Under questioning during a Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission (FOIC) hearing, East Windsor First Selectman Jason Bowsza said he had not received a written estimate for a $5 million project to expand Scout Hall Youth Center in East Windsor into a larger community center prior to the town holding two referendum votes to approve the renovations.
The project has been controversial among residents in East Windsor with the first referendum vote in November of 2022 to commit to the $5 million project was initially rejected by a mere twenty votes. A second referendum, which included federal grant and ARPA funding, succeeded by a wide margin in an April 2023 vote.
However, according to the recording of a September 27, 2023, FOIC hearing, Bowsza only had a verbal estimate by architect Stephen Jager of Jager Associates, LLC as to the cost of Scout Hall’s conversion but nothing in writing before sending the project to a referendum vote in November stating the cost would not exceed $5 million.
Attorney Keith Yagaloff, who represented Lynn Stanley before the FOIC regarding her request for all documents related to the Scout Hall renovation project, asked Bowsza if Jager had produced a written cost estimate for the Scout Hall project, to which Bowsza answered, “I don’t know that.”
When pushed by Yagaloff as to whether Bowsza had ever seen a written estimate from Jager before telling the public through mailers and robocalls that the cost was $5 million prior to the referendum vote, Bowsza said, “I have not.”
“The estimate was based on the engineered work that was provided before by the architect, who provided a verbal estimate based on the engineered plans,” Bowsza said during the hearing, but admitted that neither he nor anyone in town administration saw a detailed, written estimate.
“Did anyone in town, prior to Ms. Stanley’s request, review any written cost estimate for Scout Hall?” Yagaloff asked.
“No,” Bowsza replied.
According to the recorded hearing, the second referendum, which placed the cost of the renovation at a cost of $4.7 million was not based on the estimate from architect Jager, but rather a “third party professional estimator,” Bowsza said, but he could not recall the name of the third-party estimator and did not have a copy of the estimator’s report.
Both Lynn Stanley and Keith Yagaloff announced in July that they are running as unaffiliated candidates for the positions of selectman and first selectman respectively in the upcoming November municipal elections, making the FOIC hearings an interesting case in which an incumbent was able to be questioned in a legal proceeding by a political opponent.
The East Windsor Board of Selectman had already committed $1.2 million toward the project before the first referendum vote, which failed by a narrow margin. Stanley filed her FOI request with the town in November requesting a trove of information related to the Scout Hall project after the initial November 2022 referendum failed to pass. She then filed a FOI complaint to the FOIC in January of 2023.
The town produced 1,400 pages of documents in March of 2023, according to a letter from Melissa V. LaBelle, executive assistant and human resources specialist for the Office of the First Selectman, who wrote that “these vexatious requests are exceedingly onerous for Town staff having to cull through and compile responsive information within the constraints of regular Town business hours.”
Stanley, along with several others, did review the 1,400 pages of documents but only took 30 pages they say were responsive to the initial request. Stanley continued with the FOIC complaint because the town hadn’t produced records showing estimates, bids and invoices for the Scout Hall project.
Stanley was personally named by Bowsza during an April 6, 2023, Board of Selectmen meeting in which he piled stacks of documents on the table from FOI requests throughout the year, noting that of the thousands of pages of documents produced, some hadn’t been picked up and, in other cases, less than 100 pages were taken by the requester.
Bowsza specifically cited Stanley’s request in the public forum, telling the board members the FOI requests were “vexatious” — a term the FOIC uses to deem certain, extensive FOI requests as a pattern of conduct meant to abuse Connecticut’s FOI laws and interfere with the operations of an agency.
“I’m doing the best I can to manage this but not at the expense of shutting down aspects of the government,” Bowsza said. “The statutes have a provision that allows for vexatious abuses of the Freedom of Information Act. I don’t know if we’re at that, but we gotta be close.”
“We take the Freedom of Information Act seriously, but it is being abused and it’s affecting morale and it’s certainly affecting productivity of your employees,” Bowsza told the Board. Bowsza said the costs to produce those documents amounted to “more than $10,000” in legal costs.
In an emailed comment, Stanley said the East Windsor administration “knew that no written estimates existed and misled the public.”
“It’s alarming that this administration did not have written cost estimates for a significant project and withheld crucial documents that highlight election violations,” Stanley wrote. “Instead of addressing these concerns head-on, the First Selectman publicly called my FOIA request vexatious and singled me out in a recorded selectman’s meeting. This was a deliberate move to humiliate, embarrass, intimidate me, and send a message to other citizens who would challenge them.”
Reached for comment, Bowsza said in an emailed statement that “all relevant documents were provided to Ms. Stanley pursuant to her request, and within the timeline she provided.”
“More than 1,400 pages of information in total were turned over to her,” Bowsza wrote. “The referendum question – approved by voters with 70% support – was based on an estimate prepared by a third-party professional estimator.”
The Town of East Windsor has since put out a request for bids for the Scout Hall renovation due by November 16, 2023. The town also posted a project manual created by Jager Associates on September 20, 2022 and revised in August of 2023. The FOIC has not yet issued a decision regarding Stanley’s FOI complaint against the town.
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I do not feel Mrs Stanley’s request was unjustified, she clearly had the towns interest at heart. The fact there was no transparency by the 1st selectman on such a costly project that we still do not know the real cost for is unnerving. The 1st selectman led us on his word and he failed us. I personally voted no and was not blindsided by his misrepretation.
Absolutely all records should be public
Had the financial information that residents have a right to been provided from the start, this very necessary FOIA request would not have been necessary. It was an escalation of necessity that one selfless resident tirelessly saw through for the rest of us.