An invoice from Dick Leighton twice denied payment finally won approval last week when First Selectman Noel Bishop and Selectman John Hall voted to pay it. The controversial invoice from Leighton and Associates was for Leighton’s work in February and March 2015 on the Riggio Building project at a time when he was no longer either a town employee or a town contractor.

The invoice was controversial because, though town officials and volunteers acknowledge Leighton did initially oversee the Riggio Building code project, no town board ever officially approved that role by approving funding or a proposal from him to work for the town as an independent contractor or consultant. His role as a town employee ended on Dec. 31, 2014.

Two months ago, after meeting with the town’s labor counsel, Gabe Jiran, Bishop’s motion to pay Leighton’s invoice died for lack of a second. Last week, the story was different. Selectman Chris Ehlert still voted not to pay it, but with a majority in favor, the motion to pay Leighton $4,500 for his spring 2015 work passed.

What changed? For Hall, it was the arguments made by representatives of the town’s Board of Fire Commissioners who made their appeal at last week’s meeting. It is to that board that Leighton now reports in his role as deputy fire marshal under Fire Marshall George Rehberg.

“After hearing their perspective, I reconsidered, and decided that the best course for the town was to pay the invoice and move forward,” said Hall after the vote.

Bishop’s perspective was that because Leighton did the work, he should be paid.

“It was acknowledged that Leighton was asked to do the work on the Riggio Building and he did it. What was lacking in clarity was the nature of his management of the Riggio project and whether it was done as a deputy fire marshal,” said Bishop.

Bishop was referring to a Dec. 30, 2014 meeting held in Bishop’s office between Bishop, Rehberg, Leighton, Town Building Official Roger Zito, Fire Department representatives, town staff, and Scott Medeiros from town engineer Woodard and Curran attended. At that meeting, Leighton was asked to oversee the Riggio Building code compliance project for the town.

As stated in that meeting’s minutes, it was agreed that Rehberg as fire marshal and Leighton as deputy fire marshal “would assume the overall management of the project and develop a proposal that will be presented to the Board of Selectmen at the 1/15/15 BOS meeting.”

Yet on the day Leighton accepted that role, he only had one more day as a town employee. The Board of Selectmen had voted his job as town health agent would end on Dec. 31, 2014. So from January through March 2015, Leighton was only the town’s deputy fire marshal, a stipend position paying $1,200 per year.

Despite that, Leighton’s two invoices for Riggio Building work—one for January and one for February and early March 2015—both included charges for labor-hours and mileage. When Rehberg approved the first invoice for the January work, Finance Director Andrew Urban cut a check to pay it before the Board of Selectmen had an opportunity to ask if the work he did was properly authorized and funded.

To Bishop, the fact that the town paid the first invoice for January work set a precedent that he thought the selectmen should follow to approve of the second invoice.

Ehlert, the dissenting vote, disagreed.

“To say that I am disappointed regarding the action taken by First Selectman Bishop and Selectman Hall at the July 23 Board of Selectmen [meeting] pertaining to the payment of Dick Leighton would be an understatement…What I also find troubling is that at the...meeting, Mr. Bishop and Mr. Hall approved to pay Mr. Leighton over $4,000 for work to oversee the Riggio Building code violations which [neither] the Board of Selectmen nor the Board of Finance approved in the first place,” wrote Ehlert in a letter to the boards of Finance and Selectmen.

Ehlert’s letter also challenged the details of Leighton’s second invoice and its questionable charges that Ehlert said include overestimates of mileage and labor-hours spent on non-Riggio building work.

“Why did Mr. Bishop and Mr. Hall approve to pay over $4,000 [to Leighton] for the Riggio Building when there are close to 30 hours that are non-Riggio-Building-related, totaling close to $1,700, almost half of the amount that was approved to be paid? As well as excess mileage,” wrote Ehlert.

After Ehlert’s letter was received, Bishop asked Urban to review Leighton’s now-approved invoice. As a result of Urban’s review, Bishop deducted ineligible costs from the $4,500 approved to set a new payment amount of $3,547.50. Interest charges Leighton had billed for late town payment had already been deducted from the request.

Bishop said that a town letter will accompany Leighton’s final check stating that acceptance of it is considered payment in full for town services on the Riggio Building. Further, the letter will state that Leighton’s only relationship with the town from now on will be as a stipended deputy fire marshal.