Amy Murphy Carroll

Town To Issue RFP for Legal Services

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Wednesday that the town will issue a request for proposals for legal services. First Selectman Dionna Carlson said that she hopes the firm that long has handled the town’s legal services, Westport-based Berchem Moses PC, will respond to the RFP. “It’s more of a philosophy that we’ve had them for two cycles of first selectmen, and it’s just good practice to go out” to bid, Carlson said during a special meeting of the Board of Selectmen, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. The town has not issued an RFP for legal services since 2012—a block of time that encompasses the entire three-term tenure of the immediate former first selectman, Kevin Moynihan, a retired lawyer who routinely exceeded the legal budget. For example, in fiscal year 2021, the town spent $404,788.01 in legal fees to Berchem Moses against a budget of $300,000.

Berchem Moses PC

‘The Town Engaged in an Illegal Process’: P&Z Decisions Nullified by Superior Court Judge

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The town suffered a legal defeat this month when a state Superior Court judge sustained appeals that had been filed by neighbors of Grace Farms following a series of Planning & Zoning Commission decisions regarding the Lukes Wood Road organization last summer. 

The neighbors—David Markatos, Jennifer Holme, Timothy Curt and Dona Bissonnette—said they were aggrieved as adjacent landowners when P&Z approved changes to Grace Farms’s special permit through two meetings in May and June 2021. The changes included relocating a religious institution office to Puddin Hill Road for staff parking, allowing the organization to host “casual attendance” activities events on site with for-profit entities and easing reporting requirements to the town. In issuing his Nov. 15 decision, Judge Matthew J. Budzik of state Superior Court in Hartford found fault with the way P&Z discussed, reached and noticed its decisions regarding the application. He noted that once a local P&Z Commission publishes a notice of decision, “that decision is final and may not be opened.”

“To provide potential appellants proper notice of that final decision, a local commission must ‘provide notice adequate to ensure a reasonable opportunity within the applicable time constraints to obtain the information required to form an opinion on whether or not to appeal,’ ” Budzik wrote in his Memorandum of Decision.

Berchem Moses PC

Moynihan Pushes Back on the Board of Selectmen Approving Permanent Part-Time Hires for the Town

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New Canaan’s highest-elected official is pushing back on an effort from fellow Board of Selectmen members to have the three-person body approve permanent part-time hires with the town. According to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan, “there really is no provision for [the Board] approving part-time employees” in the Town Charter. “Generally full-time employees are added through the budget process, so if we want to talk about a revised policy or a new policy consistent with the Town Charter, we can do that, but as I said, you know, we have 200, 300 part-time employees in the course of the year and it really is impractical to have the Board of Selectmen review who the lifeguards are at the pool and the election workers and Town Clerk [workers],” Moynihan said during the selectmen’s Nov. 15 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “I really don’t see the point.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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New Canaan Police are investigating the theft of landscaping equipment from a Valley Road home, reported at 3:14 p.m. Sunday. ***

An online petition opposed to the West School cell tower proposal has garnered nearly 600 digital signatures. It says, in part: “Better cell coverage is a good idea, but not a tower 600 feet behind our school. Let’s not experiment with our kids. Let’s not take this risk.

Government

Town Asks State To Reconsider Denial of Affordable Housing Moratorium Application

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Municipal officials are asking the state to reconsider its recent decision to deny the town’s application for four years of relief from an affordable housing law. The Connecticut Department of Housing in its Oct. 18 denial letter to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan said that New Canaan fell short of the required “housing unit equivalent” points required for the moratorium. The town failed to correctly calculate its points, DOH Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno said in the letter, and as a result is not exempt for a four-year period from the state law known by its statute number, 8-30g. Under it, developers who propose housing projects where at least 30% of units will be rented at affordable rates can get around local Planning & Zoning Commission decisions through an appeals process.