Shultz/CPS vs. WBOE Docket #FIC 2008-236
Update: Telegram article -HERE-
This action was brought against the WBOE for holding an improper executive session as described in this article that was written shortly after the hearing that was held in November- This is Transparency? Nope, Your BOE...
Despite the two lawyers from Shipman & Goodwin that were dispatched to whip up a massive smokescreen at our children’s expense, the FOIC Hearing Officer saw through it.
The bottom line?
Read the ruling in its entirety -HERE-
The legal bills will be requested soon so we can all see the ridiculous amount of waste incurred in this matter.
This action was brought against the WBOE for holding an improper executive session as described in this article that was written shortly after the hearing that was held in November- This is Transparency? Nope, Your BOE...
Despite the two lawyers from Shipman & Goodwin that were dispatched to whip up a massive smokescreen at our children’s expense, the FOIC Hearing Officer saw through it.
The bottom line?
Read the ruling in its entirety -HERE-
The legal bills will be requested soon so we can all see the ridiculous amount of waste incurred in this matter.
The interesting fact about this FOI ruling is that the Board of Education Superintendent, Dr. Francis A. Baran, BOE Chairman Lindsay Paul and Shipman and Goodwin Attorney Anne Littlefield all knew that the BOE was wrong in the way they announce executive sessions. However, the BOE went to Hartford with their hired guns spending yours and my taxpayer money to take a shot at winning. They blew in with the big smoke screen that I am a trouble maker, always questioning the BOE. Well, the smoke screen did not hold because whether I am a trouble maker or not; it doesn’t matter. What matters is how you tell the public what you are going to do in executive session. When the hurricane of all smoke screens passed through the hearing officer’s room and she had her face mask on and in the end the only item that mattered was, could a citizen from the information given, understand what they would be doing in executive session?….the answer was NO.
You go through life taking random samples and the rule of the random sample is- if you randomly catch them once, then that means they do it all the time. Your BOE with Superintendent Dr. Francis A. Baran in attendance, does this all the time in executive session. Where do you think the Breen Proposal and the strategy to overturn Prop 46 were hatch and discussed….in executive session?
The simple statement that Superintendent Dr. Francis A. Baran and BOE Chairman Lindsay Paul make is that they have no respect for the taxpayers and voters of Woodstock. Dr. Baran’s actions demonstrate that he does not respect you the taxpayers who are his employers. The demonstrated arrogance by this Superintendent, BOE Chairman Lindsay Paul and Shipman and Goodwin Attorney Anne Littlefield along with the Vice Chair, Attorney William Loftus is far beyond belief.
They are the elected elite, the cream of the crop right? They know best for your children. They knew they needed crossing arms for the buses but did not buy them because they wanted to have the $10,000 in cost put in “State Mandated” programs and around Prop 46. So they worked with their insurance agent Senator Gugliemo to get a waiver on the arms. Probably around the same amount they spent to defend themselves against this FOI complaint by the way. They seem to have money for what they want to do which is demonstrated all the time in their actions.
I am sure that the people that participated in the Boston Tea Party were a pain in the ass. So I am very happy to be in their company along with Craig Powers, Dave Richardson and others. What you do not realize is that you need more of us, not less. So go back to your lives; some of us will watch out for you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Yahoo. Nice job, Preston!
Mr. Shultz, Thank you so much for all you try to do for the people of Woodstock. The problem will remain as long as the people on Woodstock Cafe continue to support BOE injustice and town favoritism. There will always be a need for freedom fighters like you, Mr. Powers and others who stick their necks out for justice.
God Bless you all.
I see that Kevin Ford, member of the BOE and the BOE Communications Committee, would like you to think that I walked into the office of the Superintendent, Dr. Francis A. Baran, with my request for information and then put a gun to his head to make him hire Shipman and Goodman to defend them against my request for information.
This country voted for Obama for President because they wanted a change in the way the country is governed. One of his major points is openness and transparency. Do you achieve openness and transparency by hiring Shipman and Goodwin to defend you against the fact that you do not sufficiently inform the public as to what you are going to be discussing in executive session? Is that transparency?
In 1990 FIC 1990-048 the FOI Commission found that the phrase “executive session- personnel matters” was too vague to communicate to the public what business would be transacted. Trenton E. Wright, Jr. v First Selectman, Town of Windham
Frankly, you do not need $300.00+ an hour attorneys to correct the problem; you need only a couple of extra words that properly describe your intentions during executive session. We are a nation of laws and the last time I looked there was not an exception for Woodstock.
By the way, my cost to fight for your right to know was a $10.00 parking fee in Hartford and 4 gallons of gas. I am sure that the legal bill for this one will astonish you, and I will get them and they will be published.
I did not make them do what they did; they could have easily complied with the law, but chose their own path for their own reasons on your dime.
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