[A]ttorney Jim Dumont, who represents several Hinesburg residents, alleges the Selectboard used illegal meetings to reach an agreement with Vermont Gas Systems.
Hinesburg Selectboard members say they did not violate open meetings laws while crafting the deal to allow an easement for the company to put a natural gas pipeline through town-owned Geprags Park.
Dumont told the Public Service Board on Thursday that the agreement contains provisions that are not in the town’s interest, and he said the majority of Selectboard members appeared not to understand that fact.
Dumont said Friday that he was “still considering (their) options” with regard to appealing the Selectboard’s decision to the Vermont Supreme Court.
Selectboard member Andrea Morgante said that although the agreement may have been reached through “unethical” and “unfair” means, it’s not illegal. Nevertheless, Morgante said the deal is “an insult to the town and to the committee process.”
Morgante said she asked how the settlement was reached. According to her, Selectboard Chair Michael Bissonette explained that Tom Murray, the marketing and sales director for Vermont Gas, made him an offer.
Morgante said Bissonette appears to have received an agreement written by Vermont Gas representatives and submitted it to the board in the form of a motion, which the board approved.
“I think the mechanics of the agreement came from Vermont Gas,” she said.
“The majority of the Selectboard chose not to rely on the town attorney to make substantive changes to that document,” Morgante said. “… It’s a Vermont Gas document that we have made very minor amendments to, not really looking at all the long-term legal ramifications of that document.”
Bissonette said the document wasn’t written entirely by Vermont Gas representatives, but he said he doesn’t know how much input the town’s attorney had in the language.
Bissonette said Vermont Gas officials offered alterations to the agreement that seemed like a good deal. He said, however, that he could not explain why the agreement contains conditions that Morgante and Dumont say are overly generous to Vermont Gas.
“We had an agreement on the 24th that was posted on the website, that we were going to vote on on the 28th, and on the 28th I got a call from Mr. Murray from Vermont Gas,” Bissonette said. “Tom (Murray) called and said, ‘We’ll change these things,’ and I said, ‘OK.’” Bissonette said he asked Town Administrator Trevor Lashua “to amend these things so we could make the change. It seemed like a good change.”
Murray conveyed the company’s offer to use a technology called horizontal directional drilling instead of digging an approximately 4-foot-deep trench through the park for the pipeline, Bissonette said.
“The fact that they’re (horizontal drilling) the whole thing without disturbing it is a big point,” Bissonette said.
The company’s decision to drill also averts a potentially thorny challenge from adversaries.
Biologists recently discovered wetlands areas in Geprags Park that weren’t identified in the Vermont Gas pipeline application. If the company chose to dig a trench and bury the pipe instead of using horizontal drilling technology, it would have faced a legal challenge from Dumont.
The Vermont Gas permit was granted on the condition that the company had cleared environmental hurdles before beginning construction, Dumont argued, and a new wetlands permit application to account for the omitted areas would violate the terms of the pipeline’s approval. Dumont has already filed motions with the Public Service Board to that effect.
The agreement with Hinesburg doesn’t require Vermont Gas to use the same horizontal drilling technology to replace the pipe if it needs to be repaired someday.
Vermont Gas executives testified Thursday that, should problems arise, they’d most likely replace the section beneath Geprags Park instead of repairing it. Buried 30 to 50 feet below the surface, they said, the pipe would be too deep to excavate for repairs.
Dumont told the Public Service Board that nothing in the contract prevented Vermont Gas from cutting a trench through the park to replace the pipe. Bissonette said he couldn’t explain why the agreement with the town didn’t address that issue.
Vermont Gas will give Hinesburg $250,000 for allowing the pipeline through the park.
Under a previous agreement, the company would have given the town $125,000 with no conditions and another $125,000 if construction deadlines were met, Bissonette said.
Dumont said the second payment was a way of suppressing protesters who have repeatedly obstructed and delayed the project.
This is the second time Dumont has accused the Hinesburg Selectboard of violating state open meetings laws.
The first time led the board to invalidate an earlier, similar agreement with Vermont Gas. The current agreement was written to replace it. The agreement stipulates that Hinesburg won’t fight eminent domain proceedings by Vermont Gas for an easement to allow construction of the pipeline through Geprags Park.
The easement must be acquired through eminent domain because the Geprags family gave the park to the town on the condition it be used only for recreation or education; that prevents the Selectboard from simply agreeing to give away or sell the easement.
