Kempen Suing Middletown Unless...

It's hard to believe after all this time that this issue is still unresolved. Former Town Manager, Mr. Kempen (represented by lawyer Michael T. Brady now) is upset that various parts of his agreement with the town have been breached. In his lawyer's letter on the Council's Monday agenda, the complaint is that since the initial letter of June 10, 2008 requesting a meeting with the Council, Mr. Kempen has been stonewalled. There still is no scheduled meeting despite letters, phone calls, & personal requests.

"The Separation and Release Agreement specifically provides that a party who believes that the agreement has been breached may seek damages in a court... For over six months, Mr. Kempen... has sought to meet with the Town Council, in Open Meeting or Executive Session, [and] has sought to discuss his concerns regarding the breach of this agreement. The denials and delay in addressing the legitimate concerns of Mr. Kempen by the majority of the members of the Town Council have left him with no other option.... I [am] informing you of his intent to file suit...."

As I informed Mr. Holbrook my client does not wish to file suit against the Town
of Middletown because of the actions of some, but not all members of the Town
Council. Meeting with Mr, Kempen, in all likelihood, will put an end to this
issue. The power to avoid litigation to resolve this issue now rests solely with
the Middletown Town Council ."

Mr. Kempen is willing to meeting either in closed or open session. Which ever way it goes, the truth, along with various versions thereof, will likely be outed. The candidates aligned with both Parties are going to have trouble explaining their party leadership's poisition on this- mainly, keep it quiet. Perhaps that's why Republican candidate, Antone Viveiros, has 2 letters on the agenda- one requesting Kempen's agreement to be made public & another requesting all the Charter Review Commission suggestions to be placed on the ballot. Hard to separate yourself as one of the four Republican candidates when the two current Republican Councilors also running voted just the opposite. Both of these are fairly substantial issues. Your Party Chair also has experessed being against non-partisan elections (surprise, surprise). One might ask, why run as a Republican at all? What does that Party label stand for on the local level after all.

It would seem that if the fat lady isn't allowed to sing (or the thin man in this case), four members of the Council (Barrow, Santos, Rodrigues, & Mello) may find themselves named in a lawsuit.