Allegations, complaint follow ProvPort deal discussion. What to know.

Criticism of Providence leaders' decision to push forward a deal on the future of ProvPort is growing as allegations emerge of behind-the-scenes discussions.

On Monday, the City Council Finance Committee voted to advance a lease extension, bond indenture and tax exemption agreement for ProvPort, the nonprofit that runs the city's deep water port. That allowed the full council to vote on those matters Thursday night.

However, Councilwoman Helen Anthony said that during a break between the committee's public hearing and its vote, "it seemed to me there were a lot of talks going on about amendments."

"I was told that there were going to be amendments proposed," she added. "I was not privy to any of those discussions, nor would I have participated, to be honest with you. I’m not particularly interested."

Anthony described a scene in which "people were running around, people were in separate offices," though she did not know who was involved in the conversations.

Once council members returned for the regular meeting of the committee, Councilman Jim Taylor proposed amendments to the ProvPort deal. City Solicitor Jeff Dana explained the changes: adding language to ensure that payments from a sustainability-projects account go to "climate adaptation and mitigation infrastructure," adding language to specify that a community-benefit fund must contribute $25,000 per year to Ward 10 projects and the rest to "parks and recreation infrastructure projects" and adding an amendment to prohibit any "increase in fossil fuel infrastructure" for the duration of the lease extension.

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Taylor said that earlier in the hearing, he "was not going to pass" the deal as it was, "but there was two amendments that I put in, that I would like to put in."

Taylor said Waterson Terminal Services, which operates in the port and was represented at the meeting by General Manager Chris Waterson, had "met" and "agreed" to the fossil-fuel stipulation. However, Bill Fischer, spokesman for ProvPort and Waterson Terminal Services, said that agreement was made through a lawyer – not by Waterson.

The Providence Journal has reached out to Taylor for comment.

Request to file an Open Meetings Act complaint

Julian Drix, head of the Providence Sustainability Commission, which vehemently opposed the passage of the deal widely criticized as fast-tracked without proper community engagement — wrote to the attorney general's office requesting to file an Open Meetings Act complaint about the alleged private discussions.

Drix noted that once the amendments were mentioned in the meeting, they were "followed very quickly by a motion, second and vote to pass without any discussion."

Drix said it "was clear that the majority of the Finance Committee members were already familiar with the amendments" and argued that it "shows that improper ex parte discussions were held outside of the public meeting setting, with either a quorum present or a rolling quorum with conversations about the specific agenda items of the posted meeting."

John Marion, executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island, which fights for government accountability, said there was merit to the complaint. But Fischer called it "meritless" and "desperate." After repeated questioning, Fischer said "of course" there were private conversations happening the night of the meeting, describing compromise as the way government relations works.

Conversely, Councilman Nicholas Narducci claimed there weren't private talks.

"The only private discussion was we looked over the lists of how many more people that were there to speak on the issue itself," he said. "That’s all. There was nothing [controversial] going on. We did nothing wrong with the open meeting part of things."

Asked specifically whether there were private talks about amendments, Narducci said, "Not at all. Unless you call me going to the bathroom having private discussion."

Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan, who chairs the Finance Committee, similarly said, "I went to the ladies' room, and it isn’t uncommon for councilors to speak during recess to the public and to other councilors. There was no quorum anywhere that I was aware of."

Ryan said she could not speak to whether there were private talks about changes to the ProvPort deal, though she said she was not part of any such conversations.

"I was aware that there were amendments because I spoke with some councilors earlier about there needing to be amendments, in my opinion, to include some language that made sure that the community funds were directed towards green energy or greening topics – matters that would help the city in that regard."

After the committee voted Monday night, Councilman Pedro Espinal appeared frustrated, feeling he didn't have time to comment ahead of the vote. Espinal indicated that he did not have all of the information that Taylor did regarding the deal.

Councilman John Goncalves, who also raised concerns about the flow of the meeting, said Espinal "was left completely in the dark."

Council President John Igliozzi, who said he attended the meeting to watch, would not comment on whether there were private discussions. Instead, he referred The Journal to the city's attorney.

Mayor on board despite criticisms over lack of engagement

Anthony noted that neither the Sustainability Commission nor stakeholders who were part of Climate Justice Plan championed by Mayor Jorge Elorza were involved in negotiating the ProvPort deal.

Asked whether that concerned him, Elorza, who is supportive of the deal and the amendments, didn't answer directly. The mayor called the deal "the result of over two years of negotiation" and added that it "includes provisions that provide greater financial transparency, require a long-term master planning process, increased community investment dollars and increased revenues to the city."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Discussion on ProvPort's future leads to complaints, allegations