Activist group Sensible Wilton delivered a petition calling for a repeal of the $50-million Miller-Driscoll renovation project to town hall on Wednesday, April 1.
According to Town Clerk Lori Kaback, the petition contained 291 valid signatures of electors from Wilton.
The leader of Sensible Wilton, Alex Ruskewich, says Wilton’s Town Charter allows citizens to call a Special Town Meeting to repeal a capital project resolution if a petition is signed by more than 2% of the voting population — or 230 people.
However, Ken Bernhard, the town’s counsel, has repeatedly said residents do not have the right to repeal such a resolution.
Sensible Wilton is “using legal words in the press, which, when connected, don’t describe any legal process that I recognize,” he said. “I will have to wait until they submit the petition to see what they are proposing. However, my initial reaction to what the petitioners have said in the press and their use of the words ‘ordinance, repeal, and resolution’ is that it sounds tortured.”
He also said he worries any petition that could revoke the town’s ability to construct a new school would cause “legal chaos.”
“The petitioners are naively underestimating the legal chaos and substantial expense that would ensue if the town were to renege on its commitments to the issued bonds and signed contracts,” he wrote.