WESTFIELD – Camelot Lane resident Marc Lichwan filed an Open Meeting Law complaint with the Attorney General’s office against the Westfield Gas & Electric Municipal Light Board on Thursday, claiming that the process used in hiring the new general manager was entirely held in executive session, and was not an open process.
“The Municipal Light Board met on several occasions during the months of August, September and October, 2018, in ‘Executive Session’ to discuss and act upon the process for selecting the General Manager of the Westfield Gas & Electric Department. Further, the MLB chose the finalists for the GM position in Executive Session and in the posting for the interviews of the finalists, did not list the names of the finalists to be interviewed,” wrote Lichwan in the complaint, which named all of the commissioners of the board. Meetings of the MLB are held at the WG&E Operations Center at 40 Turnpike Industrial Road in Westfield.
“I feel this was an intentional act, as recorded in the minutes of the August 1, 2018, MLB meeting, the MLB Attorney Welch stated that ‘While the preliminary screening may occur in executive session, all conversations and discussion regarding the manager search need to be held during properly posted open meetings or in executive session during the preliminary screening process,’ ” Lichwan continued in the complaint, which was copied to Ray Rivera, Chairman of the MLB, Mayor Brian P. Sullivan, City Council President John J. Beltrandi, III, Robert A. Paul, Sr., City Council Liaison to the Westfield G&E and to City Solicitor Susan Phillips.
Lichwan’s complaint continued: “Once the search for the GM began, ALL discussions and meetings regarding the search were held in executive session. It also appears that the MLB never reviewed the applications and resumes submitted, but rather relied on the General Manager and an employee’s rating system of the candidates in their review process for selecting the finalists. In researching the process, nearly 70 applicants/letters of interest/resumes were received, and the three that were chosen for interviews were all internal candidates from the WG&E. These may have been the most qualified candidates, but how are we to know as we have been shut out of a public process.”
According to the minutes of the Sept. 5 session of the Municipal Light Board, which are posted on the city website, , the regular meeting was adjourned and entered into executive session, among other purposes, to discuss the preliminary screening process for the General Manager position and would reconvene the regular session after adjournment from the executive session. According to the minutes, the meeting recessed at 7:57 p.m. and reconvened at 9:09 p.m. All positive votes taken in executive session were ratified and confirmed by the board, and the meeting adjourned at 9:10 p.m.
According to the minutes of the Sept. 26 meeting of the Municipal Light Board, which are also posted on the city website, the regular meeting was adjourned and entered into executive session for the purpose of conducting the preliminary screening for the General Manager position and would reconvene the regular session after adjournment from the executive session. According to the minutes, the meeting recessed at 7:06 p.m. and reconvened at 8:36 p.m. All positive votes taken in executive session were ratified and confirmed by the board, and the meeting adjourned at 8:37 p.m.
According to the minutes of the Oct. 3 meeting of the MLB, also posted on the city website, the regular session portion of the meeting adjourned at 8:08 p.m. and entered into executive session in part to discuss the status of the preliminary screening process for the General Manager position, and would not reconvene into regular session.
According to the agenda for the Oct. 9 meeting, which began at 6:30 p.m., the sole item on the agenda was General Manager Interviews. The agenda did not state that the meeting would be held in executive session, and G&E Human Resources coordinator Beth Burns confirmed Monday that the Oct. 9 interviews were held in regular session. Minutes for the Oct. 9 meeting are not yet posted.
G+E Energy Supply Manager Anthony “Tony” Contrino was offered and accepted the position following the meeting of Oct. 9.
Lichwan’s complaint also claimed that: “This is a very important decision that greatly impacts the Ratepayers of the Westfield Gas & Electric. This process appears to have been run by the outgoing manager of the department, and NOT the board (MLB) that we (Ratepayers and Voters in Westfield) elected. This process should be restarted. The MLB should enlist (if it needs assistance) the input of area Municipal Light Managers as the fire commission, police commission and school committee does for the hiring of their department heads.”
There is no indication in the minutes that the process was run by the outgoing manager of the department, or that he commented in any way except to speak about the changing industry that has occurred since his appointment, as stated in the minutes of August 1, before the search process began:
“Manager (Dan) Howard discussed with the MLB the changing industry that has occurred since his appointment as general manager, including the continuing State legislative actions that will certainly have effects on local control. The MLB needs to take into account the changing nature of the overall utility business, such as the need for revenue generation, when developing the necessary qualifications for any applicant as well as selecting a general manager that can acclimate to these inevitable changes within the Department as well as the Industry.” (MLB Minutes, August 1)
According to the Attorney General’s Open Meeting Law Complaint process, the public body, in this case the MLB, must meet to review the complaint within 14 business days (usually 22-23 calendar days), must respond to the complaint in writing, and a copy sent to the Attorney General’s office.
The members of the Municipal Light Board have not yet been reached for comment.
