A meeting of Ansonia Aldermen scheduled for Wednesday night was canceled after most of them met behind closed doors in the mayor’s office while the scheduled meeting was supposed to be going on.
Emerging after about 25 minutes, the city’s lawyer said the meeting was called off because of “issues with quorum” — even though a majority of the board had just been in the building.
Background
Wednesday’s meeting concerned a lawsuit filed against the city in July by Winters Bros., the city’s former garbage hauling contractor.
The lawsuit alleged Mayor David Cassetti and other officials broke the city’s contract with the company with a view to steering the work to another hauler with connections to City Hall.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 5.
The agenda for Wednesday’s meeting included two substantive items. The first was an “executive session” for Aldermen to discuss the case amongst themselves behind closed doors.
Such sessions are permitted by Freedom of Information laws because officials are allowed to exclude the public to discuss legal strategy in pending cases.
The second agenda item was to consider a resolution for the Aldermen to “ratify” the mayor’s actions in terminating the city’s contract with Winters Bros.
Article continues after documents.
2016_12_21_BOA_SMA_ by The Valley Indy on Scribd
Resolution Special Mtg Dec 21 2016 by The Valley Indy on Scribd
No Meeting
The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Republicans have a 12 – 2 majority over Democrats on the Board of Aldermen. GOP Aldermen regularly caucus in the mayor’s office before scheduled meetings.
Those meetings are allowed under the FOI Act, too, which says members of a single party can meet behind closed doors even if they constitute a majority of a public agency.
At 7 p.m. Wednesday, the two Democratic Aldermen — Denice Hunt and Joseph Jeanette of the Third Ward — were in their chairs, ready to meet.
At the same time, most of the Republican Aldermen were caucusing in the mayor’s office, the door to which was closed.
After waiting for 10 minutes, the two Democrats left because they didn’t know how much longer the Republicans were going to take.
“Our time is valuable, too,” Hunt said.
Jeanette said he didn’t know why he was called to City Hall Wednesday if the Republicans just wanted to talk amongst themselves.
“They had their own little meeting downstairs,” he said. “This should have all been discussed in executive session. That’s why we had a public meeting tonight. So this can be discussed.”
About 10 minutes after the Democrats left, the Valley Indy walked outside and saw Cassetti and First Ward Republican Alderman Randolph Carroll outside the mayor’s office.
Cassetti said he wasn’t sure whether the scheduled meeting would go forward.
“A couple Aldermen are in disagreement (over) a few things,” he said.
The Valley Indy asked why it couldn’t be discussed publicly.
“We’re just having a caucus,” he said. “We’re allowed to have caucuses.”
The Valley Indy pressed the mayor on the issue, because when he ran for office in 2013, “transparency” was the first of his “core principles” listed in the first page of his platform, along with “efficiency and professionalism.”
“You can’t say we’re not transparent,” Cassetti said. “We’re in deep discussion because some of the Aldermen think differently.”
He and Carroll went back inside.
’It’s Unfortunate’
About five minutes after that — roughly 7:25 p.m. — the door to the mayor’s office opened again and several Republican Aldermen emerged.
Aldermen Lorie Vaccaro, Dave Blackwell Jr., and Frank DeLibero stayed behind in Cassetti’s office with Corporation Counsel John Marini and Sheila O’Malley, the city’s economic development director and grant writer.
“It looks like we had some issues with quorum,” Marini said. “So we’re going to undertake to reschedule it (the meeting) for next week.”
“Some Aldermen were going to be here that said they couldn’t make it,” he went on. “Some Aldermen that showed up had to leave.”
The Valley Indy pointed out that a majority of Aldermen were in the building at 7 p.m., asking whether Wednesday’s non-meeting was disrespectful to the Democrats and the public who had showed up on time.
“It’s going to be rescheduled,” Marini repeated.
“It’s unfortunate,” Vaccaro said.
It was unclear where Cassetti was after the caucus. O’Malley said he went outside again and might have left.
The Valley Indy left him a message seeking comment, as well as with Phil Tripp, the president of the board.
