Board authorizes counsel to transmit settlement offer after executive session

At its April 7, 2026 special meeting, the board reconvened after an executive session and voted to amend the agenda to add an item authorizing counsel to transmit a settlement offer to opposing counsel.

A member moved "to amend the agenda" to add item 7.2 and to "transmit [a] settlement offer," and a second was recorded. The member who read the motion asked the board to "authorize Attorney Forte to communicate the board's settlement offer to Attorney Willis," language taken directly from the motion read on the record. The chair called for the vote and the transcript records affirmative responses; a member later summarized the tally as "4 0 0," and the chair declared the motion passed.

The authorization followed an executive session earlier in the meeting; the transcript records that the executive session began after a motion and vote to enter executive session and later concluded before the motion to amend the agenda was read. The transcript does not include the substance of the executive session nor any details of the settlement offer itself beyond the motion to transmit and the named counsel involved.

Votes at a glance: the motion to amend the agenda and authorize transmission of the settlement offer passed (tally announced in the record as 4 yes, 0 no, 0 abstain). Earlier in the meeting the board also recorded approval of the special meeting minutes (agenda item 5.1) and a motion to enter executive session; those actions were moved, seconded and carried by the recorded affirmative responses in the transcript. The meeting concluded with a motion to adjourn that was seconded and approved on the record.

No member names are attached to the motions or vote tallies in the transcript beyond the roll call earlier in the meeting; the transcript records the roll call names (Andrew Santaniello, Richard Pelletier, Cali Grippo, Nicholas Vaccaro and Tom Hazel) but does not explicitly map vote responses to individual roll-call names in the public portion of the record. The transcript also does not disclose the particulars of the settlement offer or any negotiating terms; it records only the board's procedural authorization for counsel to communicate the board's offer to Attorney Willis.

Next steps: the authorization, as made on the public record, directs Attorney Forte to communicate the board's settlement offer to Attorney Willis; the transcript does not specify any required follow-up reporting or a timeline for further board action.