|
|
Photo Mary Ann Bragg
Interest in purchasing Fisherman's Wharf picked up around the holidays, according to the listing broker; however no deals have been struck. |
|
|
New tax on Whydah wharf draws lawsuit against town
Accusations against DPW Director David Guertin lodged, and refuted
By Mary Ann Bragg
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — Bad blood between some occupants of 16 MacMillan Wharf, home of the Whydah Pirate Museum and the Boston Harbor Cruises dock, and Director of Public Works David Guertin has surfaced with the wharf’s recent filing of a lawsuit against the town.
Two individuals associated with the wharf, including one co-owner, claim that in 2002 Guertin failed to pay for docking his sailboat and also offered his influence in reducing the wharf’s water bill. A second claim is that during an outburst in 2002 at a meeting at a regional Dept. of Environmental Protection office, Guertin threatened wharf co-owner Barry Clifford with cutting off town services.
Guertin refuted both charges this week.
The two allegations emerged following a $660,000 betterment assessment the town made against 16 MacMillan Wharf last July, and which the wharf owners are now fighting in Barnstable Superior Court. The suit was filed in mid-November.
In state law, extra taxes, called “betterments,” may be levied on property owners who benefit from a public improvement project such as a pier reconstruction or a sewer. In town documents, the betterment assessment to 16 MacMillan Wharf is described as recouping part of the $16.7 million reconstruction cost of the town pier, which the wharf abuts.
“I can’t help wondering what role the director [of the DPW] actually played in the unprecedented decision by the selectmen to file, without notice, an astronomical ‘betterment assessment’ lien, of highly dubious legality, against 16 MacMillan Wharf?” wharf property manager Ken Kinkor said this week.
Town officials see it differently, though.
“We’ve built an $18 million driveway to the Whydah pier,” Town Manager Keith Bergman said this week in justifying the assessment. “It’s been on the town’s radar screen for a while.”
The betterment is mentioned in town paperwork dating from 2002. The contract for the town pier construction project was signed in 2000 and was only considered complete last March.
Bergman said the 16 MacMillan Wharf assessment is the only one for the town pier project because there are no other private properties benefiting directly from the upgrade. He added that the assessment may be the largest he could recall in his 15 years in town, but he said that was due to the limited number of large capital projects undertaken: the town pier and the new sewer system.
The assessment calculation, which was proposed by Guertin and endorsed by Town Counsel, says that 16 MacMillan Wharf takes up 3.9 percent of the total distance around the town pier and the wharf combined. Therefore the assessment is 3.9 percent of the $16.7 million project cost: $660,000. (That figure was adjusted to $632,000 in September.)
Kinkor and others dispute several things about the assessment: that the 3.9 percent is too high, based on Barnstable County Registry of Deeds data; that the assessment is unusually burdensome, representing half of the 2005 assessed value of 16 MacMillan Wharf; that the lien placed against the property for the assessment has stymied plans for the property; and, in the lawsuit, that the assessment and the issuance of the assessment may have been illegal under state law.
Wharf co-owner Clifford has complained about the assessment to Attorney General Thomas Reilly as well.
According to the town finance department, payment of the betterment is scheduled to begin in the next fiscal year and can be made in 17 annual installments.
In January Kinkor wrote to the Banner with the complaint about Guertin, saying he had read about conflict of interest issues within the Dept. of Public Works in the last several months.
This week Kinkor recalled an alleged incident in the spring months of 2002 when he and three others were standing outside at 16 MacMillan Wharf when Guertin walked up to them. Guertin made a comment, Kinkor said, about his sailboat being docked for longer than expected at the wharf. “He said, if we cut him some slack on his bill then he would see what he could do about our water bill,” Kinkor said.
Guertin said this week that he recalls his boat being moored at 16 MacMillan Wharf in 2001 for about a week because he was invited to do so by Clifford and that he never received a bill requesting payment. Guertin added that he rarely if ever has anything to do with water bill abatements and that the accusation was “foolish.”
Another individual associated with 16 MacMillan Wharf, out of the three others allegedly present, confirmed Guertin’s words both verbally and in writing. The third individual allegedly present, property trustee Rick Nolan, declined to comment on Tuesday, and a fourth person, a former employee of Boston Harbor Cruises, could not be located.
Kinkor could not produce an unpaid invoice for Guertin this week, saying the wharf normally only issues paid receipts. The bill would likely have been in the range of $750 and $2,500, given an estimate by Kinkor of the length of Guertin’s boat and the per-foot docking fee.
At a minimum, a public official violates state conflict of interest law when attempting to gain exclusive privileges of substantial value in the private sector. A public official that demands anything of value in exchange for acts that violate his role in town government is considered involved with potential bribery.
Kinkor also described an alleged “monumental screaming tirade” by Guertin later in 2002 after a DEP meeting, where Guertin allegedly told Clifford that he would “never get anything from this town.” The meeting involved a wharf slip space just north of the museum, which the town claimed as its own.
Clifford confirmed both in writing and in person the details of the scene.
In turn Guertin described the incident differently, saying Clifford approached him about never paying for the boat slip despite having offered it to Guertin for short-term repairs.
Guertin acknowledged the difficult relations that existed at times between the town and some wharf occupants during the town pier project. “In spite of it all, we tried the best we could in the course of the pier [project] to provide complete and free access [to the Whydah],” Guertin said.
In an ancillary detail, a town official and Clifford confirmed this week that “light” discussions about the town purchasing 16 MacMillan Wharf have occurred during the last year. Clifford said that the use discussed was that of a bathhouse or public restrooms, and he added that the structure is not for sale at this time.
mabragg@provincetownbanner.com
|
In the News
Myspace.com scare affects local family
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 9th, 2006