CCFD Board of Directors Violated Open Meetings Act, AG Rules

The state Attorney General's office has ruled that the Central Coventry Fire District's Board of Directors violated the Open Meetings Act routinely from July 2 to Nov. 13 of last year, including one instance that is described as "astonishingly inappropriate."

The decision was in response to a complaint filed by David Gorman, head of the the fire union and Stephen P. Fay, an unsuccessful candidate for the board, who raised a variety of issues in their complaint.

In the ruling, Michael W. Field and Malena Lopez Mora, assistants to the Attorney General, said the board committed myriad violations including failing to file minutes for 14 meetings within the required three weeks, didn't specify reasons for going into executive session at a pair of meetings, discussed matters in closed session that should have been discussed in open session during four meetings and the Oct. 7 2013 executive session meeting, which was described as being planned "to review anything that people went to various meetings for."

"Frankly, convening into executive session for this stated purpose is so astonishingly inappropriate that further discussion is not warranted by this Department," the decision states.

The ruling also rejected an argument from the board's lawyer, David D'Agostino, that the CCFD board was not subject to the Open Meetings Act because it has "no power or authorization to make any decisions that would be binding to the citizens of the District."

That argument is based on the idea that the board is newly formed and the district is under the control of a Special Master as part of the ongoing receivership status.

"The board provides no factual or legal support for this argument," the ruling states. 

In the decision, the AG's office concluded that the CCFD board must now explain why it did not file meeting minutes in a timely fashion, "made no effort to comply" with the OMA and provide documents to show what exactly was discussed during executive session meetings subject to review.

The full ruling is attached to this article.