June 28. 2005

Present: President Alan Ackley, Vice President Peter Legnos, Clerk Monica Knaff, Treasurer Thomas Santacroce

Absent: Director Tammy de la Cruz

Alan Ackley opened the meeting at 7:11 p.m. The clerk announced the call to order with the time, date and place. The purpose of this meeting was to elect a Director at Large. Roll call was taken to establish a quorum. The clerk announced that there were 15 voters in attendance at this meeting. Alan Palmer a representative from the Voter Registration Office was present with the voter registration list.

President Ackley announced that the only business to be addressed at this meeting is the election of a Director at Large. The president announced that Attorney Glen T. Carberry would represent the Board of Directors as legal counsel and that Mr. Carberry would moderate the meeting.

Attorney Carberry announced that the purpose of the meeting is to elect a Director at Large. The attorney appointed Todd Paige and Angel Vary as tellers to keep tract of ballots and to tabulate the results.

Nominations for Director at Large were open to the floor.

John Parfitt asked Attorney Carberry why we were voting for a member of the board of directors when we already voted Mr. Joseph Baril to the position of Director at Large. The attorney explained that at the annual meeting there were five members of board of directors elected. One of those elected was firefighter Joseph Baril. A question was raised at that point wheather an active duty firefighter from the district could serve as a member. It was decided to proceed with the election with the assumption that all candidates were eligible. If the State Statutes indicated that an elected member was ineligible the district would hold a special meeting to elect an eligible person prior to July 1^st.

On May 31, 2005 a letter was sent to Mr. Baril stating that the State Statutes section 7-421e states that anyone who is a municipal employee, as those terms are defined, can not serve on a governmental body which was responsibility for direct supervision of such employee. Mr. Baril is a municipal employee and the fire district is his municipal employer. The district board of directors does have responsibility for direct supervision. Attorney Carberry stated that he gave his opinion to the district Board of Directors that Mr. Baril is ineligible to serve and to take office. Therefore the board of directed scheduled this special meeting.

Mr. Parfitt asked if Attorney Carberry considered the entire State Statutes. Mr. Parfitt did not agree with Attorney Carberry’s opinion. Mr. Parfitt requested a second opinion from the Town’s attorney. Attorney Carberry stated that Groton is very fond of getting multiple opinions and spending thousands of dollars of tax payer money. Mr. Carberry stated that he believes the opinion is solid and thinks the opinion is self evident as indicated in the statutes. It would make no sense and no one would design a system where the chief would be supervising Mr.Baril’s activities from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and on any given day at the Board of Director’s meeting the firefighter would be supervising the chief as well as himself. Mr. Carberry stated that if someone wants to bring a writ of mandamus in Superior Court and get an order directing that he be installed they are welcome to do so. Other than that the moderator is prepared to proceed with the election.

The moderator asked for nominations for the position of Director at Large.

MOTION: Alan Ackley nominated Jeff Vary to the position of director, seconded by Monica Knaff

Mr. Parfitt posed a question. The moderator stated that the nominations have not been closed yet. When they are it will be up to the moderator which procedure will be selected concerning comments. The moderator asked three times if there are any other nominations. There were none.

MOTION: It was MOVED, SECONDED and CARRIED to close the nominations.

The moderator asked if there was a motion to suspend with the regular procedure at this time to allow comments by candidates or questions of candidates.

MOTION: It was MOVED and SECONDED to have comments and questions open to the floor.

Motion was voted on by a show of hand as follows:

Approved	Opposed	Abstained	Passed or Failed
3	11	0	Failed

MOTION: It was MOVED, SECONDED and CARRIED to allow the secretary to cast one ballot for the nominated candidate.

Motion was voted on by a show of hands as follows:

Approved	Opposed	Abstained	Passed or Failed
12	3	0	Passed

The moderator declared Mr. Jeff Vary elected as a member of the Board of Directors as Director at Large.

At 7:22pm it was MOVED, SECONDED and CARRIED to adjourn.

Respectfully submitted:

Monica R. Knaff