Response to the Portsmouth Solicitor's Letter of July 19

12 August 2013

Kevin P. Gavin

Portsmouth Town Solicitor

35 Harrington Avenue, Portsmouth RI  02871

Dear Attorney Gavin:

I was deeply saddened and slightly insulted to read your response to my original APRA request.  The lack of care for the law and your lack of attention to detail indicate a slightly flippant attitude.

I have filed many such requests at all levels of Rhode Island Government including the Governor’s Office.  Never before have I witnessed a response tainted with so much conceit for the process.  For that reason, I am taking two steps, after careful consideration, while this response is on the way to you.

First, I am sending a copy of this communication to Special Assistant Attorney General Mike Field.  He specializes in government transparency issues.

Secondly, I will be contacting both the Town Clerk and the Town Administrator by phone asking them to explain obvious discrepancies.  I would like to know, and the Town should know, whether they were sloppy or bullied by you.

The evidence that you are not interested, and or hiding, the truth in this matter begins in the second paragraph.  The Clerk’s Office has assembled 438 pages of records.  I already know independently, based on communication with firms that have attempted to do business with Portsmouth, that the number is too low.  Total research time was supposedly 4.5 hours.  Based on experiences in other communities, that also is too low.

However, the insult does not happen until later.  You add $72.50, for the pages, and $52.50, for the research time, and come to a sum of $509.95 (sic).  Did you think I would just pay that without doing the math?  Had it been a “carry the 1 error” or a “decimal point error”, I would have concluded that folks are human and mistakes get made.  This number is just bizarre.  Even more bizarre is that you typed or dictated the document, an administrative assistant processed the document, I am hoping on a computer, and then you signed the document with this number presented.

When you first filed the lawsuit regarding the bridge tolls, I asked legal analysts what they thought of your chances on behalf of the Town.  They indicated two things.  First, they indicated that you were milking the taxpayers.  Secondly, they indicated that you sometimes were sloppy and arrogant.  Because other folks in the legal profession tend not to talk about their brethren negatively, that came across as odd.  Not only do you seem to be the exception to a time honored rule, their predictions seem to be cogent.

In the paragraph regarding the Administrator, we find 2 out of 3 of the same issues.  I know the document count is low. I know by likewise efforts elsewhere that the research effort was not carried out seriously.  This time, you did manage to get the math right.

This leaves two issues from your previous email and one item for the future.

In my original letter, you were asked who paid Bill Clark’s fee to join the Portsmouth Business Association.  Like you, I have been trained to only ask questions I know the answers to.  Rather than to simply state that the Town of Portsmouth did or did not take care of the fee, you tried to dismiss the question as being a “conversation”.  Do you really believe the truth is not going to get out on this and other issues?

You were also asked via what act of any Portsmouth Town Council did the Portsmouth Business Association gain the ability to use the Town’s logo.  You said no such act was ever taken, no agreement existed, no Council ever took a vote on the issue.  I believe this creates an unfair advantage.  I also believe that the logo is worth more than $10,000 and any attempt to use it should trigger certain procedures under the Town’s charter.

However, based on the lack of respect you have shown currently, I think a “beat ‘em” strategy is not wise while a “join ‘em” strategy might find success.  I am having a contractor put together a pornography website.  The Town’s logo will be featured prominently.  Therefore, it will look like the porn was sponsored by the Town.

A social media campaign entitled “Portsmouth – Putting The ‘P’ Back In Porn” will be conducted to drive site visits.  To be fair, the average Portsmouth citizen is a little older than the porn demographic.  Therefore, the social media campaign will be focused on folks living in Portsmouth, England.  I am sure come June of next year that the residents of your sister city will be overjoyed to find out that they are in business with porn providers.

Lastly, we need to discuss the elephant in the room.  I understand why you are doing what you are doing.  You think that by hiding documents you can keep me at bay.  You know the rules in Rhode Island are slanted in favor of the municipality just as I do.  Therefore, if you can use the rules, I will never discover the secret.

Let me make it clear: I know what the secret is.  Many businesses considering doing business with the Town of Portsmouth know what the secret is.  Thanks to social media and an upcoming election cycle, everyone is going to know your secret.

The Portsmouth Business Association is no more than a mini protection racket.  I have been in the game since I was 5 years old.  When I was 23 and a speech writer on Beacon Hill, Whitey Bulger knew me well enough to say “hi” and shake my hand.  Did you really believe anyone of any experience taking a close look at this was going to miss it?

Businesses pay their $60.  The Portsmouth Business Association puts folks on Board and Commissions.  If you have paid your fee, someone like Ray Berberick will steer business towards you whether it is good for the community or not.  If you did not pay the $60, someone like Bill Clark will steer business away from you whether it is good for the community or not.  Even by Rhode Island standards, this is penny ante stuff.

Should you upset the Portsmouth Business Association, they go into “gangsta” mode and you get a phone call like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNY8eYmzdH4

The folks who live in Portsmouth want nothing to do with this silliness.  Because the rules are slanted towards the municipality, I am going to use social and paid media to engage in this battle.  By the end of the election cycle, everyone will know that the Portsmouth Business Association is a front.  My guess is that Portsmouth residents will just want the problems to go away.

Let me be clear: the members of the Portsmouth Town Council and the Leadership of the Portsmouth Business Association are too lily white, too old, too suburban, too slow for this fight.  Because everyone knows now, there is no further reason to hide documents and act unprofessionally.  You can thank me later for relieving you of this burden.

Whether it is you or the Clerk or the Administrator, the political calculation is simple.  No Town Council member is going to sacrifice their seat in an effort to save an official thought to be out of bounds.  It is time to put the lies away and act seriously.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Robert Thomas Oliveira