Greenwich Selectmen Vote To File FOI Complaint Against School Board
GREENWICH, CT — The Greenwich Board of Education vacancy saga took another turn this week, as the Board of Selectmen voted on Wednesday to file a complaint with the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission challenging the legality of the school board’s emergency meeting on Oct. 21 and special meeting on Oct. 23.
First Selectman Fred Camillo and Selectwoman Lauren Rabin voted in favor, while Selectperson Janet Stone McGuigan voted against.
There has been a vacancy on the eight-member school board (four Republicans, four Democrats) since July when Republican Chair Karen Kowalski resigned, and BOE members have been working since then to find a replacement, with six candidates in contention.
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The BOE was slated to hold a vote to appoint a replacement on Oct. 17, but a board member had to leave abruptly so the vote was pushed to Oct. 23, ahead of a vote on the FY 26 capital budget the following day.
An emergency school board meeting was called for the morning of Monday, Oct. 20 after the Board of Selectmen scheduled a special meeting on Tuesday to discuss and vote on filling the vacancy themselves. BOE Acting Chair Karen Hirsh said the emergency meeting was called to give the appointment more time to review budget documents.
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During the emergency meeting, the board voted 4-1 to appoint former educator Jennifer Behette, a Republican. The Board of Selectmen during their special meeting voted to appoint Republican Paul Cappiali, the town’s harbormaster and current state representative candidate.
Camillo has said that the BOE’s emergency meeting was illegal, and he has argued that it did not constitute an emergency and was not noticed within 24 hours. Therefore, the vote to appoint Behette was invalid, and so was the subsequent meeting to ratify her appointment on Oct. 23, Camillo has said.
Camillo has also criticized BOE Democrats for appointing a candidate who wouldn’t fully commit to caucusing with Republicans, calling it a “power grab” and an attempt to gain a Democratic chairmanship on the board.
School board bylaws note that filling vacancies is governed by state laws, such as 7-107. The statute says the selectmen can appoint a qualified person to fill a vacancy if that board fails to do so within 30 days.
The school board has since hired outside counsel.
During Wednesday’s special meeting, Camillo said the town needed to act.
“If this board and the town does not address this situation, every board and every commission in the town of Greenwich would be able to call, for political purposes, a meeting and call it an emergency when clearly it was not an emergency,” Camillo said.
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Camillo referred to a 2009 case as precedent, Board of Selectmen of the Town of Ridgefield v. Freedom of Information Commission.
Rabin recalled her time on the Board of Education, and she disagreed with the reasoning for the emergency meeting and needing extra time to review budget documents.
“It doesn’t seem like it was a true emergency,” she said. “Having served on the Board of Education, you get elected in November. We don’t always have time, even as a new member, to get up to speed on the budget information.”
Stone McGuigan said she couldn’t see how the Board of Selectmen “can engage in promoting a candidate when we have not even interviewed anyone” for the vacancy. She said the Board of Selectmen “assuming this authority is unprecedented.”
“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. I cannot vote to use taxpayer dollars for this purpose,” Stone McGuigan said. “I would hold steadfast that elected boards should respect the autonomy of other boards, and filing a complaint against the other is not in the town’s best interest.”
Camillo disagreed.
“The Board of Education is not immune to the 24-hour posting notice. They seem to think they are, and precedent and common sense would tell you they’re not. You talk about legal costs. They’re the ones who hired a lawyer first. They’re the ones that cost the money,” Camillo said.
Stone McGuigan said the FOI complaint process “is not going to be resolved next week.”
Ben Bianco, who is representing the town from Meister Seelig & Fein, said there are specific expedited procedures within the Freedom of Information Act for situations like this.
“We will be asking for the FOIA Commission to rule on this as quickly as possible, and to indeed ask most likely for them to rule before the next meeting which is in a week,” Bianco said, saying the time would depend on scheduling.
“We’ll be filing a complaint on behalf of Fred and behalf of the town, seeking a ruling to declare as unlawful the meeting on Monday and anything that flowed from that — the vote of that meeting, the following meeting on the 23rd where there was no quorum because the person who was appointed to the board was appointed at a meeting that would be declared null and void,” Bianco said.
Camillo again addressed the issue in his Friday newsletter to the community.
“We have the law on our side in this case and it is very unfortunate that the Board of Education Democrats put us in this position and then exacerbated matters by bringing in legal counsel first.”
You can view the Board of Selectmen’s special meeting from Oct. 30 on YouTube.
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