‘Those costs are being borne by Townsend taxpayers’

TOWNSEND — As Townsend faces two separate lawsuits led by its own town clerk, the town administrator provided an update of both cases and gave some insight into how much the town has incurred in legal expenses.

In a Friday statement, Town Administrator Kieran Meehan said the town is preparing for a Sept. 8 in-person hearing on all pending motions in the case of Mayotte as Intervenor v. Town of Townsend in Middlesex Superior Court. Before that hearing Meehan said the town’s legal counsel “has prepared a renewed motion to dismiss,” which he said will be filed beforehand.

“The Court is expected to consider the Town’s Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Strike the Amended Complaint, along with numerous filings submitted by Mr. Mayotte. These include a 251-page Motion for Preliminary Injunction with supporting memorandum and exhibits, as well as multiple additional motions and memoranda filed in early July,” said Meehan.

Meehan said the renewed motion to dismiss “argues that Mr. Mayotte lacks the legal authority to pursue the claims in his capacity as Town Clerk and that the underlying dispute is now moot following the voluntary dismissal of the original plaintiff, Dr. Christian Román Ramírez.”

Roman-Ramirez, the chair of Townsend’s Board of Health, was the person who originally filed the complaint, which Mayotte soon joined as a plaintiff-intervenor and continued on as such with an amended complaint even after Roman-Ramirez agreed on his case’s dismissal. Roman-Ramirez’s original filing alleged that the town had failed to respond in time to a public records request he had made in February for the budgets of town department revolving funds, which town attorney Adam Costa said during the July 7 Select Board meeting do not exist “because revolving funds don’t have budgets.”

Mayotte’s amended complaint in the same case made similar allegations that other town employees failed to produce records of liability insurance policies going back to 2015.

Since the original filing of Roman-Ramirez’s lawsuit, Meehan said in his statement the town has incurred $14,000 in legal costs.

“Those costs are being borne by Townsend taxpayers,” said Meehan.

Mayotte later filed a separate case, Mayotte v. Town of Townsend, on July 2, in which he sought injunctive relief to block the Select Board from what he claimed to be retaliation for his involvement in the original public records lawsuit. The Select Board had published an agenda for their July 7 meeting which included items to reassign the role of records access officer, which currently belongs to the town clerk’s position and for the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds for an RAO stipend. Those items were removed from the agenda before the meeting took place, but the second lawsuit so far continues.

“The matter has been referred to the Town’s municipal insurance carrier, which has appointed outside insurance counsel to defend the case,” Meehan said about the second lawsuit. “While insurance coverage will reduce the Town’s direct legal expenses, Townsend remains responsible for its $25,000 deductible and may experience higher insurance premiums in future years as a result of the litigation.”

His statement concluded, “Many residents have asked whether these matters could be resolved without continued litigation. The Town has made a good-faith effort to do so, but to date there has been no agreement on a settlement and the litigation remains pending.”

In a phone call with The Sun Monday afternoon, Mayotte said his ultimate wish is to do just that.

“My goal is to resolve it without litigation,” said Mayotte. “I remain willing to discuss a binding change in how the town conducts business.”

That change would be in regard to the town’s handling of public records requests, with the crux of his original plaintiff-intervenor filing being that other town officials allegedly prevented him from performing his duties as the town’s RAO by not properly searching for requested records.

The RAO powers case filed directly by Mayotte had a number of named defendants, including the town of Townsend, all three members of the Select Board, Meehan and former Town Administrator Nelson Mui. On July 14 Costa and “town employee John Does 1-5” were removed from the list of defendants after Mayotte filed a notice of voluntary dismissal for them.

During the July 7 meeting the Select Board had also taken a vote to indefinitely pause their future meetings, citing the “inundation of legal matters” the town faces. On Wednesday the board met for a brief open session before moving into executive session, where they had agenda items for both lawsuits.