Charlestown
In a 14-page filing in Cheshire County Superior Court, Attorney Shawn Tanguay said the Southwestern New Hampshire District Fire Mutual Aid System changed its bylaws after Charlestown gave notification in early 2015 that it would no longer require dispatch services.
Tanguay, of the Lebanon-based law firm Gardner Fulton & Waugh, was responding to a civil complaint that Charlestown owes more than $30,000 in unpaid dues and an outstanding loan payment,
The mutual aid system alleged in a June 14 complaint that Charlestown owes $25,426 to cover last six months of membership dues for 2015 and a part of 2016 because the system’s bylaws require members to pay a full year of its share toward the system’s budget.
But Tanguay wrote the 365-day requirement was approved after Charlestown sent its Feb. 3, 2015 notice saying it wanted to change its status to a non-dispatch member as of July 1 that year.
Further, the requirement that a full year of dues is owed for the calendar year of the withdrawal was also added later, he said.
“Mutual Aid’s bylaws, as of the date of the (town’s) letter, were silent about the process of changing membership status, but required 90 days written notice of withdrawal from the organization,” Tanguay wrote.
Charlestown decided to withdraw as a dispatch member because of escalating costs.
After July 1 it wanted to remain as a nondispatch member and was willing to pay a lesser amount for that status.
In March of that year, Charlestown sent in a check for $21,533 to cover its membership dues through July 1.
Tanguay said mutual aid members held a special meeting “for the purpose of changes to the bylaws,” on Feb. 11, 2015, a week after Charlestown submitted its withdrawal notice. It was at that meeting that members changed a rule “to require a 365 days notice for withdrawal,” he wrote.
Tanguay also cited correspondence in March 2015, in which mutual aid denied Charlestown’s request to become a non-dispatch member, saying the “financial ramifications of withdrawal have yet to be determined.”
“The bylaws still did not contain any provision requiring payment for the full year of dues when withdrawing from the organization,” Tanguay wrote.
He said membership of the mutual aid system approved new bylaws proposed by the board of directors on April 22, 2015, including retroactively prohibiting new non-dispatched members after Jan. 1, 2015, thus negating Charlestown’s request to change its status.
More importantly to Charlestown’s claim, Tanguay wrote, those April bylaws reverted back to a 90-day, instead of a 365-day notice for withdrawal, but “added a condition that ‘a withdrawing municipality will be responsible for its share of the budgeted appropriations for the calendar year during which withdrawal takes place.’ ”
Mutual Aid Chief Philip Tirrell informed all fire chiefs in a letter that Charlestown was no longer a member as of July 1, 2015, according to court documents.
Subsequently, there was correspondence between the two parties with the mutual aid district demanding payment for the second half of 2015, and Charlestown contending Tirrell’s letter made it clear the town was no longer a member.
The two parties also are contesting a loan payment of nearly $5,000 related to Charlestown’s final payment on a $405,000 loan the mutual aid group took out in 2010 to buy a property in Keene for a new headquarters.
Tanguay said Charlestown has no access to the building, did not sign a purchase and sale agreement, a promissory note or any other document on the purchase. He further stated the town’s fire chief was not authorized to approve the purchase on the town’s behalf.
Tanguay said the town acted “reasonably and in good faith” adhering at all times to the bylaws of the mutual aid group.
“The filing of the plaintiff’s complaint is unreasonable, frivolous, unnecessary and brought in bad faith from which the Town is entitled to recovery of its attorney’s fees and costs,” Tanguay said.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com
