Evans town board settles lawsuit in secret

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The Town of Evans in July settled a defamation lawsuit brought against the town and two current town board members by former Town Supervisor Mary Hosler.

But you wouldn’t know it from looking through the town board’s agendas, meeting minutes and recordings. 

• There is no record of the town board voting to approve a settlement in any meeting held between June and the end of August.
• There’s no record of the settlement being discussed in an executive session, which excludes the public from discussions of sensitive matters. There’s not even a record of an executive session being called at the July 16 meeting, when the board reportedly was briefed on the terms of the settlement. 
• There’s no video recording of the July 16 meeting online. It’s one of only two town board meetings this year that are missing a video record.

If there was an executive session on July 16, it occurred in violation of the state’s Open Meetings law, which requires lawmakers to indicate in open session when and why they are entering an executive session and to approve doing so in an open vote. The law also says that “no action by formal vote shall be taken to appropriate public moneys” during an executive session.

Hosler, in an email to Investigative Post, acknowledged the case has been settled “and my attorney has received the check.” She did not say how much the town paid her.

“Any approval of a lawsuit settlement must by law be done in public by the town board,” Paul Wolf, president emeritus of the New York Coalition for Open Government, told Investigative Post. The watchdog group tracks governments’ compliance with state transparency laws.

“The public has the right to know when litigation against the town is being settled and the terms of such settlements,” Wolf said. “There is no legal basis for keeping the settlement of a lawsuit secret.”

Evans Town Supervisor Ray Ashton for two weeks has ignored phone calls and emails asking if and when the settlement was approved and what the terms were.

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The controversy that precipitated the lawsuit dates back to last fall.

Investigative Post reported last September that an audit by the state comptroller questioned whether Hosler was entitled to $6,000 in payments she took in lieu of using the town’s free health insurance for four years — a period during which she was covered by the town’s insurance through her husband, then a town employee. Hosler claimed the money retroactively, after the board voted to stop offering elected officials those opt-out payments.

The town’s ethics board subsequently opined that Hosler should return the $6,000 — and more.

Hosler, who in 2022 left her Evans post to become Erie County’s deputy comptroller in charge of audits, denied any wrongdoing. In November she sued the town and two board members, Michael Schraft and Jeanne Macko, whom she accused of conspiring “to abuse process and defame Plaintiff, harming her business, livelihood, and reputation.” She claimed Schraft and Macko gave false and defamatory information and statements about the matter to news agencies, including Investigative Post, and sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

At the end of July, Hosler’s attorney filed court documents releasing Schraft and Mack from the lawsuit and indicating a settlement had been reached with the town. Hosler told The Buffalo News “the matter … has been resolved in my favor,” but offered no further details. The News report included a statement from Town Supervisor Ray Ashton, clearing Hosler’s acceptance of the payments and dismissing the ethics board’s findings. 

Hosler in her email to Investigative Post reiterated that she regarded the settlement as a victory. “This outcome ensures that residents will no longer see public resources expended to defend actions supported only by a minority of the Town Board,” she wrote.

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Ashton has ignored Investigative Post’s inquiries on the matter. So has the rest of the five-member board, with the exception of Macko and Schraft, who said they opposed the settlement. Neither would discuss details, which Macko said were discussed in executive session on July 16.

The board at its Aug. 6 meeting voted to approve the minutes from the July 16 meeting, which contain no mention of an executive session being called or any vote taken.

“Transparency and ethics has deteriorated with the current majority of the town board,” Schraft told Investigative Post in an emailed statement. 

Schraft added that the board majority has yet to take any actions aimed at addressing the financial management issues raised by the state comptroller’s audit, which last fall he said “found tens of thousands of misappropriated tax dollars.” The comptroller’s investigators reviewed samples of town payroll records covering nearly four years, from January 2020 to November 2023. In addition to what the comptroller called “unsupported” payments to Hosler, the resulting audit found “errors and discrepancies” in how the town handled paid leave for employees and separation payments for employees on their way out the door.

Schraft said Ashton and Deputy Town Supervisor John Wilson — both voting members of the board — have refused his and Macko’s numerous calls for an independent, third-party audit into the town’s financial practices.