The Housatonic Rest of River Municipal Committee took its first steps on October 3 to dissolve the group’s $1.5 million monetary reserve fund, a disbursement that will require several steps, including a final accounting of the fund and approval by each town’s select board that the fund be terminated.
Backstory
Created by an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) in 2013, the Committee is charged with pushing for increased EPA cleanup of the Housatonic River following decades of General Electric Company depositing now-banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the waterway from its Pittsfield plant. The Rest of River is the third segment of the river to be remediated and stretches from the confluence of its east and west branches at Pittsfield to Connecticut.
A 2020 agreement, a permit exacted between the Rest of River’s five Berkshire towns—Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox, Sheffield, and Stockbridge—as well as GE and the EPA, provided that an Upland Disposal Facility (UDF) would be established in Lee. Additionally, each town would receive monies from GE, with Lee and Lenox receiving about $25 million each, the largest financial amount. Lee was represented in that agreement by its former Select Board members.
Releasing the funds
The five participating towns in the Committee contributed funds to the reserve totaling $1.5 million for legal advocacy, consulting, and other necessary endeavors. According to Stockbridge representative Stephen Shatz, GE will first notify its escrow agent that the company is satisfied that the escrow terms have been completed. The towns must then provide notice as to the specific amounts to be distributed, less expenses incurred to administer the program, unpaid expenses, and other deductions. “We should come as close as possible when we send our notice to the escrow agent for the amounts which are then due,” he said.
However, the group discussed when that notice should be given as Shatz said a 90-day appeal window to escalate an appeal of a July 25 ruling that would have forced a review of the 2020 plan is still pending, with those parties having the right to request an extension of that date. Lee representative Joshua Bloom said the applicants to that appeal stated that they will not move forward, but Shatz replied that those entities still have the right to continue the case, blurring a hard deadline to make the judgment final.
A unanimous decision was reached to recommend to the select boards of each town for their vote that those members dissolve the Commission’s monetary reserve fund. The minutes of the meeting will be circulated among the five towns so each select board votes on the same motion, said Chair Tom Matuszko.
Terminating the Committee
Pursuant to the IGA, the Committee was created for only three years, and that deadline is set to expire in early December, unless members vote to extend it. With Lee representative Robert “Bob” Jones opposed, in August, the Committee began steps to preserve its right to extend the group’s term past 2023.
Bloom pushed the Committee as to whether the dissolution of the reserve fund meant members would also approve Lee’s request to terminate the Committee but came up empty handed.
On September 19, the Lee Select Board approved leaving the Rest of River Municipal Committee, effective December 31, and sent a letter to the Committee demanding its share of the escrow account pursuant to the 2020 agreement, plus interest, and its portion of the group’s monetary reserve funds, less contributions the town owed to the group from 2020 to the present.
“I think the vote to terminate the reserve fund sends a significant message about the future of this Committee,” Shatz said. “If there are no resources to continue the work of the Committee, then I would suggest to you that you have heard a distinct interest in terminating its work. But, having said that, there are those of us who feel bound to have a discussion with our respective boards of selectmen before we commit ourselves to doing that in public.”
Wood said she has already spoken with her Select Board and that it is interested in continuing the discussion as to whether the IGA will terminate. She said a vote by the Select Board to terminate the reserve fund “is completely separate and different” from any other vote, including terminating the Committee. “I would separate the two [votes] and not try to commingle them,” Wood said. “I don’t think this vote says anything more than we are voting to recommend to our Select Boards that the monetary reserve fund be closed out.”
At Jones’s request, members tabled discussion of the town’s demands that included replacing Matuszko as chair and the termination of its participation in the Committee.
At the meeting, members unanimously approved legal expenses to assist the dissolution of the reserve fund, including $10,000 to the law firm of Mirick, O’Connell, DeMallie & Lougee LLP, for the process and information about the dissolution, and $5,000 to the Committee’s legal counsel, Seeger Weiss LLP, to aid GE’s escrow transaction.
During the meeting, the Committee also:
- Approved submitting consultant comments to the EPA on the UDF Pre-Design Investigation Data Summary Report and related documents for the proposed UDF in Lee; and
- Declined to release prior Executive Session minutes in Open Session as well as reconvene in public for a vote following Executive Session at Bloom’s request to do so.
