Town Charter, Anyone?
Did top Cheshire Democrats ignore "organic law of the town" to keep ailing Chesprocott alive and exploit a political advantage in 2023?
In the autumn of 2023, the Cheshire Town Council publicly debated the town’s decades-long alliance with the Chesprocott Health District. Unknown to most of the council members, the panel’s two minority members corresponded privately with the health agency’s director in an effort to preserve the relationship, emails obtained through a Freedom of Information request show.
One member, current Vice Chair Jim Jinks, who has served the Second District since 2019, suggested ways to “reform” the agency and burnish the record of then director Maura Esposito, who left her post in May 2024. Close political allies, Mr. Jinks and Ms. Esposito also worked with the head of the Cheshire Democrat Town Committee (CDTC) to exploit a decision by the Republican-led council to exit the non-partisan health agency in order to promote their party in the 2023 municipal election.
Innocuous, small-town politics as usual? Perhaps, except that the Cheshire Town Charter, described as “the organic law of the town,” clearly forbids any communication between council members on any matter under consideration by the council as a whole after a public hearing has been held.
Public officers must “be independent, impartial, and responsible to the people,” the charter states. “No public officer or employee shall encourage, make or accept any private communications (emphasis added) concerning any matter where a decision is to be made after a public hearing. If a public officer or employee inadvertently receives such a communication, he shall make the contents of the communication a part of the record of the public hearing.”
For his part, current Chair Peter Talbot, a 14-year veteran of the council, never replied to the several emails sent to his private account by Ms. Esposito. However, he appears not to have asked Ms. Esposito in writing to stop the communication. Nor did either Mr. Jinks or Mr. Talbot make the correspondence part of the public record as required by the provision.
The emails were among a cache obtained through a Freedom of Information request for correspondence between Cheshire Town Council members and Chesprocott staff between August 1, 2023 and September 11, 2024. Over the 13-month period, Mr. Talbot and Mr. Jinks, using their private accounts, received or exchanged hundreds emails with Ms. Esposito and other Chesprocott employees.
Chesprocott is an independent agency formed nearly 50 years ago to provide public health and emergency response services for the towns of Cheshire, Prospect, and Wolcott. Besides its paid staff, Chesprocott relies on a retinue of volunteers comprising the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC).
Cheshire Town Attorney Jeff Donofrio, in his Dec. 4, 2023, charge to the newly seated Town Council, described the charter as “the organic law of the town.” In reply to a later question from the Cheshire Record, he explained the communications provision exists “to prevent private communications about a pending matter after a public hearing and prior to a decision because the agency decision is supposed to be based on the record.”
Republicans and Democrats who served on the council all received Chesprocott-related emails during the time period covered by the FOI request. These emails were either community alerts issued by the health agency, or the recipients had been copied on budget questions submitted to Ms. Esposito by Town Manager Sean Kimball, who was also serving on the Chesprocott board. Republican council members, many of whom lost their seats in the Nov. 7, 2023, election, said they had no knowledge of the emails between their fellow council members and Ms. Esposito.
Although Ms. Esposito had been commended for her oversight of the health district’s response to the 2020-21 Covid outbreak, the agency in ensuing years was plagued with operational and legal challenges. Chesprocott had lost nearly two dozen key employees in that time. It also was the subject of at least three formal employee grievances. Building contractors, who depend on inspections and construction permits issued through Chesprocott, were complaining about poor communication. To top it off, Chesprocott, a nonprofit agency, had charged its member towns 60 percent more than other districts charged theirs and had amassed a $1.2 million reserve fund.
“2022 was a very challenging year for the health district and for me as health director,” Ms. Esposito wrote to Mr. Jinks and Mr. Talbott on October 5, 2023. Chesprocott suffered from a dearth of properly trained staff. These shortages, coupled with contractors’ demands, forced Ms. Esposito herself to carrying most of the workload within the district, she claimed.
“This had devastating results, including that I was not fulfilling my director responsibilities,” she wrote to the two council members. “My lack of attention to my responsibilities caused many employees to complain to board members. I can honestly tell you many accusations were dismissed.”
All she wanted, Ms. Esposito wrote on October 6, 2024, was “an opportunity to sit down with the council and correct any wrongs we have done.” She offered to meet with Mr. Jinks to review the facts. “Transparency is so important,” she said in the email addressed only to him. “You need to know all the facts before such and impactful decision is made.”
In mid-September of 2023, after months of haggling over finances, administration, and personnel issues, Cheshire town officials moved to sever the town’s alliance with Chesprocott and join the South Central Health District in Southington.
A public hearing was formally called September 30, 2023, and held October 10. About two-dozen volunteers testified in the agency’s favor. They were mobilized through a mass email from Ms. Esposito, who also saw fit to blind copy Mr. Talbot, Mr. Jinks, CDTC chairwoman Courtney Cullinan, and CTDC members Rep. Liz Linehan, Cheshire Board of Education member Anne Harrigan, and CTDC stalwart Kathy Yacavonel.
Between that October hearing and December 12, 2023, when the question of Cheshire’s affiliation was settled, at least 20 emails were exchanged between Ms. Esposito and Mr. Jinks.
Many of the emails were “handholding,” as Ms. Esposito sought to preserve the agency and the job she had held for 14 years. As Chesprocott’s largest client, Cheshire’s departure would imperil the agency’s survival.
Ms. Esposito shared with the two council members board minutes, which are publicly available, and pricing and staffing comparisons between Chesprocott and the SCHD. She also defended her role with Chesprocott, sought advice on the public hearing’s format, and shared with Mr. Jinks correspondence she sent to Prospect’s and Wolcott’s mayors.
In return, Mr. Jinks, who had no official role with Chesprocott, proposed ways to “reform” the health district, even while conceding his “limited understanding.” In an October 13, 2023, email he suggested Ms. Esposito drop plans for a new office building, hold forums for business leaders, return a portion the $1.2 million reserve fund to Cheshire, and phase in reductions to the fees charged to towns. He also suggested relocating Chesprocott to the vacant Arts Place building on Waterbury Avenue.
The relocation has since proved so costly to Chesprocott that the board voted last month to break the 10-year lease with Cheshire at a cost of $81,000 to the agency.
“These are just thoughts,” Mr. Jinks said in the October 2023 email. “From my limited understanding of how Chesprocott works I have a little idea if any of this makes sense. If we could get to ten ‘reforms’ that has a nice ring to it.”
During the charter-imposed blackout period, the councilmen and Ms. Esposito exploited the proposed break up to their political advantage. Mr. Jinks and Mr. Talbot are active members of the Democrat Town Committee. Ms. Esposito, treasurer of the Cheshire Democrat Women’s Club, dutifully kept members of the committee apprised of the internal workings of the health agency.
In a March 2023 email, as she was lobbying for the construction of a dedicated, $1 million office building to replace the health district’s rented Highland Avenue offices, Esposito wrote directly to Mr. Talbott and Mr. Jinks, “I’m sure you heard rumbling about the new Chesprocott building and I wanted to keep you in the loop out of respect for representing (sic) the democrat party of the Town of Cheshire.”
Copied on the email were Rep. Linehan, who secured the state-owned land for the project, and CDTC Chair Cullinan, who also is Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy and Budget for state Senate Democrats.
One week out from the November 7, 2023, municipal elections, Cheshire Democrats made Chesprocott an election issue. On October 29, Ms. Cullinan emailed Mr. Jinks a seven-point strategy for supporting Chesprocott, which stated, “We are asking you to Vote Democratic!”
The next day, a Chesprocott employee forwarded the email to Ms. Esposito, asking if she could send it to the Medical Reserve Corps.
“(H)ere’s a “clean” list. Uses (sic) these emails,” Ms. Esposito replied. Attached was a spreadsheet of all 120 Chesprocott volunteers and their personal or work emails.
“Hi, Courtney and Jim, I received your email forwarded by (Chesprocott employee’s name withheld) and shared with the Prospect Business Association, which Maura is the a (sic) a member,” wrote PBA Secretary Betty Bajek in an message to Ms. Culinan and Mr. Jinks.
One recipient of the campaign email was so incensed she replied, “I am a registered Democrat. How dare you politicize this issue and make it a Democrat issue vs. a Republican issue. As I shared with Jim Jinx (sic) if you continue to this, you can be assured I will vote Republican as you are misconstruing the real issue.”
On November 7, 2023, Cheshire voters flipped the long-standing Republican-majority Town Council and gave control to the Democrats. “I’m not sure what was on voters’ minds that day, but I’m sure leaving Chesprocott was a factor,” Mr. Talbot said at the November 11, 2023, council meeting, where the lame-duck majority voted to leave Chesprocott.
The newly seated Democrat-majority council, as its first order of business, voided the earlier vote and preserved the Chesprocott alliance on December 12, 2023. There was no discussion prior to the 6-3 vote.
Neither Mr. Jinks, Mr. Talbot, nor Ms. Esposito responded to a request for comment on this article. Previously, Mr. Jinks referred to his publication when asked questions about his involvement with Chesprocott .