Suit filed to block New Fairfield leader's cell tower purchase
John Pirro, Staff Writer
Updated 09:39 p.m., Monday, May 9, 2011
NEW FAIRFIELD -- A New Fairfield man wants a judge to void the $190,000 purchase of a Patterson, N.Y., cell tower for the town's emergency radio communications system, claiming First Selectman John Hodge should have asked residents to approve the deal.
Steven Roe filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in Danbury last week, contending Hodge failed to submit the proposal to the appropriate town agencies for review and never sought town meeting approval to spend the money.
"The other two selectman never voted on this. He just did it on his own," Roe said Monday. "It was the straw that broke the camel's back and forced us into litigation."
Although Roe is the only plaintiff named in court, he said he is acting on behalf of up to a dozen other residents who also think Hodge acted illegally.
Roe is asking the court to declare that the deal, which was completed in March, needed an affirmative vote by the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and the Planning and Zoning Commission, in addition to a town meeting .
The town purchased the cell tower from Tower Hill Communications after Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen objected to an earlier plan to build a communications tower in the middle of the 890-acre Great Hollow Preserve.
The purchase will allow the town to upgrade its current radio system, which has a number of dead spots that makes it difficult to communicate with firefighters, police and other emergency personnel when they respond to calls in those areas.
Residents last year agreed to spend up to $1.2 million to improve the system, and Hodge said that vote provided legal authorization to buy the Tower Hill property.
The vote included up to $240,000 to build a tower, and the price of the New York property was well under that amount, Hodge said.
Hodge said he raised the idea of the purchase with the other selectmen, Susan Chapman and Monika Thiel, more than a month before the deal was completed, and neither of them said a vote was needed.
"John did bring up that he was in contract negotiations for this tower," Chapman said. "I didn't feel we needed to vote on this and it was all part of the approved communications project."
But Thiel, the lone Democrat on the board, said the selectmen should have been able to vote on the purchase but never got the chance.
"He announced a couple of meetings earlier that he was talking to (the seller)," she said. "It went from there to, `Guess what, we closed this afternoon.'"
Thiel said the planning and finance boards also should have been consulted.
"The first selectman circumvented all the proper procedures," she said.
"There is nothing in this lawsuit that wasn't carefully considered before we bought the tower," Hodge said. "It's proof positive that if anyone has enough time and money, they can file a lawsuit against anyone else."
Contact John Pirro at jpirro@newstimes.com or 203-731-3342.
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