Selectmen Broke the Rules, Police Commission Says

Windsor Locks police commission members signed a letter to the board of selectmen Thursday night — a letter drafted by commission member Jim Gaylord, in which Selectmen Denise Balboni and Dennis Gragnolati are accused of having leaking confidential information to the public and "violating the sanctity of executive session," respectively.

According to the letter, which Gaylord read aloud at Thursday's special meeting, Balboni released a draft of the Police Department's contract to a resident this past February, prior to it coming before the board of selectmen.

The release of the draft, Gaylord wrote, was discovered when the resident made reference to the email in a Facebook posing. Additionally, Gaylord said, Balbonis actions resulted in "a violation of attorney-client privilege... and shattered the sens of security in the absolute essential need to have trust and faith in attorney-client privilege in regard to official town business."

Furthermore, Gaylord labeled Balboni's actions as a political play, saying the only conclusion he can draw as to why she would release  such information "is that it was done by her to obtain some obscure political advantage, or undermine the ratification process of the police contract.

Balboni was not available for comment Thursday night.

She did, however, say at the board's April 16 meeting she felt the email in question "contained no privileged or sensitive information and its release to the selectmen [by Storms] was appropriate."

Balboni continued, saying she sent the email to a resident "as a way of saying that he was not alone" and as a response to his repeated questions to Chairman Brace, which had gone unanswered.

According to Gaylord, matters were made worse after the commission entered executive session on April 10 to discuss the release of the contract, which was embedded in an email between Commission Chair Kevin Brace and town attorney Scott Storms.

Gragnolati voted against entering executive session that night, saying the matters at hand did not legally justify entering the private meeting.

Nearly one week later, Gaylord wrote, Gragnolati revealed he discussed what transpired in the commission's executive session with Balboni.

Gragnolati said Thursday he had a discussion with Storms, who told him the private meeting did not justify calling an executive session.

All but Gragnolati and Ed Lanati signed the letter.

View and download the full letter, provided in .pdf format above.