AN INSIDE LOOK
by Bill Gouveia
When the Kraft Organization, owners of
Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place, announced they were pulling out of
"negotiations" with the Town of Foxboro, it seemed like a negative
for all parties. But this may be a good thing,
especially for the town.
You see, the term
"negotiations" has not fit this situation for some time now. The truth is Foxboro stopped "negotiating"
with the Kraft Group when selectmen decided to not even allow the presentation
of a casino proposal. That was not
negotiating - that was dictating. Since
that time, Foxboro officials have adopted that as their official policy.
Maybe it's because it worked with
the casino. It helped get one selectman booted
out, one elected, one reelected, and brought forth a tremendous election
turnout. The selectmen who prevented
discussion were certainly riding high afterwards. Perhaps some of them decided this "get
tough with Kraft" policy was the politically wise way to handle all
dealings with the town’s single largest taxpayer.
So since that time they have been
tough. They stalled talks with the Kraft
Group over future development at Patriot Place for well over a year. They formed at least two different
negotiating teams, and then disbanded them.
They insisted on negotiating with Kraft officials in public, and then
canceled several meetings with little notice.
Some publicly stated they will not make any agreements with Kraft until
they get what they think they are owed from the last negotiations. Unfortunately, their argument they are owed
anything is based on what their former attorney called “a social contract”.
They failed to adopt a plan put
forth by their own attorney placing their professional administrator Kevin
Paicos in charge of negotiating a deal which they and/or Town Meeting would
have ultimately approved or rejected.
They claim to do this in the interest of "transparency" for
their citizens.
Recently the Kraft Group became
tired of the political posturing. They
decided "negotiating" in this manner was a waste of everyone’s time
and effort. So they pulled out, saying for
now they will restrict the future development of their property to what they
can do without "help" from the selectmen or other officials.
This might cost the Kraft
organization a chance at more liquor licenses.
It might prevent them from expanding their retail space along Route
1. It may well restrict their ability to
create additional profits from their business interests there.
But it will undoubtedly cost the
Town of Foxboro the additional tax revenue they would have received with any
expansion. It also eliminates the
opportunity for the town to try and get back the $7.5 million the Kraft Group
pledged for the building of a sewer plant last time, which Town Meeting turned
down when they decided not to build it.
That is a huge potential loss for Foxboro's property taxpayers as well
as their current and future sewer ratepayers.
The money has gone away, but the pressing need remains.
Selectmen and Town Administrator
expressed surprise over the Kraft Group decision to no longer participate in
the painstakingly difficult process.
Paicos said the board had been ready to once again reconstitute a
bargaining committee. He also reiterated
the selectmen were right to insist the alleged and dubious terms of the first
agreement be honored before any new one is created.
So now there are no
“negotiations”. There are no talks. There are no expansion plans, at least none
being discussed publicly. There is no
$7.5 million for sewer construction, nor the current possibility of obtaining
it. There is no public/private
collaboration on creating a brighter future for a wonderful community.
There is just the selectmen and
their toughness. They really showed that
Kraft Group who’s boss, right?
Yep, that’s total transparency. The citizens of Foxboro can clearly see that
absolutely nothing is happening. Their
elected leaders have created a situation where they isolated themselves from
their largest property taxpayer. It will
now fall to Foxboro’s residential taxpayers to shoulder the burden of
unavoidable future costs. And the
philanthropic Kraft Organization might be a little less so inclined in the
future.
Clearly, this was a good thing. The selectmen have gotten their wish and
created total “transparency”.
Now everyone in town can hopefully see
right through them.
Bill
Gouveia is a local columnist and can be emailed at aninsidelook@aol.com
and followed on Twitter at #billinsidelook.
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