New Haven Independent

He was referring to the now infamous press release Morris issued first to the press and then to the RTM at its televised meeting last week. (Click here to read the release.) Before Opie confronted Morris, Republican RTM member Ronald DeFord interrupted RTM Moderator Jim Bruno, trying to stop him from reading a portion of the press release that hangs the town out to dry. “It will hurt our case,” DeFord asserted. Morris’s critics say this is a new low in politics, even for this administration.

But Bruno did not seem to understand. Nor did Democratic Majority Leader John Smith, who observed “it is going out to the public. Let him read it.” Bruno repeated: “It is going out to the public.” So he read on and a dejected DeFord sat down.

The opening of the press release is routine. Mrs. Morris agreed to hire two new lead attorneys to try the Tabor land dispute case, reversing her previous stand.

The first is David Reif, a partner at McCarter & English, who represented the town on the land value of the case until Town Counsel Ed Marcus took it away from him in November, 2005. Reif was scheduled to take it to trial in February 2006. Mrs. Morris said given his long experience on the case it was “prudent” to turn to him. The second is David Monz, an environmental litigator at Updike, Kelly and Spellacy in Hartford. Peter Kelly has long been active in local and national Democratic politics. Monz will defend the town’s decision to take the 77 acre property which lies next to the contaminated town dump. Mrs. Morris told the audience that Marcus recommended Monz. Both firms are considered top of the line.

Mrs. Morris said she acted, not because of outside pressure, but after she learned that David Doyle, the Marcus Law Firm’s litigator whom she said had “done an exceptional job,” needed to have surgery that required a long recuperation. She did not, however, remove the Marcus Law Firm from the case. Instead she put Doyle in what attorneys call the second seat at a trial.

It was Doyle and Jim Bergenn, attorney for the developers, New England Estates, who sought a settlement proposal on Tabor that, had the RTM accepted, would have enabled NEE to build 275 homes on 45 acres of land. But the RTM rejected the settlement idea by unanimous vote.

Morris also disclosed that the Tabor trial judge, William T. Cremins, had decided to separate the two parts of the case, scheduling the property value trial, heard without a jury, for June 25 and the eminent domain taking of the land for August 7. The judge acted on Bergenn’s motion filed on April 4th, a few days after public hearings on Tabor ended.

John Opie was as angry as anyone has ever seen him in public. He clearly felt that the press release read more like the developer’s press release than the town’s. Here are the pertinent parts:

“…The town officials at that time, including DaRos, may very well have acted in good-faith but may not have properly justified the public necessity of taking the property by eminent domain. This is an issue that the court will have to determine.

“It is now up to my administration to do battle as best as possible to protect the interests of the people of Branford and attempt to minimize any award or judgment that may be issued against the Town as the result of the actions of previous administrations.”

Opie asked Mrs. Morris: “Did the new lead counsel have the opportunity to review that press release before it was sent out,” referring to Reif and Monz.

“No. It was all factual,” she replied.

Bruno, ever protective of Mrs. Morris, tried to stop Opie from asking the next question.

“Let me finish,” Opie declared to applause. Bruno let him, perhaps because Opie currently serves as the town’s Third Selectman.

“You as much as prejudiced our case. That’s an absurd press release…” he said, glaring at her.

Coming from the town’s top elected official, her press release was regarded by those who heard it as detrimental to the town’s interests. Lawyers have a term for it: it is called a “declaration against interest,” and it means that she gave ammunition to the other side.

Several lawyers told the Eagle afterward that no lawyer representing the town in the lawsuit would have permitted her to make the statements she made. Ordinarily town counsel would vet a press release, especially if the firm is defending the lawsuit. Indeed the Marcus Law Firm would probably have been negligent if it had not read and approved the press release.

If the newly appointed attorneys did not approve the press release, who did?

Anthony Unk DaRos, former First Selectman,said: “This is not Cheryl Morris speaking. The only thing they are trying to do right now is to put Tabor back on me and Opie. That was the purpose of these statements,” DaRos said, noting the political campaign was underway. He and Opie are both running for her position this November.

DaRos, who did not attend the RTM meeting, told the Eagle he was so outraged when he read the press release that his words could not have been printed. “I can’t believe the damage that woman is doing intentionally….To make a statement like that and to put the town out on a limb like this…” He did not finish his sentence.

Back at the meeting, Opie was furious with her characterization of him when he served as First Selectman and was dealing with the developer, New England Estates, which does not own the property but has an option to build on it—if permits can be obtained. The owners, Thomas Santa Barbara, Jr. and Frank Perrotti have a separate lawsuit against the town.

The press release states “Both of these litigation matters were initiated during the DaRos administration and the taking of the property occurred during the Opie Administration. The Opie administration took the property through eminent domain for $1.2 million. The previous property owners purchased the land for $2.3 million in 1991. New England Estates, the plaintiffs, are now claiming damages in an amount of $21 million for the alleged wrongful taking of a 77 acre parcel on Tabor Drive…”

Opie told Morris that “by the time we were looking at this property, the permits to build on that property had expired. The amount we came up with came out of two appraisals. It is the median value we pay for open space land. If you read what you wrote, it makes us look like we were damn fools and trying to hoodwink this property owner and I really resent it.”

His remarks brought down the house, eliciting applause across party lines.

Toward the end of the evening, after numerous notes were passed between her and Walter Spader,.a Marcus Law Firm attorney, Mrs. Morris responded to Opie’s comments.

Now she said the controversial parts of the press release were “allegations” made by the developer. But RTM David Baker pointed out that the statements were made in her own voice, never citing the developer or his attorney as having made the “allegations.”

So in a matter of hours, what began as “factual”—-a statement of fact—became “allegations”—apparently no longer fact, making one wonder if she even reviewed the release before sending it out. Baker wanted to pursue it, but Bruno cut him off.

The issue now on the floor was a resolution by Kurt Schwanfelder, the Republican Minority leader.(Left) The purpose of the resolution was to direct the Board of Selectman to hire “a fully-resourced legal defense team consisting of additional legal professionals who are specialists.” In fact, Reif had been retained the first week of May. He and Doyle were seen discussing the case at Town Hall.

Mrs. Morris waited until the afternoon of the RTM meeting to send out her press release, beating Schwanfelder to the punch. But Schwanfelder went forward anyway, saying “this dispute is a grave matter to all Branford’s residents…” He and others said the RTM needed to be fully engaged in the Tabor litigation given the surprises of past months. The resolution passed by a vote of 15 to 9.

Many people in the audience were stunned by Morris’s remarks because they knew the history of Tabor. DaRos’s position is that the town had to have control of the property “in order to remediate it. I am not talking about contamination. I am talking about public safety. To me it is a moral issue.” The eminent domain seizure was supported overwhelmingly by the Board of Selectmen, the RTM (twice), the Board of Finance, Planning and Zoning and Inland Wetlands.

Tabor follows Queach, Founders Village and now Hilltop. Regardless of the image they put forth, the Morris-Marcus administration has courted developers, even though Branford has been described as the condo capitol of Connecticut.

We should note that the wild hoopla of the evening began with Tabor and ended with Tabor. In between, in what was a remarkably orderly process, the RTM adopted (with three Republicans dissenting) an $85 million budget for fiscal 2007-08.
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