Crisci Files FOI Complaint Against Town Council

(Updated 10:25 p.m. See attached PDF of Louis Crisci's complaint to the Freedom of Information Commission.)

Right before the Democratic-controlled Town Council went into executive session last week to discuss a proposal to bond $1.25 million to pay off four legal settlements, a Republican stood up and objected to the closed-door meeting.

Republican Town Committee Chair Louis Crisci, a lawyer, said the lawsuits had been settled and it was therefore illegal to exclude the public while discussing the bonding.

He said he filed a complaint with the state Freedom of Information Commission on Monday.

“The Freedom of Information Act is pretty clear in this respect,” Crisci wrote in an email. “The public can be excluded from a meeting to discuss pending claims and litigation until the matter is settled. In this case, the settlement documents had all been signed before the meeting. The purpose of the law is to permit an executive session when the agency is going to discuss strategy or negotiations of the pending matters, not the funding source once the matter has already been settled."

Mayor April Capone disagreed the executive session violated the law.

"There's nothing illegal about going into executive session," said Capone. "We did discuss things in executive session that did have sensitive information that is normally discussed in executive session."

Asked whether the cases were settled, she advised talking to Town Attorney Patty Cofransesco.

Messages left Monday afternoon for Cofransesco, Assistant Town Attorney James Cirillo and Town Council Chair James Dougherty were not returned. A Freedom of Information Commission spokeswoman said the complaint had not yet arrived and therefore could not comment.

Crisci said he snail-mailed the grievance.

According to an op-ed written by Paul Hongo, director of town affairs, the three lawsuits were settled and to be paid in two- and three-yearly installments. The first installments of $10,000, $100,000 and $200,000 had been issued.

“If these settlements are truly arms length transactions, then what is the purpose of excluding the public from the discussions after the deals are already final?" Crisci wrote in his email. "There clearly is no further defense strategy to consider, nor negotiations of the settlement amounts which were all detailed in the settlement documents signed before the meeting. Just what is the Council afraid of in having an open, honest debate of the issues in public as the law requires.

"The fact that substantial amounts are being paid to former clients of the current Town Attorney, and the way that those settlements came about also does not sit well with me,” he wrote.