Andreatta: About that Penfield referendum on Shadow Pines

For more than a year, Penfield residents were told that whether their town borrowed money to buy Shadow Pines Golf Club would be up to them in the form of a yea-or-nay public referendum.

“If I said it once, I said it a half dozen times,” Supervisor Tony LaFountain said, acknowledging that he’d conveyed the same message to news reporters and a town advisory committee on several occasions.

So, it surprised many last week when the town board authorized borrowing $3.65 million to purchase the 214 acres of links without public say-so.

LaFountain used his weekly newsletter, published on the day of the board vote, to explain why a referendum couldn’t happen.

More: Read Penfield Supervisor Tony LaFountain's Nov. 20 newsletter

More: Penfield town board eyes $3.65M purchase of Shadow Pines

He wrote that the town was hamstrung by an intractable demand of the property’s owner, the mining and quarry concern The Dolomite Group, to close the deal by Jan. 31. LaFountain said that deadline, from which his newsletter suggested Dolomite wouldn’t budge, didn’t allow time for a referendum.

“The town board’s original intent was to conduct a public referendum — a straight up or down vote by residents — on the purchase of the Shadow Pines property,” he wrote. “Dolomite’s position does not allow the town sufficient time to conduct a public referendum which can take 60 to 75 days.”

As an alternative, he explained, the board authorized borrowing the money with a resolution that offered residents what’s known as a “permissive referendum.”

That means the board’s plan to borrow money and buy the golf course stands unless residents successfully petition for a referendum.

This arrangement sounds an awful lot like one of those free trials mattress companies offer that ultimately place the onus on you to cancel the service.

Sleep on it. You’ll like it! And if you don’t, just let us know in 30 days and we’ll take your mattress away at no cost to you!

But letting the town know you don’t want it to buy a golf course without the referendum you were promised is a process far more daunting than calling a 1-800 number and hearing a seven-step sales pitch from a call-center worker halfway around the world.

To force a permissive referendum, state law requires residents to collect 685 signatures — a number equal to 5 percent of the 13,683 Penfield voters who cast a ballot in the last gubernatorial election — and file it with the town clerk within 30 days.

LaFountain acknowledged the move put him in a difficult spot.

“Certainly it will cost me a lot of political capital amongst residents within the town,” LaFountain said. “I understand that fact. But I’ve got to move forward with what I believe, and the board believes, is in the best interest of the community.”

Protecting the golf course from development seems to have strong support.

An overwhelming majority of residents who spoke at town meetings since the prospect of Shadow Pines being sold and turned into tract housing surfaced in early 2016 favored preserving the land as green space.

The town estimates borrowing the money will cost the average household valued at $190,000 about $14 a year in taxes for 30 years.

But there are Penfield residents who want the referendum they were promised.

Neal Madden is one of them. He sat on the town advisory committee and opposes the town’s plan to buy the land. He said he and other residents are gathering signatures now.

“Right now, the issue isn’t the pros and cons of the project,” Madden said. “The issue front and center is you said you’d let people decide and you had a scheme to avoid it and it’s just wrong.”

Madden questioned why residents weren’t told before the day of the town board vote that they weren’t going to get a referendum.

He pointed to a Sept. 20 non-binding letter-of-intent between the town and Dolomite that outlined the transaction and included the company’s preference for a Jan. 31 closing date. LaFountain signed the letter on Sept. 29.

“When were we going to be told we weren’t going to get this referendum?” Madden asked.

His is a fair question.

More: Read the letter-of-intent between Penfield and Dolomite to purchase Shadow Pines.

LaFountain acknowledged an up-or-down referendum would be the best way to erase any doubt that residents support the town buying Shadow Pines.

But he said he now opposes a referendum because the time it would take to hold one would push the closing date beyond the Jan. 31 deadline and submarine the whole deal.

Dolomite representatives didn’t return phone and email messages seeking an answer as to whether there isn’t wiggle room on that deadline.

Of course, there is wiggle room. The deadline wasn’t set in the stone of one of Dolomite’s quarries. The deadline was on a six-page non-binding letter that lets both parties out of the deal until a definitive purchase agreement is signed. That agreement doesn’t exist yet.

The company has no interest in owning Shadow Pines anymore and played hardball with Penfield, and Penfield balked on a referendum.

Consequently, residents aren’t getting the say they were promised — and that’s just wrong.

David Andreatta is a Democrat and Chronicle columnist. He can be reached at dandreatta@gannett.com.