Finance & Select Boards Approve DaRos-Cooke Settlement

The Board of Finance (BOF) and the Board of Selectmen (BOS) last night approved a $500,000 settlement to end a series of lawsuits brought by land owner Wayne Cooke against former First Selectman Unk DaRos and Tax Assessor Barbara Neal. The boards acted after learning information they said convinced them settlement was in the best interests of the town.

Each board met separately in executive session at the Community House on Church Street where Bill Aniskovich, the town attorney, and Thomas R. Gerarde, the town’s insurance attorney, outlined in private the issues, the various scenarios and their reasons for settlement.

They provided information from depositions and other material that convinced both boards that the proposed monetary settlement, to be paid evenly by the town and the town’s insurance company, was better than going to trial. DaRos has previously blasted the settlement.

A notice filed on Sept 22 in U.S. District said the parties, the town, the town insurer and the Marcus Law Firm, Cooke’s attorney, had arrived at a settlement. The settlement also applies to a defamation case Cooke filed in state superior court in New Haven against Unk DaRos. Both settlements require approval by the BOF, and the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), which meets to decide the issue Monday night. The settlement filed in court is now nearly two months old. 

Joseph Mooney, the chair of the BOF, presided over his board’s 5 – 1 vote, which was taken in public after the 90-minute executive session ended. The board appeared to have gone through a trying experience and Mooney said in public that the discussion ​“was very difficult.” He said ​“we know all the players … This was an uncomfortable” situation.

In the end, he explained to those present, ​“we had to take the personalities and the history out of it.” He said the board was required to act objectively, based on the information it had received in private. ​“We all voted our conscience,” he said. Many of the 20 people in the audience were members of the RTM.

The lone BOF dissenter was Kurt Schwanfelder, who said publicly that he had spent thirty years in service to the town of Branford and that he has always acted in the best interest of the town of Branford. ​“I can’t do it,” he said of accepting the settlement. 

Afterwards Mooney told the Eagle that this was one of the more difficult situations he has faced in his service on the board. Other board members voiced the same sentiments, but said in the end they were persuaded by the material presented by the two attorneys. 

Besides the attorneys and the six-member Board of Finance, First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove, an ex-officio BOF member and Finance Director Jim Finch participated in the BOF session.

BOS Goes First

Earlier in the evening the BOS met with Aniskovich and Gerarde in executive session for an hour.

When they emerged Cosgrove told the audience that when he was sworn in a year ago, he ​“took an oath to faithfully discharge the duties of first selectman.” He said he had a fiduciary responsibility to the town and ​“I stand by the settlement.” He noted the individuals and personalities involved, but in the end he said he had to consider ​“the facts and what was in the best interest of the town and the taxpayers.”

Bruce Storm, the lone Democrat on the Board of Selectmen, voted for the overall monetary settlement, but rejected that part of the settlement that centered on Cooke’s property tax appeals against the town. It still passed 2 – 1 with Second Selectman Joe Higgins voting with Cosgrove.

Storm said publicly that he wished he had had more information about the cases before tonight. ​“Why wasn’t there more information available? I come away with a different perspective,” he said after hearing the internal discussion of the lawsuits. Typically settlements are confidential, though parts of this settlement, but only parts, became public. He said he hoped the information he received would eventually become public.

Storm told the Eagle in an interview after the vote that the farm status Neal had revoked because Cooke had not been farming has now been restored. This appears to be true for all the parcels Cooke owns. 

Storm Rejects Cooke Tax Relief

The tentative settlement discussed in late September had included waiving Cooke’s back taxes amounting to roughly $200,000, which were levied over a period of years after Cooke lost his farm status in February, 2008. That number changed over the past two months. By law residents who sue the town over a property revaluation are required to pay a percentage of their property taxes even if their case is still in court. That didn’t happen in Cooke’s case.
 
​“I voted against the tax relief,” Storm said. ​“He is getting farm status, and they are collecting some back taxes to the tune of about $90,000 to $100,000.” He and Cosgrove both said that Cooke has previously paid the town $30,526.
 
​“So he is going to have to pay a sum of money to the town,” Storm said. ​“Still I don’t feel it is fair to all the other farmers. There were some information shared that showed that other farms have applied for this status but were treated differently than Cooke was. I needed to dig in my heels with regard to the tax relief. Because I don’t think it is fair for other people who can’t get that kind of relief.”

Shortly after the BOF began Mooney asked if any member of the public had a public comment to make. Josh Brooks, a member of the RTM, said he did.

Brooks said he thought the process felt ​“very rushed” and asked the BOF to slow the process down. ​“I understand all the facts are not out there” but he said the taxpayers should know what impact ​“this settlement will have on them.”

In an interview afterwards, Brooks elaborated. ​“One of my concerns is that we are rushing to make a settlement of a monetary value and its sounds like the monetary value is $250,000 from taxpayers and $250,000 from insurance company. So how do we know they are even eligible for that amount of damages? Are they arbitrarily picking a number that suits them? Or us? That is very disconcerting to me,” he said.

The RTM’s Administrative Services Committee will meet on the Cooke settlement issue tonight at Canoe Brook Senior Center at 7 p.m. The full RTM meets in special session Monday to vote on the $250,000 increase in the general fund budget as partial town payment to settle the lawsuit.

Cooke’s Deposition

In his deposition, which is on file in the court record, Cooke told Gerarde, a partner in the law firm of Howd & Ludorf, that that he had not farmed for years. He estimated that from mid-1990 to 2005 nothing was grown on his farmland at 616 East Main St. or what was once his orchard across the street. (He is now growing corn in a section of his land.)

Cooke blamed DaRos for stopping major development on his land. In his deposition he told Gerard in answer to a question that he never sought a required zoning change to enable future development for his land. He also told Gerard that he was never denied permission by the Planning & Zoning Commission regarding any development on his land.

DaRos was not deposed. The Marcus Law Firm moved to settle the case before the firm’s answer to a summary judgment motion filed by Gerarde was due. 
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