South Windsor Council Pays Bill Tied To Election Fight

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT — A legal bill tied to South Windsor’s disputed 2025 Town Council election has raised a new question for town officials: who gets to approve outside lawyers before taxpayers are asked to pay?

The Town Council voted Monday to approve an $11,400 payment to Fishbein Law Firm for legal services connected to litigation involving Councilor Richard Balboni. The discussion quickly moved from whether the town had a duty to provide a legal defense to how outside legal costs should be approved in the future.

The lawsuit stems from the Nov. 4, 2025 Town Council race, when Harrison Amadasun received 3,847 votes but was not seated. Balboni, who received 2,937 votes, was seated after officials applied charter revisions approved by voters the same day as the election.

At issue is how those charter changes were applied. The revisions reduced the maximum number of seats one party could hold on the council from six to five.

Amadasun has argued he was wrongly denied a seat despite receiving enough votes to win. Democrats have said the charter revisions were intended to take effect in 2027, not immediately after the 2025 election.

The Connecticut Supreme Court allowed Amadasun’s complaint to move forward in January, but did not decide the underlying election dispute. The Superior Court in Hartford could finally decide the case in May, according to town officials.

During Monday’s meeting, the town attorney said the town charter requires representation for town officers involved in litigation connected to their official role.

“The town attorney shall provide representation in all litigation in which the town or any officer is a party,” the town attorney said, explaining that the language is mandatory under the charter.

The town attorney said the town would owe a defense to a councilor who was sued in that capacity, regardless of who the person was.

“It doesn’t matter who the person is,” the town attorney said. “Once you have a councilor being sued, the claim against them, we owe a defense to that individual.”

Several council members said the larger concern was not only the bill itself, but the lack of a clear process before an outside attorney was retained.

Mayor Craig Zimmerman said the town should put a written rule in place to make clear that no elected official can commit town money without prior approval.

“Somewhere in writing we need to have language that says you can’t go out and spend town money, commit town money,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman said legitimate expenses should be paid, but said the town needs more transparency when council-related costs are incurred.

“I think anytime any of us does anything to cause expense to the town, more people should see it, more people should be involved,” Zimmerman said.

Councilor Maura C. Fitzgerald said the town needs a formal process before similar expenses come back to the council.

“I just think that sets a bad precedent for other officers and town employees,” Fitzgerald said.

Councilor Steven King Jr. said he accepted the town attorney’s opinion that the bill should be paid, but was frustrated by how the situation unfolded.

“I am pissed off that Councilor Balboni went out on his own,” King said.

King said decisions involving town-funded legal costs should have gone through the town manager, town attorney or Town Council.

The town attorney also said the town should look at the issue going forward.

“I don’t think that it is proper for the town attorney just to go and authorize someone to get a lawyer, and we’ll pay the bill,” the town attorney said.

The town manager said Balboni had reached out by email asking whether the town would pay for an attorney, but later told him not to worry about it before the town had completed its review.

“I had started to do the research on whether the town was responsible for paying for an attorney or not,” the town manager said.

The town manager said Balboni later responded that he was no longer interested in pursuing the question.

“It was Mr. Balboni who turned around and said, don’t worry about it, I’m not interested,” the town manager said.

The council ultimately approved the payment, but officials indicated the town may revisit its rules to make clear when outside counsel can be retained, who must approve it and how those costs should be reviewed before payment.

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