Campaign finance filings, recorded deeds, and nonprofit tax returns are public for a reason. These trails put the records in order and let you read them yourself. Every step carries its source.
Land · Follow the money
The One-Dollar Flip
How 33 acres of town land became a private sand mine, for a dollar.
Town of PlymouthPublic owner
$1sells 71 Hedges Pond Roadrecorded transfer
Plymouth FoundationPrivate nonprofit. Its bylaws reserve board seats for the Town Manager, Planning Director, and Select Board chair.
Plymouth FoundationPrivate nonprofit
$3.45Msells the same parcelrecorded sale
Standish Investment Group LLCFormed May 2024. Manager: E.J. Pontiff.
Standish Investment GroupOperator
est. $12M in sandsite mined for sand under enforcement disputeongoingestimate
Commercial saleSand haulers and buyers across New England
Why this matters
One parcel produced a $1 public exit, a $3.45M private resale, and a mining operation the town would not police. Officials who serve the town also sit on the Foundation that profited. That is the structure this file exists to document.
Every step sourced (3)
Plymouth County Registry of Deeds (recorded instruments)
MA Secretary of Commonwealth corporate records
Plymouth Independent coverage, 2024 to 2026
Influence · Follow the money
Twelve Years, One Donor
A foundation president gives to the same legislator every year for twelve years. Then the legislator joins the foundation board.
William Hallisey Jr.President, Plymouth Foundation
$10,600donates, gift after gift across 12 consecutive years2014 to 2025
Rep. Mathew MuratoreState Representative, later Senate candidate
Rep. Mathew MuratoreSitting legislator
board seatjoins the board ofFY2024
Plymouth FoundationThe nonprofit whose president funded him for twelve years
Foundation orbit donorsOfficers, directors, contractors
~$28,000+aggregate giving to the same recipient set2002 to 2026
Area legislatorsMuratore, then a younger generation of candidates
Why this matters
No single check here breaks a rule. Read together, the public record shows a private foundation, funded board seats, and a land pipeline that all run through the same few people. Patterns like this are why campaign finance records are public.
Every step sourced (3)
OCPF (Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance) public database
IRS Form 990 filings via public disclosure
Plymouth town records
Votes · Follow the money
The Sequence Before the Vote
A first-ever donation in February. A deciding land vote in June. The record shows the order of events.
A.D. Makepeace executiveVP at the region's largest landowner
$250makes the Makepeace network's first recorded donation toFeb 2026
David GoldenPlymouth Select Board member, running for State House
PA Landers Inc.Sand and paving company
residential dealsigns a purchase and sale for 130 acres with2026
Sheridan Home BuildersDeveloper, disclosed 'close personal relationships' with two Select Board members
Plymouth Select Board3-2 vote
130 acreswaives the town's right of first refusal, against its own committee's recommendationJune 9, 2026
Development trackDeciding votes: the two members with disclosed developer relationships
Why this matters
Every event here is disclosed, filed, and legal on its face. This trail exists because the order of events is itself public information: who gave, who voted, what the town gave up, and what its own committee had recommended. Readers can draw their own conclusions from a complete record.
Every step sourced (3)
OCPF contribution records
Plymouth Select Board minutes and disclosures, June 2026
Plymouth Independent reporting, June 2026
Votes · Follow the money
The Campaign Manager
The developer buying the land ran the campaigns of two of the officials who voted to let him.
Matthew SheridanDeveloper, Sheridan Home Builders
$8.2M / $207Kper prosecutors: received $8.2M in MBTA contracts while paying an MBTA insider more than $207,000 in cash, plus a pool and landscaping. In 2020 he admitted sufficient facts; the case was continued without a finding and later dismissed in exchange for his cooperation2007 to 2020
MBTA insider (13-count guilty plea, 2023)Sentenced to a year, plus restitution
Matthew SheridanCampaign manager
$100 on recordmanaged the Select Board campaign of Kevin Canty and manages the State House campaign of David Golden; donated to Golden's committeethrough 2026
Canty and GoldenTwo of the three votes that waived the town's right to buy
Plymouth Select Board3-2 vote, June 9, 2026
about 130 acreswaived the town's roughly $5M option to buy about 130 acres, against its own committee's recommendation, clearing the path forJune 9, 2026
Sheridan's purchaseThe board chair, a deciding vote, later said she had never been told about the fraud case
Why this matters
Recusal exists for exactly this shape of fact pattern. Every element here is disclosed, filed, or court-recorded, and the sequence is public. What the record does not contain is any step where the conflict changed anyone's participation.
Plymouth Select Board minutes and disclosures, June 2026
Plymouth Independent reporting, June 2026
How to read these trails
A documented step means a recorded instrument, a filed disclosure, or an agency record we can point to. An estimate is labeled as an estimate and attributed to whoever made it. We show sequences, not conclusions: when a donation and a vote sit close together on a public timeline, the timeline itself is the story, and you are the judge of it. Corrections are published, not buried.