone else I asked, had ever heard anything about a SPA Trustee.   

Mr. Areglado replied that the SPA does not have, nor ever had, a trustee. He asked SPA Treasurer Thomas Gilligan, SPA Director Joseph Quadrato, and SPA Archivist John Kaptinski the same question. None of them indicated the SPA has, or ever had, a trustee. 

Councilor Cooper, a member of the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, did not list herself as a SPA Trustee on her 2021 RIEC Financial Disclosure Report. It was filed on April 28, 2022, less than twelve weeks after the final installment of Muddy Genesis, which chronicled the decade-long symbiotic relationship between the Sachem Passage Association and the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, circa 2012-2022.  

Councilor Cooper’s resume’, posted on the CCA website, includes a BA (Psychology) from Johns Hopkins University (Maryland) and a JD (Doctor of Law) from Washington University (Missouri), both top tier institutions.  Her legal experience is comprehensive, ranging from State Public Defender (Missouri) to Law Clerk/Staff Attorney, United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri. 

Councilor Cooper was also an Attorney and Director for BJC HealthCare, a fifteen-member health care collaborative employing 32,597 people in adult and pediatric academic medical centers in eastern Missouri. 

The gist of my “nod and a wink” acknowledgement of Susan Cooper’s laudable educational background and professional experience is to establish beyond any doubt that she knows exactly what a trustee does and exactly why she listed herself as the SPA Trustee. 

I was unable to ask Ms. Cooper about her SPA Trustee status at the June 9, 2022, SPA Annual Meeting because she was predictably in absentia, having been given a “heads up” by a sympathetic neighborly CCA devotee.  

Councilor Susan Cooper signed her 2019 and 2020 RIEC Financial Disclosure Reports filings under penalty of perjury. Those filings are definitive: she was the SPA’s Trustee during those years. 

During 2019 and 2020, SPA property owner Susan Cooper was also a member of the Charlestown Zoning Board of Review. She was appointed by the CCA-majority Town Council and joined SPA/CCA colleague Joseph Quadrato, CCA Treasurer Clifford Vanover, and SPA/CCA “professional author” (website propogandist) Michael James Chambers 

Besides being ZBR BFF’s, Quadrato and Vanover are also members of the CCA Steering Committee. Quadrato enjoys top billing on the CCA website, an acknowledgement of his fundraising prowess, a natural extension of his professional sales career selling office supply products from his home-based “Mom & Pop” business, Quad Products.

From 2012 through 2020, CCA Treasurer Cliff the Cash Guy Vanover “steered” six checks totaling $4,515.32 to Quad Products under the label “Campaign Expenditure.”

Quadrato resigned from the Zoning Board in May 2021 in conjunction with his appointment as SPA Finance and Real Estate Resource Person. “Fredo” holds no financial services certifications, no real estate credentials, no real estate licenses. 

Nonetheless, Quadrato was tapped by the SPA Board of Directors to craft a property sales proposal to be presented by SPA President Ronald Areglado to the Town Council. 

On November 8, 2021, the Charlestown Town Council deferred action on the  Sachem Passage Association 2021 Bait-and-Switch Property Sale Proposal.  

Although Cooper had recused herself from the SPA property proposal discussions, Ruth Platner would have certainly asked something like, “Susan, WTF was that all about?!” 

It would be disingenuous to suggest Susan was a party to Quadrato’s Bait & Switch scheme at any stage of the game. It’s not surprising Councilor Cooper opted out of her previously designated SPA Trustee position on her 2021 RIEC Financial Disclosure filing, was a no-show at the 20121 SPA Annual Meeting, and ignored my email request for clarification of her 2019/2020 RIEC filings. 

I want to believe Susan Cooper defaulted to her instincts as an experienced public defender, by simply not responding to my email regarding her “client,” Joseph Quadrato, the SPA’s thoroughly non-credentialed real estate expert and CCA’s lead fundraiser/ Steering Committee member. 

Nonetheless, Attorney Cooper has pitched her tent definitively in the shadow of the Platner Pyramid (low taxes, rural environment, groundwater) which, to rival the longevity of the Great Pyramid of Giza, requires the unfettered acquisition of open space to eliminate affordable housing opportunities for families with children, the singular, primordial threat to undermining the CCA’s symbolic essence. 

As Town Council President, and with a CCA majority town council, Attorney Susan Cooper is more than capable of setting agendas, steering discussions, and deflecting distractions like the $3 million “oopsie” to make Ruth Platner’s dream come true. Only Charlestown voters stand in the way. 

The Muddy Genesis of the CCSPAA

Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association Emerges From The Mud Hole

By Robert Yarnall

In small towns, it is easy for small decisions and big mistakes, local squabbles and petty rivalries to become the business of everyone. This is the story of how one neighborhood’s disputes can have a major effect on everyone, residents and town employees alike.       

Part 5 Cash Flow Low? Try Quid Pro Quo!

The picture above was taken at the Sachem Passage Association kayak access located on its Oyster Drive property. The fake money was digitally added to contrast with the real money our association has been figuratively tossing into that mudhole for the past 22 years. 

The images below, from left to right, are Belgian block pavers fronting the kayak access; a pull-back view from the small parking area looking toward the kayak access; the kayak rack adjacent to the kayak access; the lone picnic table adjacent to the small parking area.   

These idyllic amenities are the prime features of the Oyster Drive property that interested the Charlestown Town Council and Planning Commission Chair Ruth Platner. The lot itself has been deemed unbuildable by the Town of Charlestown. Why? Wetlands. 

When it became apparent that the coveted recreational features were no longer included in the deal during the SPA’s November 8, 2021, Town Council presentation, Council President Deb Carney and her fellow councilors were less than pleased. 

SPA President Ronald Areglado claimed that the inconsistencies were attributable to his leave of absence from the SPA Board of Directors while he campaigned as the CCA-endorsed candidate for Charlestown Town Moderator. He suggested circumstances would have been more favorable had he been in the loop. 

The Town Council collectively shrugged off Areglado’s disclaimer. Beginning with Council President Carney, each councilor probed different aspects of the proposal. Even with assistance from SPA Attorney Nick Gorham, Mr. Areglado was unable to clear things up. He knew he was in trouble, and it showed. He jokingly offered to give the property away. It wasn’t a good look. 

Planning Commissioner Ruth Platner, de facto leader of the CCA, found herself in an uncomfortable position. Ms. Platner had followed the Oyster Drive property sale for over two years. It was exactly the type of open space acquisition she worshipped, undeveloped land with built-in passive recreational features. 

Ruth Platner was somewhat puzzled by the SPA’s withdrawal of the boat/kayak launch: 

“The boat launch was definitely part of the grant,” Ms. Platner commented, referring to the document package of the formal proposal that was the foundation of the SPA’s sale pitch. 

For those of us watching video of the Nov 8^th Town Council Meeting, it seemed Ruth Platner was genuinely taken aback by the SPA’s transparent bait & switch maneuver. 

Referencing Areglado’s earlier assertion that his leave of absence from the SPA Board of Directors was the source of the confusion, Platner offered to make sense of SPA’s double messaging… “…there have been different association heads, I think, so that’s probably why there’s a difference in what they are talking about, compared to what the other people are talking about.” 

Planning Commissioner Platner was necessarily nibbling at the corners, not quite sure what was going on with the Oyster Drive deal. If she knew that CCA Steering Committee member Joe Quadrato had been working on the proposal for nearly two years, including the past nine months in his capacity as SPA Real Estate and Finance designee, she wasn’t about to mention it, certainly not in a public forum. 

Ms. Platner knew that Joseph Quadrato had been a vital cog in the CCA’s political machine for nearly a decade. Quadrato’s natural fundraising prowess, a convenient extension of his professional sales career, earned him a 2014 appointment to the Zoning Board of Review. His sustained performance over the next two election cycles led to a coveted seat on the CCA Steering Committee alongside Zoning Board colleague Cliff Vanover, Platner’s spouse. 

CCA Treasurer Vanover soon learned that Quadrato’s services came with a price tag, in addition to the pair of political plum appointments. Starting with the 2012 election cycle and continuing through the 2020 campaign, Vanover wrote six checks totaling $4,515.32 to Quad Products, Mr. Quadrato’s home-based small business. For the CCA, it must have been worth every penny, even if it came with a whiff of quid pro quo…

It’s likely that neither Mr. Vanover nor Ms. Platner knew that Mr. Quadrato may have had more in mind than a measly handful of Quad Product orders tossed his way in recognition of his contributions to the CCA political fiefdom.

In July of 2020, property owners of Sachem Passage received a newsletter from then-SPA President Paul Raiche. A thirteen-member sub-committee had developed three options in a quest to get rid of an asset that had turned into a liability. 

The group settled on exploring option #2, donating the land to a non-profit conservation group, and kicked its recommendation upstairs to the Board of Directors. 

The SPA Board of Directors consists of SPA officers and SPA directors. In 2020, the SPA officers were also its directors. This meant that President Paul Raiche, VP Joe Quadrato, Secretary Ron Areglado and Treasurer Tom Gilligan were also the Board of Directors. 

Aside from Mr. Raiche, the fate of the Oyster Drive property was now in the hands of Messrs. Areglado, Quadrato and Gilligan, the same SPA power trio that led the SPA proxy, Illwind, the group that dovetailed with the CCA during the entirety of the Whalerock Wind Turbine saga, 2010-2013. 

It was during Whalerock that CCA stalwarts Tom Gentz and Dan Slattery recognized Joe Quadrato’s formidable fundraising skills. Quad Products began showing up in the CCA’s Expenditure Reports. Joe Quadrato meant business. The CCA bought in. 

As Whalerock was playing itself out, Illwind was able to offload its litigation-based financial worries onto the backs of Charlestown’s taxpayers. The CCA-controlled town council spent $50,000 to hire Special Council John Mancini to represent a group of “anonymous abutters.” 

When the town plunked down $2.14 million to buy the 78-acre idyllic not-to-be-Whalerock open space, now the Moraine Preserve, the voluminous pretext associated with Illwind faded from the public discourse. Illwind, the SPA clone, had been bailed out at taxpayer expense, while Charlestown’s CCA-dominated Town Council looked the other way. 

The “anonymous abutters” turned out to every remaining Illwind litigant who had persevered through the 2010-2013 courtroom marathon. There were twenty-nine individuals representing sixteen households. All but two households were SPA members. Every SPA officer and director from 2010-2020 was on the list. 

The Town’s role in Illwind’s bailout cemented a mutualistic relationship between the CCA and the SPA that has lasted for a decade, due primarily to the fundraising skills of Joseph Quadrato. 

Over the next three election cycles, Quadrato maintained his CCA workload while also accepting an appointment to the Zoning Board of Review. By 2019, however, the floundering SPA required his attention as well. He knew what had to be done. He rounded up his Illwind posse and got to it.    

January 2020: SPA Treasurer Tom Gilligan contacts Andolfo Appraisal Associates to commission an appraisal report to establish the fair market value of Lot 95-5, Oyster Drive. The report includes photographs of the property’s waterfront, woodlands, parking area, boat launch, kayak rack, and picnic area. The fair market value is determined to be $426,000, if and only if the wetlands lot is buildable. Unfortunately, it is not. 

April 2020: SPA Secretary Ron Areglado files an Open Space Inquiry with the Town Clerk, leading to interactions with Megan DiPrete, Chief of Planning for RI DEM, Town Manager Mark Stankiewicz, and Town Planner Jane Wideman. Weidman files a $213,000 grant application based on the SPA’s conditional appraisal of $426,000, ignoring Tax Assessor Ken Swain’s definitive, standards-based rationale of the town’s $61,900 fair market value assessment.     

February 2021: The Charlestown Town Council decides that all negotiations pertinent to Oyster Drive Lot 95-5 property will be based on a third-party appraisal by Newport Appraisal Group, listing a fair market value assessment of $75,000. The SPA Board of Directors does not reference the $75,000 third-party appraisal in its February mailing, nor in any other subsequent interactions, with its members. Joseph Quadrato is appointed as Resource for Finance and Real Estate, a position created specifically for him. 

September 2021: CCA Steering Committee member Joseph Quadrato delivers an update on the property sale to thirty-one SPA members attending the September 16^th Annual Meeting, among them Charlestown Town Councilor Susan Cooper. Quadrato states bluntly, “… I have two contacts at Town Hall. They have told me that one individual, who I will not name, is not cooperating with us.”

President Ronald Areglado refuses to allow Quadrato’s statement into the official minutes, aware of its political implications. 

November 2021: Newly elected SPA President Ron Areglado hand-delivers the SPA’s Oyster Drive Prospectus in a 90-minute, live-streamed opus during the November 8^th Town Council Meeting, and promptly drops the ball. The Town Council lambastes his performance, noting that although the SPA’s asking price remains at $426,000, this newest SPA offering no longer includes the kayak/canoe access, the watercraft rack, or the picnic area. The Councilors’ comments indicate they recognize the bait-and-switch tactic for what it is. SPA Real Estate guru Joseph Quadrato, architect of the proposal, is nowhere to be seen. 

December 2021: President Ronald McDonald Areglado sends a snail mail update referencing the November 8^th Town Council Meeting by providing an unlinked ninety-three-character URL address - it must be entered from a keyboard - to access the video of the meeting. “Good luck with that…,” he muses.

Also included in the holiday greeting is a terse mea culpa that the association has neither the expertise nor the money to address the issues raised by the Town Council, ergo “…we voted unanimously to retain the property at this time. We will bring this recommendation to the members at our next Annual Meeting in May 2022.” There is no mention of Resource Person for Real Estate and Finance Joe Quadrato. 

If there was ever a chance that the CCA would again bail out the SPA á la Whalerock, Joe Quadrato killed it by way of his awkward braggadocio referencing his “two contacts at Town Hall,” arguably Town Manager Mark Stankewicz and Town Planner Jane Weidman. 

Implicit in Quadrato’s admission is the discomforting notion that both Stankewicz and Weidman “were cooperating with us,” and that only he, Joe Quadrato, wielded enough influence around town hall, by virtue of his Zoning Board familiarity and CCA Steering Committee status, to extract their “cooperation” for the financial well-being of the SPA. 

During routine business, in his capacity as a Zoning Board Official through June 2021, Quadrato would presumably interact with town officials, especially in Planning (Jane Weidman) and Administration (Mark Stankewicz). What he had to say, and how he said it, is anybody’s – and everybody’s – guess. Especially Ruth Platner. 

Although Charlestown’s rank-and-file employees have workplace protections afforded them by virtue of union representation, administrators and department heads are not part of the bargaining unit.

They are represented by their own “association,” essentially serving at the whim of the decade-long CCA-dominated Town Council. 

Those “whims” are explicitly defined for them by the policy-making priorities of the CCA Steering Committee, which gives Joseph Quadrato top dog billing as its top producing cash cow. 

Apparently, those “whims” don’t include a CCA Courtesy Bailout for the SPA this time around, a mere decade after the Whalerock alliance, Joe Quadrato’s fundraising skills notwithstanding. 

It remains to be seen how Mr. Quadrato will react to the CCA’s thumbs-down. If he was counting on the standard 6% real estate commission, a $426,000 sale would have netted him 25,560 clams. He may just decide to pick up his marbles - what’s left of them - and go home. 

Joseph Quadrato will never admit to the impetuous speech he gave that autumn evening at St. Andrew Lutheran Church. Indeed, his confidante, Ronald Areglado, refused to allow the verbatim text into the official minutes. And John Kaptinski, SPA Archivist, will swear that “If it isn’t in the minutes, it didn’t happen.” 

But for most folks, especially Councilor Susan Cooper, it happened loud and clear. 

The mouse that roared turned out to be the elephant in the room. 

To read the earlier episodes in this series:

For Part 1, click here

For Part 2, click here

For Part 3, click here

For Part 4, click here  

The Muddy Genesis of the CCSPAA

Decade-Old Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association Emerges From The Mud Hole

By Robert Yarnall  

In small towns, it is easy for small decisions and big mistakes, local squabbles and petty rivalries to become everybody’s business. This is the story of how one neighborhood’s disputes can have a major effect on everyone, residents and town employees alike. 

 Part 4 Weaselocity :  Back To The Future

The Scene:

November 8, 2021, 8:30 PM

Charlestown Council Chambers

Sachem Passage Association President Ronald J. “Ronco” Areglado strained to do his duty as he dangled a classic bait & switch deal hand-crafted by SPA’s newly appointed Resource for Finance and Real Estate, Joseph Quadrato. 

The SPA desperately wanted to offload its money pit albatross, a chunk of highly suspect Foster Cove real estate, onto the backs of Charlestown taxpayers. The Town Council was not taking the bait. Nary a nibble. It did not go well. 

Finally, on December 6, nearly a month after Mr. Areglado’s Opus, the maestro himself keyboarded a snail-mail newsletter to the SPA general membership. It included this scantily clad reference to the evening’s performance art. Here is a scan of Item #2 from the mailing:

 For those readers who have not had the experience of two decades worth of Areglado-speak, I respectfully offer the following real-world translation. Let’s pick it up after the intro “In summary...” 

“...they asked us to respond to seven questions. At our Board Meeting on November 16^th, we realized we had dug ourselves a hole so deep, there was no way out. So we’ll just leave things the way they are. We can talk about it next spring.” 

As 2021 comes to a close, the Sachem Passage Association remains bogged down in a quagmire of its own making. Twenty-one years ago, a handful of neighbors ignored the advice of another who knew better. 

That handful, however, did manage to construct a virtual petri dish, fed with equal parts ignorance and misinformation, setting the stage for the genesis of a new breed of political animal. The time was ripe for a different kind of worm hatch. The Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association – CCSPAA for acronym junkies - was emerging from the mud.   

The CCSAPP, an inbred species of pay-to-play cash cow, began its incomplete metamorphosis one brisk autumn afternoon, over a decade ago. The precipitating event that day took the shape of a diminutive humanoid riding a retro bicycle down East Quail Run in a robust crosswind wind, earnestly stuffing mailboxes with yellow leaflets (right). Deputy Dan Slattery was on a mission to save the town.

The leaflet campaign turned out to be a CCA-sponsored citizen-call-to-arms. It alerted everyone to an October 14^th, 2010 Town Council Meeting, pointing to a scheduled vote to approve a public-private partnership with Whalerock LLC to install a pair of 410’ tall Vesta wind turbines on what is now the Charlestown Moraine Preserve. But In 2010, the parcel was owned by Whalerock LLC under the direction of local developer Lawrence LeBlanc. 

The Charlestown Moraine Preserve, Assessor’s Map Lot 17-186 depicted below, had previously been considered for a power line transmission corridor, a multi-unit condominium development, or, most recently, a wind turbine project known as Whalerock.

Sachem Passage I, being the highest density neighborhood abutting the proposed Whalerock project, became the epicenter of citizen resistance. 

Not everyone realized it at the time, but a core group of Sachem Passage residents, relative newcomers circa 2000, had been networking behind the scenes to form an activist, litigation-based organization to thwart Whalerock. The organization came to be known as Illwind. 

Illwind was essentially a subsidiary of the Sachem Passage Association. Its leader was Ronald Areglado. Its fundraiser was Joseph Quadrato. Its co-treasurers were Thomas Gilligan and Maureen Areglado. 

The final piece of Illwind’s organizational hierarchy was the most critical, an attorney to handle the litigation. Oddly enough, SPA’s retained attorney, Nicholas Gorham, just happened to be the attorney for Whalerock LLC, Illwind’s litigation target. He was, as they say, unavailable. 

Mr. Areglado delegated a lawyer search to Kristan O’Connor, his Partridge Run neighbor. Ms. O’Connor was a banking and financial services professional attached to a Boston firm. She was arguably the most qualified member of the Illwind inner circle to evaluate and choose a local attorney skilled in the legal issues facing Illwind. 

Based on Ms. O’Connor’s search, Attorney James Donnelly was selected to represent Illwind in matters pertaining to the Whalerock Wind Turbine Project. He was introduced to the general membership of Illwind on the evening of October 17, 2010, at an informational meeting held at the Areglado home.  

With all pieces in place, Illwind was ready to roll. Within a surprisingly short period of time, over $40,000 was raised, virtually all of it due to the sales skills of Joe Quadrato.  

Mr. Quadrato had developed formidable sales acumen as a survival skill, starting up a home-based office supply business in the hyper-competitive Greater Hartford area. Cold-calling and building a reliable client base was his forte´. It didn’t go unnoticed. Word got “around town” that Illwind had some clout. 

Deputy Dan Slattery (left) is the little man on the bike. The mail carrier
really resembles Tom Gentz (brother by a different mother?)

At Illwind’s organizational meeting, during the meet & greet preliminaries, Mr. Areglado yielded the floor to several people from “around town” who wanted to address the group. Thomas Gentz, Dan Slattery (left) and Cliff Vanover identified themselves as Town Council candidates sponsored by the Charlestown Citizens Alliance, the CCA. 

The CCA slate told us they were there to support our efforts. They asked for our consideration at the voting booth for the upcoming November elections. They thanked us for our time, found some empty seats off to the side of the main room, and watched the proceedings unfold. 

Illwind’s co-treasurers were tasked with managing the monies raised by Mr. Quadrato to pay for litigation costs. Donors were asked to make out personal checks not to Illwind, but to “Maureen Areglado and Thomas Gilligan.” 

The wise folks in the room (there weren’t many) wanted no part of that type of financial arrangement. They demanded that their names be removed from any pending litigation. 

One neighbor said that by writing a check payable to two private individuals rather than a business entity, you gave away your right to see how the money was spent,  and the account’s owner(s) had no legal obligation to produce said statements. 

A trusting neighbor reminded everyone that having co-treasurers provided assurance that financial matters would be legitimate, above board. After all, two signatures would be required for all transactions; there was “built-in transparency.” 

People anted up. The money rolled in, and not only from Sachem Passage. The $40,000 figure clearly indicated that whatever cold-call telephone script Joe Quadrato had put together, it was working. 

If Mr. Quadrato had been an institutional fundraiser for Ivy League schools instead of an office supply salesman, he wouldn’t have been cold-calling wealthy waterfront homeowners for donations at the age of 60. He would have been buying them out by the time he was 50. Maybe sooner. 

Apparently, the CCA realized the same thing. Joe Quadrato’s eventual ascendancy to the CCA Steering Committee was a foregone conclusion. The CCA and the SPA were joined at the hip, the part of the body right next to the wallet. 

For nearly two and a half years, From October 2010 through April 2013, Whalerock was the Hydra of the RI Superior Court system. You can find Progressive Charlestown’s analysis of the four-ring circus, along with links to decisions rendered by Superior Court Justices Judith Savage and Kristin Rodgers here.

The most pressing concern for those of us with homes on East Quail Run and the eastern-most end of Woodcock Trail was is that Whalerock LLC, the rightful owners of Lot 17-186, would proactively clear-cut the lot of all trees and vegetation, just to spite the neighbors in the event the wind turbine project was rejected. 

As the litigation crawled from one hearing to another and time went on, it was obvious that lawyers on both sides were racking up billable hours. Several of us asked for updates on Illwind’s money situation, specifically statements detailing income and expenses. We were told the legal fees were indeed mounting, that we were “doing ok” for the time being. But no actual documentation was provided. Never saw a monthly statement, not once. The wise guys were right, as usual. 

It took until 2013 for the Whalerock saga to play itself out, when the town bought Lot 17-186 for $2.14 million, thereby creating the 78-acre densely forested refuge known as the Charlestown Moraine Preserve. 

I can pick up a trail in the Moraine Preserve about 600 feet from my mailbox, the place where the little man-with the helmet-on the bicycle, Deputy Dan Slattery, was stuffing those yellow leaflets over eleven years ago. 

The Moraine Preserve features densely packed hardwood and softwood trees, vernal pools with amphibians, flower power-level mountain laurel,  daylight walking trails, nocturnal hoot owls, and a rare glimpse of a solitary critter commonly known as a fisher cat (left), a member of the weasel family. 

The scientific name of the Fisher Cat is Pekania pennanti. They are primarily omnivores and are notoriously elusive. 

In stark contrast, humanoid weasels eat anything they can grab for free and swarm like locusts when they smell other people’s money.   

Thanks for reading. Enjoy the holidays. We’ll ferret out the money trail next time.

"Have I got a deal for you!"

The Muddy Genesis of the CCSPAA

Decade-Old Charlestown Citizens/Sachem Passage Alliance Association Emerges From The Mud Hole

By Robert Yarnall 

In small towns, it is easy for small decisions and big mistakes, local squabbles and petty rivalries to become the business of everyone. This is the story of how one neighborhood’s disputes can have a major effect on everyone, residents and town employees alike. 

Part 3 Here’s Mud In Your Eye 

There it was, stuck at the bottom of the Charlestown Town Council’s November 8^th Regular Meeting agenda, under Unfinished Business: 

C. Discussion and Potential Action Regarding a Request from the Sachem Passage Association to Discuss the Possible Purchase of Map 5, Lot 95-5 (Oyster Drive).

In the back row of the Town Council Chamber, newly elected SPA president Ronald Areglado was sitting in a chair with his back up against the proverbial wall. He had been tasked by twenty-one of the twenty-two members present at the September 16^th  SPA Annual Meeting to approach the Town Council to gauge interest in reopening discussions on the possible sale of Oyster Drive Lot 95-5. 

So approach he did, stepping to the podium when beckoned by Council President Deb Carney. 

“My name is Ron Areglado and I am the newly-elected Sachem Passage Association president, affectionately known as Spa, but not to be confused with massage therapy, facials or saunas...”

 Now it’s never a good idea to begin a presentation to the Charlestown Town Council with a joke about spas, massages and facials if you are a look-alike for New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft… 

...but he did it anyhow. The meeting attendees sat stone-faced with the exception of a duet of perfunctory chuckles provided by Planning Commissar Ruth Platner, seated in her first row forever seat, and Maureen Areglado, seated in the last row with her back up against the same wall as her husband, in solidarity with his mission. 

After introducing SPA Attorney Nicholas Gorham, Mr. Areglado launched a 60 second lightning round overview of the State of  SPA-Nation, transcribed below from the November 8, 2021 Town Council Meeting. 

The entire meeting video is archived here . It’s too bad that the SPA’s general membership was not given a heads-up that their association president would be preaching from the pulpit that evening. It’s too good that the video is available for all to see at their leisure. 

Spoiler Alert : If you really hate meetings, hear ye this: GrandSpa Areglado reveals what he knows the property is really worth starting at 2 hours:30 minutes, the quintessential “Gotcha” moment. 

The Oyster Drive discussion begins at 1 hour:24 minutes into the meeting. It runs about 70 minutes and demonstrates the “transparency” of Mr. Areglado’s argument, though not quite the way he intended: 

“The highlights of the events are, in early 2020 SPA initiated a grant application to DEM for the purpose of a potential sale of our property to the town. In June of 2020, the town council voted 5-0 to pursue the grant in the amount of $213,000 which was approved by DEM. Two appraisals were obtained, one by SPA as a building lot with the amount of $426,000 and a second appraisal by the town as a nonbuildable lot valued at $75,000.” 

Mr. Areglado withheld the same crucial tidbit from his presentation to the Town Council that his crony, Joseph Quadrato, CCA Steering Committee member and newly appointed SPA Resource Person for Finance and Real Estate, had omitted from his report to SPA membership three weeks earlier. 

That crucial detail: the SPA appraisal included a disclaimer stating that the $426,000 fair market value for Lot 95-5 was based on the “extraordinary assumption” that a house could be built there based on a “hypothetical condition” that was contrary to what Charlestown Tax Assessor Ken Swain had known about it for decades, i.e., the lot was unbuildable. Here is Wikipedia’s take on this questionable appraisal tool: 

“In the field of real estate appraisal, extraordinary assumptions and hypothetical conditions are two closely related types of assumptions which are made as predicating conditions of an appraisal problem. An extraordinary assumption is an assumption which if found to be false could alter the resulting opinion or conclusion.

A hypothetical condition is an assumption made contrary to fact, but which is assumed for the purpose of discussion, analysis, or formulation of opinions.”

No one can argue that Messrs. Areglado and Quadrato indeed had “an appraisal problem” on their hands. It had become evident to the handful of Oyster Drive believers that the free gift horse they had so gleefully accepted twenty-one years earlier was actually an albatross eating up over $5,000 per year in property taxes, liability insurance premiums, maintenance costs, attorney fees and a smattering of other expenses typically associated with operating a not-for-profit corporation. 

To make matters worse, only about half of Sachem Passage property owners were willing to pay association dues to support their “exclusive” playground. Virtually no one was interested in utilizing it. In addition, SPA By-laws provided no way to require mandatory dues assessments. 

It had become obvious to everyone that the time was way past due to pawn the Oyster Drive money pit off on someone else, by any means necessary. That task fell to SPA President Areglado and his long-time side kick, former SPA Treasurer Joseph Quadrato, newly-appointed “resource for real estate and finance” as of the February 18, 2021 Board of Directors Meeting. 

Mr. Quadrato, a member of the CCA Steering Committee and owner of Quad Products, a small home-based business specializing in office supplies, was now functioning in a quasi-official capacity as SPA’s realtor, financial advisor, and  investment counselor. Such an arrangement would be a dream scenario for any duly licensed and credentialed sales professional working on a commission basis. 

Unfortunately, Joseph Quadrato seemed to lack official credentials based on searches of databases listing  licensed and/or credentialed Rhode Islanders in those professions. 

Mr. Quadrato’s State of Rhode Island Ethics Commission 2020 filing when he was still a CCA-appointed member of the Zoning Board of Review also revealed no formal association with any legitimate real estate, financial planning, or investment banking  organizations. 

It remains to be seen if Mr. Quadrato’s consultancy comes with a price tag for the SPA. It may or may not be significant that the SPA By-Laws were amended to give the association president, with a simple majority of the Board of Directors, the discretion to toss money around at $5,000 a clip, a 300% increase over the previous spending limit, for “...any single contract, instrument, or expense...” 

Speaking of money clips, here’s a scan of that proposed by-law change to Section 8.01, approved by the membership at the September 16, 2021 SPA Annual Meeting, a mere seven months after Joseph Quadrato, CCA Steering Committee member and former SPA Treasurer, was appointed to his new position as SPA money wizard:

The SPA’s self-inflicted conundrum being what it is, the November 8^th Town Council’s Oyster Drive discussion had the feel of a World Cup early-round qualifying  match, wherein one hopelessly outclassed soccer team spends the entire game straddling its own end line, running around furtively banging into one another. 

On this night, the Sachem Passage Oyster Crackers were overwhelmed for the entire match courtesy of the Charlestown Autopilots. To make matters worse for the Crackers, even the spectators piled on to register their displeasure with the quality of play offered by the visitors. 

One fan walked out halfway through the lopsided match; another stayed for the duration but wanted her dues returned. No one could blame her. 

So back to the Town Council meeting. Beyond the blanket absurdity of the Oyster Drive $426,000 sticker price, neither the Town Councilors nor Planning Commissar Ruth Platner were happy to learn what the SPA appraisal advertised, 4.1 acres of pristine waterfront property, fully equipped with a CRMC-approved boat launch that also serves as an egress to shellfishing opportunities. was not what Messrs. Areglado and Quadrato intended to sell them. 

The SPA Sales Team wanted to hold onto the boat launch, kayak rack and picnic area, even though the SPA appraisal contained twenty-one full color pictures of the property with all those amenities. You can scroll down through the full document here.

President Areglado and Attorney Gorham went on to spend the rest of the opening first forty-five minutes tag-teaming each other on the way to the podium, explaining why WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) doesn’t apply in Bait & Switch Oyster World. 

The Town Council was resolute in letting the SPA know that the primary value to the town in acquiring the Oyster Drive property would be accessibility to Ninigret Pond via the boat launch area CRMC had approved about the time the SPA acquired the property from Randall Associates. 

Mr. Areglado was equally resolute in letting the Town Council know that his charge from the SPA membership was to dispense with Lot 95-5 while retaining SPA’s exclusive rights to their deeded right-of-way on Oyster Drive. 

Both Attorney Gorham and Mr. Areglado tried to convince the Town Council that if given the chance to meet and work through the sticking points of the divergent proposals, a mutually beneficial settlement could be reached. 

The Town Council responded by giving former one-year-only (1998-99) Charlestown Elementary School Principal Ronald J. SPAreglado, EdD, a four-part homework assignment, one question representing each leg of the Trojan Horse the SPA is seeking to unload: 

1) Does the boat launch parcel require all Sachem Passage Association members to sign off on the sale, relinquishing their exclusive access to the boat launch area as well as their deeded right-of-way, and, if so, is every property owner in Sachem Passage willing to do so. 

2) What does the Sachem Passage Association plan to with the money it might realize as a result of a land sale. (Editor’s note: great question!) 

3) Does the existing CRMC assent (Coastal Resource Management Council) pertain to both the parking area leading to the boat launch area as well as Lot 95-5 and is there is any stipulation as to how much the existing Oyster Drive access road can be widened? 

4) The Council needs  to establish costs associated with acquiring the land in terms of road improvements, accessibility requirements, liability issues, etc. in order to make an informed decision about acquiring the land. If the associated costs were so high that the acquisition could not be justified from a taxpayer perspective, would the SPA consider donating the property to the town? 

One of the best comments of the night came near the end of the meeting from Mr. William Coulter of Stoney Hill Cattle Farm on Shumunkanuc Hill Road, source of the best real food in all of South County. 

Bill summed up all he had heard about the SPA’s second attempt to dump their Oyster Drive property on the town like this: 

"I have come into this conversation by chance, just by being here tonight. I have serious concerns why the town would even want to enter into a negotiation to buy a piece of property that is unbuildable and with no access to the pond. So there is no enhancement to the taxpayers and residents of this town. You have a value of $60,000, they have a value of $450,000. I don’t know why they came to the town. We’re going to pony up $213,000? DEM’s going to come up with the rest? It’s all taxpayers’ money. Put it on the open market for $450,000 if  it’s a buildable lot. It’s not going to enhance anything for the residents of Charlestown to buy a mosquito trap...”  

– Bill Coulter

So let’s leave it right there as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday and be grateful for the humble words from a man who knows how to make a living from the land beneath his feet, who knows the value of a dollar, and, most importantly, the immeasurable worth of common sense. 

The last time a handful of money changers in Sachem Passage ignored the advice of an acknowledged expert living among us, a neighbor who earned his living from the salt pond we call Ninigret, we all wound up with mud in our eyes.

I need a drink with that. We all do.