Judge lets ruling stand vs. Hempstead Supervisor John Ferretti in Open Meetings Law case

A state judge rejected Hempstead Town Supervisor John Ferretti’s bid to be removed from a ruling that he and other town officials violated state Open Meetings Law when Ferretti was appointed to his job last year.

However, the judge ruled against nullifying that Aug. 5 appointment, noting that when Ferretti was reappointed supervisor more than a month later, proper procedures were followed.

Judge Gary Carlton ruled in October that the town and town officials broke the state transparency law when Ferretti was appointed to replace former Town Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr. on Aug. 5 without notifying the public in advance. After that appointment, then-candidate Joseph Scianablo, a Democrat, sued the town, Ferretti, Town Clerk Kate Murray and the five Republican town board members.

Ferretti’s attorney argued that the case against the Republican official should be dismissed because Ferretti — who resigned Aug. 5 from the Nassau County Legislature just before he was appointed supervisor — was not a town official when the decision was made to install him as Clavin’s successor.

Murray’s attorney made a similar argument: that the complaint against her should be dismissed since she was not on the town board, which voted to appoint Ferretti.

Carlton rejected those arguments in a decision signed Jan. 14 that was made public last week.

“While defendant Ferretti may not have been in a position to post a notice 24 hours in advance, Ferretti by participating in executive sessions about replacing Supervisor Clavin . . .  acted in violation of the New York State Open Meetings Law,” Carlton wrote in his decision.

It was unclear from the ruling which executive session Carlton was referring to, since there was none called at the Aug. 5 meeting.

Town spokesman Brian Devine declined to comment on the ruling Wednesday.

Attorneys for Ferretti and Murray did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

The incumbent Ferretti defeated Scianablo in the November election. 

In a statement Wednesday night, Scianablo said the court was clear that Ferretti's first appointment had been "unlawful."

"This lawsuit exposed a Town Board that operates for insiders, not taxpayers, putting politics over the public interest," Scianablo said in the statement. "We brought this lawsuit to force accountability and expose how power is abused in Hempstead, and now the truth is permanently on the record."

In ruling against Scianablo’s bid to nullify Ferretti’s Aug. 5 appointment, Carlton noted that the town had properly followed Open Meetings Law when the board properly provided advance notice before they reappointed Ferretti at a meeting Sept. 16.

Nullifying Ferretti’s appointment would harm “innocent town of Hempstead residents” who had relied on the actions of the board taken between Aug. 5 and Sept. 16 that would be similarly rendered null and void, Carlton wrote.

Writing about Open Meetings Law, Carlton said the purpose of it is “to prevent public bodies from debating and deciding in private, matters that they are required to debate and decide in public, i.e., 'deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy.'"

Carlton rejected Murray’s effort to be removed from the case, noting that she was responsible for publishing public notice ahead of the Aug. 5 meeting, “was privy to insider communication and knowledge” and that she had documents for Ferretti to sign on her desk at the start of the meeting, before Clavin announced that he was resigning.

The town's outside counsel alleged that Scianablo didn’t have standing to bring the case. Carlton rejected that argument, writing that the harm that candidate Scianablo suffered from being excluded from “secret meetings” about Clavin’s sudden resignation and Ferretti’s almost-immediate ascension were sufficient to establish standing.