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February 8, 2008

Oster trial: A playground project under scrutiny

PROVIDENCE -- Testimony this morning in the bribery/conspiracy trial of ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster resumed with the defense questioning contractor David Wayne Daniel, whose company had a playground contract with the town in 2001.

Daniel had testified earlier under prosecution questioning that town officials had been pestering his crews, but that the scrutiny vanished after he agreed to buy $5,000 worth of political fund-raising tickets from then-town Planning Board member and accused Oster co-conspirator Robert R. Picerno.

Defense lawyer C. Leonard O'Brien today used his questioning to lay out the assertion that the town scrutiny on the project was not harassment but, instead, a chief executive -- Oster -- legitimately concerned with getting a troubled project back on schedule.

Oster, who served as town administrator from 2000 to 2002, is charged with two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy. The state alleges that as part of a conspiracy, Picerno, a former Oster political ally, would shake down potential buyers of a piece of town-controlled land on Route 116 -- known as the H&H Screw Co. property -- and Oster would arrange the sale. Picerno pleaded no contest in 2004 to bribery and conspiracy charges -- a videotape of Picerno took centerstage in yesterday's testimony in Providence County Superior Court.

The playground project, on a different property in town, started with a delay because Daniel's company had not gotten the appropriate wetlands permit from state Department of Environmental Management. That was despite documents that specifically said the permit was the contractor's responsibility.

Daniel also testified that Oster had been intensely interested in the reasons for the delays from the first time he met the town administrator.

Oster had attended a fundraisier for state Sen. Stephen Alves, D-West Warwick, at Daniel's home in June 2001. Daniel testified he was taken aback at the event because the first words out of Oster's mouth were to complain about the delays with the Fairlawn Playground project.

Part of the probelm with the permit was that Daniel had sent in the initial application, but the DEM returned it to the town, and no one from the town had told Daniel that. It was after Oster's encounter at the fundrasier that Daniel discovered the miscommunication.

O'Brien pointed out in his questioning that Daniel would not have discovered that so soon had Oster not pressed him on the point.

Before the morning break, O'Brien went through three weekly July meetings Oster had in his office with Daniel and the town employees who were monitoring the job. Daniel testified that Oster was polite to him at all those sessions, but that the town officials he was working with were not.

"It was the other guys who were jumping all over you," O'Brien said, and Daniel agreed.

Daniel also talked about confusion about where town officials wanted a foundation built. He said issues over the location caused him to lose a scheduled concrete subcontractor, which caused a further delay. He said that during the Oster meetings, Oster pressed for there to be a single line of communication between the town bureaucracy and Daniel.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer John Hill

Posted by Mike McKinney  at 12:26 PM | Permalink

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