Martha Coakley VS CLC-CVEC

Please provide a copy of this correspondence and attachments to the town or county counsel; the town or county administrator; and all members of the Board of Selectmen.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Bibler <ebibler@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 2:58 PM
Subject: Public Records Request for Communications from Cape Light Compact to the Office of the Attorney General
To: James Stetson <james.stetson@state.ma.us>, Nathan Forster <nathan.forster@state.ma.us>
Cc: Jesse Reyes <jesse.reyes@state.ma.us>, Sandy Merrick <sandra.merrick@state.ma.us>, Martha Coakley <jacklyn.varela@state.ma.us>, Maggie Downey <mdowney@barnstablecounty.org>, Jeffrey Bernstein <jbernstein@bck.com>, Joyce Flynn <jflynn@capelightcompact.org>


Mr. James Stetson
Assistant Attorney General

Mr. Nathan Forster
Assistant Attorney General

Office of Ratepayer Advocacy
Office of the Attorney General
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

July 21, 2014

Re: Public Records Request for Copy of the Communication Dated July 11, 2014 From the Cape Light Compact to the Office of the Attorney General

Dear Mr. Stetson and Mr. Forster,

In the Response of the Cape Light Compact dated July 18, 2014, under DPU 14-69, to the Attorney General’s second set of information requests, the legal counsel for the Cape Light Compact has included the following statement in a Preface to the Response:

As a preface to its responses, the Compact again maintains that the purpose of this
proceeding is to review revisions to its Aggregation Plan that memorialize institutional
changes that have occurred since the Department’s initial approval in D.T.E. 00-47.
Pursuant to Department precedent, the scope of its review is limited to insuring the revised
plan is consistent with G.L. c. 164, §134(a) and relevant Department regulations. D.P.U.
12-124, Order at 15-29 (reiterating standard of review and declining Attorney General’s
request to revise to include a review of the power supply price charged by a municipal
aggregator); D.P.U. 14-69, Memorandum, dated May 29, 2014 (noting purpose of
proceeding and Department’s scope of review). The Compact will continue to make every
effort to ensure that this proceeding remains within that limited scope.

Having said that, the Compact respectfully reminds the Office of the Attorney General, as
it has previously stated by telephone, in a meeting with representatives of the Attorney
General and in a letter dated July 11, 2014, it is willing to continue to meet with the Office
of the Attorney General and provide information and/or documents on matters that are
outside the scope of this proceeding, including any information that relates to a request by the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates relative to the Compact.

I respectfully request that the Office of the Attorney General provide me with a copy of the aforementioned letter dated July 11, 2014 from CLC to the AG, along with any response to this letter that has been provided by the AG to CLC -- and any subsequent communications from CLC to the AG -- on this same topic that have not been placed on file in the DPU File Room under this docket 14-69. 

I would appreciate it if you would provide me with copies of all documents in electronic form, to the extent possible.

I would appreciate it if you would advise me if the AG has accepted CLC's invitation to meet privately, in lieu of providing information to the AG in the public forum of the proceedings under DPU 14-69, and if such a meeting has already been held, or scheduled.

I would also appreciate it if the Office of the Attorney General would offer its opinion as to whether any advantage would accrue to the public through any agreement by the AG to allow CLC to keep any information that CLC proposes to provide out of the public domain and out of the DPU filing room -- instead of insisting that CLC respond publicly to the AG's Information Requests, as stated. 

I respectfully remind the AG that many members of the public and many public officials, including the Special Committee of Inquiry on CLC and CVEC and the Barnstable County Assembly, have been laboring for over 3 1/2 years to bring some meaningful transparency to the many of the very same issues that are addressed in the AG's FIRST and SECOND SETS of Information Requests under DPU 14-69 -- virtually all of which the Cape Light Compact has now rebuffed.

Finally, I wonder if any representative of the Office of the Attorney General would care to comment on the assertions of CLC officials, CLC counsel and other CLC defenders and apologists, such as Barnstable County Commissioner Sheila Lyons (a self-professed "advocate" of CLC) in testimony before the Assembly of Delegates on Wednesday, July 16, 2014  (see Minute 38 of the video record for Commissioner Lyons comments here: http://new.livestream.com/barnstablecounty/assembly), to the effect that the Cape Light Compact is an innocent bystander that has been caught in the crossfire of a bureaucratic "turf war" between the Attorney General and the DPU during "a political year."

Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.

Eric Bibler

Cc: Office of the Attorney General
Cc: Office of the Inspector General
Cc: Barnstable County Commissioners
Cc: Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates
Cc: Cape Light Compact Governing Board
Cc: Cape Light Compact Members