Two Westerly Town Council members and shoreline access advocates are raising questions about recent financial connections between the council’s president, Edward Morrone, and the Watch Hill Fire District. The issue surfaced contentiously at a town council meeting Monday night.
Documents released by the Watch Hill Fire District in response to a public records request filed by an out-of-state attorney and shoreline access advocate, Anthony Palazzolo, Jr., show the district paid Morrone $30,000 for work done between June 1, 2019, and May 31, 2022, a period that began less than a year after Morrone left office as town council president and ended roughly six months before he came back on the town council and was elected president.
Issues related to shoreline access in Watch Hill have come up at several meetings since the new council took office in November, but Morrone had not acknowledged during those discussions his previous work for the fire district, which owns about 65 acres of coastal land, including beach and parking areas. The district is also actively questioning the legitimacy of a popular town-designated right-of-way to the Napatree Point Conservation Area called Fort Road.
Councilor Joy Cordio said she was unaware of Morrone’s recent financial ties to the fire district prior to last week, and she called on him to recuse himself from discussions on the contested Fort Road right-of-way at the council’s meeting Monday night and ask the Rhode Island Ethics Commission for input on how he should proceed going forward.
“I would hope that you will seek an advisory opinion,” Cordio said to Morrone. “But until then, I would ask that you would recuse [yourself] based on the appearance of impropriety.”
Cordio was also concerned about the potential applicability of a 2020 Rhode Island Ethics Commission opinion that said a Westerly Planning Board member shouldn’t participate in discussions and votes on a contested right-of-way in the Weekapaug Fire District because of the potential impact those actions could have on his property’s value. Morrone owns a home in the Watch Hill Fire District.
Councilor Dylan LaPietra said at the meeting he did not object to Morrone listening to speakers talk about shoreline access in Watch Hill during public comment periods, but he has concerns about Morrone taking part in a future vote that could have an impact on the fire district.
“Because human nature says when you get some monies for something, you tend to be a little biased,” LaPietra said. “When it comes time to vote, it’s something that I think I’m gonna bring up again.”
Morrone responded, “I’ll look forward to that.”
The other town councilors present—Kevin Lowther, Mary Scialabba, and William Aiello—did not weigh in on Cordio’s objection.
An attorney from the town solicitor’s law firm, Dylan Conley, did not object to Morrone remaining in the meeting, and Morrone said he did not see a reason to remove himself from discussions.
“I will not make apologies for my stepping to the plate for a place that I love,” Morrone said of Watch Hill. “I will not make apologies for standing by the issues that concern the Watch Hill Fire District.”
Monday night was not the first time Morrone faced criticism over his actions related to coastal access.
During his last tenure as town council president, Morrone was among a majority of councilors who voted to ask Rhode Island’s congressional delegation to help deauthorize what was a federally-designated mooring area in Watch Hill Cove, stripping the cove of federal public access protections. More recently, Morrone has spoken in agreement with the Watch Hill Fire District, saying a 2008 town resolution designating a public right-of-way at Fort Road does not mean the path is a settled public access point.
Morrone said in an interview he began doing consulting work for the fire district and Watch Hill Conservancy, which also contests the legitimacy of the Fort Road right-of-way, after they approached him to help “monitor issues pertaining to both within the town.”
When asked what monitor issues means, Morrone asked a reporter, “What would you have it mean?”
He said his role included watching zoom meetings of the town planning and zoning boards, as well as work related to a $250,000 state Department of Environmental Management grant the fire district was awarded to improve access to Napatree Point, the area where the district says no credible publicly-designated access path exists.
Morrone said he did not have any contact with town councilors while consulting for the fire district and conservancy, and he does not believe his work for the two entities violated state ethics law.
Morrone’s invoices to the fire district do not indicate the specific work he was doing. A financial disclosure statement filed with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission shows Morrone worked as a consultant for the Watch Hill Fire District and Watch Hill Conservancy but says no services were rendered and leaves blank the area for dates and nature of services.
At Monday’s meeting, Morrone refused to answer when Palazzolo, the attorney who obtained records of Morrone’s payments from the fire district, asked Morrone to disclose how much he was paid by the Watch Hill Conservancy, whose financial documents are not subject to the Rhode Island Access to Public Records Act. Morrone also criticized Palazzolo for filing an APRA request for potential documents demonstrating whether Morrone’s family members were paid by the Watch Hill Fire District.
“The fact that you would ask for documentation from my late brother and my late sister–sir, you are despicable,” Morrone said.
The Fort Road issue came into the spotlight recently after the Watch Hill Yacht Club submitted a dredging application to the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council that did not mention the nearby Fort Road right-of-way. Shoreline access advocates pushed the council to submit a written objection over the omission to CRMC. Council debate on the issue, led by Morrone, eventually evolved into consideration of the merits of the right-of-way and a vote to have the town manager research maps related to Fort Road.
Councilor Cordio says she now believes Morrone was intentionally trying to delay action that would protect the town right-of-way in service of the fire district and conservancy.
“He’s actively working to privatize a town right-of-way. It’s that simple. The questions he raised regarding our 2008 resolution, the stalling that occurred in just sending a letter to CRMC regarding the Watch Hill Yacht Club dredging project,” she said. “That’s a dereliction of duty.”
Cordio added, “The appearance of impropriety puts a stain on this whole council.”
The fire district and conservancy have denied accusations that the two groups are trying to privatize the Watch Hill shoreline and point to an easement agreement between the fire district and conservancy that says public access to Napatree Point “shall continue…as long as such public accessibility and use is consistent with the ecological preservation [of the area].”
The fire district says the stances of some council members who support the existence of a right-of-way are misguided, not based in legal facts, and causing unnecessary division in Westerly.
On Monday, Morrone said anyone who disagrees with his involvement in the council’s discussion of the Fort Road right-of-way should file an ethics complaint with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
“I’ll be happy to give you the address,” he said.
Alex Nunes can be reached at anunes@thepublicsradio.org
