Camp owner seeks official’s recusal on wind farm plan
10/21/08 | 15 comments

Camp owner seeks official’s recusal on wind farm plan


By Nick Sambides Jr.
BDN Staff

LINCOLN, Maine — An Upper Pond resident says planning board chairman Peter Phinney should recuse himself from deliberations over a proposed $120 million wind farm because Phinney works for a landowner who likely stands to benefit from the project.

Phinney said Monday he has no conflict of interest and will vote on the matter.

A real estate agent, Phinney is an employee of, and handles some land transactions for, H.C. Haynes Inc. of Winn, which is a manufacturer of wood chips and pulpwood, a logging contractor and a landowner that owns many acres around Upper and Long ponds, among other places, he and company officials said.

Herbert Haynes Jr. of Lakeville Shores Inc. in Winn, a subsidiary of H.C. Haynes, and David Susen of Lincoln are among landowners who own land on which the development slated for Rollins Mountain would be built if it receives local and state approval.

That’s why Rainer Egle, 45, of Russikon, Switzerland, who owns a camp and about 6 acres on Upper Pond, believes that Phinney should recuse himself from any deliberations on wind farm permits when wind farm proponent First Wind of Massachusetts submits an application to the board. First Wind hopes to apply by January.

“I would think he should have to recuse himself in every deal where he represents Haynes as well as the town,” Egle said Monday. “Could you request from a person who is selling this land for Haynes to make an unbiased decision? I think it would be extremely unfair and hard to this person to make an unbiased decision.

“How can he make a good and fair judgment for the town,” Egle added, “if he is serving two kings at the same time?”

Phinney disagreed. He said he reviewed his position with an attorney, whom he declined to name, and was told that he does not violate any ethics standards.

“I don’t have a conflict of interest as defined by the laws of the state of Maine,” Phinney said Monday.

Maine statutes generally hold that conflicts of interest do not exist unless there is a direct and immediately beneficial relationship between a public official and another entity that is subject to a favorable legislative action. He might be an employee, but that direct relationship does not exist, Phinney said.

Egle also believes that Phinney should recuse himself to avoid an appearance of impropriety.

Egle first heard of Phinney’s relationship with Haynes when he went to buy his lakefront cabin land, which he had leased since 1999, on Upper Pond in 2007. A Haynes representative told him that Phinney was their exclusive contact for all sales of land around Upper Pond, and Egle worked with Phinney on the deal, he said.

Egle does not describe himself as an opponent of wind power or alternative energy, but expresses considerable reservations about First Wind’s project and its suitability for Rollins Mountain, which is visible from his camp location. A software developer and computer consultant, Egle and his wife, Gaby, a flight attendant, live at their camp about two months a year.

“There is no personal revenge here to either H.C. Haynes or Pete Finney or people at the town. I just think this thing is way too big to handle on a very fast track,” Egle said. “Such a development would turn this from a recreational, beautiful area to an industrial town. This is a strategic decision and all the people of Lincoln have to think about this and agree to it.”

Egle said he believes that residents and town officials don’t know enough yet about wind farms to judge them fairly. Members of a group to which the Egles belong, the Friends of Lincoln Lakes, will go before the planning board tonight to seek a moratorium on wind farms in Lincoln.

The group is suspicious of the company given that it is being investigated by the New York State Attorney General’s Office for possible improper relationships with elected officials in that state. The company has said that it has cooperated fully with the Attorney General’s Office.

Group members were due to speak to the Town Council on Monday.

Phinney, who describes himself as somewhat skeptical of wind farms, has been working with other planning board members on an ordinance regarding wind farms, but the effort hasn’t gone far, he said. He said he couldn’t see doing a moratorium for longer than a year.

“I would suggest that it would be a short one, not a whole year,” Phinney said. “You have to have a reason to do it.”

Ignorance, he said, is no excuse to delay development for a year or longer.

nsambides@bangordailynews.net

794-8215

Not registered? Click here
E-mail this
Print this
Guidelines for posting on bangordailynews.com

Bangordailynews.com is pleased to offer a forum for readers to react to our stories, discuss them and provide additional information. We are reluctant to delete comments, but do reserve that right for those who abuse our forum. For more on using this site, please see our terms of service.

The primary rule here is pretty simple: Treat others with the same respect you'd want for yourself. What does that mean specifically? Here are some guidelines (see more):

Comments
15 comments on this item
On 10/21/08 at 2:21 AM, Johninphilippines wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

As long as Peter Phinney does not get into contractural or personal negotiations with Herbert Haynes, or any of the conglomerates that are involved with the development of the wind farms, to include, but not be limited to, negotiations of any kind, prior to, during, or after-the-fact (post facto), in the wind farm contractors, there are no conflicts of interests. Even if Mr. Phinney voted for the deal, that does not make Phinney in conflict with interests in any way. Mr. Phinney has his voting right to cast his local, state, or federal vote any way he wishes, in support or non-support of this project. Anyone can be "associated" with something, but as long as there are no employment contracts that deal directly or indirectly with "land deals" or "future projects or employment possibilities" or "profit sharing", Phinney is okay. It's all in the criteria and terms of contracts, Rainer Egle. Best to know our US laws, or be quiet in allegations, sir. This is a simple solution. Open/shut.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 6:03 AM, Thinkaboutit wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

VOTE NO ------------- GERRY PALMER

VOTE NO ------------- JOE PERRY

VOTE YES ----------- QUESTION 1

VOTE YES ----------- QUESTION 2

VOTE NO ------------ QUESTION 3 (BOND ISSUE) ANOTHER FUTURE TAX ON OUR CHILDREN

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 7:54 AM, rockstars wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

First Wind buys up everybody who is for sale. Kirk Richie , selectman for Winn, received money for HIS fair from First Wind. then First Wind , in tooting their own horn, referred to it as money given to the town fairof Springfield. That is the way they do business. There is a price to pay when locals vote against their constituents best interests. They have to be paid off. Wonder how many in Lincoln have already gotten their little "donation." You can recognize them when they promote wind farms and First Wind non stop...24/7. Johninphillipines is probably one of them too. He always has something derogatory to say about those who don't want out of state corporations with sleezy business practices in ME.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:05 AM, jaygee wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Except for offshore and the western mountains, Maine offers a dirt poor wind resource. This is crystal clear when you view the wind resource map of Maine at: http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/images/windmaps/me_50m_800.jpg So why is it that a wind company is targeting Lincoln and other small towns in northern Maine? The primary selection criterion for such towns is an inability or unwillingness on the part of the town to readily organize against the project.

OK, then you ask, why would a company want to choose a site simply because it thinks it can get the necessary approvals, despite the poor wind resource. The answer to this is government subsidies. Wind could NEVER be economically viable in a place like Lincoln given its very substandard wind resource and the tremendous cost of the wind plant, including the newly required power lines. Unless the damn government creates artificial market conditions that YOU AND ME, the TAXPAYERS will have to pay for. The same government that pushed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to create an artificially inflated housing market by way of lending money to credit unworthy people who could never pay back the loans, which led to the collapse of our credit markets and the destruction of people's retirement money and dreams, at least as of this moment. Yup, this same government of corrupt bureaucrats, many of whom couldn't survive in the private sector is tampering with real economics with taxpayer-funded wind subsidies. The same clowns who brought us the ethanol debacle and the skyrocketing food prices that resulted. Lincoln - show them the true smarts you have and run these bums out of northern Maine.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:09 AM, Lemonbomber wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Well that sounds like a crock.

Allowing somebody to post allegations such as" back door payoffs " with no evidence to back their claims? Here is one proponent of wind farms and I have received no pay off yet. Could you arrange for them to send my check for $10,000 soon? As I am currently unemployed.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:09 AM, jaygee wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Regarding my earlier post, please be sure to put the cursor over the map and click. This will make it much larger to look at. Thanks.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:17 AM, rockstars wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Who was bribed to go around the fact that the First Wind wind farm in Mars Hill has never met state noise level standards of Law. First Wind pays the firm who does the noise tests. Robin Cluky of DEP told me she was project manager for the Mars Hill wind farm but had never visited it.She also told me that DEP had no formal complaints of noise . In fact, Wendy Todd,Mars Hill resident, had met with Robin, Neil Archer , regional director of DEP . and Robin's boss to ascertain just what a formal complaint consisted of. After that Robin repeated her standard reply.."There have been no formal complaints." So now Robin's boss is saying there has been no change in ME noise levels..BUT is unable to tell me what the noise leve is at Stetson Mt. This is important to those who live close to a turbine. It .means Can I open my windows in nice weather.....Do I have to have a fan blowing even in nice weather to muffule turbine noise.Just how many have been bribed in ME by First Wind. Go to windaction.org for the latest bribery charge in NY against First Wind.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:20 AM, rockstars wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

lemonbomber...I have the evidence in writing from state web sites.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:22 AM, rockstars wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

You don't scare me

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 8:36 AM, rockstars wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

jaygee..Did you notice BDN ran a story the day after the Wall Street bailout bill passed that first wind had plans to build lots more wind farms in the area? The reason is...attached to the bail out bill were alternative TAX SUBSIDIES that the House had refused to pass. They were slipped into the bailout bill for some reason. So the tax payers are paying for first wind to come in and destroy ME.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 9:05 AM, mrclam wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

He certainly has a conflict of interest, but if he refuses to honor it then the courts are the only alternative.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 9:11 AM, Headshaker wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Dont we all have the same conflict of interest as suggested by Mr. Egle. If you are a citizen of the State of Maine, you have an interest in all aspects of development within the State. State law speaks very clearly to the issue of a "legal" conflict of interest. I am confident that Peter has explored the question thoroughly in order to determine which is the best way to protect himself from improper conduct. Denying him his legal right to vote is far worse than avoiding the appearance of impropriety. Peter has served the Town of Lincoln for many years as a planning board member. He has demonstrated his support for the town where it counts throught volunteer hours and commitment. Now is not the time to question his integrity. Peter will do whats best for the Town of Lincoln, once again.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 11:24 AM, Bangorian wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I support tax subsidies for wind farms, because I think that wind farms are a good idea. I also believe that rural Maine is a great place to build them because wind is plentiful, land is plentiful and they might help to create jobs in a part of the country that is economically depressed and totally reliant on the pulp and paper industry.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 11:55 AM, jspencer wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

jaygee,

I think you're not using the right source of information. The map that you are talking about is a low resolution map. On the whole, your statement is correct, that most places in Maine don't have much wind resource. However, there are localized high quality resources along higher ridgelines throughout the state. On the map, these show up as those little brown lines -- some of those have a little bit of high quality resource along the ridgeline. There used to be a higher resolution resource map available that showed this level of detail. Believe me, these wind developers are doing their homework on how much energy these things are going to produce and whether or not the bottom line numbers make sense.

All,

I think this issue of conflicts of interest are extremely common whenever you're talking about a development project in a rural area. Anybody with a real position of power should be transparent in what their interests are and how they might avoid a conflict. If the rest of the board feels that the person can prove that their vote won't be compromised (they could promise not to represent any concerned party for 3 years, for example), then the person should not need to recuse themselves.

The key item for these wind developments is that the local community derives enough benefit from the development, in terms of tax dollars and jobs.

Report abuse
On 10/21/08 at 6:05 PM, Another_Voice wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

some of you really need to read up on this "recusal" issue. I suggest you use your favorite search engine and query "Robert's Rules of Order" which is usually the basis for our local town meeting rules of order. A recusal must be voluntary and can not be forced. And wether Johninphilippines is paid or not.... does not matter.... he speaks (paraphrases) the LAW correctly...

Also read up on the whole situation with "the need for power"...... leave out where it comes from for now...... wether you build a dam, a wind turbine, a coal fired generator, etc.... the way the system is set up today,..... the GRID (because of the PUC and the Legislatures), is required to buy the power....

That means it is a business deal, purley...... it is another way to make money,... if it makes a Green Party member happy,... that is a by product of a money making venture at the expense of the Maine countryside.

Report abuse
You must be logged in to post a comment. click here to log in.

Powered by: Creative Circle Advertising Solutions, Inc.