Simsbury Board of Selectmen Meeting September 28, 2022

Board of Selectmen Meeting September 28, 2022

At the last Board of Selectmen Meeting on September 12, 2022, Selectman Sean Askham started an insurrection against First Selectman Wendy Mackstutis and Selectman Heather Goetz, when discussing the approval of the minutes of the previous meeting.

As a long-term Selectman, Sean Askham knew that minutes of meetings can be changed if there were omissions with a vote of the board.

However, he decided to publicly chastise and bully First Selectman Wendy Mackstutis with her additions.

Then the Gang of Four Selectmen, Eric Wellman, Chris Peterson, Amber Abbuhl and Sean Askham voted against the submission, with a 4-2 vote against the additions.

The performance of these board members seems dubious.

Sean Askham has continually aligned himself with Maria Capriola to the extent that they appear to have private communications.

Chris Peterson is the son of Helen Peterson, a member of the Open Space Committee. When issues came before the board at the last meeting, Chris Peterson did not recuse himself but participated in the discussion and voted on the submission. Is this transparency?

Amber Abbuhl stated after the vote to deny the inclusion to the minutes that she referenced Roberts Rules of Order which has nothing to do with additions to minutes.

This appeared to be an orchestrated insurrection.

Minutes of meetings are used to reflect the background of policy discussions for transparency.

It appears that the Gang of Four have aligned themselves with Town Manager Maria Capriola who has a reputation of control and abuse of power against Wendy Mackstutis and Heather Goetz.

The Town Manager is not responsible for editing the draft minutes provided by the Clerk.

The Board and Town Manager continue to talk about transparency but are only interested in reflecting an image of Simsbury that they want the people to see.

Eric Wellman has aligned himself with Town Manager Maria Capriola and to protect Maria Capriola , it is alleged that Eric Wellman leaked a document to the press that was confidential. Should this be investigated?

Sean Askham has a history of aligning himself with Town Manager Maria Capriola voting to deny grievances with merit.

The insurrection between the members of the Board of Selectmen is self-serving and will only create hostility among the members that were elected to serve the people of Simsbury, not squabble among themselves.

Recently I received my request for the Personnel File of Simsbury Police Officer Sgt. Sagan. After reviewing the lengthy file, I noticed that omitted from the file was disciplinary files related to Sgt. Sagan.

The response I received was “Discipline logs are not held in the personnel files.”

According to the State Records Administrator it is a violation of State law to separate files into various locations.

All Town records should be reviewed for compliance.

Sgt Sagan has a history of bullying and intimidation.

The Discipline Log notes:

3/12/09 Suspension for mistreating an arrestee.

3/12/20 Counselling Emergency Driving

On 4/19/2019 there was an Internal Investigation on a grievance that Sgt. Sagan displayed uncontrolled anger during the Shot Gun incident.

It is alleged in a lawsuit that Sgt. Sagan “knowingly submitted a false arrest affidavit” in 2013 charging Oliver with third-degree larceny in court records.

The lawsuit alleges that Sgt. Sagan knowingly left key facts out of the arrest warrant.

The criminal case was knolled according to court records.

The lawsuit alleges that it would never have even been brought up except for animus towards Oliver shown by Sagan.

Another lawsuit was filed in United States District Court by Douglas Garofalo v. Detective Sargant Thomas Sheehan and Detective Scott Sagan on October 9, 2019 alleging a violation of their 14th Amendment, due process concerning loss of vehicle and personal property.

On December 9, 2020 Corey Thomas, Simsbury’s first black Officer was appointed to the Police Department, with the Chief Boulter and Corey Thomas stating he was a perfect fit.

Corey Thomas, Simsbury first black Police Officer after a few weeks abruptly resigned.

It is alleged that Sgt. Sagan, as the supervisor of Corey Thomas’s training used intimidation and bullying tactics during training causing Corey Thomas to abruptly resign.

After reviewing Sgt. Sagan’s Job Performance ratings over the years, his performance was either satisfactory or excellent without any notations about his discipline. It appears with the omission of all discipline; the Personnel Files do not reflect Sgt. Sagan’s profile.

All the files in the Police Department should be reviewed for compliance with the State law on record keeping.

Sgt Sagan along with several Sergeants applied for the appointment as Sergeant for the Detective Division. Other officers with experience and stellar records should be considered.