Town of Middletown council recesses to executive session on firefighters' bargaining and East Main Road land purchase

The Town of Middletown council recessed its open meeting and will meet in executive session to discuss collective bargaining with the firefighters and a proposed land acquisition on East Main Road.

President Paul M. Rodri presided as the session opened, and Wendy, the clerk, called the roll; Vice President Thomas P. Welch III and Councilors Peter D. Conor, Christopher M. Logan, Charles R. Roberts, Dennis B. Toronto and Barbara Avonis were recorded as present. After the Pledge of Allegiance, the presiding officer read the executive-session notice and the statutory authority cited: "general law sections 42462, 42464, and 42465A." The topics listed were "collective bargaining, which is the firefighters, and ... land acquisition, which is East Main Road."

A motion was made and seconded "to recess open session and reconvene in executive session." The chair asked for a voice vote; members replied in the affirmative and the motion carried, and the council went into executive session. The meeting record does not name the member who made the motion or the member who seconded it, nor does it contain a roll-call tally; the vote was recorded as verbal assent.

The executive session topics are matters the council identified as falling within the cited statutory provisions: collective bargaining related to firefighters' contract negotiations and discussion of acquiring property on East Main Road. The council did not state any public actions or timetable for decisions during the open session; those deliberations will take place in executive session and are not part of the public record while the council is convened privately.

The council paused its public business to discuss the two items behind closed doors; there was no additional public comment or formal action recorded in the open meeting minutes before the recess.