MIDDLETOWN — The state’s attorney general has ruled that the town violated public-records law by refusing to release details on former Town Administrator Gerald S. Kempen’s departure last December.

The attorney general’s office, in a ruling Wednesday supporting complaints by a local activist and newspaper, ordered the town to release the requested public records within 10 days, or potentially face penalties. The town’s separation agreement with Kempen includes details on fringe benefits paid to the former leader that should be public, the ruling says.

The attorney general’s ruling found that the town did not willingly, or knowingly, violate the law and should not be fined.

Antone C. Viveiros, who heads the Concerned Island Taxpayers Association, had appealed to the attorney general’s office after the town denied his request for access to “all documents, papers, letters, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data processing records, computer stored data … in connection with the termination of employment of former Middletown Town Administrator, Mr. Gerald Kempen.”

The Newport Daily News filed a similar appeal to the attorney general.

On Dec. 9, a split Town Council approved a separation agreement with Kempen that sources have said included an undisclosed payout of more than the six-month severance package outlined in Kempen’s employment contract.

The council had held a series of closed-door meetings last November and December with Kempen, to whom the council had refused to grant a pay raise after an October performance review. Subsequently, Kempen, through a letter written by his lawyer, accused unnamed council members of meddling with how he did his job — a violation of the council’s duties under the Town Charter.

Details of the Town Council’s separation pact with Kempen have remained shrouded, with both sides refusing to provide details. Kempen said he was bound by a confidentiality agreement, but indicated that he’d talk if the council questioned him. Attempts by Councilmen Louis P. DiPalma and Edward J. Silveira Jr. to force Kempen to publicly detail his reasons for leaving were squashed by their colleagues on the board.

The town’s lawyer, Francis S. Holbrook II, denied requests to release the agreement to Silveira, Viveiros, The Journal and the Newport newspaper. Holbrook told Viveiros and the newspapers that the requested documents are “not deemed to be public records.”

The state’s Access to Public Records Act, however, requires public bodies to disclose an employee’s “name, gross salary, salary range, total cost of paid fringe benefits, gross amount received in overtime, and other remuneration.”

Holbrook, in the town’s defense of the two complaints, disputed that the separation agreement’s payout be considered “other remuneration,” and contended that most of the seven-page agreement’s language is boilerplate wording “inserted to protect the Town against the possibility of claims later surfacing.”

The agreement, Holbrook said, was drafted “with a certain amount of overkill, in an effort to negate even the remotest possibility of a claim ever being raised against the Town by Mr. Kempen.”

Holbrook also argued that the separation agreement shouldn’t be public because the pact itself prohibits disclosure.

But Adam J. Sholes, special assistant attorney general, rejected that claim, saying that “no matter what the terms of the agreement may be, the agreement cannot violate Rhode Island law, and in particular, the APRA [Access to Public Records Act].”

Sholes said that the separation agreement contains information on retirement contributions, sick-time pay and health insurance, all of which are fringe benefits and should be made public.

Viveiros was heartened yesterday afternoon by his successful appeal to the attorney general’s office.

“I didn’t think we asked for anything personal, just what was pertinent to this situation and his termination and how much it cost the people,” Viveiros said. “The people should know as much as they can, by law, about what went on.”

Holbrook could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.

mwims@projo.com