Press Clippings

October 7, 2004 -Berkshire Eagle: Bouton, partners to give up ballpark By Tony Dobrowolski and D.R. Bahlman

PITTSFIELD -- Following a week of controversy over whether the project should be subject to the state's public bidding laws, the partners in Wahconah Park Inc. announced yesterday that they will withdraw their plans to renovate Pittsfield's historic ballpark and bring professional baseball back to the city.

Former Yankees' pitcher Jim Bouton of North Egremont, president of Wahconah Park Inc., announced that the South County partnership had decided to end its involvement in the renovation project because the group believes that city officials are no longer backing it.

"It is clear that we no longer have the support of the city officials who on Jan. 13, 2004, invited us to return with a proposal we had originally made in 2001, a proposal that was substantially improved by our [current] plan," Bouton stated.

"We just realized that it's enough of a risk to try and make money with a minor league baseball team and then realize that we don't have the city government paving the way for us to implement our plan," Bouton said yesterday.

"We felt that we had to face the fact that we were invited to a party where we were not wanted," he added.

Referring to public support for the project, Bouton said, "Unfortunately, the people of Pittsfield aren't the ones who make the decisions." Mayor James M. Ruberto said yesterday that he was "very, very disappointed" that Wahconah Park Inc. had decided to withdraw from the project. He said the South County partnership, which also includes investment banker Donald B. "Chip" Elitzer of Great Barrington and psychologist and professional sports entrepreneur Eric Margenau of New York City and Stockbridge, still had the city's support.

"The message that I want understood by the city of Pittsfield is that it is absolutely untrue that Wahconah Park Inc. did not have the support of the city up to the moment that they sent out their press release," Ruberto said, referring to a written statement by Bouton, which was sent to both The Eagle and the mayor's office early yesterday afternoon. "The city has always dealt with Wahconah Park Inc. in good faith."

The renovation project had recently stalled after Wahconah Park Inc. and city officials differed over conclusions reached in a 15-page summary the state attorney general's office released in August that suggests that Wahconah Park Inc. must follow state public bidding laws in any construction projects associated with the ballpark.

The summary does not specify what action city officials must take. The document declares only that "we remand the matter back to the city for action consistent with this opinion."

Carpenters' protest The attorney general's investigation followed a protest filed in June by the New England Council of Carpenters, Local 108, over the bidding process for construction at Wahconah Park. The timing of the protest delayed the start of the proposed renovations until after the first of the year. Ruberto said the city did not expect the carpenters' union to file a protest and backed Wahconah Park Inc. during a hearing at the attorney general's office this summer. "It's too bad they couldn't work it out," said Timothy Craw, who represented Local 108 at the hearing. "Still, I don't know what investor would want to invest if there was even the slightest doubt that they were following the [public bidding] law. Why wouldn't they run away from it then?" Craw denied that personal animosity on the part of former city officials toward the principals of Wahconah Park Inc. played a role in the filing or prosecution of the protest.

Bouton is the author of "Foul Ball," a book in which he contended that the partners' initial proposal for Wahconah Park in 2001 was derailed by political maneuvering on the part of officials including former Mayor Gerald S. Doyle Jr.

Elitzer, Craw said, once "accused me of being in bed with these guys." He denied the accusation and observed that the union would have nothing to gain by allowing the "biggest reform in construction bidding in Massachusetts in 28 years" to be undermined by failure to see the law enforced across the board.

"It's about the law, that's really what it's about," said Craw. "It's not personal."

Things reached an impasse last week after Wahconah Park Inc. said the plans would not go forward if the partnership were subjected to the public bidding laws because the process would be too expensive and inflexible, and that the group feared its group of 84 investors would withdraw the $1.2 million that had been committed to the project. Ruberto said the city was willing to walk away from the entire project if those requirements were not followed.

The final blow may have come Monday night after the Parks Commission declined to endorse a revised version of the group's original licensing agreement with the city, and referred it to the mayor for review.

Elitzer said last week that he believed the attorney general's summary suggested that Wahconah Park Inc. would not be subjected to the public bidding laws as long as the original licensing agreement was revised. Instead of agreeing to put $1.5 million in renovations into Wahconah Park by October 2005 as was stipulated in the original agreement, Elitzer suggested the license be converted to a 15-year lease that would allow case law referred to in the attorney general's summary to govern the amounts spent on renovations.

The mayor offered Wahconah Park Inc. a revised agreement that would require the group to invest a minimum of $75,000 annually in park improvements, a deal similar to what the city gave former Black Bears' owner Jonathan Fleisig three years ago. But Wahconah Park Inc. rejected that deal because the group planned to make more substantial renovations to the ballpark and because acceptance was contingent on the project being subjected to the public bidding laws. 15-year lease opposed

Ruberto said he was opposed to Wahconah Park Inc.'s revision of the licensing agreement because he believed that a 15-year lease, which listed no investment expectations, was inappropriate.

"This administration has done everything it possibly can short of circumventing the public bidding laws and agreeing to a 15-year lease without a required investment," Ruberto said.

After failing to obtain a licensing agreement with the city to renovateWahconah Park in October 2001, Wahconah Park Inc. succeeded the second time around, signing a license with the city to restore Pittsfield's historic ballpark in March after accepting an invitation that city officials offered to the group in January. That invitation came two months after the Northeast League's Berkshire Black Bears had left Pittsfield for New Haven, Conn. Referring to the controversy that its initial proposal generated, Bouton said yesterday that the group hoped that city officials would be able to help them surmount any "political obstacles" that cropped up the second time around. 'Gave 110 percent'

"The first political obstacle and they're stymied," Bouton said. "What can I say? We gave 110 percent."

"I don't think the city was stymied," Ruberto said. "I don't see this as a political problem. I recognize the fact that the attorney general's office gave us a ruling that we needed to respond to. ... We didn't expect the findings."

Wahconah Park Inc. had $1.2 million in private funding "circled" toward the renovation project from 84 investors. Both Bouton and Elitzer said yesterday that Wahconah Park Inc. had not received any of the cash that investors had committed to the project. They said the group would have obtained the money from its investors only if the entire project had gone forward, "if all the pieces were in place," Bouton said.

Bouton and Elitzer each contributed $125,000 toward the project, money that both men said has already been spent.

"The lion's share went to architectural, engineering and permitting," Elitzer said.