Judge scolds Selectboard and DEP officials.

The readers who follow the never ending saga between James LaMountain and the Board of Selectmen may remember the decision issued by Judge Fein in which she recognized James LaMountain’s status as a farmer and his exemptions from certain requirements outlined in the Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) and the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (CMR).

Back then the town, with selectman James Wettlaufer as the initiator, tried to fine LaMountain $25,000 and failed. Wettlaufer openly disagreed with Judge Fein’s decision and to this day refuses to accept her decision and the fact that James LaMountain is a farmer.

In a subsequent action (docket number DEP-07-165), the DEP issued a fine of $2,000 for allegedly illegal burning. The fine was issued pursuant allegations made by selectman James Wettlaufer. LaMountain thereafter appealed the DEP issued penalty.

Countless motions and other legal maneuvers by the involved parties followed. Less than three weeks ago, on August 13, 2009, James P. Rooney, Administrative Magistrate, issued a 24 page Recommended Final Decision in the matter.

In his conclusion, Magistrate Judge Rooney ruled, “The penalty DEP issued to James LaMountain is vacated ...” (page 23).

The fact that certain judges’ patience with James Wettlaufer and the officials of the DEP is running thin becomes apparent by reading judge Rooney’s decision. On page 23, judge Rooney opines that this kind of litigation is not in the public interest and admonishes involved officials, “to perform other tasks important to the public.” (Page 23).

Judge Rooney further opined:

“I’m Concerned, however, by the amount of time and effort local and state officials, as well as personnel of Northeast Concepts and Huguenot Farms, have expended over burning conducted on the site. While some matters are worth extensive litigation, this is one that should have been resolved more readily and with far less rancor.” (Page 23). To read the entire opinion, click here!

It is not surprising that this decision is not the end of the feud as officials are used to get their way and will not stop wasting tax payers money even so they constantly complain there wouldn’t be enough.

Despite the fact that a judge ordered the DEP to limit its activity to stability control (erosion) and not to have any contact with James LaMountain, officials allegedly verbally provoked LaMountain yesterday and arrested him for unlawful possession of three wild turkeys and setting two open fires, one of which allegedly was “25-30 feet around in diameter” according to the police report by Charles S Ziemba, Environmental Police. Click here to read the Police Report.

I was personally on the scene and did only see two substantially smaller fires, one of which is shown in the picture. According to James LaMountain, the fires were lit to cook meat.
According to LaMountain’s attorney Joseph A Franco, the alleged violations are not arrestable offences and LaMountain neither lit the fires to cook meat, nor does he own the three wild turkeys. Click here to read the Massachusetts Uniform Environmental Violation Notice issued to LaMountain.

Officers of the Environmental Police are apprehending the three wild turkeys.

September 2, 2009, Peter Frei

James LaMountain emailed the Holland Blog his own comment in this matter:

It was three yeas ago last month that we began to conduct agricultural burning on our property located behind PJ's. In response to our burns the Selectmen Wettlaufer and Johnson ordered the fire chief not to Issue us Agricultural Burning permits as required by MGL 111 section 142l and take us to the Housing Court. A subsequent lawsuit by our Farm followed in 2006 and the town spent many tens of thousands of dollars to deny us our right to conduct agricultural burning. The fire Chief and I reached a settlement in the matter where he agreed to issue agricultural burning permits if I agreed to dismiss our lawsuit.

The permit was issued and our Selectmen could not believe I was once again burning after they determined Mass General Law exemptions for the burns would be ignored from their godlike thrones. Wettlaufer and Johnson went so far as to conspire with Steven Ellis a supervisor of the DEP on October 31st 2006 to punish us for and trap us for un-permitted burning. They sent our active burning permit to the DEP the day before it was to be renewed telling those DEP officials they would see to it the Fire Chief would not renew it. The Fire Chief and I had reached an agreement where he would issue Agricultural Burning Permits as required by law in exchange for us dropping our lawsuit against Holland. The Permits would be renewed each month at no charge as part of the agreement. However the Chief was coincidentally "out of town" the day of the actions orchestrated by our Selectmen. Note, Police reports by Gleason of the burn put Werttlaufer and Johnson in a meeting in the town hall on November 1, 2006. Was the meeting posted or illegal?

Their trap seemed to work and in November I found myself to be a defendant in two separate cases initiated by our selectmen to fine me 25 thousand dollars for open burning in violation of the clean air act for burning without a permit. One case spearheaded by DEP who Wettlaufer had lobbied for a month to stop us from agricultural burning and one in the Housing Court that the town would prosecute. This Housing Court Case case took over a year and hundreds of billable hours of attorney time paid by our town. The subsequent lawsuit I filed to force the town to issue the permit as required by law cost the town another chunk of tens of thousands.

The DEP case fined me 2000 dollars to be paid immediately without appeal for the same fire for burning without a permit.

It has taken almost three years for this DEP burning case to reach its conclusion. While the case was pending the town used its existence to conduct a media smear campaign against me for the burns. They used the case to smear Chad Brigham too during the elections of 07. Many derogatory statements were made by the Selectman at several of their televised meetings and in three different newspapers they spread their venomous lies. The housing Court ruled we are farmers and therefore the town Must issue burning permits as required by law. The Judge told the town we were exempt from the clean air act for burning for agricultural land clearing. There were no fines issued by the Housing Court. There was a ruling where the Fire Chief was ordered to Issue the permits as required under Massachusetts General Law chapter 111 section 142L.

That did not end the saga for our farm. We still had the DEP case for the same burn which we appealed. This case took thousands of hours of work by our DEP to prosecute and resulted in a 20 plus page finding that was handed down last week by a Magistrate from the Division of Administrative Appeals. This case had a full blown trial where six DEP officials drove to Boston to give testimony over a two day period. The case, named James LaMountain and Northeast concepts as Defendants, cost us 200 dollars for filing fees. I represented Northeast Concepts and myself during all the hearings and subsequent trials in both the Housing Court and the DEP in Boston.

The Magistrate vacated the penalty assessment against me this month and lowered the penalty for open burning against Northeast Concepts to 100 dollars which is the minimum fine. The ruling stated that the permit should have been renewed as agreed by the fire chief and the un-permitted burn was inadvertent.

The ruling went so far as to note the conspiracy of October 2006 and “rancor” of Holland and the DEP where the permit was faxed to Springfield DEP by our officials with a note that it would not be renewed as agreed to by our Fire Chief. The next day, DEP and Holland Police Chief Kevin Gleason acting under orders of James Wettlaufer and Earl Johnson raided our property where we were conducting what we believed was a permitted burn. The Fire Chief had promised to renew our permit at no charge and then reneged after Wettlaufer and Johnson pressured him.

Three years of intense litigation ensued that includes over ten motions by the DEP, including several to summarily dismiss our appeal. I would say over 100 thousand dollars of taxpayers monies were squandered in response to our officials active and aggressive discrimination against our farm. The rule of law has no meaning to Wettlaufer or Johnson. I have attached a copy of the magistrates ruling for those of you who like truth.

Jim LaMountain