How did a Warwick councilwoman acquire land next to her house? The neighbors have questions

WARWICK — In the heart of bustling Oakland Beach, a vacant lot sits next to the home of longtime Warwick City Councilwoman Donna Travis.

For years, it's resembled an extension of her backyard. Her husband, William Travis, parks his truck there next to a red garden shed.

Until fairly recently, the 0.07-acre parcel belonged to the Oakland Beach Real Estate Owners Association (OBREOA), a neighborhood organization in which both of the Travises have held leadership roles.

In 2021, a quitclaim deed was filed with the city, stating that OBREOA was giving the land — which has an assessed value of $65,700 — to the Travises.

Now, the neighborhood association's new leaders are calling that transfer into question, saying the process wasn't aboveboard.

Members were never notified or given a vote on the matter, going against the association's bylaws, the group's new president, Deb Shatley, and vice president, Angela Stamoulos, say. And, they claim the individual who signed off on the paperwork had no authority to act on behalf of the organization.

"There was no vote, no notification, no discussion at all — with the board leadership, or with the overall membership," Stamoulos said.

But William and Donna Travis, in separate conversations with The Providence Journal, said the people raising questions about the land transfer are newcomers and out-of-towners who bought property in Oakland Beach. They insist everything was done legally, and that they were deeded the property in exchange for helping pay off back taxes.

"The person who contacted you is a no-good person. She’s a troublemaker," William Travis said. "She’s from Massachusetts. She don’t even live here." He suggested that he would take legal action against the individual who he believed had reached out to The Journal, who he would only identify as "the broad with the big mouth."

It was unclear whom William Travis was referring to. The Journal learned about the land transfer from an anonymous tip back in February and reached out to Stamoulos, who said at the time that she was not prepared to speak publicly.

"I'm not giving back the property," Travis said. "It’s not happening."

Donna Travis has been under scrutiny over the lot before

Property records indicate that the parcel in question, 735 Oakland Beach Ave., was owned by the neighborhood association for decades. There was a structure on it previously, but by 1981 it had fallen into disrepair and was demolished.

Since then, the lot — located across from New England Lemonade and a short distance from the beach — has remained vacant.

In 2017, a Warwick resident lodged two ethics complaints against Donna Travis, who has served on the Warwick City Council for nearly 30 years. Among other things, he alleged that the councilwoman was using the land as her personal property. Because it was technically owned by OBREOA and deemed tax-exempt, he said, she was able to avoid paying taxes.

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Donna Travis ultimately agreed to pay a $1,200 fine to the state Ethics Commission for a series of violations, including her failure to list leadership roles in OBREOA on financial disclosure forms. The Ethics Commission did not issue a ruling on her alleged use of the land.

Later, for what appear to be unrelated reasons, Warwick officials determined that the property no longer qualified for tax-exempt status. In 2019, OBREOA began receiving tax bills for 735 Oakland Beach Ave.

City records show that in 2019 and 2020, the organization failed to pay the property taxes that it owed on the parcel. Then, in February 2021, William and Donna Travis spent $905.78 to settle the 2019 tax bill and paid another $100.80 toward the 2020 tax bill.

A few months later, OBREOA paid the remaining $728.70 that was owed from 2020. (The association also paid the taxes that it owed in 2021.) In August 2021, the controversial quitclaim deed was filed, stating that OBREOA was giving the land to the Travises at no cost.

Shatley and Stamoulos weren't on the board at the time; they were installed as president and vice president this winter. They had no idea the land had changed hands until they noticed that they hadn't received a tax bill for the property, they said.

Neighborhood association's new leaders say bylaws weren't followed

As Donna Travis tells it, the neighborhood association agreed to deed the land over to her and her husband after she paid the back taxes, which saved the property from a tax sale.

But Shatley and Stamoulos say that the proper procedure wasn't followed. Under OBREOA's bylaws, no property that the organization owns can be "sold or conveyed" without a majority vote at a meeting. Members must be notified about the meeting 30 days in advance, "by post card type notice."

None of that happened, Shatley and Stamoulos said. They provided The Journal with meeting minutes from May, July, August, October and November 2021, none of which mention any votes or discussions about the property. (In some months, meetings were canceled because of COVID, Stamoulos said.)

The Travises insisted that a vote did take place, but said they didn't know the exact date because it was two years ago.

Both claimed that the people taking issue with the transfer weren't there because they don't live in Warwick full-time and didn't regularly attend meetings. Stamoulos disputes that, saying that each of the meetings that took place in 2021 was attended by at least one of the four people who now serve as the association's officers.

Asked about the lack of documentation, Donna Travis said that the board's secretary failed to take notes or mention the discussion in the minutes. She acknowledged that there had been no advance notice to members, but said that she had no way of knowing who was an active member and needed to be notified.

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When a reporter pointed out that organizations typically have mailing lists to inform their members about upcoming meetings, Donna Travis said that she didn't want the delinquent taxes mentioned on a meeting agenda, because then the problem would become public knowledge and the association would look "vulnerable." She claimed that there had been a "witch hunt" to find a section of the bylaws that she had violated.

Association says woman who signed the deed didn't have the authority

The second issue: The deed transferring the property was signed by Beverlee Sturdhal, a longtime OBREOA member who had been receiving the tax bills for the property. But annual reports filed with the secretary of state's office indicate that Sturdhal was no longer the registered agent for the association — Donna Travis was.

Sturdhal, who is in her 90s, also isn't listed as an officer or director in OBREOA's annual report for 2021. In other words, the group's new leaders say, she had no authority to sign off on the transfer.

Donna Travis acknowledged that Sturdhal did not hold the position of treasurer or registered agent in 2021, but said that she believed that Sturdhal still held a seat on the board. She said that it was "natural" to have Sturdhal sign the papers, since Sturdhal was one of the "original people" who had been part of the organization for decades, and was the one who had been receiving the tax bills for the property.

Attempts to reach Sturdhal by phone were unsuccessful, and no one appeared to be home when a reporter knocked and left a note at her door.

Meeting to hash out a deal doesn't go as planned

Shatley and Stamoulos say they hired an attorney to conduct a title search and make sure they weren't overlooking any justification for the transfer. They then held a meeting with OBREOA's full board — including Donna Travis, who's still a trustee — in hopes that the matter could be addressed privately and wouldn't become a blemish on her record.

"Her entire life has been in service to the community," Stamoulos said. "I don't want to take that away from her."

But the meeting didn't go as they'd hoped: Donna Travis reportedly said that she felt she legally owned the property because she'd paid the back taxes, and that her husband needed a place to park his truck.

According to a written account of the conversation that was emailed to Donna Travis in late March and later provided to The Journal, the councilwoman said that she paid the back taxes in order to ensure that 735 Oakland Beach Ave. wasn't purchased by someone from out of state. She also allegedly told the group that she felt it was too much of a hassle to call a special meeting and send a written notice to all OBREOA members, as the organization's bylaws required.

Since that meeting several months ago, Shatley and Stamoulos said, there's been no response from Donna Travis.

"We were just hoping that the land was going to be deeded back," Stamoulos said. "There was no need to go any further."

Give the land back? 'It's not happening'

Asked if that account was accurate, Donna Travis said that she didn't use the word "hassle." She also said that she and her husband had a long-standing agreement that they could park on the property in exchange for maintaining it and plowing the snow for years, "while these people were sitting over there in goddamn Massachusetts."

"I cut the grass, I cut the trees, I did everything," William Travis said. "I paid people to come here and cut the trees down. Them people never came and cut one speck of grass, never did nothing. Now they think they’re going to claim it? It’s not happening."

After maintaining the property for 45 years, he could have claimed it by adverse possession, he added. He told The Journal that “new people” were only taking issue with the fact that 735 Oakland Beach Ave. had changed hands because they wanted to sell it.

Shatley and Stamolous do have other visions for the property — it could become a community garden or welcome center of sorts, or a place to hold the neighborhood's annual plant sale, they said.

But the two women say that they're speaking up — and are prepared to take legal action if necessary — primarily because they have a legal and fiduciary duty to report anything that appears improper.

"We can’t be seen as being complicit and part of this transfer," Stamoulos said. "So we just need it to go on the record that the association wants the land back."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Oakland Beach neighborhood association calls foul on property transfer