Amidst significant confusion as to whether its approval legally requires a Town Meeting vote, per the Town Charter, the Board of Selectmen decided on Monday night, May 5, to at least delay a vote on a new Ambler Farm lease until its next meeting on Tuesday, May 20.
Former First Selectman Paul Hannah informed the BOS during public comment that, while he was a great supporter of Ambler Farm, which he helped the town take possession of in 1999 as a member of the Board of Finance, the Town Charter required that lease deals potentially extending beyond 10 years require approval through a Town Meeting vote, not just via the BOS.
“Thus, the Town Meeting, not you five people … has the exclusive power to execute this lease that’s under consideration tonight … so I hope if you choose to take action tonight, it’ll be to call a Special Town Meeting,” Hannah said.
Needing an official lease to augment grant opportunities, for the first time in its history Friends of Ambler Farm will have a clearer delineation of its role and responsibilities per the lease, as will the town itself.
Negotiations for the lease were conducted by the BOS in executive session, with details of the lease only made public last week, raising some concerns from at least one board member.
“I believe taking this lease to a Special Town Meeting is an opportunity, not an impediment to Ambler Farm,” Hannah said, granting residents a chance to share in ownership and support of the property and its stewardship organization.
Doug Lamonte, a town attorney from Bercham Moses PC who worked on the lease on behalf of the town, said that in doing so, he was led by an ordinance that he said gave power for the vote solely to the BOS. Hannah’s comments, however, prompted him to take a step back.
“My view is that it is a lease that provides for options of more than 10 years, so if the Charter and the ordinance are in conflict, we have to decide which of those prevails,” Lamonte said.
Lamonte said he drew his lead from Ordinance § 26B-2, which deals with “Power to sell or lease property,” and states, “Unless otherwise provided herein, the Board of Selectmen shall have the power to sell or lease any Town property, subject to the requirements and limitations in this ordinance. This ordinance shall not apply to property the disposition of which is at the discretion of the Board of Selectmen, pursuant to § C4-5B(4) of the Wilton Charter.”
Lamonte said, however, that the section of the Charter referenced in the ordinance did not exist.
“Unfortunately, (it) doesn’t exist,” he said. “That’s my comment.”
Hannah, meanwhile, quoted from § C-6 of the Town Charter, which specifies that the Town Meeting is the legislative body that must grant approval for any lease “to which the Town is a party: (a) Which involve a term (including any renewal options) in excess of 10 years.”
“This lease satisfies that and you cannot override that with an ordinance that comes from the Board of Selectmen,” Hannah said, insisting that a Special Town Meeting was the only legal way to approve this lease.
“If the Board of Selectmen wants to have a Special Town Meeting, we’ll have it … In my view, it would become a Board of Selectmen decision at the end of the day whether it gets resolved at at the board level or at a Special Town Meeting,” First Selectman Toni Boucher said.
“It’s not your decision,” Hannah said. “Whether it goes to the Town Meeting has been decided by the Charter.”
Lamonte, however, came back later in the meeting and quoted from § C-5A(3) in the Town Charter, which states, “All powers of the Town shall be vested in and exercised by the Town Meeting except: … (3) Powers delegated by ordinance so long as the same shall remain in effect.”
“Therefore,” Lamonte said, “since there’s an ordinance that provides that the Board of Selectmen has purview, unless two members of the Board of Selectmen object, or there’s a petition by 50 voters, the Board of Selectmen does have purview over this lease.”
Selectmen Bas Nabulsi and Ross Tartell said that they didn’t want to spend the money for a Town Meeting, as neither believed many people would show up.
“Nobody shows up to our Town Meetings … We’ll get about 14 people and so you won’t get a real representation of the town,” Tartell said. “You’ll get an empty hall.”
“It’s a waste of time,” he said.
“I agree with Ross on that point … I think it would be a substantial investment on our part and we’d end up in the same place,” Nabulsi said.
Based on concerns about the public having not been properly notified about the lease, as well as questions of whether or not the public was fully in support of the lease commitment, Selectwoman Kim Healy and Second Selectman Josh Cole were poised to take it to a Special Town Meeting.
“I had people reach out to me last week asking how they could see the lease,” Healy said. “The lease was not posted anywhere until either late Tuesday on the town’s website or Wednesday in the Town Clerk’s office.”
“I assumed we would be postponing this hearing because of that … I guess my only concern was that people wanted to make comment … I would have liked to hear from them,” she said.
Cole initially concurred with holding the Special Town Meeting, but then suggested that if they postponed the vote until Tuesday, May 20, it might serve the same purpose.
“I think it’s important to get as much input as possible,” he said. “I think more participation is better than less participation.”
Healy said this would satisfy her concerns, asking that the map of the property, the full lease, and a summary of the lease be posted well before the planned May 20 vote.
Residents of Wilton still have the option of forcing a Special Town Meeting vote if at least 50 registered voters bring a petition to the town clerk.
Strong sentiments came from one member of the public at the end of Monday’s meeting, with resident Sara Curtis calling the procedures “frustrating.”
“We’ve got to take the time to allow people to understand what’s going on, to have respect for the process,” she said, calling Lamonte’s lack of preparation disappointing.
She also cited recurring mistakes in different town documents, with names and numbers reported inaccurately.
“I’m just mad as hell,” she said.
“We shouldn’t be watching meetings like we watched tonight,” Curtis said, expanding her criticism to the Town and School Needs Assessment Priorities Committee (TSNAP), which she said failed to give adequate notice for its site visit to Ambler Farm, thus aborting more public input.
“It is just beyond me why we can’t get into some type of a process where things aren’t behind closed doors in executive session,” she said.