Projo Politics Blog

Things got heated in the Department of Administration’s Conference Room C last week.

The State Properties Committee battled Tuesday morning about whether to sell 13 parking spaces in the lot adjacent to an office building at One State Street — an area within walking distance of the State House and various state offices where parking is at a premium.

But the debate moved quickly away from parking and into whether the seven-member board that approves tens of millions of dollars in public property transfers every year is anything but a “rubber-stamp” commission.

The battle largely pitted committee Chairman Kevin M. Flynn against John A. Pagliarini, the former Republican lieutenant governor candidate and a cousin of Governor Carcieri’s former chief of staff. Carcieri appointed Pagliarini to the board in February.

Pagliarini first objected to the placement of the parking space issue on the committee’s agenda. The committee had voted to reject the proposal at its meeting just two weeks before, citing a shortage of parking spaces for state employees and the public on Smith Hill.

But Flynn was on vacation and did not attend that meeting.

Transportation Director Jerome F. Williams sent a memo to Flynn dated Aug. 2 asking that the board reconsider its decision. The board — backed by member Richard B. Woolley, a representative of the attorney general’s office — concluded that the committee did not have to abide by Robert’s Rules of Order and could reconsider issues at will.

Pagliarini wasn’t happy.

“We deliberated. We decided. You lost,” Pagliarini said to Flynn and Robert I. Stolzman, the lawyer representing Boston Investment Partners, the company seeking to buy the parking spaces for its building at One State Street. “So, somebody can basically, knowing our vacation schedule, propose an item based on favorable attendance?”

Pagliarini’s next contention was that the board is regularly asked to approve sales that have already been largely finalized.

For example, Boston Investment Partners had already conducted the survey and title search for the sale of the 13 parking spaces, Pagliarini said. And Stolzman acknowledged that his employer believed that a deal with the Department of Transportation was already in place.

State agencies are supposed to come to the committee before moving to finalize a deal, Pagliarini said.

“Our rules are being undermined Mr. Chair,” he said. “This does nothing but neuter this board to a rubber-stamp board.”

“You’re entitled to that opinion,” Flynn responded.

Ultimately, the committee voted to reverse the decision it made the previous meeting and allow the sale of the parking spaces to go forward.

Flynn broke the tie in the key vote. “The issue here is what is in the state’s best interest,” he said.

How much will the state make on the sale of the 13 parking spaces?

The committee didn’t know.

The agreement requires Boston Investment Partners to pay fair market value as determined by an appraiser. And the appraisal hasn’t been done yet.

--By Steve Peoples and Elizabeth Gudrais

Journal State House bureau

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