Smiley Refuses to Release Copy of Multi-Million Dollar Deal He Was Negotiating with Developer Chace
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
On Tuesday night, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley continued to warn the City Council that the hiring of attorney Max Wistow to pursue a legal strategy to recover funds from Providence developer Arnold “Buff” Chace was a bad decision for the city.
The City Council ignored Smiley and voted 13-1 to approve the hiring of Wistow.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTSmiley said in a statement to the media after the Council vote that his administration had provided the City Council with a resolution that “claws back 30% of the tax subsidy provided [to Buff Chace]."
GoLocal asked the Smiley administration for a copy of the resolution, but the Smiley team refused to provide a copy of the Smiley deal.
Politics and Campaign Contributions
Ironically, Smiley says he does not support the initial deal between the City of Providence and Buff Chace, but that deal was negotiated by then-Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s City Solicitor Jeffrey Dana.
Smiley retained Dana as his solicitor and he is involved in negotiating a new deal with Chace and lobbied the cancel not to hire Wistow.
Buff Chace has donated $4,000 to Smiley’s political campaigns.
Smiley’s statement on Tuesday said in full, “I did not support the settlement the previous Administration agreed to, and given the legal assessment of our counsel, my team entered negotiations with Mr. Chace to secure a better deal.
"We provided the City Council a resolution that addresses the challenges of the old settlement and claws back 30% of the tax subsidy provided. The City Council has still not shared external counsel's proposal with the Administration, which does not allow us to assess its likelihood of success.”
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