Rice is Wrong: Tape Shows Vote Restored Conservation Department to Metro Center

Frank Rice, a member of Fairfield's Inland Wetlands Commission, was pretty emphatic Thursday night in saying he had abstained from voting July 15 on a motion to restore the town's Conservation Department to its oversight role on the Fairfield Metro Center.

But the audio tape of that July 15 meeting shows Rice did vote in favor of reinstating the Conservation Department so the "corrected" minutes that identify him as having abstained are actually incorrect. The commission approved "corrected" minutes Thursday night after Rice said he had abstained, causing the vote to restore the Conservation Department to change from a 4-3 approval to a 3-3 denial.

"I'm in favor," Rice is heard saying on the audio tape of the July 15 meeting.

Stanton Lesser, the commission's chairman, is then heard on the tape identifying the vote as 4-3 to no one's objection. No one is heard on the audio tape abstaining from the vote.

Rice, in a July 26 e-mail to the Conservation Department, says he did not vote and should be recorded as abstaining. But Rice followed that e-mail with another one to the Conservation Department on July 28 in which he says the 4-3 vote "is correct." There are only seven voting members on the commission, so a 4-3 vote, which Rice said July 28 was correct, would not reflect that he abstained.

Rice wasn't available Monday afternoon to say if he may have remembered the July 15 meeting incorrectly. Lesser wasn't immediately available to comment.

First Selectman Ken Flatto had removed the Conservation Department from the Fairfield Metro Center in December 2007 after Blackrock Realty, LLC, a private developer, threatened to sue the town, claiming the department was holding up the project.

Eight residents then sued Gary Weddle, appointed as the wetlands compliance officer on the Metro Center in March 2008, saying Weddle's appointment was illegal because he wasn't under the supervision of Town Conservation Director Thomas Steinke.

Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Richard Arnold on July 6 ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but Weddle is appealing that ruling.

George Bisacca, the attorney for seven residents (Philip Meiman, former chairman of the Inland Wetlands Commission died in May), filed a motion to terminate the automatic stay that comes with Weddle's appeal so Arnold's ruling could take effect immediately. That motion is scheduled to be heard at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Bridgeport Superior Court.

In the Inland Wetlands Commission's July 15 meeting, the commission voted 4-3 to have Town Attorney Richard Saxl recommend to Flatto that the Conservation Department "be reinstated, and to charge them with full oversight, responsibility and authority on the Black Rock project."

After the original minutes were released July 23, Flatto said the commission had contradicted itself because another motion approved July 15 said Weddle was to be under the "general supervision" of Steinke, but that Weddle was to report to the commission and not to Steinke. Flatto said he wanted the commission to clarify its intent before he decided on whether or not to reinstate Steinke and Steinke's staff.

The Fairfield Metro Center would include the town's third train station, from 1,300 to 1,500 parking spaces for rail commuters and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial development on 35.5 acres at 21 Black Rock Turnpike.