Present: First Selectman Woody Bliss; Selectman W. Glenn Major; Selectwoman Gayle Weinstein; Town Administrator Tom Landry; Administrative Assistant Judy DeVito.

Mr. Bliss called the meeting to order at 4:02pm

Mr. Bliss explained that Mr. Landry would make a presentation and make his recommendation. He will call any witness that he wants to call. Mr. Lieberman’s attorney, Daniel P. Hunsberger will respond to that and can call any witnesses. There will be no testimony taken from members of the audience unless they are called by Mr. Landry or Mr. Lieberman’s attorney.

Mr. Landry asked that they take a couple of minutes, walking over to the fire station, looking at the set-up in the lobby and coming back. He said much of this focuses around activity that happened in that area. At that time a recess was taken.

At 4:27 Mr. Bliss reconvened the meeting. Mr. Landry passed out documents to the selectmen and identified what he had passed out. He went over the powers of the Board of Selectmen and the powers of the First Selectman. He went over a section in the policy and practices handbook on the appropriate employee conduct and termination of employment. The job ad, the position description (unapproved), minutes of the meeting when Mr. Lieberman was appointed to the position on July 20, 2006 and the appointment letter were some of the documents that Mr. Landry gave to the selectmen.

Mr. Landry said that they would hear much discussion about a distributed letter which they have a copy, where names have been redacted. There is a memo from the Police Chief dated January 18, 2008, which relays the findings of extensive review of security camera video tapes of the area they had just visited. In the memo there is a date on page 2 line 2, January 5, 2008, 10:46 hours which is incorrect. The correct date and time is January 3, 2008, 19:23 hours.

Mr. Landry said subsequent to receiving that he suspended Mr. Lieberman with pay and he notified the Communication Center that Sgt. Mike Ferullo was the acting director of the Communication Center until further notice. On Tuesday the 22^{nd, he changed Mr. Lieberman’s status and suspended him without pay from that point forward. Mr. Lieberman engaged counsel and asked that the meeting be open session.}

Attorney Hunsberger objected to the letter of January 18, 2008, which is alleged to be a characterization of review of recordings. He said if they were to act on this matter they

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should review the tapes in their entirety to view what is alleged. If a two page letter cannot accurately reflect the dates and times then perhaps everything else in this letter is in question. It is at least hearsay besides being inaccurate.

Mr. Landry said that everything that he alludes to that occurred in that lobby is on video tape. He, Mr. Lieberman, Detective Carl Filsinger and Police Chief John Troxell have all seen it. He is talking about a three day period from Thursday at 1923 hours until the Sunday 1825 hours, but there is no way that he can effectively show the video tapes here.

Mr. Landry said in 2006, after a study that the town engaged to look at our dispatch services, Mr. Landry suggested and the Board of Selectmen agreed to create a new position of Director, for the Communication Center which serves fire, EMS, police and also the highway department. Mr. Landry said he felt the biggest challenge was going to be bridging the gap and the tensions among all of those agencies. Mr. Landry recommended Mr. Lieberman to the Board and he was appointed.

Mr. Landry said he is now asking the Board to undo the appointment that he stood behind 18 months ago. Mr. Lieberman no longer has the trust and confidence of him, the police chief, the fire chief, the fire department or Weston’s EMS. As a result, he feels Mr. Lieberman can no longer do the job effectively. Mr. Landry said two factors lead him to this conclusion, first, the act in question itself, and second, Mr. Lieberman’s conduct after that action came to light.

Mr. Landry said the action was the distribution of a letter into three fire department mail boxes on January 6th. Attorney Hunsberger objected. He said one of the problems that he has had in trying to represent Mr. Lieberman, is the fact that everything that he has seen has been hearsay except for actually going in and reviewing the tape itself. He said he spent five hours reviewing several days of activity. Subsequently, he had information that suggested he should have gone beyond that.

He said he was going to object to anything coming in. He said the selectmen have a right to hear it from the individuals involved. It is not their responsibility to hear it second hand. He asked that they continue at a point in time, when all persons involved are brought before you. They should have a right to cross examine and question them and review beyond the time in question, and go at least another day on the tapes. Mr. Bliss said he noted his objection and would like Mr. Landry to proceed.

At 1825 hours, Chief Pokorny came in and discovered the letter in his mail box. Attorney Hunsberger objected saying hearsay. Mr. Major said that this was not a court and we did not have the same rules of evidence applying to us. Attorney Hunsberger said he understood, but this was a man’s reputation, his integrity and his job. He has the right to have first hand evidence, if it exists.

When Chief Pokorny found the letter he called in Weston Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) Vice President, Craig Cohen, and they went through all of the mailboxes. They noted that there were two other mailboxes that had the same envelope as in Chief

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Pokorny’s box. They did not remove the letters, they just noted their presence. The two other boxes belonged to the Sandy and Walter Dadik, and Jon Weingarten. Paul Deysenroth was opening Jon Weingarten’s mail while he was in Europe. The next day, Paul Deysenroth went to the mailbox, found and opened the letter which is the same letter as the one here today. Sandy Dadik opened her husband’s letter and it was the same as the one that we have a copy of here. The same letter was sent to a person in the department and that person came in and filed a complaint with the police department. That is what started the police investigation. The security video tapes were reviewed to see who was at those mailboxes during those 71 hours. After that review Weston Detective, Carl Filsinger, identified that the person who went to all of the three boxes (Pokorny, Dadik and Weingarten) during the time in question, was Mr. Lieberman.

The Fire Department Executive Committee met with Mr. Lieberman on 1/15/08. Mr. Lieberman told Mr. Landry that he was offended by the accusations and he resigned from EMS. Mr. Lieberman told Mr. Landry that he was indeed at the mailbox. He had opened the boxes of Deysenroth, Dadik and Pokorny to place battery in the first two and a radio in Chief Pokorny’s box, but he elected not to do that. He stated he returned to the boxes to make sure he had placed the items. Mr. Landry and Mr. Lieberman viewed the tapes and saw the individual visits to the boxes. Mr. Landry said he saw what Mr. Lieberman did including opening the Weingarten box, but Mr. Lieberman said he had no memory of this. Mr. Landry called Sandy Dadik and Paul Deysenroth and asked if they found batteries in their boxes on the 7th and they said no. Sandy Dadik and Paul Deysenroth said they found the letters in their boxes (Mr. Weingarten’s mail box was the box Paul Deysenroth opened up). Sandy Dadik and Paul Deysenroth discovered the letters on the 7th. Mr. Landry’s conclusion is that after a full review Mr. Lieberman did deposit these letters. Mr. Lieberman made significant misrepresentations to Mr. Landry, others and the police department. With these conclusions as to loss of credibility, Mr. Landry recommends that Mr. Lieberman’s employment be terminated. Mr. Landry stated that the Detective and President of the Fire Department are available to discuss these issues that have been presented.

Glen Major stated that he would like to hear from Mr. Weingarten if the representation given by Mr. Landry is accurate. Mr. Weingarten stated that his mailbox was emptied before he left, and that he authorized Paul Deysenroth to open any mail in the box. When questioned by Attorney Hunsberger, Mr. Weingarten stated that he would never have put back any mail in his mailbox before leaving, especially if it was a sealed letter. He stated that the box was emptied before he left. Sandy Dadik stated when she went to the mailbox on the 7th, there were 2 spiral bound booklets, a DVD and a white envelope. She opened and read it. She said that the letter is the same letter as the one at the meeting.

Woody Bliss asked if there were others going into those mailboxes at the same time. Detective Filsinger said no. Paul Deysenroth said he went into Paul Deysenroth’s mailbox. Detective Filsinger said he did not see anyone who was going into those three mailboxes. There was a discussion about who Detective Filsinger saw going into mailboxes. Various members, officers and the office manager place mail in the mailboxes. The mailboxes are not locked. Mr. Major asked that Detective Filsinger

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review tape from where he stopped on the tape on the 6th to the evening of the 7th. He asked that this meeting be reconvened the following Monday. He asked that the same people whose boxes they are discussing be present plus anybody else seen by Detective Filsinger going into these mailboxes.

Chief Pokorny described what happened on the 6th when he went to check his mail. He found the letter in question, read it and then asked Craig Cohen to look with him at the other mailboxes. The same letter with the same type of typing was in Mr. Weingarten’s box. The box was empty with the exception of this letter. He was not sure if the letter was in the Dadik’s box.

Attorney Hunsberger asked if he could get permission to view the tapes at the same time. It was decided that he should review the tapes separately. The meeting will be held at 7:30 pm on Monday. Sandy Dadik will be available by calling the firehouse.

Motion made, seconded and unanimously approved to continue this hearing on Monday January 28th at 7:30 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy DeVito

Administrative Assistant

Approved 5/08/08