Surprise hire? Dudley town official has long history of legal problems

DUDLEY — All it took was a Google search.

Some believe if Dudley had done one on Patrick Hannon, the town would have thought twice before hiring him as health agent.

“I really am,” surprised that Dudley hired Hannon, said Wendy Timmons. “It only takes a minute to Google his name to see the history.”

That history includes a civil rights lawsuit brought by Hannon against numerous defendants including Timmons. A federal judge dismissed the suit in 2017.

That’s just one in a string of court cases, environmental violations and financial penalties tied to Hannon that go back many years.

Some are wondering, given that history, why Dudley, a small town of 12,000 residents located on the Connecticut border, hired Hannon.

No interest in talking

Hannon declined to discuss his past when reached Tuesday by phone: “I’m not interested in talking to you, if that is where you’re going. Have a nice day.”

Hannon was hired Dec. 20 by the Dudley Board of Health. Town bylaws give elected boards the authority to hire staff.

An email to Board of Health Chairwoman Roberta Johnson that requested comment was not returned. A phone call to Johnson's listed home address was also not returned.

Dudley Town Administrator Jonathan Ruda knows about Hannon’s past.

“I am aware of (Hannon’s) background,” said Ruda. “There’s no doubt there are some very powerful enemies from his past.”

As the town’s director of personnel, Ruda said his job is to screen résumés for the health agent job, determine the ones that met the qualifications based only on what's on the résumé, and forward them to the elected Board of Health.

Hannon told the board about his past, said Ruda, but it’s unclear if it happened before or after he was hired. Ruda said his first conversation with Hannon occurred after Hannon spoke to the board. It was during that conversation when Hannon shared his history with Ruda.

Hannon’s is a probationary hire, said Ruda, which is customary for all new hires in town. It means any legitimate complaints against Hannon before July 1 could be grounds for an investigation and possible action. If there are no complaints before that date, Ruda said, he will request the board remove the probation status.

Ruda stressed that Dudley hasn’t received any legitimate complaints against Hannon since he was hired as health agent.

According to the minutes from the Board of Health's Jan. 23 meeting, board member Jennifer Cournoyer praised Hannon’s work: “I just want to say thank you to Pat for everything you are doing for the town, everything you did even before you got here. The fact that you are trying to better the town in ways that don’t affect taxpayers is amazing. Restaurants are starting to know about you, so that is also a good thing.”

Hannon is an employee-at-will, which means employment is for an indefinite period and may be terminated by either the employer (the Board of Health) or employee (Hannon). His annual salary is $80,000, according to the town’s online records.

What does a health agent do?

The health agent’s duties include investigating housing complaints, conducting food inspections and attending to other public health matters, said Ruda.

Since hired, Hannon has proposed a draft of a local regulation that requires all nonowner-occupied rental properties of two or more units to register the property with the Board of Health. The regulation, if adopted, would require a housing inspection to verify the property meets a state sanitary code for human habitation before occupancy. It would also require a $100 registration fee and two annual on-site inspections, at $100 apiece.

The board will hold a public hearing April 16 on the proposal.

Long record of infractions

Hannon’s previous infractions cover many years, in several jurisdictions.

In Uxbridge, his soil broker business ran into trouble with the law. That business had a so-called administrative consent order from the state Department of Environmental Protection. That agreement essentially gives soil brokers the authority to transport moderately contaminated soil from construction sites to fill in former sand pits, gravel pits and quarries that pose no significant risk to public health and the environment.

Hannon, his soil transfer company, Agritech Inc., and his son Patrick's company, RHR LLC, were found by a jury in Middlesex Superior Court in 2019 to have breached a contract and committed fraud. The ruling was related to a business deal connected to the operation of one of the soil-reclamation projects in Uxbridge, the Rolling Hills Habitat Restoration Project at 775 Millville Road.

A jury awarded compensatory damages of $276,000 to 468 Group LLC., a business formed by Paul Dee, Hannon's former lawyer and business associate in the Mill River project.

Hannon, Agritech and RHR were also found to have engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices. They were ordered to pay 468 Group LLC an additional $276,000.

Timmons and other fellow members of a grassroots group called Uxbridge Citizens for Clean Water raised environmental concerns about Hannon’s operations as a soil broker, especially since Hannon served as the chairman of the town's Conservation Commission that rules on environmental matters. The group believed that could be a potential conflict of interest.

Hannon filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Worcester in 2017 that claimed town officials and the grassroots group violated his civil rights by, among other charges, publicly defaming him and causing his personal and professional reputation to be harmed. Later that same year, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, and Hannon was not reappointed to the Conservation Commission when his three-year term expired.

$10,000 payment and 'swindled' claim

Uxbridge Citizens for Clean Water was ordered to pay Hannon’s legal bills, which totaled $10,000, according to Timmons.

“Swindled” is how she described Hannon’s business dealings with her family.

Timmons explained that the Richardsons, her father’s side of the family, own a farm on South Street in Uxbridge. The family couldn’t decide what to do with the land and eventually removed gravel from it, leaving the site's surface only 5 feet from the water table.

The excavation left the land unusable for farming, said Timmons. The Richardsons wanted the land used in some capacity, and eventually Hannon's company started filling the gravel pit in exchange for payments. Uxbridge Citizens for Clean Water were concerned about the toxicity level in the delivered soils. The group filed a lawsuit, said Timmons, and eventually the deliveries ended.

“Unfortunately, Hannon swindled my dad's cousins into taking this soil because they were getting paid to have it put onto the property,” said Timmons.

In Dec. 2018, the state Department of Environmental Protection determined that Hannon's company, Green Reclamation LLC and Elias Richardson III violated the terms of the administrative consent order granted by the state for depositing soils on the gravel pit at 145-175 South St..

Hannon's company was fined $63,750 for violations including soil containing volatile organic compounds above the allowable limit. Also, for failure to submit some required inspection reports, material shipping records and construction status reports.

'His business dealings need to be watched'

Dr. David Tapscott was one of the defendants in the dismissed 2017 lawsuit that targeted Uxbridge Citizens for Clean Water. Tapscott, a retired pediatrician and current chairman of the Uxbridge Board of Health, isn't surprised that Hannon got the health agent’s job in Dudley.

“(Hannon) knows his stuff. There’s no question about it,” said Tapscott. “He has a tremendous amount of experience dealing with local governments, with issues of water contamination and soil movements.” Tapscott followed up that assessment with a warning: “His business dealings need to be watched.”

Meanwhile, Hannon has no connection to the soil-reclamation project at the Rampco Construction Co. quarry at 123 Oxford Ave. in Dudley, according to Ruda. Jonathan Androlewicz, vice president at Rampco, confirmed that Hannon has no role in the project.

When asked what would happen if Hannon, in his role as Dudley's health agent, decided to investigate any potential environmental violations at the project, Androlewicz said, "It would depend how it went. We would probably get our lawyers to respond accordingly."

Trouble beyond Uxbridge

Beyond Uxbridge, Hannon ran into trouble in several communities.

ABC&D Recyling Inc., a facility managed by Hannon in Ware, failed to comply with environmental regulations set by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The number of railcars on the property that held construction and demolition material exceeded the allowable limit. Also, some monthly operating reports, bimonthly operating reports from an independent consultant/certified asbestos inspector and annual reports were not submitted to state officials.

A 2012 letter from state officials to Hannon highlighted the infractions. That same year the state issued a follow-up letter to Hannon that claimed several infractions hadn’t been rectified. Fines and court action were possibilities, according to the letter.

As reported by the Telegram & Gazette in a July 2, 2013, news article, SouthCoastToday of New Bedford reported on court cases that involved Hannon and landfill owners, which he lost and resulted in orders to pay millions of dollars.

One was a 2007 case in Norfolk Superior Court involving a Stoughton landfill owner. A court judgment in the case found that Hannon's company collected "at least $3,022,388.68 in tipping fees," and that landfill work his company was supposed to do was not completed. Damages against Hannon came to more than $2.3 million, SouthCoastToday reported.

Hannon also had disputes with Newton. In 2007, the Internal Revenue Service imposed more than $4 million in liens on Hannon’s waterfront property on Crystal Lake for failure to pay federal taxes, according to news reports.

After the liens were in place, Newton took the property by eminent domain over various local disputes and paid Hannon $2.3 million from a forced sale. Newton requested the IRS discharge its lien and accept around $60,000 to partially satisfy the debt. Hannon later sued Newton for undercompensating him for the property and was awarded $420,0000. However, the IRS intervened in the case and went after some of the money to satisfy the lien on the Newton property. Though a lower court ruled in Hannon’s favor, the IRS appealed and won, with the court ruling that Hannon’s federal tax liens would follow him.

After leaving Newton, Hannon moved to Shapleigh, Maine, where he opened several businesses including a storage facility, marina, restaurants and rental cabins, town officials told the Telegram & Gazette. Shapleigh code enforcement officer Steven P. McDonough said the town had numerous violations on file against Hannon regarding renovations and construction projects on his properties conducted without permits.

Town officials in Acton, Maine, would not comment on Hannon's dealings with that town including violations at Hannon’s restaurant, Big Daddy’s. His liquor license was reportedly not renewed at a hearing in 2009 for the business.

Hannon was also reportedly connected to environmental infractions in Wilmington. In 2004, Mass. Environmental Association, owned by Hannon, stopped capping a Wilmington landfill after state environmental officials found violations at the site during an inspection, The Boston Globe reported.

Wilmington officials said the project exacerbated contamination of the town’s water. The landfill is located near a brook and on top of an aquifer and five town wells were closed from pollution.

In 2017, Hannon was brought into court under a civil warrant issued for failure to appear in court as ordered. Hannon owed Resource Controls, a Massachusetts environmental firm, more than $13,000 from a judgment issued in Dedham District Court in 2015. During the hearing, Hannon said he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in late 2012. In 2013, his $11 million in assets were ordered liquidated and sold.

Before Dudley, there was Acushnet

Prior to his arrival in Dudley, Hannon worked as the part-time health agent in Acushnet. He also served as the town’s part-time conservation/storm water agent.

Hannon reportedly was hired to study the environmental impacts tied to the P.J. Keating asphalt plant and instituted regulations that the plant found onerous. The regulations are reportedly part of an ongoing legal battle between Acushnet and the plant.

Calls and emails to Acushnet Town Administrator James Kelley that requested comment were not returned.

Timmons believes Hannon’s record in Acushnet and other communities is troubling.

"How he starts out, he gets his foot in the door, saying that he wants to help the town. But Hannon is out for himself. He’s not out to help any towns," said Timmons.

Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on X: @henrytelegram.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Dudley town official Patrick Hannon has long history of legal problems