The town lost another round in its fight with the Plymouth Municipal Airport Commission Wednesday when the judge in the case ordered the town to resume providing services to the airport.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge Gregg Pasquale directed town manager Derek Brindisi to rescind his controversial order instructing all town employees to stop doing any work for the airport, slamming Brindisi for being “cute.”
The Airport Commission had appealed to the judge to act after Brindisi’s May 1 order cutting off all town services historically provided to the airport.
The Commission also asked the judge to find Brindisi in contempt — a hearing on the contempt motion is scheduled for next week.
The Airport Commission’s lawyer said Thursday he doesn’t understand why Brindisi and the town are stubbornly fighting what appears to be a losing cause. In issuing an injunction on April 9, Pasquale said the Airport Commission is likely to win its April 1 lawsuit if it moves ahead.
“For 70 years the town and the Airport Commission have worked collaboratively together,” said the Commission’s lawyer, Robert Galvin.
“I have never gone to court in 33 years on a contempt proceeding against a town” he said, “and we’ll end up going to court over this.”
He argued state law clearly prohibits officials of any town from meddling in their municipal airport’s business. The law was enacted to avoid precisely the kind of interference that has been taking place, he said.
On May 1, Brindisi instructed town employees to stop providing IT support, handling public records requests, posting Airport Commission agendas on the town’s website, insuring airport vehicles, and a host of financial services including the issuing of employee tax statements.
He said he implemented the new policy to comply with the judge’s April 9 order, instructing Brindisi to stop interfering in airport business.
The Plymouth Select Board has supported Brindisi’s actions, but no members have backed him publicly.
Pasquale on Wednesday issued a new order, proposed by the Airport Commission, broadening the original injunction issued last month.
The April 9 injunction barred Brindisi or anyone else from the town from getting involved in “the care, custody of the Plymouth Municipal Airport or its management.”
Under that court order, town officials also were prohibited from retaliating in any way against the Plymouth Municipal Airport Commission or its members or employees.
In addition to ordering Brindisi to rescind the May 1 directive, the new, expanded injunction warns him not to cut off access to essential town services and barred him from “issuing any further order of this nature or type during the pendency of this action.”
He also ordered Brindisi to abandon any effort to change the management of the airport, including privatizing it.
Brindisi has said that he reached out to Shoreline Aviation Inc. about possibly operating the airport.
The injunctions came after the airport commissioners, who are appointed by the select board, filed an April 1 lawsuit against the town and Brindisi, alleging he threatened to withhold town funds if he was not given more say in airport decisions.
In the suit, the Airport Commission accused Brindisi of overstepping his authority and meddling in airport affairs.
The Commission alleged Brindisi was essentially looking to seize control of the airport, making employment and other administrative decisions, including the selection of the airport manager and demanding employees report to him.
“The conduct of the town manager is arbitrary and capricious, beyond the scope of his authority,” the 15-page suit charges.
Brindisi denied interfering, saying he got involved only after some employees alleged they were mistreated by commission Chairman Kenneth Fosdick.
Fosdick is up for reappointment in June. It is unclear whether the dispute would end if Fosdick were to resign before then.
“It is my job to protect employees,,” Brindisi said in response to the judge’s injunction, “which I will continue to do.”
Brindisi also said Plymouth town managers have appointed the Airport manager since 1995.
Town officials have argued the Plymouth charter gives the town manager authority to appoint all department and division heads in town — which would include the airport.
But Fosdick argued that Brindisi’s interference was undermining the agency’s ability to “move forward” with the airport.
“We need to hire a new (permanent) manager and Mr. Brindisi is interfering and thinking he can appoint him. We feel it’s our responsibility,” Fosdick said last month.
“He continued to push us into a position that was untenable and the only way we could resolve this was through court action,” he told the Independent.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.