Falmouth "Slam Dunk" Mega Million Executive Board Meeting December 19, 2016

Town Council Frank Duffy ( file photo)

The Falmouth Select board will meet on December 19, 2016 at 6 P.M. in Executive Session

The meeting will be held in the Select Board meeting room.

First Discussion:

A Joint Meeting of the Board of Selectmen and Conservation Commission to discuss pending litigation, Smyth v Town of Falmouth and Conservation Commission.

Falmouth must pay nearly $1 million to a local property owner for causing shoreline property loss of 92 percent of its value due to stringent regulation by the Conservation Commission and the panel's refusal to grant a variance from those rules. There is a second conservation lawsuit schedule for 2017 with another land owner

Second Discussion:

The Wind Turbines.

In July of 2016 it was announced that the Falmouth Select Board had voted in executive session to authorize Town Manager Julian Suso, Town Counsel Frank Duffy and the town's insurer, Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association, to start mediation with all the parties in pending wind turbine litigation to resolve outstanding legal actions, which include claims of zoning violations, emotional distress, nuisance and property devaluation.

The Monday night, July 25, 2016 announcement by Board of Selectmen Chairman Douglas H. Jones according to multiple news media sources did not include the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center

The town has been in two large mediation events with wind turbine neighbors over the years one in which they (the town) hid noise documents through one year of meetings and the other the Select Board renaged on a deal after making agreements in front of a Superior Court judge.

Fool me one time, shame on you- Fool me twice, can't put the blame on you-Fool me three times, you know the rest !

In 2012 approximately $139,000.00 in tax payer funds went towards negotiations over wind turbines.

The meetings were held over a one year period through the WTOP .The purpose of the Falmouth Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) is to engage in an open, transparent, and collaborative exploration of the range of options for the long-term future of the Town’s two Wind Turbines – Wind I and Wind II.

The Town of Falmouth during the WTOP negotiations hid a noise warning letter from August of 2010. The letter is from Vestas the manufacturer of the town owned wind turbines. The letter warns the turbines are twice as loud as those used in noise model tests.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center admitted in 2013 "mistakes" in the original acoustic noise tests

On Nov. 7, 2013 in court Town Counsel Frank Duffy and Select Board member Rebecca Moffitt agreed to reduce the two 1.65-megawatt turbines' operation from 16 hours a day to 12 hours. The pact was announced before Barnstable Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Muse.

One week later the Select board rejected the agreement.

The town is facing multiple wind turbine lawsuits

Recently at semi annual town meeting November 15, 2016 Falmouth Town Council Frank Duffy blamed the Massachusetts court system for the need for $ 440,000.00 in additional litigation expenses expressing that the courts are holding up litigation. The town needs to prepare for court multiple times.

The $440,000.00 included $260,000.00 for more wind turbine litigation.

Falmouth Town Meeting meets semi annually asking for up to $300,000.00 every six months for litigation fees.

You can see Town Council Frank Duffy on Falmouth local community TV during Falmouth Town Meeting

See Article 18 request for $ 440,000.00 for litigation at 23 to 27 minute mark-- $ 260,000.00 for wind turbinesFalmouth Local Community TV -- 23 to 27 minute mark - Courts holding up wind turbine litigation

http://www.fctv.org/v3/vod/tow...

The neighbors in Falmouth describe the wind turbine noise as torture from lack of sleep

The Town of Falmoth lost almost one million dollars last week in a conservation lawsuit and recently approved $ 440,000.00 for additional lawsuit litigation. At town meeting the members were assured the town had a good chance of wining the conservation lawsuit as well as all the other lawsuits including the wind turbine lawsuits

The town in addition to all these expenses has a Town Council Frank Duffy, Associate Town Counsel Patricia A. Harris and Paralegal Kimberly Fish. The location of the law office appears to be at a private property location not the town hall.

For years local politicians have been professing the wind turbine lawsuits are a sure slam dunk were wrong.

Citizens don't give up their health and property rights in the United States for a commercial wind turbine agenda gone horribly wrong

What looked like a sure "slam dunk" a few years ago looks today like the Falmouth taxpayers are looking at mega millions in litigation and apologies to up to 200 residential home owners.

Please keep in mind Falmouth Town Meeting Members have appropriated your tax funds to all this litigation and the town did vote not to take down the wind turbines.

This year looks like the year Falmouth is going to get a lump of coal in their Christmas stocking

Questions remain over the ARRA stimulus funds used to build Falmouth Wind II is it a grant or a loan