Police Response to Lake Zoar Authority Comments

In sometimes heated discussion police officials spoke at Tuesday's Lake Zoar Authority (LZA) meeting to refute comments made at the authority's July meeting.

The LZA also agreed to buy a new part to fix a recently broken patrol boat and discussed plans to educate town selectmen on a growing plant infestation.

Resident Troopers Sgt. Michael O'Donnell of Southbury and Oxford Sgt. Dan Semosky were in attendance — with Semosky in his position of police liason to the LZA — but mainly, Monroe Police Lt. Brian McCauley and DEP Captain Raul Camejo spoke to clarify the legal aspects of law enforcement on Lake Zoar.

At their last meeting, Authority commissioners said police jurisdiction over the lake was unclear, since the four towns bordering Zoar — Southbury, Newtown, Monroe and Oxford — take turns supplying officers to patrol the water.

Monroe Police Lt. Brian McCauley said that the matter had been cleared up in a 2005 memorandum of understanding between the towns as well as in state statute 15-154b  'Violation on waters between towns.'

The statute reads that when a violation occurs on a body of water between two or more towns, officers of any of the towns are authorized to act.

Last month's discussion was at least partly kicked off by confusion over which town was supposed to patrol the Monday of the July 4th weekend. Through some error, the LZA believed Monroe had had to back out of their July 5 patrol and the commission summoned a state police replacement.

McCauley said that even when Monroe has to back out of the schedule they have always found a replacement for the LZA.

"Monroe does not walk away from any schedules on the lake … we will provide coverage we've promised," McCauley said.  "It just might not be from the town written on the schedule."

McCauley — who writes the patrol schedule — said he took all of the remarks personally, especially since they had appeared in the news and felt that the commission had not done enough to reach out to him.

McCauley said that uninformed comments made both the LZA and the greater law enforcement community look ignorant.

LZA Chairperson Bob Barnes said that he couldn't fully explain the comments, since most of the discussion from July was driven by Bill May, a commission member who was absent Tuesday.

However, he said that jurisdictionally the LZA had been less concerned about the legality of the situation, than the practicality of issuing tickets on the lake.

Which court an infraction goes to is determined by the acting officer's affiliation and not by which town's water the offense was in.

Barnes said he was worried that if, for example, a judge overseeing Monroe saw a ticket from a Southbury citizen in Southbury waters, it might influence whether that judge dismisses the fine.

McCauley said he had spoken with the lead prosecutor at the Superior Court in Bridgeport — which serves Monroe — and that this was not the case at that court at least. 

Barnes also said any negative comments made at the meeting about the town of Monroe related to his experiences with past governments, and that their relationship had improved since Steve Vavrek was elected to first selectman.

Camejo, who coordinates DEP officers, also wanted to clarify the office's relationship with the lake. In July, the authority did not believe state police were authorized to handle criminal investigations meant for the DEP.

Camejo said there is a memorandum of understanding that gave the state police this right if the DEP agreed to it and that it was comparable to a similar memorandum letting state police investigate a crime in a protected park.

He also said the majority of investigations were indeed carried out by the DEP.

Any misinformation the LZA had, Barnes said, was due to the fact that the commission tends to get procedural information from town selectmen as needed, and not comprehensively or directly from statutes.

After the meeting, McCauley said that despite his contentions, he was happy to work with the LZA.

"Our priority is to create a safe, fun boating experience … we're all on the same team," he said.

Barnes was less conciliatory.

"The status quo is the status quo," said Barnes. "That's all the comment I have to say."

The authority dealt with the business of a broken patrol boat, which according to Semosky, hit a rock while checking for illegal fishing near the Shepaug Dam.

LZA Treasurer Glenn Ganz said the broken lower unit would take a matter of weeks to repair, but that a new part could be installed by Monday for an estimated $5,000. The authority agreed to buy a new piece, so patrols would not have to make due with a single boat.

Semosky said the patrol boats had also been outfitted with state police radios, which will make responding to 911 calls much easier.

Ganz also said he had received each town's full contribution to the LZA budget.  Southbury, Oxford and Newton paid $25,000 and Monroe $20,000 — $5,000 less, according to the commission, than had been promised.

They discussed the aggressive crop of Eurasian Milfoil in the lake this year.

Milfoil is an invasive weed that gets stuck in boat propellers and, because of low levels of water and rainfall, has reached record growth. The LZA is trying to get First Light — the company that controls the dam — to increase water flow to the lake to raise levels.

They also scheduled boat trips for the selectmen of Newtown and Southbury on Aug. 18 and Aug. 4 respectively. The commission hopes more aid can be given once the politicians see the problem up close.

During public comment, Tom Conti of Sandy Hook expressed concerns over safety in the lake. He said boaters were not controlling their wakes, which damaged docks and that there was too much speeding and poorly muffled vehicles on the water.

Semosky said as far as speeding was concerned, police were waiting on new radar units. Currently, they only have access to units designed for use on the highway, which do not work on water.

He said a problem with safety was that boaters tended to learn the daily police patrolling patterns and avoid them or had friends on the lakeside alerting them when officers drew near.

However, he said when citizens reported boats in violation to the police with descriptions or identification numbers, it was easy for officers to follow through with an appropriate action.

Clarification:  The first edition of this article that appeared on Southbury Patch quoted Lt. McCauley as saying: '"Comments like that make the LZA look more ignorant than it is."  McCauley wanted to clarify that he felt it was uninformed comments in general that made both the LZA and the larger law enforcement community look ignorant.