The first time city councilors say they heard about the project in its current form was in a special meeting June 12. Members of the public were there, including the press. But Mayor Thom Lauzon did not want to publicly share the details of his presentation and cast the deciding vote to enter a closed-door meeting.
Since then, VTDigger has obtained records from the presentation that show the plan was to build a grocery store, parking garage, parking lot, housing complex, convention center and five-story hotel in center of downtown Barre.
The 72,000-square-foot hotel and 21,000-square-foot convention center would sit on the site of the former Homer Fitts building on North Main Street. Lauzon owns the land through Metro Development, LLC. His wife, Karen, also has an ownership stake in the company. The property was last appraised at $540,000, according to real estate documents obtained by VTDigger.
â¨The redevelopment deal is now stalled.
Lauzon appears to have withdrawn the options for key properties June 16, records show. Lauzon says he will eventually return to the council with a revised plan. He blamed VTDigger for disclosing the proposal prematurely.
Before the mayor and the city council went into executive session on June 12, the mayor told members of the press he would not recuse himself despite his personal business interests in the project. The next day Lauzon told the city council in a regular city meeting he won’t participate in further discussions about the project unless councilors ask him to because of a conflict of interest, according to minutes.
“As you work toward the decision points that we discussed in executive session, obviously if it directly or indirectly involves any of my properties, then I wouldn’t participate in that vote,” Lauzon said. “I would not participate in the discussion, unless you want me to.”
Councilor Sue Higby said the mayor violated the city’s conflict of interest policy in his vote to enter an executive session June 12, and Councilor Brandon Batham said the council needs to recognize conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
Both councilors objected to the executive session in emails to the mayor before the meeting and have questioned the mayor’s role in the project.
But Lauzon said he has done nothing wrong. He gave a presentation, he said. That’s all.
“On June 12, I wasn’t asking anything of the council,” he said. “I wasn’t encouraging a discussion. I wasn’t encouraging a decision. I wasn’t advocating for a policy.”
If he had advocated for a decision, he would have violated the city’s conflict of interest policy.â¨
The Barre City Council adopted the policy in 2009. Its purpose is threefold: to prevent officials from benefiting personally while conducing public business, to ensure their actions are in the best interest of the city and to preserve public trust in those officials. Lauzon signed off on the policy.
Specifically, the fifth article says, an official who believes he has a conflict of interest can still act “fairly, objectively and in the public interest” but must disclose that fact in a public meeting before participating in any official action related to the conflict.
Casting a vote to enter an executive session is not an official action, Lauzon said, and he wasn’t pushing the project in the meeting. “It was a one-way presentation to the council and others,” he said.â¨
But Batham said the line between education and advocacy is thin.
“He does this thing where he skirts the line, and he does it well,” Batham said.
Efforts Friday to get clarification on the policy from city attorney Oliver Twombly were unsuccessful. Lauzon’s plans show property Twombly owns as a possible site for a grocery store, though documents obtained by VTDigger reveal that Lauzon’s offer of $1.25 million to buy the property was turned down.
Higby said she had asked the mayor in the June 12 meeting to separate portions of the slide show that he felt could be public for a public presentation, but he declined.
“I don’t know why he adamantly opposed a very simple separation of slides,” she said. “I don’t understand. That is highly unusual.”
She worries overlapping interests could obscure various companies Lauzon and others may be using to pursue the project. Lauzon is a registered agent for 28 limited liability companies, according to filings with the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office.â¨
Lauzon says if he sold his property to the city or a development group he would ask for no more than its appraised value — $540,000 – and would donate $100,000 of the sales price to the city. He said he has developed properties in the past but does not see himself as a developer on this one.
Then what is his role?
“Advocate,” he said. “An advocate for Barre.”
The project has unnerved councilors. They met Tuesday in another executive session with Bernie Lambek, an attorney with the Montpelier firm Zalinger, Cameron & Lambek. Lauzon was elsewhere in City Hall.â¨
Bits of dialogue muffled by chatter from the city manager’s office could be heard on the other side of the closed door.
“I’m not comfortable with that,” a woman said.
A few minutes later, a different voice: “He shouldn’t have been voting to go into executive session.”
Then, a third, defensive and shrill: “Who’s protecting the mayor?”
A half hour passed, and Lauzon strode down the hallway outside. He was beaming.
“Are they still talkin’ about nothin’?” he asked.
