The Coastal Resources Management Council -- a panel whose compositon is in dispute -- could decide tomorrow night whether to allow a developer to extend his piers further into Block Island's Great Salt Pond.

01:00 AM EST on Monday, February 27, 2006

BY PETER B. LORD
Journal Environment Writer

If you are expecting to see a cogent debate of the state's public trust doctrine or loving descriptions of Block Island's beauty when the Coastal Resources Management Council finally meets tomorrow night to settle the Champlin's Marina expansion controversy, you just might be disappointed.

The coastal council scheduled the meeting in the auditorium-size chamber at Narragansett Town Hall to handle a big crowd. It starts at 6 p.m.

But it appears that it might be several hours before the council will be ready to vote.

First there will be a "hearing within a hearing," during which Champlin's lawyer, Robert D. Goldberg, will seek to persuade two council members to recuse themselves because of comments they made last fall favoring a smaller expansion plan.

No one knows how long this initial hearing will last, or what the outcome will be.

Next there will be an opportunity to present new evidence. After 23 hearings and 3,075 pages of evidence, one might suggest there couldn't possibly be anything new.

But The Block Island Times reported last week that New Shoreham Harbormaster Chris Willi is working to establish a privately-owned mooring field just outside Block Island's Old Harbor. Willi was a key witness in the town's case against turning 4 acres of public waters in Great Salt Pond over to Champlin's for its private use.

A Block Island Times editorial said Willi's private proposal "betrayed the town's position and has conflicts of interest. . . . Imagine the field day the Champlin's lawyer could have with that."

(Goldberg said Friday that he was aware of the Willi project, but wasn't sure whether he would bring it up tomorrow because he didn't think much of Willi's initial testimony anyway.)

Finally, both sides will be given the opportunity to make legal arguments to the full council.

Donald Packer, one of the town's lawyers, said Friday that he was still waiting for coastal council lawyer Brian Goldman to set time limits. But Packer and the other lawyers representing the town's interests plan to finish within an hour.

All of those developments provide complications for the coastal council, an agency that has been sharply questioned during the last year because of how it wields its broad powers over Rhode Island's coastline:

Several of its members last summer cast wildly unpopular votes to allow development of a lot in Narragansett deemed to be 97 percent wetlands.

The Conservation Law Foundation has begun watching the agency's every move and has filed complaints alleging violations of the state Open Meetings Law and improper rule-making.

Block Island residents have been upset about the council's insistence on regulating an expansion that is hotly opposed by a wide margin on the island.

And the council's future is still up in the air because the state Senate has refused to approve new council members nominated by Governor Carcieri. Only 10 council members are left to vote tomorrow, and 4 of them are serving expired terms. The full council should have 16 members.

Coastal Council Chairman Michael Tikoian said he was well aware that many people are interested in the hearing's outcome.

"I think this is extremely significant for our agency," Tikoian said last week. He said the case is important because of all the attention it has garnered, because of the public's concern about water quality after the Narragansett Bay fish-kill three years ago, and because so many other projects are in the wings.

"There is certainly a huge amount of interest," said Cynthia Giles, head of the Conservation Law Foundation's Rhode Island branch and a lawyer who has worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "I'm hearing intense discussions, especially in South County. People are hopping mad. And a lot of people are drawing connections between the Narragansett wetlands case and this case."

Much of what happens tomorrow night stems from an emotional meeting in October at East Providence City Hall.

The four subcommittee members who heard all the Champlin's testimony met to recommend a decision to the full council. Paul Lemont, former city manager in East Providence, chaired the subcommittee.

Champlin's piers now extend 370 feet into Great Salt Pond. The marina wants to add 4,000 feet of piers that would extend 240 feet farther into the pond. The town wants no expansion.

Lemont said he felt there was no right or wrong in the proposal; he would have been comfortable voting either way.

But he proposed limiting the expansion to a compromise once considered by the town -- 100 feet farther out. He also proposed a first for Rhode Island -- a $50,000 fee for use of the public trust waters.

The other three subcommittee members insisted on a compromise more beneficial to Champlin's. They wanted to let the marina go out 170 feet.

Block Islanders are concerned because the same three approved the Narragansett wetlands building project last year. They are Gerald P. Zarrella Sr., a builder who lives much of the year on Block Island; Jerry Sahagian, a Narrragansett Realtor; and Thomas Ricci, a lawyer.

At that meeting, Chairman Tikoian and David Abedon, another council member, told reporters they favored a smaller expansion.

Ever since, Goldberg has asserted that those comments show they prejudged the case, and he has sought to have them recuse themselves.

In response to requests from Goldberg, Michael Rubin, the special assistant attorney general representing Tikoian, turned over documents showing that Tikoian has recused himself from 16 other cases in the last few years.

Many of the recusals were because the applicant's lawyer, former House Speaker Joseph DeAngelis, is a client of Tikoian's accounting firm, Piccerelli, Gilstein & Co., according to the documents.

Goldberg said last week that he wanted to resolve the recusal issue at a separate hearing. He said he believes Tikoian scheduled it for tomorrow so if he does not recuse himself, he can vote before Goldberg can get a court order to stop him.

"If it was my way, he wouldn't have had to respond to a lot of embarrassing questions in front of all those people," Goldberg said.

Rubin says what Goldberg is doing amounts to judge shopping. The 10 council members are judging his case, and he wants to get two of them disqualified, Rubin said.

"Lawyers get to choose their arguments, but not their judges," said Rubin. "This is a thinly disquised attempt at judge shopping. I'll be there on behalf of Attorney General [Patrick C.] Lynch. He doesn't condone judge shopping."

If Abedon and Tikoian do vote for Lemont's smaller expansion proposal, and the three who voted for the bigger expansion don't change their positions, the final decision will rest with the four remaining council members.

They are Raymond Coia and K. Joseph Shekarchi, both lawyers; L. Neill Gray, who works at the Newport Yachting Center; and Michael Sullivan, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, or his designee.

Because legislators left the council last fall, most of the remaining council members are Carcieri appointees.

The four who were not appointed by Carcieri -- Sahagian, Zarrella, Ricci and Shekarchi -- are serving expired terms and don't have to leave until Carcieri replaces them. And that won't happen until the Senate approves Carcieri's nominations.

plord@projo.com / (401) 277-8036