Report may hold Amity probe answers

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Report may hold Amity probe answers

Weizel, Register Correspondent February 28, 2002

ORANGE - Former Amity School Board attorney Carole Briggs presented a

38-page report to the board in closed session more than two years ago

warning that large sums of money were being misspent from a $2.85 million

bond intended solely to correct mold and fungus-related problems at the high

school.

Briggs and former Amity school board member Luther this week told a

tri-town committee that the report, presented to the school board in a

September 2000 executive session would provide answers to many questions.

But Briggs declined to release the report to the committee, which is

investigating alleged mishandling of board finances. Briggs said it has

never been made public and releasing it would be a violation of

attorney-client privilege. The Amity school board this week tabled a motion

to waive Briggs' attorney-client privileges, but could vote on that at a

special meeting next week.

" Without (the Briggs report) you will have incomplete information and will

not have all the facts that you should have, " Luther told the committee. " I

have numerous documents you should see - without them your report will be

flawed. "

Luther was an Amity school board member from 1979-87 and part of a building

committee for the high school remediation project. He told the committee he

was later appointed as a monitor to assist with litigation the school board

was involved in with contractors.

The school board had claimed faulty construction work on a major renovation

project resulted in the mold and fungus problems and last month was awarded

a $2.7 million settlement after a five-year legal battle.

The first selectmen of the three towns, however, are seeking $1.3 million of

that settlement after learning last week that amount may have been misspent

by Amity out of the bond to pay litigation attorneys, mostly to Briggs.

Amity School Board Chairman Lohne and Vice Chairman Duplinksy

could not be reached for comment Wednesday about the 38-page Briggs report.

The tri-town committee's report will be presented to the first selectmen of

Orange, Woodbridge and Bethany at a public meeting Wednesday at 8 p.m. at

High Plains Community Center, Orange Center Road in Orange, said Tri-Town

Investigative Committee Chairman Riordan.

Luther and Briggs also told the committee the school district's former

Finance Director Grignano had moved money from the board's operating

budget to the referendum budget. They said he also " co-mingled " funds from

among several budgets that created confusion about whether funds were being

spent on the items for which they were originally budgeted.

Briggs, who was barred last year by a Superior Court judge from handling any

of Amity litigation cases after determining she had violated rules of

professional conduct, said Grignano also shifted funds from different budget

for years to cover for money that had been spent.

Amity bond attorney Theodore See told the board this week that $1.3 million

of the $2.85 bond was spent on legal fees.

Grignano retired last June. Repeated calls seeking comment from Grignano

were not returned.

Riordan said he was " deeply disturbed " to learn of the existence of the

38-page Briggs report so late in the investigation.

'We certainly want to question Ms. Briggs further about that and had hoped

the Amity board would have waived her attorney-client privilege in order to

do so, " Riordan said. " But now any information supplied by Ms.

Briggs cannot be part of the report we will present next week, though it

could be added as a supplementary item later on. "

©New Haven Register 2002