Old Saybrook Chief Will Turn Over Documents On Secret Fund

Old Saybrook— Police Chief Edmund H. Mosca will comply with a request from the state's attorney general to hand over financial documents related to a secret fund Mosca has overseen for the last 30 years.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal this week asked the chief for a broad range of information about the private fund that Mosca has refused to make public.

Blumenthal said he wants two years' worth of information about the McMurray-Kirtland Fund, including bank statements and canceled checks for all accounts in the fund's name and check and cash disbursements from the fund.

“As part of our inquiry, we would like to review the fund's financial records,” Blumenthal said in a letter to Mosca.

He also said that if the fund has been soliciting donations, it must register under the state's Solicitation of Charitable Funds Act or request an exemption.

Blumenthal's request for the information comes after local resident Mary Hansen filed a state Freedom of Information complaint after Mosca denied her request for information regarding the fund.

Hansen has said in her FOI complaint that the fund should be public because it is controlled by a public agency. Mosca has argued, in documents to the FOI, that the fund is private and used for expenditures not directly related to his police department.

Mosca has repeatedly declined to respond to requests for comment, but in a press release issued by his attorney on Wednesday he said he welcomes Blumenthal's review.

“I am pleased that the attorney general's office will be impartially reviewing the financial documents associated with this fund,” the release states.

The release also reiterates earlier statements by Mosca that the fund is private and is used to pay for nonbudgetary items in his department.

“The funds, which currently do not exceed $32,000, are acquired through voluntary, unsolicited donations,” Mosca said in the release. “The fund is not now, nor has it ever been, funded with tax dollars.”

The fund was started in 1972 by a local family to pay for items for the department and its employees that were not covered in the police department's budget, Mosca has said in an affidavit to the FOI. Purchases have included equipment, food and drink for staff meetings, and donations to the local historical society and local sports teams, Mosca said.

Lisa Lazarek, the lawyer representing Mosca, said Wednesday her office would likely deliver the items sought by Blumenthal in the next week.

Mosca and other department officials who have dealt with the McMurray-Kirtland Fund, she said, have not violated the state's charitable-funds law because the fund does not contain more than $50,000, the threshold for falling under the law's requirements.

Lazarek, who also works as the town's labor lawyer, said the fund is paying to represent Mosca.

In his request for information to Mosca, Blumenthal said he wants “any and all documents related to the fund's charitable activities,” from Jan. 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 2007.

Christina Burnham, chairwoman of the town's Police Commission, which supervises Mosca and the police department, said Wednesday her agency has taken no position on the issue and will not do so until the FOI rules.

“The FOI is deciding whether it's public or private,” she said. “I don't have a position because the FOI is going to make the decision. If the FOI rules that it is a private fund, then the Police Commission has no say in it. It is clearly no business of the Police Commission what happens to the fund because it is a private fund.”

At least one commission member, however, has sought information about the fund. At a commission meeting last year, member Richard Metsack asked the panel to discuss whether the commission should review the fund. His request died for lack of a second.

First Selectman Michael Pace said Wednesday he is concerned about the lack of transparency regarding the fund, but said selectmen have no authority to force Mosca to make it public. Doing so, Pace said, would be in the “best interest of everyone, including (Mosca) and the legitimacy of the fund.

“But it's not for me to jump into this,” Pace said.

Hansen this week also filed a complaint with the IRS, questioning whether the fund, which has a federal taxpayer number, has ever paid taxes. The department recently has sought tax-exempt status for the fund.

e.mcnamara@theday.com