Beware if changing stories!

Kraft Group initiated casino meeting with officials
By Frank Mortimer

One week after claiming that town manager Kevin Paicos initiated a key casino discussion at Gillette Stadium last summer, the Kraft Group on Tuesday changed its story and acknowledged that Robert Kraft came to the Aug. 8 meeting prepared to confidentially discuss a Wynn Resorts casino idea with Paicos and selectman chairman Larry Harrington.

In a letter Tuesday, Kraft Group vice president Dan Murphy says he invited the two town officials to the private meeting and, during the session, asked them to keep the Wynn casino matter confidential.

"To be clear, we initiated the discussion about Wynn Resorts," Murphy said in the letter, which appears on page 5 of this week's Reporter, along with Harrington's account of his actions.

During Tuesday's meeting of the board of selectmen, Paicos said he appreciates Murphy's clarification, and he objected to the newspaper's use of the word "secret" to describe the confidential meeting, the substance of which was kept from the four other selectmen.

Paicos first disclosed the Aug. 8 private meeting with the Krafts last week, in response to questions from this newspaper.

Asked last week about the meeting, Murphy said the company had invited Harrington and Paicos to talk about water and sewer issues and the status of Kraft's office park plan.

Murphy said then it was Paicos who "asked the Krafts directly if they had been approached by gaming interests because he had been. They confirmed that they had, but were lukewarm to the idea unless there was an opportunity that was truly special and high end."

Less than three weeks after the Aug. 8 meeting, Kraft Group attorney John Twohig presented the planning board with zoning articles for Kraft's Route 1 land.

Included in Twohig's package was an article to change zoning to allow gaming in Foxboro.

That night, the planning board was told that Twohig had drawn up the gaming article at Paicos' request.

On Tuesday night, residents and selectmen voiced conflicting views on whether Harrington had a duty to share what he had learned about the looming casino project (see story on page 3).

Commenting Wednesday, selectman Lorraine Brue said it's reasonable for the town manager and chairman of the board to meet and discuss ideas with a business partner.

"However, not informing all board members of important information on a business proposal compromises their evaluation process and ultimately can harm the citizens if an uninformed decision is made," Brue said.

Murphy's letter says the Aug. 8 meeting was a "preliminary discussion," and that neither Paicos nor Harrington were told of the "legitimacy of Wynn Resorts' interest" until Kraft Group made that public in early December.

"Saying the rationale for withholding information is that the 'legitimacy' of Wynn Resort's interest was not made public until December just doesn't make sense," Brue responded Wednesday. "There is no difference between the information available in December and the information in August. There still has been no tangible proposal made by the Wynn organization to the Town of Foxboro. There is no real versus hypothetical."

Brue noted that after the August 8th meeting, the casino idea was presented to the planning poard without any prior discussion at a board of selectmen's meeting, and the information about the August 8 discussions with the Kraft organization was not shared at the meetings on Sept. 6 or 13.

"I think there was ample opportunity for this information to come forward, and it did not," Brue said.

Brue said she has asked the board have further discussions to clarify communication expectations of board members.

On Tuesday night, selectman Lynda Walsh told board colleagues to beware of a "divide and conquer" tactic aimed at selectmen by some in the community.

The last time the board was united on casino gambling was on Sept. 6, when all five members voted not to put a casino zoning article on the fall town meeting warrant.

That unanimity vanished a week later, when Walsh and Harrington indicated a desire to place the gambling issue before voters.

On Dec. 27, selectmen James DeVellis, Mark Sullivan and Brue voted in favor of sending a letter to the governor, state gaming commission and Kaft and Wynn saying the town does not welcome a casino proposal.

Harrington, who voted with Lynda Walsh against that decision, said he received a telephone call from Robert and Jonathan Kraft after that vote 3 to 2 vote, "noting their disappointment that the community was not given an opportunity to evaluate the Wynn proposal."