Bristol Senior Center Director Maria Ursini quietly resumed her duties at the center in July, less than seven months after reaching a plea agreement with the Town of Bristol, which agreed to drop two felony counts against her in exchange for accepting a lesser misdemeanor charge and being placed on probation for a year. 

Reached for comment, Town Administrator Steven Contente said, “They’re a non-profit. The board must have sought to reinstate her.” Enabling her reinstatement was a budgetary change by the Bristol Town Council, which took the Bristol Senior Center out of its budget as a line item and shifted the funds to a human resources grant. Now, Bristol Senior Center employees are paid directly by the center, and the town pays the center quarterly for their services.

The dispute between Ms. Ursini and the town began in late May of 2017,  when the town asked the Bristol Police to investigate their concern that Ms. Ursini was working for town grants on time she was intended to be working on Bristol Senior Center business. The police department examined Ms. Ursini’s role as the director of the Bristol Senior Center and her separate role as the co-coordinator of the Bristol Warren Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. 

According to the official arrest report, “a review of the attendance data available for Ursini for the Bristol Senior Center cross referenced with time sheets provided for Ursini for the DFC Federal Grant showed on those 15 occasions Ursini engaged in Coalition business while on Senior Center time and billed for that time, receiving compensation from both the Grant and the Town of Bristol for the same hours worked.”

The police report continued: “In addition, Ursini’s time sheets outlined 287 hours of time that was difficult for officers to confirm and explain when factoring in seven hours of work at the Bristol Senior Center that Ursini also billed for those dates.”

Consequently, Ms. Ursini was charged with three crimes, including felony counts of embezzlement and obtaining money under false pretenses, as well as a misdemeanor charge of filing a false document with a public official. The case was scheduled to go to trial in December, when the two sides met and reached an agreement. The town dropped both felony charges, the misdemeanor charge was filed for one year (meaning, if nothing else happens, the charge goes away in a year), and Ms. Ursini agreed to pay $698.43 in restitution, as well as $96.75 in court fees.

While suggesting that the official arrest and court records speak for themselves, Mr. Contente said his office is moving forward with the new arrangement, where the senior center is essentially a lessee. “They’re abiding by the lease agreement,” he said. “I wish them luck.”

One thing is clear. The town is glad to have straightened out its irregular administrative and financial relationship with the senior center, in which the town paid a director but was cut out of the hiring process. “We had town employees to whom we had no access,” Mr. Contente said. “We didn’t even have a key to the building. That had to end one way or another.”

“Organizationally, it didn’t make sense,” agreed Town Councilor Andy Tyska, of the structure of an independent board that was nonetheless a line item on the town budget. “People thought the senior center was the town’s, but there was no oversight … It (Ms. Ursini’s arrest) exposed some things that needed to be fixed.”

“We’re just happy at this point to have her back in her position,” said Lisa Holley, Ms. Ursini’s attorney. Still, Ms. Holley suggested that the book may not be completely closed on this long-simmering dispute.

“We’ve always maintained that Bristol was not the employer, and did not have the right to terminate the contract,” she said. “We are contemplating other legal options.” 

Reached for comment, senior center board president Maria Doherty said, “Our mission has always been for the seniors of Bristol. That’s what we have been doing, and that’s what we will continue to do.”