Killingworth Residents File Complaint Against Town

Two Killingworth residents, one of them a former first selectman, have filed a complaint with the state’s attorney’s office accusing town leaders of violating the charter and withholding information in a lease agreement for the home at .

Gerald Lucas and Michael Board allege that town leaders sought to defraud residents in the lease deal. They filed their voluminous, binder-bound complaint with Middlesex State’s Attorney Peter McShane on Thursday. In it, the two accuse the of violating the town’s charter when it signed, in 2010, a 99-year, $1 per year lease with the for the historic farmhouse at Parmelee.  The lease gives the historical society the option of extending the agreement for another 50 years.

Though the letter accompanying the complaint is signed by Board, Lucas played in integral role in putting the document, and the research on it, together.

Selectmen in December of 2011 held a town meeting to approve the lease after Board and Lucas, a former four-term first selectman who ran unsuccessfully for the Board of Assessment Appeals last year, said the board violated the town charter when it signed the lease nearly a year before without residents’ approval first. 

Residents at the town meeting overwhelmingly approved the deal.

In their complaint, Board and Lucas allege that regardless of the town meeting vote, selectmen violated the charter. They also allege that town officials withheld critical information about the lease deal at the town meeting. Specifically, they say in their complaint that the board did not divulge the results of a structural analysis of the farmhouse, which shows the home will need some $522,000 worth of repairs to make it habitable.

“They purposely kept that information secret” Board said. He said he thinks selectmen didn’t release the data because of fears that residents wouldn’t back the proposal if they knew how much they had to spend to fix the house. When Board questioned the costs at the town meeting in December, Tim Gannon, chairman of the Parmelee Farm Steering Committee, said the town intended to seek a $150,000 state grant to repair the home.

Under the lease deal with the historical society, the town is responsible for making improvements to the home so it can be occupied and the historical society will be responsible for the building’s upkeep. The town is hoping the agreement will help preserve the historic farmhouse.

“Their misleading statement constitute fraud … to gain open ended funding encumbering the town … for the benefit of (the historical society’s) own self interests,” the complaint states. “They want to divert town funds to a ‘private organization’ at a time when revenues are down for the town …”

First Selectman Catherine Iino on Friday did not immediately return messages seeking comment. At the town meeting in December she defended the lease agreement.

"I believe this lease is in the best interest of the town of Killingworth. It gives the town a strong partner in preserving a piece of our historic legacy and making it accessible to the public."

A separate lease signed with the historical society will allow the group to take control of a garage behind the house.