Bryant, town to meet on compensation; deadline looms

Disputes between host communities and universities over compensation for public services are nothing new, but protracted delays in Smithfield negotiating an agreement with Bryant University has led to frustration on both sides.
On Feb. 25, eight months after a state law was passed calling for Bryant to work out a way to reimburse the town for emergency-services costs, town councilors and a university negotiating team are scheduled to meet in public for the first time. That’s three days before a March 1 deadline, at which point the town is allowed by law to start billing for those services.
The meeting will focus on a consultant’s report undertaken at Bryant’s expense to determine actual costs for emergency services incurred by the university. The town has estimated that those costs amount to anywhere between $250,000 and $345,000 a year. The report paid for by Bryant and completed by Charles River Associates of Boston has not yet been made public.
“I’m thrilled we have a mutual date,” said Town Councilor Suzanna L. Alba, “but it doesn’t seem like it’s a meeting, just a presentation. I’m not sure how far we will get if there is no actual discussion and exchange of ideas.”
Elizabeth O’Neil, Bryant’s executive director of university relations and a member of the negotiating team, said that the consultant’s report is complex, so the presentation and questions and answers that follow will likely take most of the meeting.
“They were eager to begin negotiations without having that basis of fact in place,” said O’Neil, referring to the report. “We felt so strongly that the facts were really at the heart of the negotiations.”
The long-running conflict has been marked by delays, which each side blames on the other, and split council votes over when and how to meet with Bryant, as recently as Feb. 4.
University President Ronald K. Machtley has not yet talked directly to the council, Alba said, nor have councilors met with the negotiating committee, despite appeals and sending certified letters. The consultant’s work has taken several months.
“So here we are now,” Alba said. “There’s always been some sort of step or obstacle. I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve just wanted to sit down with someone from Bryant University. I don’t know if it’s unwillingness on their part to meet with us or it’s just that they don’t feel they’re at the point where they can. In my experience [with] negotiations, you start somewhere.” Bryant’s O’Neil said, “We wish that the process had moved along more swiftly, but time was lost [last] fall when the Town Council at first declined to designate a point person to collaborate with us and Charles River Associates in developing these calculations.”
The Northeast has long been home to disputes between colleges and their host communities, according to Eric Kelderman, staff reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, who has written extensively on the subject, particularly because the region is home to so many universities.
“States do define the nonprofit status of institutions, so they do have some control over that designation,” Kelderman said in a phone interview. “It crops up when there’s a big recession and income tax and sales revenues go down. In the past what a lot of these universities have done instead of fighting the town, they have gone and negotiated to make an additional payment as part of the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes program.”
That’s been the case in Providence, home to Brown University and Johnson & Wales University, Providence College and Rhode Island School of Design, said Daniel P. Egan, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island. And it’s been the case at Roger Williams University in Bristol and the New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich and Warwick as well, he said.
The difference, notes Egan, is that conflict in those host communities have centered around expansion, community need, or both.
“All of our institutions aim to be good partners,” Egan said. At Bryant, “there’s no expansion, no apparent need. It appears to be taxation on a nonprofit. That’s troubling to our sector. It certainly smells like a tax, and institutions of higher [education] have had tax-exempt status. If there is a conversation around nonprofit taxation, it should not be specific to one sector.” That was the stance Machtley took in challenging the bill, but now that it has become law, he said recently he believes the town and university have the ability to reach some mutual accord, despite the time constraints.
“We want to remain good neighbors,” Machtley said. “There [are] always concerns about making sure this process works well.”
The PILOT money the town gets from the state is about $500,000 a year, said Town Manager Dennis Finlay.
In October, the town came up with a proposal that calls for the university to pay $300,000 a year for 20 years and a host of other payments or in-kind services. In June, Bryant had proposed a 10-year agreement of $35,000 in annual payments, enhancement of in-kind services, and $80,000 worth of used computers.
Some of the elements in the town’s October proposal were structured like a similar agreement that Roger Williams University negotiated with Bristol, councilors say.
Rep. Kenneth Marshall, D-Bristol, says the relationship between RWU and Bristol has only improved since their memorandum of understanding was approved in 2006 – an agreement that supplements the $450,000 Bristol gets in PILOT funding.
“We have looked at what other universities have done but the feeling all along [has been]: our situation isn’t mirrored by those other institutions,” said O’Neil.
Marshall said Bristol made progress by appealing to RWU trustees.
“College presidents have to answer to a board of trustees,” said Marshall. “We’ve had much success not only speaking to the local president but having the board of trustees understand their responsibilities to the host community.”
Smithfield Town Councilor Bernard A. Hawkins said he suggested contacting trustees last year. Finlay said the Bryant trustees were copied on one piece of email correspondence some time ago, but that was all.
“The ball’s in their court,” Hawkins said. “The clock is ticking on Bryant University, not the town of Smithfield.” •

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