Save Our CT Trails

Formerly Save The MDC Trails

A group of like minded citizens with the mission to keep Municipal properties/open spaces accessible by the general public

Phase II

Phase II you say? Was there a Phase I? Yes, Phase I  was convincing the MDC to keep the facilities open to recreational activity until the State Legislature could address the liability issue. In order to do this, we needed community support and political support. We got both in spades! The great turnout at the public hearing, support from mayors, town officials, reps from the state legislature, and the attorney general, and many CT residents was more than enough to convince the MDC Chairman to say some very encouraging things to Rick Green at the Hartford Courant to agree to keep the facilities open to recreational activity  (see article).

If you read between the lines, and you always have to do this, there are two messages in Rick Green's article:
1)   Chairman DiBella acknowledges that the MDC lands are a jewel that the MDC would "never consider closing" But it took a rousing public hearing to turn some heads. And we still have to watch out ... MDC's liability insurance expires in October. I personally spoke to Chairman DiBella about his and he said that they have not had any quotes or renewal information from the current insurance carrier yet and he doesn't know if the insurance company will even consider renewal. He thinks that the underwriters have yet to look into the risks associated with renewal after this lawsuit.  And don't forget they recommended closure for bicycles around 12 years ago because of Conway v Wilton.; and
2)  Green adds that "the MDC will wait until the legislature can consider proposals that would provide immunity from all lawsuits for the regional water agency." The state legislature has tried to pass modifications to the Recreational Use Act in past years, but lobbying efforts killed it. Clearly, this issue is not yet resolved and we need to keep up our efforts into Phase II.

 

Phase II is to get the Recreational Land Use Act modified so that it takes us back to pre-Conway v Wilton (1995 - the landmark case where the judge interpreted the Recreational Use Act in a way that allowed lawsuits that previously would have been dismissed. (there are lots of other approaches on how to modify the immunity law, but we feel this pre-Conway v Wilton approach is really what Connecticut needs).  And this also is very different than "total immunity" or "immunity from all lawsuits". We have never wanted or asked for total immunity. Municipalities do not need total immunity and no governing body would ever grant total immunity. Total immunity infers that very bad things could happen, malicious/intentional or irresponsible and the municipality could not be sued. The reason we dwell on this is that as we move forward, this red herring called total immunity will be used to try to discredit our call to close the loopholes in the immunity laws.

So what is the most effective way to close the loopholes? We need to work with our state legislature to convince them that  pre-Conway v Wilton is the way to go and that this is the year to pass a modified Recreational Land Use Act that protects the MDC and all our municipalities from frivolous lawsuits. The state legislature tried to address this issue more than once since the Conway v Wilton judgment, but lobbying efforts managed to defeat it. This time we have to show that we have the dedication/conviction and the voting power to persue this issue, and demand (in a civilized manner) that the state legislature address this issue and vote to incorporate the modifications into law.

Part of this legislative process will be public hearings and that is where we will have to show up in great numbers and provide written and/or public testimony.. in a manner similar to what you all did at the MDC public hearing. A public hearing probably will not happen until late in the first quarter of 2011 (they are in recess until Jan 2011). We will keep you posted as to the exact timing as soon as we know.

What to do? Go to the "what can we do to help" page for details