Revere Mayor Dan Rizzo has asked the state’s top investigators to look into the circumstances surrounding a land transfer by the MBTA for the entrance to the $1.7 billion casino that Wynn Resorts wants to build in Everett.
Rizzo wrote to Inspector General Glenn Cunha on Wednesday and to Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday, asking both to investigate the T’s $6 million sale of 1.75 acres to Wynn, which was completed last month.
Rizzo said he had repeatedly written to state officials warning them the land transfer could not go through until Wynn received a Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act permit. State regulators are in the final stages of this environmental review, which is expected to focus on the casino project’s traffic impacts.
The state’s MEPA director, Deirdre Buckley, e-mailed representatives for the T and Wynn last week, criticizing them for completing the transaction before the environmental review was done. State regulations, she said, require the environmental review to be completed first. In her e-mail, she said state transportation officials would need to work with Wynn to fix the problem.
Christopher Loh, a spokesman for Healey, said the attorney general is reviewing the concerns raised in Rizzo’s letter. He declined to comment further, citing pending litigation. The cities of Boston, Revere, and Somerville have each sued the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for awarding the Boston-area casino license to Wynn Resorts.
A spokesman for Cunha also declined to comment about Rizzo’s request for an investigation.
Governor Charlie Baker, in a brief interview on Thursday, backed his environmental team.
“The issue that’s been raised by the T’s disposition of that property is something that we’re looking into, but fundamentally the MEPA process is the most important process, and basically, from our point of view, is paramount,” Baker said. “I think what the folks in [the Executive Office of Energy and] Environmental Affairs did is completely consistent with their own statutory authority.”
Rizzo has long opposed the proposed Everett casino, instead preferring a competing proposal by Mohegan Sun to develop a casino at the Suffolk Downs racetrack, which straddles the East Boston-Revere line. The gaming commission killed that plan in September, instead awarding the Boston-area casino license to Wynn.
Rizzo, in this week’s letters to Cunha and Healey, wrote that he wants to bring in outside investigators because “any purported cure to this illegal transaction advanced by the perpetrators (the MBTA and Wynn) will fail to mitigate the harm caused to Suffolk Downs racetrack employees, the City of Revere, the City of Boston, and others with a stake in the casino licensing process.”
The questions he raised included the following:
Why did Wynn reach a preliminary agreement with the state in August without public discussion? Why did the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority seek bids to beat Wynn’s $6 million offer if Wynn had an effective right of first refusal? How did Wynn become the winning bidder if it never submitted a formal reply to the MBTA’s official solicitation?
“Allowing a state agency and a private developer to act in this matter erodes the public’s confidence in government,” Rizzo wrote. “Wynn has been allowed to proceed with its project seemingly unchecked, with little regard for the law or for impacted communities.”
Boston’s city limits cross the Mystic River along Route 99 and include a small amount of land. The existing entrance to Wynn’s 32-acre site grazes the city line.
Wynn wants to use the land from the MBTA, portions of a property that’s now home to a bus repair facility, for a new main entrance as well as a service entrance. If the entrance does not cross into Boston, the city would have far less power to influence the project’s future.
Globe correspondent Jack Newsham contributed to this report. Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@ globe.com.