The agenda for an unusual Saturday special meeting of the town’s Commission on Aging (COA) appeared to lack necessary details to conform to state Freedom of Information laws, and discussions during the meeting may have led at least one of the commissioners to threaten to resign.

Commission Chair Curt Symes said he is researching whether an amended agenda could be filed after the fact, while acknowledging that much of the subject matter discussed in the April 11 closed session would be coming up in the next public meeting of the panel.

Mr Symes acknowledged April 15 that he likely made the wrong decision when filing an agenda that simply stated an executive session was planned, versus providing some detail as to which potentially qualifying subjects were to be discussed.

A draft of the agenda that was provided to The Newtown Bee and apparently circulated to COA members indicated that an executive or closed meeting was the only substantive item of business. The draft indicates the discussion would involve “financial” and “personnel” matters, but the official agenda only identified an “Executive Session,” with no details.

Mr Symes said that the “personnel” issues involved developing guidelines and expectations for COA members serving on special subcommittees. He said the ultimate goal is to clarify how much responsibility each COA member is required to take related to subcommittee service.

“I’m trying to pattern it after similar expectations on the Legislative Council, to help motivate members to step up,” Mr Symes said. He added that there is an opportunity to also get such guidance into the town charter, as a Charter Revision Commission is currently reviewing, enhancing, and reformatting the local constitutional document.

The commission chair said he also planned to initiate a discussion in private to permit members to vent any “animosities” they might have toward other members of the commission. Mr Symes would not go into further detail except to say that following those discussions, he understood that one or more of the commissioners was “intending to step down.”

A call to the town clerk’s office April 15 confirmed an e-mailed correspondence from COA member Joanne Davis, stating her intention to resign. However, Ms Davis was notified she must file a signed letter of resignation to the town clerk versus an e-mail before that resignation would be considered official.

Following the Saturday meeting, in an e-mail provided to The Bee, Ms Davis expressed her “objection at this morning’s meeting to the discussions in executive session which I did not believe satisfied FOIA, including all of the discussions that were unrelated to ‘personnel’ matters of the COA.

“As I clarified, unless the closed discussion was to be limited to discussion of interpersonal matters or the authority of COA officers and commissioners or officers, which I believe could be fairly characterized as COA ‘personnel’ discussions, then I did not agree that we should discuss the other matters in closed session and voiced my concern that to do so would be a matter of concern under the open meetings law,” Ms Davis stated in the correspondence.

Under the “financial” business, Mr Symes was able to say that he intended to have the commission discuss the possibility of having a COA line item in the budget, to supplement a modest fund established many years ago by a resident named Frank Knotts to underwrite expenses or programs that directly benefit town seniors.

Mr Symes said there has been protracted discussions about the fund by COA members and town staffers, and he wanted an opportunity to clarify town financial policies related to disbursements from that fund.

The COA chairman said the commission recently used money from the fund to underwrite the production of a Senior Resource Guide, after which he “was accused of taking funds raised through Senior Center activities, and accused of mismanaging the fund.”

Whether or not Mr Symes is able to file an amended meeting agenda, he said the outcome of that Saturday meeting “helped resolve some of the issues,” and that the subject of the Knotts fund was “critical to discuss as a commission, and to understand the rules” pertaining to disbursements as mandated by Finance Director Robert Tait.

“My mistake was not identifying [planned] finance and personnel discussions,” Mr Symes said, adding that whether the meeting was closed or public, the outcomes “wouldn’t have changed.”

“We’ll be taking up resolutions introduced from that executive session at our next public meeting,” he said.

The commission is schedued to meet next on Monday, April 20, at 5 pm, at Newtown Senior Center.