Final hearing on ballpark Tuesday

After six hearings in a 36-day span where testimony on the Pawtucket Red Sox ballpark-financing deal was heard in all corners of the state, from East Bay to South County to Pawtucket to Smithfield, the Senate Finance Committee will return to the Statehouse – site of the first hearing on Sept. 14 – for a wrap-up session on Tuesday night.

“It will be an opportunity for the committee to conclude this process,” stated Senate Finance Committee Chairman William J. Conley Jr., D-East Providence and Pawtucket, just before Thursday’s hearing at Bryant University was adjourned.

Conley said that once the hearing process is complete, the committee will reconvene next month to further address the PawSox ballpark legislation, which is expected to be tweaked.

“We’ve started to identify specific issues where we know we can improve the legislation, and that’s what we’ll be looking to do,” said Conley.

Conley expressed confidence in the committee’s ability to revise the legislation and cast a vote on the $83-million proposal for a new PawSox ballpark on the Apex department store site by the end of the calendar year.

“That’s my goal,” said Conley.

There will be no public testimony at Tuesday’s seventh and final hearing. Conley said an invitation will be extended to hear more from University of Michigan professor of sport management Mark Rosentraub, who authored a 17-page study about the PawSox proposal. Commissioned by The Pawtucket Foundation, the study was presented to the Senate Finance Committee just prior to Thursday’s hearing at Bryant.

Conley didn’t feel three minutes of testimony by Rosentraub was enough time for the committee to properly digest the professor’s findings or ask him specific questions. Rosentraub was one of 54 public speakers who addressed the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday night.

“Even if (Rosentraub) can’t come back, I would at least expect the opportunity along with fiscal staff to follow up with questions that can be responded to and provided to the committee,” said Conley.

Public testimony during the first six Senate hearings yielded 204 speakers, several of whom addressed the committee multiple times. Of the 204 speakers, 155 support the project, 46 reject it, and three were unsure. The most attended hearing was Sept. 26 at Tolman High School, which featured 56 public speakers.

“We said from the beginning that this would be the most accessible, transparent, comprehensive, and deliberate process as possible. I think we’ve met those goals,” said Conley. “It’s been a two-way street. The public has clearly appreciated the opportunity to come to the hearings. We’ve had hundreds of witnesses and it’s meant a lot to us to hear from them. There’s been a lot of different perspectives that I’m sure we would have never considered on our own.

“Everything will result in an improved piece of legislation, for sure,” Conley added.

Tuesday’s hearing in Room 313 of the Statehouse begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public.