
The Mansion House met its deadline to install a leaching field, and there was no attempt to cover up the hotel’s illegal discharge of groundwater into the town’s wastewater treatment plant, Tisbury officials said during a sewer advisory board meeting Thursday.
The officials — select board members Jeff Kristal and Jim Rogers, as well as town administrator Jay Grande — were responding to a Times story that detailed public records and interviews with the former wastewater superintendent David Thompson, who blew the whistle on the illegal discharge. Thompson was fired within two months of his discovery, told he had not met the terms of his probationary period. Former select board member Melinda Loberg and sewer advisory board member John Best backed up Thompson’s allegation that there was pressure — particularly from Kristal — to keep the Mansion House illicit hookup quiet to give Josh Goldstein and his family time to install a new leaching field. Goldstein, a co-owner at the hotel, is also a member of the sewer advisory board.
Kristal, who was asked repeatedly over three days for comment ahead of The Times’ story, chastised Loberg and Best. “I know John Best and Melinda Loberg are entitled to their opinion, but they’re not entitled to their own facts,” he said.
At times during the meeting, Kristal also answered for Goldstein, as if he was defending him before a court. Kristal mentioned Goldstein going before the board of health, and said the issue of increased flow from the hotel was discussed as early as February.
Loberg told The Times Friday that had to do with actual wastewater flow, not the illegal hookup, which had yet to be uncovered.
The Mansion House didn’t get mentioned at a select board meeting until Nov. 17 — six months after the extent of the excessive flow was exposed. The select board acts as the sewer commission, and is ultimately the board that would take action on sewer issues. Thompson’s May 18 report on the Mansion House was addressed to them, and was sent through Grande.
Goldstein recused himself from Thursday’s discussion, though he remained to answer questions.
“We still have no idea when the flow began, and that would have a big impact on going back and looking at records of flow,” Best said of the Mansion House during the meeting.
Jared Meader, the town’s new wastewater superintendent hired in October, went through a detailed explanation of his understanding of the Mansion House issue and the failed leaching field that was supposed to collect the groundwater. When a brief attempt was made to hook back up to that leaching field, it flooded Five Corners with excess water.
Meader did share some new information. The groundwater flow amounts from the hotel ranged from 15,000 gallons per day to as much as 25,000 gallons per day when there was heavy rain, he said.
“In the end, when I came on, I asked questions. I got some answers. We came up with a timeline. Discussions were had. We approved the plans,” he said. The new leaching field was supposed to be completed by mid-December, and was done the first week of the month, he said: “I’m just happy to say it’s done.”
Best was unsatisfied by the response. “I’m basically trying to determine when was it first hooked into the sewer — not how consistently it went into the sewer,” Best said. “If we had a date of when they had a plumber hook it into the sewer, then you could say, ‘OK, the data is somewhat skewed from this date forward.’”
Grande said it’s something that will be looked at. “I think it’s a good question, John. I’m trying to mine into it, too, for obvious reasons. The chair of the select board was very clear in his comment to The Times regarding the matter that at some point there is going to be a look back.”
Rogers again reiterated the town will seek to recoup money from the Mansion House. “I think trying to figure out exactly when this happened is next to impossible. It could have happened when [the hotel] rebuild was done, and it could have happened after that. It really serves no purpose, as far as I’m concerned, to try and chase something we can’t get an accurate figure on,” Rogers said. “As I stated when I was interviewed by [The Times], we’ve talked about this before as a board … the discussion about working at the Mansion House, once they get past the COVID situation, once the economy stabilizes a little bit, working out something with the Mansion House. I don’t think that’s going to be an issue.”
On Friday, Rogers said it could have been in a conversation with Grande outside of a board meeting that he brought up restitution.
Rogers said that Loberg, when she was on the sewer advisory board, kept him and Kristal out of the loop. “Why? I don’t know.”
Reached Friday, Loberg said Kristal attended every sewer advisory board meeting, and Grande attended most of them. Her emails with Thompson often had to deal with what to put on that board’s agenda. She agreed to supply them to The Times.
Rogers again said there was no effort on his part to cover anything up. “It’s not because I’m hiding anything or colluding with the Mansion House,” Rogers said.
“No, that’s me,” Kristal said with a facetious tone.
“There was no effort on my part or anyone else’s part that I know of to try and hide anything,” Rogers said.
“Thank you, Jim,” Kristal said — again interrupting Rogers.
Loberg stood behind her previous comments that Kristal pressured her to keep the Mansion House issue off the sewer advisory board agenda. She refused, and it was discussed briefly May 24. She also stood behind her comments about corruption in Tisbury town government.
“My outrage is that this is doing damage to our town,” she said. “I’m hearing from people saying, Who is going to want to work for Tisbury? I don’t like that that’s our modus operandi.”
Kristal said despite what Best told The Times about the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) not being notified about the Mansion House issue, his recollection is that Brian Dudley of DEP was notified on Sept. 22 during a conference call. “Actually, I remember it, and so does Mark White and Bob Rafferty, because the comment was, `Whoever did that should feel some pain,’” Kristal said.
Despite that notification, Kristal said, there was never any need by the town to alert DEP.
Rafferty, the town’s paid consultant with Environmental Partners, confirmed Kristal’s comments. “We normally don’t inform the DEP on concentration issues,” he said. “They were involved only because they got the complaint from the public. As far as the DEP is concerned, the case is closed.”
Best contacted Dudley on Nov. 3 because he wasn’t getting answers. “That’s the first he heard of it,” Best remembered Dudley saying. “My whole intent was to find out if it was illegal.”
Goldstein didn’t respond to the comments about Mansion House making restitution. He did, once again, say that he learned of the excess flow from groundwater from the former wastewater superintendent. “As far as I know, it’s been going on since Dave Thompson told me about it,” he said. “Since then, we’ve worked to fix it,” he said.
Best pressed: “Someone paid a plumber to make that change, and there’s a bill somewhere. That’s when it was made.”
It was Kristal, not Goldstein, who responded. “I would say a hotel has had a plumber more than once to hook up something like that,” Kristal said. There were some calculations done when Goldstein was before the board of health, he said, that showed Mansion House was about 1,000 gallons per day over its allocated flow. Earlier in the meeting, Kristal said there were “red flags” about increased flow from the hotel as Goldstein sought to add a kitchen. The sewer advisory committee voted not to approve additional flow for that kitchen, Kristal said.
What he didn’t say is that legal wastewater flow is based on water consumption, not what’s going into the treatment plant — something Best pointed out after Kristal was done, and Meader confirmed.
“I don’t know how we’d find out without getting a …” Kristal said without finishing the thought. “We’re not going through their records, to be honest with you.”
Meader said the day before the new leaching field went online, a system was installed briefly, and can be used in the future if the town suspects an illegal hookup.
Goldstein was praised for meeting the deadline for the new leaching field to be installed. But in emails obtained by The Times, Goldstein wrote on May 27 the work would “take a month or so.” In a Sept. 23 email, he blamed a “massive backlog” for his engineer’s delay in developing a plan to do the work.
In a moment of irony, Meader reported another unidentified business was found to have an illegal hookup, on a smaller scale. He said it was corrected that same day. “It wasn’t a large amount of gallonage, but still it was an illicit connection and it needed to stop,” he said.
Not a single sewer advisory board member or select board member asked any questions. Other towns fine sewer users for hooking up sump pumps to a town system.
Meader did not immediately return a call Friday seeking more information on the business, and the extent of the issue of private property owners hooking into the town system illegally.
It was Meader’s first meeting before the board, and it was apparent that he had spoken with Kristal ahead of the Zoom call. On several occasions, Kristal prodded Meader on what to say. And at one point, it was Meader who said Kristal would fill the board in on the Mansion House’s new leaching field.
But Grande jumped in. “I will just let you know that the town staff have been working with the owners of the Mansion House — the Goldsteins, Josh specifically — and we’ve been working toward completion of this project,” he said. “Frankly, it was accomplished on time, and in fully engaging all the departments, including this sewer advisory board, were made aware of this issue very early on. The wastewater staff, as I understand it, met weekly with the DEP, and no doubt this must have been discussed. And further, Reid Silva, albeit we wanted him to move quickly, this was a very complex project as you can see from the photo evidence The Times published. It was a very large infrastructure project, and it required design, conceptual design, preliminary engineering, review, and the timeline for completion was the end of October. It stretched obviously into November, and the letters went forward. Jared came on board and hit the ground running. DEP has been apprised, and satisfied with what’s been accomplished to date … It was a very deliberative process that stretched through the summer, and obviously it’s good to report that it’s come to a conclusion. I can’t imagine how much it cost; it was certainly not insignificant. But it had to be addressed, and from the very get-go the owner knew it, and stepped up to the plate to address it.”
Before Best arrived at the Zoom meeting, Kristal criticized his comments to The Times. “There was no huge cover-up or anything,” Kristal said.
Twice during the meeting, Kristal sought to explain what happened with a June 25 Zoom meeting, calling it an illegal meeting because Loberg had been defeated the previous day. He said Best’s comments to The Times about the Zoom call being deleted were false because all Zoom recordings “auto–drop off” after 30 days.
Christina Colarusso, the board’s new chair, offered a rebuttal. “I asked to gain access to the Zoom meeting from the day after the meeting, and was not given it. By the time I was given the link, it had expired.” She said allowing them to be deleted is a choice.
Sewer fee increases coming
In other business, the board received an update from Meader about potential sewer fee increases to meet a shortfall brought on by the pandemic. He said the town has voted to pay $20,000 for its share of the sewer bill for town buildings.
“To me it’s all about transparency,” he said, noting that the wastewater department is an enterprise fund, meaning its collections have to cover its budget.
Meader said the town is looking to go to a tiered billing system, which requires a public hearing. The purpose is aimed at water conservation, he said.
“Let’s say you use 10,000 gallons; the first 10,000 gallons is going to be set at this rate. Then when you go to the next 10,000 gallons, your rate will increase just for those 10,000 gallons — and so on,” Meader said.
He said there could be discounts, similar to tax breaks, for veterans.
Meader said businesses, like restaurants that serve fried food, could be charged a biochemical charge. In Oak Bluffs, the fee is $1,000 per 25 seats, and $10 for each additional seat after that, Meader said.
“This is an attempt to make up the 30 percent loss we’ve had this year due to COVID,” he said. “I know everyone is feeling the effects, but at the end of the day, I know my electric bill went up 21 percent this year to cover said costs, so unfortunately we have to sort of do the same process to cover. We’ve still got to operate.”
He said the tiered system and the surcharge on restaurants should make up the 30 percent. “Again, we’re an enterprise fund, we’re not in the business of making money, but we have to make sure we can cover our costs, and it might be painful for some people, but it’s the best way to go.”
Goldstein asked what would happen when businesses are back fully open. “God willing, when COVID goes away, and in 18 months your use goes back up, you make up that 30 percent, then what? These rates rarely go down, but I’d like you to prove me wrong.”
Meader said the wastewater department can’t make a profit. “If the state at any time feels we’re charging too much or making these huge volumes every year, they’re going to tell us, they’re going to mandate us, that we have to give it back somehow, and we’re going to have to reduce rates,” he said.
In answer to a question, Meader said the new rates have not yet been set. He said they should be ready before the advisory board’s next meeting.
The board also received a report from Meader on the idea of changing to an elected sewer commission as part of the town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan.
At the outset of the meeting, with some confusion about who was the board’s leader since Loberg was defeated in June, Colarusso was elected the board’s chair. Jeff Pratt, the health board’s representative, was elected vice chair, and Nancy Gilfoy was elected clerk.
Tisbury officials investigating themselves, with a pronouncement that all is fine, is a little like an apple pie crust investigating the filling and proudly declaring, “the whole pie is fine!”
I think they are running scared after this diligent reporting.
It seems there is an increased flow of sewage from at least two selectmen. In nature there are several creatures who will puff up and make loud noises in order to attempt to ward off predation, we are witnessing a new species, ‘selectmancaughtinacticus’!
Perhaps the Attorney General of Massachusetts should take a gander at this situation.
I would just like to know what the terms were that Mr. Thompson had not met during his probationary period? In other words: Why was he fired?
He was fired because he was doing his job. I think Jeff Krystal claim of “no collusion” is just as credible as when Trump said it.
well said ,Scott
I commented elsewhere but I’ll say it again. Goldstein, being on the sewer committee, should have been well aware that his hookup was illegal. He should step down or be removed from the committee over this. You don’t let someone stay on the banking committee after they are caught robbing banks. The fact that he’s still on the committee and being praised is certainly a bad look. I’m sure it was an expensive problem to fix, that’s exactly why he had an illegal hookup instead… You shouldn’t get praised for fixing it after you (probably) spent years making the town pay for it.
I made previous comment Illegally hooking your cable to to tv is a felony
Being well aware is negligent
The firing of an employee at will is no ones business and protects the employee. If you really want to know–ask Thompson. We dont know who produced the illegal hookup. After years of serving as a Selectwoman in Tisbury, all of a sudden she accuses the town of being corrupt; 5 months after her departure? The scattergun accusations without proof are disappointing.
What if you were fired w/o just cause ???? I think you would want moral support!!!!
andrew– in case you haven’t noticed , unfounded accusations are getting to be the norm in this country. It seems pretty easy to declare that there is some kind of massive fraud, present no evidence, and fire anyone who claims there is no fraud.
Some people seem to be ok with corruption at it’s highest level at the highest levels of government. It all trickles down to the local level. If they just say “no cover up, no collusion”, a certain percentage of the people will believe them, and vote them back in next election.
The juxtaposition of a headline about corruption and a photo of the Mansion House is more than unfortunate. It’s unconscionable. The story concerns questionable practices on the part of Tisbury’s officials, not about the good folks who own the hotel and were only following the town’s directions. The Times as a community resource should not appear hellbent to rip the community apart.
“not about the good folks who own the hotel and were only following the town’s directions.” Really? What do you base this on? Hopefully more than their say so. It is fanciful to believe that someone hooked up an illegal sewer line in the basement of their hotel and the owners had no idea about it. It is even more ridiculous when we know that illegal hookup saved them at minimum $49k and most likely much much more. There was a crime committed here, that much is clear. This needs to be investigated and people responsible need to be held accountable.
Well said RSP, I couldn’t have said it better! Mr. Goldstein not only owns and manages the hotel, but, serves on the sewer board after being appointed to it by Rogers, Krystal, and Gomez…. if you are on the committee you must know the rules, and one would think as a good business person, follow them!
It’s unconscionable to think the owners of the inn didn’t know they had to hire a plumber to solve this issue. Oh , and one of them served on the sewer board? And we are to believe they have no recollection of hiring a plumber in order to save themselves tens of thousands of dollars? I think there’s no better definition of corruption then what transpired here.
I think Dave Thompson should retire it seems the going price for fired w/o just cause is 400,000
One can be fired with cause, in which case pre negotiated terms can be inoperative. One can be fired at will in which case the fired employee retains his right to his agreed termination compensation and is usually paid. If one is fired with cause and has a termination agreement, he/she can adjudicate and seek redress. It usually goes to mediation and often you get 50 percent of what was agreed to before hire. If you seek a court date and win you get everything. If you lose in court you will pay the legal fees of the employer. Many people negotiate with the employer and avoid court which can get ugly. If one seeks judicial adjudication then they go through ”discovery” and lots of unpleasant things turn up that can sully both employer and employee. The person in question may not have had a termination agreement, OR if he did it was paid nevertheless. One should not make comparisons to others terminated. Each case is different.
The Zoom meeting recording is deleted after 30 days?! Really?! This from an island whose history-minded people can produce records from hundreds of years ago?
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