By Chris Church/Independent Staff Writer - (SUMMER 2007)

NORTH KINGSTOWN - It took two years for a verdict, but a Superior Court Judge ruled last week that former Superintendent James M. Halley and a previous School Committee willfully misled the public in 2005 when the board voted to close Wickford Elementary School.

Judge Judith C. Savage's 29-page ruling, which is full of baroque and caustic language, said that Halley and the committee made a "conscious effort" to violate the Rhode Island open meetings law when they failed to notify the public that a vote would be taken on the matter.

Savage ruled that the School Committee must pay for plaintiff Teri Ohs' legal fees, which total $30,191.50.

Some School Committee members said they were not surprised with the decision and are now searching for money in the budget to reimburse Ohs.

"I kind of knew this was going to happen," School Committee member April Brunelle said. "I'm not sure how we are going to pay for this with our tight budget constraints, but we are going to have to go back to the drawing board."

She called the ruling a "reflection of Halley's mess and the School Committee members who had backed him."

Ohs filed the suit after a May 11, 2005 School Committee meeting where the board voted 4-3 to permanently close the school because of budget constraints. The item on the work session agenda was referred to as unfinished business for the 2005-06 budget. Although the committee advertised the item and reaffirmed the vote a week later, the court ruled that the board violated the law and was expected to rule soon after on whether the violation was willful.

Now, two years later, Savage's ruling states that because of the committee's "pattern of secrecy" the vote was an "egregious violation" of the law because of the way it was portrayed to the public on the agenda.

"Not only did it fail to entice the public to attend the meeting and to participate in the discussion and vote on critically important agenda items, it actually discouraged the public from attending by suggesting that the meeting was to be an uneventful work session in which the School Committee simply would continue its prior unfinished budget discussions," Savage wrote.

School Committee member Larry Ceresi also said he had anticipated the decision and said the money will have to be allocated from the 2007-08 budget, but he is not sure where at this point.

"Unfortunately Ohs' concerns and fears fell on deaf ears with the former superintendent and School Committee and she was left with no other alternative," he said.

School Committee Chair Doug Roth said the penalty only compounds the financial burden the department is facing.

"You can go ahead and add that $30,000 to the $208,000 the Town Council has already taken away from us along with other legal fees this committee has and will incur," he said.

At last week's council meeting, Supt. Albert Honnen appeared before the council seeking an additional $50,000 for the school budget, a request that has been denied Roth said.

In addition, Savage stated in the ruling that the district must pay a maximum civil penalty of $5,000 unless they adopt a policy to ensure that they will comply with the open meetings law.

In the past, Halley defended the committee's vote to close Wickford Elementary School by saying that there had been plenty of media coverage on the event as well as a candlelit vigil that was held at the school the night before the vote.

Savage said Halley's rationale insinuated that it was the citizens' duty to follow budget hearing and school committee meetings and that the notice of meetings required by law "should not even be necessary to inform the public of the deliberations and decisions of government."

She further pointed to the fact that the Rhode Island Department of Education had criticized the process in which the committee closed Fishing Cove Elementary School in 2002 and did not allow for public comment.

In 2005, the Attorney General's Office also warned the committee that any future open meetings law violations would be considered willful, after they had received a number of complaints from William Mudge, a School Committee member at the time.

Savage wrote that Halley "knowingly gave misleading information in willful violation of the Act" and thereby adversely affected the ability of the Wickford Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization to mobilize their members for the meeting.

"Dr. Halley was a student of the Rhode Island Open Meetings Act. He researched its provisions, kept an abstract of it in his desk that he consulted often in his work, and attended seminars and received and reviewed case materials from the Department of Attorney General concerning its provisions."

The School Committee is scheduled to meet in executive session on Aug. 8 to further discuss the ruling.