Executive session on new assessor raises FOI questions

By THANE GRAUEL

The Pound Ridge Town Board has appointed a new tax assessor, replacing a popular official with someone outside of town who is to work part time and frequently remotely.

Exactly how and when Joseph Calandrella was hired was the subject of debate at Tuesday’s board meeting. John Nathan, a local attorney who sued the town over its handling of recreational cannabis issues, alleging decisions were made outside of public view, had sharp questions for the board Tuesday night.

Nathan said the state’s Freedom of Information Law requires that the creation of a new town position — a category he believes applies to changing the assessor’s job to part time — is a decision that must be made in public.

“The situation is now worse than I thought,” Nathan told the board mid-meeting.

“What happened last time we were told you were going to go into executive session and discuss full versus part,” he said. “Now, for the first time — it’s not even on the agenda — we’re hearing that it’s the acting assessor. And if you discussed anything at all during that executive session, which you, Dan [Paschkes] just admitted that you did, about ... the acting assessor, that discussion amongst you should have been made in public.”

“We don’t know what you said Dan or Diane [Briggs] said or what anybody said and calling for a vote twice makes it unlawful,” Nathan said of the Town Board members, adding, “The only person on the board who spoke and we were lectured to by you, Dan, was you. We never heard from the other people what they thought.”

“And the only way we would ever know what happened and what you thought was if we had been in the executive session,” Nathan said. 

“I’m hoping, with all the lawyers we have in this town, talented as they are, someone steps up and files an Article 78 proceeding to put a stop to this.”

Dan Paschkes asked if any of his fellow Town Board members wanted to speak about their position on the matter. None spoke up.

“I would hope for the best interest of the town that this does not devolve into what Mr. Nathan has just described, which is another Article 78 proceeding at the expense of the residents,” Paschkes said. “I’m just hopeful that we can get through the next year as a community. Give Joe a chance to do what he has promised us he will do for us. Give him an opportunity and see how that goes. And always stop assuming bad faith in everything.”

Town Supervisor Kevin Hansan then spoke.

“I’ll add before we get into the final vote that a lot of times when we use the word ‘discussions’ it’s not necessarily a discussion among ourselves, it’s a discussion with other town supervisors, it’s a discussion with other towns, it’s discussions with others who have gone through this kind of stuff,” he said. “And we’ve all done our own individual homework to try and understand where we are. And it’s a discussion with residents, and we heard you guys there.”

Hansan said he was excited to have Calandrella coming aboard.

“I’m just thrilled with what he’s done for Harrison, I think what he can do there is gonna bring to Pound Ridge here is just terrific. And I don’t think we’re going to skip a beat with our residents.”

Paschkes said he wanted to correct what he called a misstatement made earlier.

“There was a vote taken on the record, and there are minutes,” Paschkes said.

“There were minutes,” Hansan said.

As Nathan broke in, Paschkes said, “You know John, I don’t want to have a back-and-forth …”

“Give it to us,” Nathan said of the records kept during the closed-door meeting. “Is there a video?”

Paschkes said executive sessions aren’t videotaped, “but the town clerk was present for a vote that was taken on the record.”

He said the minutes, including board members’ votes, will be published.

Paschkes then called for a vote on making the assessor’s position a part-time position, done on-site and remote and by appointment. The vote was unanimous, with Alison Boak absent.

Paschkes then called for a vote to fill that position with Calandrella, as acting assessor, for a term of one year. The vote was unanimous.

Nathan’s lawsuit was dismissed by a Westchester Supreme Court judge in June. An appeal, filed in July, is pending in the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, in Brooklyn.

Editor Thane Grauel has been a journalist in Connecticut and Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties New York for 38 years. Reach him at thane@therecorder.org