Tetreau Scraps Plans for Closed-Door Meeting on Metro Center

The Board of Finance openly talked about having a closed-door meeting on the Fairfield Metro Center due to excess contaminated soil, which is the biggest driver of a projected $2.4 million to $6.4 million deficit on the project.

One of the 58 questions posed by town officials to First Selectman Michael Tetreau asked for a legal opinion from Town Attorney Richard Saxl on that.

The question submitted by a Board of Finance member to Tetreau said: "Please include a legal opinion from the Town Attorney on the soil issue to be discussed in a BOF (Board of Finance) Private Executive Session."

Tetreau's e-mailed answer was: "I believe this would be discussed in Private Executive session."

On Monday, Tetreau said in a news release to the media that a private executive session would not take place.

"There are no private executive session discussions planned for the Fairfield Metro Center project. I don't anticipate any for the duration of this project," Tetreau's statement says. "The use of private executive session is pretty clearly defined in their regulations and cannot just be called for any reason."

"The discussions underway on the review and updates for the Metro Center project do not qualify for private executive sessions. I agree fully that all discussions on this project should take place and will take place in a public forum – hopefully, all captured on FairTV for everyone to see."

The state Freedom of Information Act allows private executive sessions, or closed-door meetings, for pending claims and pending litigation. If town officials had a closed-door meeting on excess contaminated soil at the Metro Center site, they would have to be contemplating a legal claim or litigation.

If town officials weren't contemplating a legal claim or litigation, the private executive session would be illegal because the other criteria for a private executive session wouldn't apply, unless a town board was evaluating the job performance of a town official, and that town official would have the right to have the evaluation done in public.

Tetreau, apparently referring to an article on Fairfield Patch, said in the news release that he believed the article was "overstating an answer to a question about legal action. If there was to be a discussion on pending legal action, it would take place in private executive session consistent with standard procedure."

The Fairfield Metro Center is a joint project of the state Department of Transportation, town and Blackrock Realty, LLC, a private developer, that calls for construction of the town's third train station, about 1,400 parking spaces for rail commuters and 930,000 square feet of commercial development, all on 35.5 acres at 21 Black Rock Turnpike.

Due to an April 2010 agreement that became necessary when Blackrock Realty ran into financial problems and was being foreclosed on by its lender, TD Bank, N.A., the town assumed liability for cost overruns on the project, though an attorney who's battled town officials' handling of the project for three years said last week that Blackrock Realty may still be liable for cost overruns. The town in April 2010 also essentially gave up $6 million in revenue from parking permits at the station, which was meant to reimburse the town for its initial investment of $6 million in the project. The agreement required the state to kick in another $19.4 million for the project and Blackrock Realty to kick in $5.2 million.

Tetreau discovered construction of public portions of the Metro Center had a projected deficit, as of April 30, of $2.4 million to $6.4 million and brought that information to the Representative Town Meeting on June 27. Tetreau took over as first selectman June 9.