Letter: Bita, Satterthwaite For More Honesty, Oversight On Board

READING, MA — Reading voters can help seat a more effective Reading Municipal Light Department (RMLD) board by electing Marlena Bita and James Satterthwaite on April 6. They are the only active challengers on the ballot for two open seats. (A third challenger has declared she is not running.)

Their statements, and numerous local endorsements, speak for themselves.

As a member of the board, I am confident we can do a better job—and that Ms. Bita and Mr.
Satterthwaite, working with incumbents Bob Coulter and Phil Pacino and me, will work
collaboratively and in the ratepayer interest for better governance and a cleaner future.
Why is change needed? As a resident noted in a letter the other day, the incumbent, John
Stempeck, used his power as board chair last month to try and appoint a new chairman before
the election. Decades of practice holds that the new board, not the old one, “reorganizes” and
chooses its officers. He also moved a raise and bonus for our General Manager without putting
any of the evaluation materials or salary comparisons on the public record. These documents
were only shared by email to board members.

And unfortunately, he’s made misleading statements with respect to RMLD’s enormous
contract with a highly controversial proposed wood-burning power plant in Springfield called
“Palmer biomass.” Last month Mr. Stempeck named me and wrote that at the February 2020
RMLD meeting “[Talbot] and the Board approved Palmer in the energy portfolio.” Nothing of
the kind happened. As the meeting minutes show, there was no vote to approve Palmer, no
deliberation on the matter, and not even any mention by any Board member of the project.

By the date of the meeting Mr. Stempeck cited, the enormous contract (well over $100 million
over 20 years) between the RMLD and Palmer had already been signed by the RMLD manager
without any prior Board involvement at all. The only thing that came up in subsequent
meetings were passing references---not anything for us to discuss, deliberate on, or approve.
(Our only public session Board vote on Palmer came months later – and was a 5-0 vote to revisit
the deal. Not approve it.)

Yet as recently as a week or so ago, Mr. Stempeck was still sticking to his guns that the process
was fine and the proposed plant “state of the art.” Hardly. On Friday, the Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection confirmed how bad the project always was by
revoking its permit, in part over major air quality concerns.

Lest someone respond to say “biomass” is something RMLD was okay using under one policy
(#30), this is true but beside the point. We also have a policy (#19) saying the Board approves
non-timely power supply projects and a 20-Year-Agreement between the four towns we serve
saying our Citizen’s Advisory Board first gets input on the matter. Whether we do a deal should depend on the specifics of the project—and the level of investment, controversy, and risk involved.

In recent months RMLD management has been diligent about bringing power contracts before
the Board. But we have more work to do. For more public disclosure and input, adherence to
process, stronger oversight, and cleaner energy, Marlena Bita and James Satterthwaite are your
best choices for RMLD board on April 6.

David Talbot

75 Linden Street

The writer is a member of the RMLD Board of Commissioners and was its chair from April of
2019 to March of 2020.