A hearing scheduled for tomorrow (April 17) to determine if three Police Commission members would be removed for hiring outside counsel to represent the commission has been postponed. Assistant Town Attorney Frank J. Kolb, Jr. sent a letter to Attorney Patricia Cofrancesco this morning, informing her that the hearing has been postponed until May 1.

The commission members, Joseph Civitello, Frank Piergrossi, Jr., and Carl Perez had been appointed by former mayor April Capone.

In the letter, Kolb requested the following of Cofrancesco:

1.      You confirm, in writing, that you will cease-and-desist in your apparent representation of the Board of Police Commissioners of the Town of East Haven.

2.      At the next Board meeting, the Board shall acknowledge that before retaining outside counsel, they will submit to the Town Attorney a request for the furnishing of conflict free counsel, clearly specifying and the reason why counsel appointed by the town attorney, pursuant to the Town charter, has a conflict in continuing representation on a particular item of Commission business.

Noting a resolution “outside of court is preferable for all involved,”  Kold postponed the hearing until after the next scheduled meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners on April 24 “to allow both you [Cofrancesco] and the Board to comply with the requests herein and to put this matter to rest.”

The letter is at the right of this story as a PDF file.