Two days after the Town Council voted to terminate Andrew McGuire as town attorney, council members received an email from Bruce Hazzard, vice president of development for Real Capital Solutions (RCS), the primary financial partner with N-Shea Group as developer of Park Place and the Morningstar Assisted Living Residence.

Hazzard’s email provides clarification regarding McGuire’s contact with an attorney for RCS.

“I watched with interest the video of the recent Council session from earlier this week. I would offer just a few salient points of clarification to the discussion, if I may,” Hazzard stated.

He went on to confirm that it was he who initiated the effort to contact the town about delinquent development fees owed the town for the Park Place project.

Upon reviewing legal documents associated with the lawsuit between N-Shea Group and the town related to the payment of fees, Hazzard said it raised questions regarding how the development fees were calculated.

He said he had attorney Sheri Straily contact McGuire, as his name was associated with some of the documentation.

“I directed our internal counsel to reach out to [McGuire] and request copies of these ‘spread sheets’ so that we could attempt to determine how these were calculated in anticipation of further discussions about applicability, if any, and methods of determine values,” Hazzard said. “[McGuire] contacted the town manager who, in turn, provided these for our review.”

Hazzard said it was he who attempted to establish a meeting to go over the questions regarding the invoices.

“I directly reached out to the director of planning and to the town manager, knowing that deadlines were quickly approaching that we had to adhere,” Hazzard said. “My intent was to set a time, with the appropriate staff members, as quickly as was practical, to sit down and go through the math ‘confusion’ on our behalf as to how fees were being applied and calculated.

“It was never my intention, nor did I, or our counsel, imply such, that once they were fully explained to us, that we would still agree with their application to our project as determined by staff, and write a check on the spot.”

Hazzard said it was not his intention to bypass the Town Council, nor was he aware of any directives on their behalf.

“I saw the meeting as a means to provide further indications to the [town] that our side wished to push this to conclusion and resolve any issues in-person and at the staff level, if possible, instead of through the courts system,” Hazzard said.

Councilman Cecil Yates sees Hazzard’s email as a reason to question McGuire’s version of the exchange.

“[McGuire] told us in the council meeting that he was told by RCS that they wanted to come and negotiate, ‘and get you paid’,” Yates said. “This letter from RCS indicates that the conversation never happened. It was to only obtain the proposed impact fee numbers.”

Councilman Dennis Brown also said the email does not shed any new light on the situation.

“Andrew told the public that RCS wanted to come to the town, negotiate and pay the fees when in fact that was not the intentions of the phone call,” Brown said. “RCS [wanted] clarification of what the fees are and how they are calculated.”

Mayor Linda Kavanagh concurs with Yates in his comment.

“There never was any council authorization or direction to set up a meeting with the RCS representative, purposely excluding the developer. As I said at the last council meeting, the developer and the council found out about the meeting because of an accidental ‘copy all’ email,” Kavanagh said.

“Andrew had no authority, no matter who initiated the call, to set up a meeting for any purpose with RCS, the financial backer without consulting the council.

“There was plenty of opportunity to set up an e-session to get further direction from council.

“This matter is only a small part of the whole with regards to the decision to sever ties with this attorney.”