Kevin Dillon would have preferred otherwise, but the City Council wanted to see what he offered the mayor in exchange for supporting his proposed 8,700-foot runway.

On Monday night Council President Bruce Place (Ward 2) asked Dillon to hand over his proposed memorandum of agreement drafted in late June thereby ensuring its release to the public.

While the mayor and Dillon, president and CEO of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, have kept the document under wraps, its contents have generally become known during what at times has been a testy exchange between the two officials. Mayor Scott Avedisian takes umbrage to any suggestion he should sign off the city’s ability to contest plans for airport improvements, or proposals to mitigate those impacts, while calling for greater guarantees of what RIAC says it is prepared to deliver. Dillon is frustrated by the lack of a counter proposal, or efforts to negotiate an agreement.

Whether efforts to reach an agreement will move forward at this point rest squarely in the city’s court.

Place said Monday night he is prepared to name one or two council members to work alongside the mayor and Dillon, as Dillon requested. But it is not known whether the mayor will seek to promote talks and there are reservations that the city should enter into an agreement prior to completion of the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) now being conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration. A draft EIS was to have been released this fall, but the FAA is recasting it using more current traffic forecasts showing the airport won’t grow as fast as projected. The draft’s release is now expected in the spring of next year.

“I do think that it is a worthy process to have meetings before the EIS process is complete,” the mayor responded in an e-mail yesterday. “However, I am concerned that although Dr. [Kathleen] Hittner has told me that the small committee meetings idea had value, I do sense some concern from Mr. Dillon that he does not want to move down that road. The major stumbling block in the MOA was the fact that Dillon wants me to give up all rights to object in the future and that is something that I will not do.”

City Planner Mark Carruolo believes there are benefits in talking now, especially on issues that would not be covered by the EIS. He names specifically the relocation of the ball fields and air quality monitoring now required by state legislation. The city would like to ensure the monitoring continues after the law expires.

Dillon, who requested to appear before the council and would have preferred to meet in a closed session, which it can’t, sought to downplay specifics of the agreement.

He said, “It’s a process of agreement rather than the content” that he was seeking to foster when, from discussions with the city, he sought to address 10 items of concern.

“I was looking for a more cooperative approach in advancing the EIS,” he told the council. Yet, later in his remarks, in response to questions from Ward 7 Councilman Charles Donovan, Dillon would not commit to relocating the fields as part of an agreement separate to a memorandum of agreement. Also, he made it clear he’s prepared to talk now, but that’s not likely to be the case after the draft EIS.

Some council members didn’t buy the logic of an agreement now for the sake of expediting the process and ending uncertainty.

Ward 9 Councilman Steve Merolla asked how the administration could proceed with an agreement when it questioned the purpose and need for a longer runway to provide non-stop service to the West Coast.

“Aren’t we putting the cart before the horse?” he asked.

Dillon thought not. He views the effort as an attempt to alleviate objections, “so we can move forward.”

He said he is looking to bring the debate over airport improvements that has now gone on for more than a decade to a conclusion.

“What I hear is ‘let’s get the process done,’” he said.

Dillon said he sought to involve the council when the mayor made it clear he alone could not commit the city to an agreement. Dillon came to the council hoping to have Place select one or two members to work with him and the mayor and then return to the full group with a proposal that would be aired publicly.

After his appearance before the council he said he was reluctant to have his proposed agreement released because it could falsely create expectations, pressures and stress.

Carruolo said he sees a benefit to council involvement and it “makes sense for them to be fully informed” whether the city could go along with an airport plan or contest it legally.

Throughout his presentation, Dillon emphasized his proposed agreement is a first step in a negotiation process and that he is receptive to, and expected, counter proposals. Yet, for all the debate over maintaining the secrecy of the agreement, its contents offer no surprises.

In it Dillon agrees to relocate the Winslow Park ball fields that would be displaced by a runway extension; work with the city on obtaining additional state funds for taxable properties lost to the airport; install a displaced water main on Airport Road; conduct air quality monitoring at Wickes and St. Rose of Lima Schools; maintain a schedule of the voluntary acquisitions of homes within certain noise and safety contours; work with the city to define acceptable boundaries for home acquisitions so as not to leave some homeowners isolated; work to rezone lands acquired by the airport so that they might be used for other purposes; coordinate the realignment of Main Avenue so as to consider local street intersections and to erect a berm to mitigate noise and visual impacts of a realigned Main Avenue on neighboring properties.

In consideration of those commitments, Dillon asks the city “not to object to, appeal or challenge, or otherwise delay or impede the EIS or ROD [record of decision] for B-4 [the proposal for an 8,700-foot runway] Alternative.”