The Connecticut State Elections and Enforcement Commission (SEEC) found East Windsor First Selectman Jason Bowza violated state election laws when he utilized the town’s automatic phone messaging system to encourage residents to approve a town project in a referendum vote.
The SEEC found that in October and November of 2022, before an East Windsor referendum vote on expanding the Scout Hall youth facility into a senior center and recreation center, Bowza sent recorded messages through the town’s paid-for alert system that violated Connecticut’s general statutes.
“Though some of the wording of the two messages disseminated over the Everbridge communications differ slightly, the Commission finds that both recordings advocate in favor of approval of the Scout Hall funding referendum in violation of General Statutes 9-369b(a)(4),” the decision states.
Connecticut law prohibits the use of state or municipal funds to encourage voters to either approve or disapprove a referendum vote.
The move to remake Scout Hall at a cost of $5 million was controversial in the small town and was initially defeated in the November 2022 referendum by a narrow vote. Bowza and the Board of Selectmen then scheduled a second vote in 2023, which passed by a wide margin.
Town resident and attorney Kieth Yagaloff, who was just elected to the East Windsor Board of Selectman in November of 2023, filed the SEEC complaint.
The complaint also alleged similar misuse of town funds to push for approval of the referendum through two publications mailed out with postage paid for by the town, and on social media, however the SEEC dismissed these complaints.
The SEEC recently found the Connecticut Secretary of State’s Office similarly violated state election laws when it pushed for voters to approve an early voting amendment in 2022 through social media supporting the amendment.
While such violations can result in fines, neither the SOTS Office nor East Windsor were issued fines by the SEEC. The SEEC found East Windsor and Bowza had no prior history with the commission and was cooperative with the investigation. It was ordered that Bowza adhere to all election laws moving forward.
Although the Scout Hall renovation was ultimately approved in the second referendum vote in May of 2023, the town is still facing a Freedom of Information Commission complaint that they withheld documents related to the cost of the project from town resident Lynn Stanley.
During the FOIC process, Bowza admitted the town did not have a written estimate of the renovation’s costs before the November referendum vote but just a verbal estimate. A written cost estimate dated January of 2023 was later disseminated through social media.
Bowza and the Town chided Stanley publicly during a Board of Selectmen meeting, saying the FOI request was “vexatious.” Yagaloff represented Stanley in the FOIC case, and the matter is coming to a vote by the FOIC later this month.
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