Falmouth Turbines 2017 Taxpayers Choking On Litigation Costs

The Falmouth wind turbines by the end of 2017 will be expensive trophies for outside law firms hired by the Town of Falmouth for the last six plus years.

A six day trial in Barnstable Superior Court involving the Town of Falmouth and its own semi-judicial board the Zoning Board of Appeals and others over its two commercial megawatt wind turbines ended November 23, 2016. This past Friday December 30, 2016 all the appropriate final litigation paper work was filed. The case was originally filed in January of 2014 on the fast track.

Falmouth taxpayers are paying for three years of litigation on this case alone.

The case is now in the hands of Superior Court Judge Cornelius J. Moriarty. The results of the case could be known in a matter of days.

In July of 2016 the Falmouth Select Board announced that the board had voted in a closed door session to authorize Town Manager Julian Suso, Town Counsel Frank Duffy and the town's insurer, Massachusetts Interlocal Insurance Association, to begin 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 announcement alone shows the Select Board is aware of all the violations and you have to ask how many times can the Select Board go into mediation and then renege on agreements.

Oddly the mediation announcement made by the Falmouth Select Board made no mention of contacting the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.

The MassCEC wind turbine director Nils Bolgen in 2013 changed the setbacks to wind turbines to a minimum of 2000 feet admitting the Falmouth wind turbines were installed Ad Hoc. The MassCEC is acutely aware of all the "mistakes" made building the ill fated Falmouth turbines and the avoidance of filing special permits.

The Falmouth Select Board owes its allegiance to the Falmouth taxpayers not a state agency with a marred history of taking the health and property rights of citizens for a wind turbine renewable energy agenda gone horribly wrong.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center in 2012 had helped finance with taxpayer funds one year of wind turbine negotiations with all parties involved. The purpose of the Falmouth Wind Turbine Option Analysis Process (WTOP) was to engage in an open, transparent, and collaborative exploration of a way to resolve the poor placement of the wind turbines. During the negotiations the town hid a noise warning letter dated August 2010 from the manufacturer of the turbines that they generate a dangerous 110 decibels of noise.The cost of negotiations was $139,000.00. All those involved in the installation of Falmouth Wind I are aware of the noise warning then and today. This was a betrayal of trust between the Falmouth Select Board and local residents affected by the turbines.

The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center formerly known as the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative were the original owners of Falmouth Wind I and had all the Vestas V 82 specifications and should have known the turbines were formerly known as Neg Micon NM 82 turbines that generate a chest pounding 110 decibels of noise.

In April of 2013 the MassCEC sent the Town of Falmouth a memo admitting mistakes were made in preliminary acoustic noise tests prior for the construction of Falmouth Wind I. The memo did not explain the acoustic noise tests done for Falmouth Wind II because there was none done and no preliminary tests for Wind I and Wind II operating together. The installations of the Falmouth wind turbines have a long history of "omissions" and "mistakes."

The special permit process would have required additional hearings and notifications to residents around the wind turbines. The turbines would never have been built near residential homes why else did the town hide noise warnings ?

The original engineering firm hired to install Falmouth Wind I actually specified the town would need to file special permit 240 -166. A decision was made by a town official or group of officials to ignore the special permit process. The Select Board continues to ask taxpayers to finance multiple law firms and appeal lawsuits they can not win.

The entire wind turbine health and financial fiasco can be placed on the individual or individuals who decided not to follow the special permit process. No matter who made the decision to avoid the special permit process the Falmouth Town Charter sets the Select Board as the chief executives and policy making board of the town.

Who advised town officials to avoid the special permit process ?

Town officials gambled they could take one million dollars from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and avoid the special permit process. Falmouth taxpayers will be and are paying the gambling debt for years to come.

On November 7 of 2013 Town Counsel Frank K. Duffy and former select board member Rebecca Moffitt, representing the town, came to an agreement in Barnstable Superior Court over the wind turbines. Barnstable Superior Court Judge Christopher J. Muse was the judge in the case. One week later the Select Board disregarded the agreement a slap in the face to the courts. A betrayal of trust this time the Select Board and the Massachusetts Court System.

The "global settlement" term for mediation used by the Falmouth Select Board is a term that is designed to impress taxpayers in order to make them buy into something and invest more money. Taxpayers have to ask how many times has the Select Board reneged on mediation ? Would you believe anything they say about mediation ? The Select Board over the years has changed members maybe it is time to go back and review how many times the board has failed to negotiate.

The litigation fees today have come close to exceeding the original purchase price of Falmouth Wind I and by the end of 2017 the fees will come close to the original purchase price of both turbines.

Also of note most people in town were led to believe the ARRA, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, stimulus funds to build Falmouth Wind II was a grant and the town had nothing to lose. The town says they are not sure if the money used to build Falmouth Wind II was a loan or a grant. As it turns out the money was a zero percent interest loan from the Massachusetts Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF). Your paying back a loan on federal funds that were granted to the State of Massachusetts your federal tax dollars.
At the Falmouth November 2016 town meeting $460,000.00 was approved for litigation. The town is spending up to $300,000.00 on litigation every six months. Immediately after assuring Town Meeting Members in November the town was going to win all the lawsuits the town lost one million dollars in a conservation law suit two weeks later and is facing another one in the Spring.

Falmouth residents have become Lemmings jumping off cliffs over the wind turbines following poor leadership at the Select Board. Some think its sad but the attorneys are making millions off the multitude of litigation cases. In fact the only ones making money are the attorneys. It appears the legal advice received by the town is flawed or the advice is in the best interest of the lawyers or the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and its broken wind turbine agenda of 2000 megawatts of wind turbine power by the year 2020.

For over six years town officials have said the wind turbine lawsuits are a "slam dunk." Admitting and learning from failure is the only way to achieve success not to continue beating taxpayers financially until further notice. Falmouth is looking at years of more trials and appeals by the Select Board

The town hid the August 2010 noise warning letter, MassDEP notified the town the turbines break state noise regulations, MassCEC in a memo admitted acoustic noise mistakes, 2005 KEMA noise map shows decibel levels to high in neighborhoods and Vestas emails show the turbines are too loud.

The town avoided Special Permit process 240-166 because they had hidden the information the turbines generate 110 decibels of noise. The special permit process would have required additional abutter notifications in which case the turbines would never have been built.

Going into 2017 Falmouth taxpayers still have not figured it out ?

Falmouth taxpayers have become Lemmings jumping off cliffs over the wind turbines following poor leadership at the Select Board financing hundreds of thousands on up to eleven litigation cases over the wind turbines