Leaked email gives rise to pay-to-play allegations between Burrillville Town Council and Invenergy

A leaked email has been making the rounds in Burrillville, and has been stirring controversy regarding the tax treaty negotiated between the town and Invenergy, the company that wants to build a $700 million fracked gas and diesel oil burning power plant in the town. In the email, town attorney Oleg Nikolyszyn says the town council made a deal with Invenergy to oppose the Keable/Fogarty bill then making its way through the General Assembly, in return for some concessions in negotiations.

The Keable/Fogarty bill would have given Burrillville voters the ability to approve or reject, by referendum, any tax treaty negotiated between the town and power plant companies. The Burrillville Town Council shocked and humiliated residents who were testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of the bill with a press release announcing the upcoming passage of a resolution opposing the measure. The leaked email now gives residents reason to believe that the timing of the press release and the town council’s opposition was a ‘pay-to-play’ move on the part of Invenergy.

Oleg Nikolyszyn

Sources close to the negotiations between Invenergy and the town council confirm that the email was leaked and is real, but dispute the way the email is being characterized. At the time the town council passed the resolution, negotiations had stalled over which houses would be placed into the abutter’s agreement and which houses would be excluded. Houses within the abutter’s zone would be eligible for financial consideration from Invenergy in the event they want to sell their property and move away from the power plant. Negotiations were literally being fought house by house, said the sources.

In exchange for including more houses in the abutter’s agreement, the town council issued the 11th hour press release, written in concert with a tax payer funded public relations firm, that helped to kill the Keable/Fogarty bill. The press release announcing the upcoming passage of the resolution could not have been more timely, as it gave senators Frank Lombardi, Steven Archambault and William Conley all the ammunition thy needed to publicly humiliate the Burrillville residents who testified before them and to vote down the bill.

In other words, it looks like Invenergy got a lot of bang for their buck.

The Burrillville Town Council, says sources interested in painting a different picture of the council’s actions, was always going to oppose the Keable/Fogarty bill. The question the town council deliberated was when, not if, to oppose. When Nikolyszyn, the town’s attorney, suggested using the council’s opposition as a bargaining chip with Invenergy, the council saw it as a kind of fake out, say sources. Invenergy was led to believe that the council might not oppose the bill, and was eager to sway the council’s opinion by granting more concessions. In other words, maintains some in close communication with the town council’s lawyers, Invenergy was tricked.

However, in payment for these concessions on the abutter’s agreement, Invenergy got the resolution they wanted from the town council passed and the bill they did not want passed was defeated in the General Assembly.

No one discussing the leaked email would go on record. RI Future has independently confirmed he existence of the emails and what they said with a variety of sources. Some who are said to be in possession of the emails have reportedly been threatened with prosecution if the emails are made public or brought to the Attorney General’s office. There is an outstanding Open Meetings Act (OMA) complaint against the Burillville Town Council for violations of the OMA in the passing of he resolution opposing the Keable/Fogarty bill.

Also, last week, in the hours before the last town council meeting, Attorney Nikolyszyn argued, before R.I. Superior Court Judge Richard Licht in Providence, that there was no nexus or connection between the town council passing the resolution against the Keable/Fogarty bill and the town council vote on the tax treaty, now scheduled for Thursday night. For this and other reasons Judge Licht denied Burrillville resident Tracey Potvin Keegan an injunction that would have prevented the town council from voting on the tax treaty. This revelation opens serious questions about that connection. Below is video from the last town council meeting in which the injunction was discussed.

On Thursday evening beginning at 7pm the Burrillville Town Council will hold a vote at the Burillville High School regarding the tax treaty. Residents oppose entering into a tax treaty before the power plant has been officially approved and sited by the Energy Facilities Siting Board. They say that passing the tax treaty sends the wrong message publicly, since the town council recently passed a strong resolution in opposition to the plant.

Attorney Michael McElroy, who negotiated the tax treaty, is a strong advocate for immediate passage. He claims that there is “no inconsistency between entering into these [tax] agreements and dead set opposition to the plant.”

Council President John Pacheco said that since the town council passed the resolution opposing the power plant, there has been no communication between the council and Invenergy.