HOW YOUR VOTE WAS STOLEN, and I don't mean by the Russians!
- Mike Clifford
- Dec 12, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 4, 2020
The post below provides comprehensive background information and therefore it may initially read like my previous post which discussed the Municipal Annex/Police Station bids. Hang in there and you’ll read new information detailing how the public vote was undermined in regard to the Kendall Dean renovation project.
1999
This isn’t the first time voters and taxpayers have gotten burned when it comes to renovations for Kendall Dean. Town residents who have lived here since the late 1990’s may be experiencing déjà vu. They may recall the first $8.1 million Kendall Dean bond fiasco which occurred in 1999. It was sold to voters with the promise that the funds would be used for the renovation and expansion of Kendall Dean School and an expansion to North Smithfield Elementary School (NSES). The plan called for some classroom space at Kendall Dean and the remainder of the building was to serve as the school department’s central office complex. Unfortunately, after the bond was authorized a “mistake” was reported in the calculation of construction cost. The architectural firm, which developed the cost estimates and plans, had “forgot” to include the construction costs for the second floor in their calculations (that was one hell of a mistake in my opinion).
After the 1999 bids came in well over the bond amount, taxpayers were told there would not be enough money to do both projects. School committee members, who at the time included current Town Administrator Gary Ezovski and Paul Vadenais who
serves as current Town Council President and MBRTF chair, pressed the town council hard to release funds for just the expansion of NSES by claiming the renovation of Kendall Dean might be resolved later, maybe by re-bidding the project. Construction of the addition to NSES went forward but unfortunately, millions of dollars from the $8.1 million bond which were to be used at Kendall Dean were instead piddled away over the years on various projects like athletic fields and such, all without voter approval. This was possible due to the very loose language of the 1999 bond referendum. By contrast, the language of the 2014 bond referendum was intentionally specific to avoid just such a bait and switch. Until now, the only event that over-shadowed the 1999 KD fiasco was the mailing of 5th quarter tax bills which were sent out in the same period because the school department was facing a huge deficit.
2014
In 2014 voters approved a bond to renovate and optimize the use of town facilities in a way that would achieve efficiencies for many years to come. The plan included using Kendall Dean as a shared facility consolidating all town offices as well as the school department’s central office staff. The $5.2 million bond was also supposed to cover renovations to the Municipal Annex/Bushee enabling it to provide additional space for the police department and the EMA.
2016
Fast forward to 2016, the Public Building Improvement Committee (PBIC) which I explained earlier had been overseeing the design and bid process for the two buildings, came under fire from the newly elected town officials. In December, the newly elected town officials took office and quickly hijacked control of the project from the PBIC, which was summarily disbanded in January of 2016, and placed the project under the supervision of a newly created committee, the Municipal Building Review Task Force (MBRTF). Current Council President Paul Vadenais and then Town Council President John Beauregard were appointed to the MBRTF. Before the PBIC was disbanded they had sought permission to immediately re-bid the project with modified bid specs which eliminated some non-essential items from the specs. Unfortunately the new council would not even allow them to present their re-bid proposal. That decision was in my opinion, irrational, politically motivated and designed to ensure they could build what they thought was best, rather than what the voters approved.
It’s been apparent to me since December of 2016 that some of our elected and appointed officials were participating in back room discussions and political shenanigans to build what they wanted, not what North Smithfield taxpayers voted to build. Some of our so-called leaders believe taxpayers who voted for the project were ignorant, uniformed and voted the wrong way so they corrected our “mistake”. They did so without putting the question before the voters, which would have been the right thing to do. Instead they worked behind closed doors since 2016 to make incremental changes to the project hoping the public wouldn’t realize what was happening until it was too late. It was clear from the decisions being made that certain town officials did not want a consolidation of town and school department offices. Since two architects had previously calculated the space requirements for all town offices to be slightly over 6,000 square feet, I would have never voted in favor of the 2014 bond if I had known the school department central office staff would not be returning to the 17,100 square foot Kendall Dean building as promised.
2017
By December of 2017, I was sure my observations were on target and wrote a letter to the editor in reference to what I now refer to as “the hijacking of the 2014 Kendall Dean bond renovation project”. The last paragraph of my letter read as follows: “Bottom line: well-orchestrated events over the last 11 months will result in the taxpayers being duped, more than $415,000 of taxpayer dollars wasted , the bond language requiring construction of a shared facility will be ignored, a 17,000 square foot building will be used to house municipal offices which require only a small fraction of that amount, there will be no savings in operating expenses through consolidation of services as forecast and most importantly, school department and municipal fiefdoms will be protected from consolidation of some services. This is the one time I truly hope I’m proven wrong, but I fear that isn’t going to be the case.”
2018
When bids for renovations at the Municipal Annex approved by the MBRTF and drafted by Architect Mark Sacoccio’s firm came in outrageously over budget in 2018, Mr. Vadenais convinced the Town Council to move forward on just the Kendall Dean project, and deal with the renovations of the Municipal Annex/Bushee School (Police Station) “later”, just as he did back in 1999. As we all know, renovations to Kendall Dean didn’t happen in 1999 and it’s unlikely there will be renovations to the Municipal Annex this time around either. Those well- orchestrated events I referred to earlier are still playing out and I foresee a committee (appointed by our current town leadership) will soon recommend the town should build a new police station rather than renovating the current one. It’s all part of the grand “backroom” plan that has been unfolding since December of 2016.
Sadly, my prediction from 2017 was on target as it was recently announced that school department central office personnel we learn that school department central office staff will not be returning to Kendall Dean and the offices which were built for them will go unused! Instead school department central office staff will remain disbursed between multiple school buildings.
Repeatedly over the last three years Mr. Vadenais has made public statements claiming school department staff would be returning to Kendall Dean whenever he was questioned about that point. In addition, NO renovations have been done at the Bushee School (Police Station). In that time, the MBRTF wasted costly time dragging the process out, perhaps stalling for time in order to allow the memories of voters to fail. Personally, I don’t believe they ever intended to design and build what the voters approved. They also aren’t delivering on the promises made in MBRTF member David Chamberland’s letter to the editor published in 2017 which he submitted after I began to publicly question their true objectives.
We won’t be getting the building reflected in the PBIC’s plans whose architect had worked closely with members of the historic district commission to ensure the heritage of the building was reflected in the design. Sadly, we won’t be seeing historical details like restored tin ceilings, original brass lighting fixtures in some areas, the wainscoting refinished, or original blackboards left intact in select areas of the building. Instead we’ll be getting far less for our money than we would have in 2016; we’ll likely get suspended ceilings, fluorescent lighting, unused offices, a boatload of storage space which will soon become obsolete in the age of electronic storage (they had to use the space for something), and plenty of waiting areas and meeting rooms. One thing the building will be lacking is a respectful number of people working in it, which would justify the need for so much space.
Here’s my new bottom line prediction:
Over the next several years more money will be spent on Kendall Dean to make up for the items which were not addressed or budgeted for by the MBRTF. Fairly soon we’ll be told by our leaders and a committee of political appointees that it makes more sense to build a new police station, instead of putting money into the current facility in order to prolong it’s useful life.
In the November 27, 2019 town newsletter, Administrator Ezovski wrote: “This is our town. It works best when we have broad representation and the right skills well deployed”. I absolutely agree with the need for “broad representation”; it would have worked best if there had been “broad representation” over the last 3 years regarding the Kendall Dean bond project rather than limited discussion by a select chosen few, in whispered backroom discussions. Words are cheap; actions speak much louder than words. With broader representation, maybe taxpayers would actually have gotten what they voted for.
Over the coming weeks I will be posting videos and audio recordings which show how this hijacking was pulled off over a period of time. To be notified of future posts on this topic please be sure to “like” or “follow” my Facebook page if you haven’t already done so.
If you haven’t already read my December 8th post regarding the Municipal Annex bids.
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