Closed-door transfer station talk may be illegal

SALISBURY — A closed-door session held by a town committee looking into sites for a new transfer station may have run afoul of the state’s Freedom of Information law.

At the beginning of an Oct. 16 meeting of the Luke-Fitting advisory committee, Chairman Roderick Lankler told the 25 or so people assembled in the selectmen’s room that the committee wanted to review engineering reports on possible sites for a new transfer station, as well as a report from First Selectman Curtis Rand on some other evaluations of the properties that have been completed.

"It is our opinion that both these topics... would have an impact on the town’s purchasing ability of this property," Lankler said. "Under the Freedom of Information law, that is an area that permits us to go into executive session."

Lankler emphasized that his board only goes into executive session "reluctantly." Since the committee began meeting in March, it has held two sessions closed to the public.

"I just don’t think it would be fair to the town or, frankly, fair to the people who own the property for us to be having these discussions in open and public session," Lankler said.

Lankler said he wanted to include the selectmen from Salisbury and Sharon, members of the Transfer Station and Recycling Advisory Committee (TRAC), the Salisbury Housing Trust and Anchor Engineering, which had prepared the engineering report. Under one of the purchase option agreements the town had signed on a potential site, the housing trust would receive a gift of land on which to build affordable housing.

However, state FOI law states clearly that meetings may be closed to discuss "real estate acquisition (if openness might increase price)." Since the town has already purchased options earlier this year to acquire the Luke, Fitting and Lee properties for an agreed-upon sale price, open discussion would not affect the purchase price, according to Tom Hennick of the FOI Commission.

"To go into executive session to discuss real estate transactions after the options have been signed, that’s a stretch," Hennick said in an interview.

Luke-Fitting committee member Val Bernardoni, who is also a former first selectman, asked Lankler whether the Anchor report would be included in the closed-door discussions. Lankler said it would. Committee member Bob Palmer added that draft reports from consultants are typically exempt from FOI laws.

FOI law does exempt from public discussion "any matter that would result in the disclosure of a public record exempted from the disclosure requirements for public records."

But the Anchor report was not part of the motion. Originally, Bernardoni indicated he would abstain from voting on the motion in executive session but he did not when the unanimous vote was taken.

After the 30-minute closed-door session, during which no action was taken, the committee adjourned to a brief public session but did not discuss the reports or evaluations. The committee’s next meeting will be Oct. 23, Lankler said.