Greenwich Selectmen Vote 2-1 to Pursue FOIA Complaint on Alleged “Illegal Meeting” of BOE

On Wednesday afternoon the Greenwich Board of Selectmen held a special meeting via Zoom to discuss filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) commission complaint about the legality of Greenwich Board of Education meetings on Oct 21 and 23.

On Oct 21 the BOE held an emergency meeting and voted in a new Republican member, Jen Behette, to fill the vacancy created by Karen Kowalski’s resignation in July. Present at the emergency meeting were four Democrats and just one Republican of the three remaining on the board. The vote was 4-1. Acting chair Karen Hirsh noted six Republican candidates had been interviewed.

Ms Behette is a former guidance counselor and longtime Greenwich Public Schools PTA volunteer.

At the Oct 23 meeting, the BOE ratified the vote they had taken on the 21st and acting chair Hirsh welcomed Ms Behette to the board. She had already been sworn in by a justice of the peace.

In the midst of those meetings, the Selectmen – comprised of two Republicans and one Democrat – held a special meeting and voted 2-0-1 to appoint Greenwich Harbormaster Paul Cappiali, who is also running for State Rep in the 150th district, to fill the vacancy. Cappiali was sworn in by town clerk Jackie Budkins. Their rationale was, as Camillo said, the BOE’s emergency meeting was “illegal.”

The following night, Thursday, there was a regularly scheduled BOE business meeting featuring a vote on the capital budget.

Oct 24, 2024 Board of Education Meeting via Zoom. Screenshot.

At that meeting, Paul Cappiali, logged in using Republican board member Wendy Vizzo Walsh’s information, appeared briefly on the screen until a GPS communications specialist removed him as a panelist.

At the special Selectmen meeting on Oct 30, Mr. Camillo said, “The reason why we are meeting is it has been the practice of the Board of Selectmen, whenever the town is looking into possibly initiating a lawsuit, to meet. And also for transparency purposes, to address what we feel was the illegal meetings of the BOE on the 21st and 23rd, and other BOE actions stemming from those meetings.”

Camillo said if the Selectmen and Town failed to address this situation, “Every board, committee and commission would be able to call, for political purposes, a meeting, and call it an emergency, when clearly it was not an emergency.”

He said the town hired attorney Ben Bianco and that he was present on Zoom to answer questions from the 3-person Board of Selectmen.

Republican Selectwoman Lauren Rabin said she’d looked up the definition of emergency meeting and the Oct 21 meeting did not seem to qualify as an emergency.

Also, she said, “We didn’t really get to express our vote on putting forward Paul Cappiali last week,” Rabin added. “I want to address that. There is a lot in the press about Jen (Behette), and I’m not discounting her qualifications whatsoever, but the only stuff I keep reading about (Paul Cappiali) is ‘a friend,’ ‘cronyism,’ and things like that.”

She noted Mr. Cappiali’s wife is a public school teacher and had received a Distinguished Teacher Award.

In fact, back in 2017, Victoria Morrison Cappiali, a kindergarten teacher from North Street School, was introduced at the ceremony by Jennifer Behette (who was one of her nominators), who described Mrs. Cappiali as follows: “Take a little Mary Poppins. Sprinkle in a little Maria von Trapp. Add a dash of wonder and a yearning for learning, and mix it all together with love. That is the very essence of this dynamic teacher.”

Ms Rabin continued her comments about Paul Cappiali: “His two sisters – one is an administrator and one is an educator. I want to go on record that he’s got his own connections to the importance of education.”

The lone Democrat on the Board of Selectmen, Janet Stone McGuigan pushed back.

“I don’t see how this board can engage in promoting a candidate when we have not even interviewed anyone,” she said. “I’m not even sure how we got here today. The Board of Selectmen assuming this authority is unprecedented. And calling these special meetings is a departure from our usual practice.”

“I do understand that the question before us: who gets to choose the candidate to fill this vacancy is now in the hands of lawyers, and that will cost the town money,” Stone McGuigan continued. “I cannot vote to use taxpayer dollars for this purpose, and in particular to file a FOIA complaint against another elected board.”

She said elected boards should respect each other’s autonomy and that filing a complaint against another board was not in the town’s best interest.

“You don’t need my approval to file a complaint. Anyone can,” she added. “Though I don’t think that anyone wants to see legal costs increase further from a protracted fight. And on this topic, I’d like to know why we, the Board of Selectmen, are using an outside counsel when we have a town attorney who could take this on. All I see are legal bills that will enrich the lawyers and not our children.”

Camillo disagreed.

“I find it odd that you’re questioning the process. This is the process. The process would be to follow the rules. The Board of Education is not immune to the 24 hour posting notice,” Camillo said. “You talk about legal costs, they’re the ones who hired a lawyer first. Number one. They’re the ones that cost the money. Number two, did the acting chairwoman consult the Republicans on that board or did she just go to the Democrats on that board?”

“You’re asking us to turn a blind eye to them ignoring a 24-hour posting notice,” he added. “I’m really shocked you would bring that up. You said it’s unprecedented, and it’s not. The First Selectman had the right on 8/31 – I could have done it myself.”

“You heard me say at the last meeting that we received a letter from a lawyer. It was not us who initiated this lawsuit. It was the Democrats on the Board of Education. You had the timeline wrong.”

Ms Stone McGuigan asked whether the Selectmen needed to file a complaint when they already knew lawyers on both sides were dealing with the situation.

Camillo said if the issues wasn’t addressed, every board, commission or committee of the Town, including the RTM might start posting notices, for political purposes, claiming they had an emergency.

“We are following the process to a T. You are ignoring it,” he said.

Ms Stone McGuigan questioned what the Selectmen would get out of filing a FOIA commission complaint about another board when lawyers were representing both sides already, and repeated her concern about racking up legal bills to be footed by taxpayers.

Besides, she said, a complaint to FOIA commission was a protracted process.

Ms Rabin said the town attorney could not represent the Selectmen because she also represented the BOE, and it presented a conflict.

“This is a dual process. This is already going to be in the courts. It doesn’t necessarily have to go to the FOIA commission. We are inflating our legal costs by doing this. And it’s just not a good look for the town,” Stone McGuigan added.

“We finally agree on something, Janet,” Camillo said. “The ‘look’ was created by the Democrats on the Board of Education who initiated the legal counsel. We have no choice. We have to right a wrong.”

Rabin said the first step was not going to a court of law, but rather going to the FOIA commission.

“It will take a very long time to get an answer. It will probably be answered after the next election,” Stone McGuigan said.

Attorney for the Selectmen Ben Bianco, who happens to be the spouse of Karen Kowalski, the person whose slot on the Board of Education both Ms Behette and Mr. Cappiali seek to fill, explained his perspective on the appropriate process.

He said the first step was indeed to go to the FOIA commission.

Bianco said in certain situations, there are specific, expedited procedures within the FOIA.

“We will be asking the FOIA commission to rule on this as quickly as possible and indeed ask most likely for them to rule before the next meeting, which is in a week,” Bianco said.

“What I’m hoping on behalf of the town – I’m a former resident of the town – but what I’m hoping on behalf of the town, is we get a ruling from the FOIA commission, and then the meeting is declared to be unlawful,” Bianco said.

“Then anything that happened in that meeting and anything that was directly tied to that meeting gets unwound and everybody moves forward, and then there’s no reason to go to court.”

Bianco said if a FOIA commission ruling was not followed, then, “Maybe we have to go in for TROs and injunctions, but we’re not there yet. We’re in a relatively simple process. This is a relatively informal process. We will be filing a complaint on behalf of Fred and on behalf of the Town seeking a ruling to declare as unlawful the meeting on Monday and anything that flowed from that: the vote at the following meeting on the 23rd where there was no quorum because the person appointed to the board was appointed at a meeting declared null and void.”

Ms Stone McGuigan, who said she was formerly a mediator, said she was unfamiliar with the FOIA process moving quickly.

Camillo and Rabin voted on a motion to endorse the town filing a complaint with the FOIA commission.

Janet Stone McGuigan voted no.

The motion passed 2-1.

Note: This article was updated to reflect that Ms Behette was one of Mrs. Cappiali’s nominators for Greenwich Schools Distinguished Teacher award in 2017.