Council OKs hiring expert to study solar farm proposals

WOONSOCKET – Despite deep reservations about Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt’s support for its green energy initiatives, the City Council voted 6-1 to act on her recommendation to hire a 365-anhour lawyer to study the feasibility of the plans they’ve championed for the development of solar farms.

The vote in Harris Hall Monday came after roughly 45 minutes’ worth of sometimes contentious debate on whether Baldelli-Hunt is dragging her feet on commencing negotiations with Green Development LLC. The council voted in early June to instruct the administration to iron out a contract with the North Kingstown company to build solar farms at several sites in the city. Since then, the council – in late August – instructed the administration to seek additional bids for the development of a solar farm at River’s Edge Recreational Complex.

Ultimately, the council agreed to move forward with hiring lawyer Christian Capizzo, an expert in environmental law, only if they’re satisfied he’s been hired to advance their plans – not undermine them. They can terminate their contract with him at any time.

“What concerns me most – and I’m going to say it right now, so it’s on the record – this better not be hiring a hired gun to come in and look at every site that’s been proposed, and the subcommittee recommended, and the council has approved and he’s just going to say, ‘Nope, I don’t like it, this one’s near a blue house, I don’t like it, it’s done. This one, it’s 10 miles from a school, I don’t like it, it’s done,’” said Council President Daniel Gendron. “The sarcasm is coming out of our frustration. This should never have taken this long.’”

At one point, Council Vice President Jon Brien, a possible 2020 mayoral contender and the chief architect of the council’s green energy initiative, made a motion to table the hiring of Capizzo. However, he came around to supporting the measure after City Solicitor John DeSimone assured him that hiring Capizzo would be the best way to move the solar projects forward.

“I feel the council’s frustration,” said DeSimone. “I have my own frustrations. I think the best thing to do at this juncture is approve the resolution, allowing me to get the ball rolling with Mr. Capizzo.”

DeSimone said he didn’t see much sense in commencing negotiations with Green Development “unless I have someone by my side so I can talk turkey with them, meaning environmental law.”

Baldelli-Hunt had said previously that she was reluctant to act on the council’s instructions regarding Green Development without expert review, since the company proposes locking in to a decades-long contract with the city. However, she wasn’t on hand to defend her rationale during the council meeting, leaving DeSimone and Public Works Director Steve D’Agostino to weather most of the heat from the council.

D’Agostino took credit for calling for a third-party review of a proposed contract with Green Development, saying he was loathe to engage in solo talks with a company involved in a line of work he’s unfamiliar with.

“I am not comfortable meeting with Green Development, knowing little to nothing about solar projects,” the public works director said. “I applaud the whole process, but we have the right to have someone qualified review any proposal.”

Brien seemed sympathetic to D’Agostino’s reasoning on Green Development – less so toward the administration’s handling of the council’s subsequent vote on Aug. 25 to have the administration solicit bids for an additional solar installation at River’s Edge Recreational Complex.

Why, Brien wanted to know, had the administration been sitting on that for nearly a month

During a terse rhetorical volley in which he and the public works director were shouting over each other, Brien repeatedly asserted that the mayor may not lawfully ignore the council’s instructions. The city charter, he said, compels the administration to carry out the will of the legislative branch of local government.

“My advice is to not treat council action as though it’s optional,” Brien said. “Because it’s not optional.”

D’Agostino advised Brien that the delay in getting a secondary RFP advertised was related to Baldelli-Hunt’s efforts to see whether a solar farm is feasible at River’s Edge Recreational Complex. The site is a former municipal dump, capped with a pollution-containing membrane that could, some officials fear, be damaged by the installation of solar mounts. D’Agostino said Baldelli-Hunt was still trying to obtain guidance from state Department of Environmental Management Director Janet Coit.

But spectators in Harris Hall offered an enthusiastic reaction for Brien when he produced a newspaper clipping about a solar farm built on an old dump in East Providence. Coit was quoted in the story, praising the Forbes Street solar installation, featuring solar panels affixed to aboveground ballasts, as an example of resource renewal.

Armed with such information, Brien proclaimed that a $365-an-hour lawyer to second-guess the mere issuance of an RFP smacked of obstructionism.

“I just saved us a boatload of money,” he announced, garnering a round of applause from spectators.

Councilman James Cournoyer also questioned the administration’s handling of the council’s instructions on solar power. He said a resolution passed by the panel on June 17 contained “crystal clear” instructions to make contact with Green Development to commence formal contract negotiations.

“Here we are three months later,” Cournoyer said. “From what I can tell, I don’t think there’s been a formal conversation other than, salutations, via email or whatever, no sitdown conversations.”

Cournoyer said the administration’s push for a lawyer to review Green Development’s plans “feels like we’re looking for assistance to somehow gum up the works.” He said he hopes he’s wrong.

Anyone who follows the local news might remember that Baldelli-Hunt announced she’d hired Capizzo nearly a month ago. When the council caught wind of that, they reminded members of the administration of an ordinance on the books that prohibits the hiring of outside counsel without a formal resolution of approval by the council – which is why the measure was on the agenda of Monday night’s meeting.

During the session, DeSimone allowed that neither he, nor the mayor, should have represented at that time that they’d already hired Capizzo. They should have indicated, he said, that “we’ve chosen a lawyer we’d like to hire.”

If all goes according to plan, Capizzo will evaluate the feasibility of Green Development’s plans to develop solar farms at sites Aylesworth Avenue, Bourdon Boulevard, Jillson Avenue and Manville Road. The company was one of seven that responded to a request for proposals (RFP) to develop green energy facilities, which the administration also issued on instructions from the council, months earlier.

Green Development promises to deliver the city $20-25 million in savings on municipal power consumption over 25 years in the form of reduced costs associated with generating the power and income from leasing the sites where it would build the solar panels.

The mayor announced the hiring of Capizzo after the council voted in August to instruct the administration to issue a second RFP to solicit bids for the solar farm at River’s Edge Recreational Complex.