Ned Lamont & The Circle of Doom

Will Diamantis scandal be Lamont’s undoing?

Corruption in the Lamont Administration: Diamantis, Duff and the New Regional Norwalk High School Project

In December 2019, right after Harry Rilling won a fourth term as Mayor of Norwalk, Bob Duff took center stage in a surprise announcement–unveiling a plan for a Brand New Norwalk High School–an audacious moment of political theater even for Duff, who’s made a career of political theater for personal gain here and in Hartford for nearly 18 years.

Pictured left to right: Greg Burnett (D), Barbara Smyth (D) Senator Bob Duff (D), Mayor Harry Rilling (D) and David Heuvelman (D) at December 2019 press conference unveiling plans for new Norwalk High with promise of 80% state funding.

Duff was flanked by Mayor Rilling, members of the Norwalk Common Council, and the second highest ranking budget official in the state, Konstantinos ‘Kosta’ Diamantis, who had been appointed Deputy of the Office of Policy and Management a few weeks earlier by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), forgoing the usual CGA approval process. While at OPM, Diamantis served under Melissa McCaw, Secretary of OPM until her resignation last month amid rising concerns about the FBI’s widening probe of Diamantis and his roles at DAS and OPM overseeing the awarding of state contracts, principally for school construction projects.

Raising Eyebrows: McCaw Announces Appointment of Diamantis As OPM Deputy Secretary.

In her love letter praising Diamantis, McCaw gushed over his fiscal management and frugality with state/taxpayer resources, which is why the demolition contract for Bridgeport’s Bassick High School went not to the lowest bidder but to a contractor, AAIS, whose bid was 61% higher and a whopping $3.3 million more than the lowest bid. State reimbursement on the Bassick project? Nearly 70%. That means every Connecticut taxpayers pays a share of that extra $3.3 million for demo and hazardous material removal in Bridgeport. And the FBI investigation into Diamantis has only just begun.

https://www.ctinsider.com/columnist/article/Dan-Haar-Bridgeport-demolition-job-went-to-16939362.php

From SGC to CGA, Duff builds his case

School regionalization is one of Lamont’s pet ideas to better realize cost effeciencies (but really NOT) and bring greater educational equity to Connecticut’s students (but probably not). It’s also a deeply unpopular idea with many voters. Maybe our neighbors don’t want to merge with urban schools because they don’t care for diversity, as Senator Duff claims. Or maybe they don’t want to inherit Norwalk’s bloated Central Office staff, growing disciplinary problems and fiscal mismanagement. Whatever the reason, early attempts at regionalization failed, leading newcomers like Will Haskell to backpedal on the issue and Lamont to dangle carrots, one of which was more state reimbursement money for new school construction for regional schools with the goal of economic desegregation.

When Duff and Diamantis first met in May of 2019 to discuss Duff’s fed-up-ness over Norwalk High’s repair needs–needs he was aware of because of his controversial role on the Norwalk High School Governance Council–apparently, neither man knew about Lamont’s new rules on state funding for school building projects. And since Diamantis had been in charge of School Construction Grants and Review at DAS before he moved oversight to OPM, at least he should have known.

In fact, both wrongly believed they could pitch 80% state funding for a magnet school, so they set about planning a regional Arts Magnet High School to lure in all those Staples Players unhappy with the Westport to Broadway to Hollywood pipeline that rewarded the likes of Justin Paul with Tonys and Oscars.

Starring Bob Duff as Mickey Rooney

Meanwhile Back in Norwalk

The plan for the new Norwalk High School may have begun as back-of-the-cocktail napkin scribbling between two men with access to $200mm in bonded state school construction money in May of 2019. But Bob and Kosta’s assignations over the summer of 2019 would not be enough to propel pie in the sky musings between two crusty politicos to poster-worthy presser six months later without help here at home in Norwalk.

There was lots of scheming to be done behind the scenes. From their first meeting in May until the December unveiling, a select few were privy to the plan. Duff and Diamantis’s inner circle did not include the Norwalk Board of Education. But it did include Jim Giuliano, founder and principle of Construction Solutions Group.

Former NPS CFO Tom Hamilton, Jim Giuliano of CSG, and Alan Lo

According to the CSG Facebook page, “Jim Giuliano is the on-site program manager for the City of Norwalk, Connecticut multi-year school construction program.”

According to his Linkedin page, Giuliano also ‘likes’ Bob Duff and his dog Molly.

“Help me! I’m being held hostage for photo ops!”

We’ve Got Trouble!

While Bob and Kosta opened up their knitting circle to a select few, the local HTC–Harry’s Town Committee–mobilized ahead of the political season to unseat or otherwise neutralize the Norwalk Board of Education before the project’s unveiling planned for after the election. Remember Lamont’s regionalization idea? Before that Bob Duff had an equally unpopular idea to remove local control from Boards of Education by allowing mayors and selectmen to appoint BOE chairpersons rather than letting the boards elect their own chairs. That idea didn’t fly either, though it hardly matters in a City like Norwalk with single party rule. Once the mayor’s party owned the board, the mayor chose the chair anyway. Colin is not our BOE Chair so much as he is Harry’s.

In 2019, the Norwalk Board of Education was chaired by the late Mike Barbis. Other key players were former Chair Mike Lyons; Finance Committee Chair Bryan Meek; the pragmatic and circumspect Bruce Kimmel, who would later prove useful at neutralizing Barbis; and HTC utility player Barbara Meyer-Mitchell. Lyons did not seek re-election in 2019, Meek was unseated by Erica DePalma the same year, Kimmel resigned from the Board of Ed and the Democratic Party shortly after presiding over his first BOE meeting as Chair–at which he denied Barbis any role on any Board committee, and Meyer-Mitchell stepped down in March of 2021.

Lyons, Meek, Barbis and Kimmel were caught off guard by Duff’s December 2019 announcement. After the November elections, only Barbis and Kimmel remained on the board, with Kimmel acting out the part of Judge Hathorn in Barbis’s witch trial .

“One King to Rule Them All”

A New School for South Norwalk, An Angry Email, A Copy List of Traitors: Who Betrayed Barbis and Why it Still Matters

The history of the Nathaniel Ely project goes back more than four years. The use of the old Ely school site for a new South Norwalk school was controversial in 2018 because the project required the use of open space, Springwood Park, and a complicated land swap needing State DEEP approval. Locally, the idea was unpopular among some in District B, notably Travis Simms and Faye Bowman, who have since moved on, Simms to the Statehouse representing the 140th, and Bowman to another town. Even without their votes, the project passed and moved on to the office of School Construction Grants & Review, then under Diamantis at DAS. Every January the State issues their school construction priorities list. In 2019, Ely was on the list. In 2020, Ely dropped off. The official reason? State DEEP couldn’t make the land swap work. The possible real reason? Allegedly State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff and former Represenative Bruce Morris pulled the plug for reasons that had little to do with the sanctity of either open space or Springwood Park.

June 5, 2019: District B Democrats Discuss Schools

Meanwhile Columbus had been identified by the BOE for replacement/renovation. On June 5, 2019, during a heated District B Democrats meeting, Bruce Morris and Darlene Young went after BOE members Meek and Barbis for their roles in the two South Norwalk school projects. Though Morris was still fuming over the closing of Briggs, Young’s concerns were more visceral. “Why weren’t we part of the conversation?” And questions about Columbus/Concord–whether to renovate as new or build new–remained.

Those questions weren’t addressed in pragmatic terms at the District B meeting–what’s best for South Norwalk’s diverse and needs-driven student population, many of whom don’t speak English at home–but in political terms. Which of the mayor’s once and future cronies sitting around the table would drive the Columbus conversation–the bike-lane enthusiast-turned-urbanist? The former NPS Chief Climate Officer-turned-litigant and former state represenative? The up-and-comer who now sits on the council and who cared more about the name Columbus than the kids inside? Or someone who wasn’t even in the room that night–someone Harry and Bob would need later to bury Mike Barbis figuratively if not literally?

Colin Hosten, then a newly-elected at-large councilperson living in District E, burst into the room during the Columbus conversation, announcing the state was sending down a team from Hartford for a site visit to Columbus because of the mixed signals coming out of Norwalk. The team from Hartford, Hosten said, would determine next steps–whether to renovate as new, build new from the ground up or scrub the whole thing. How did Hosten just happen to be in the Mayor’s Office exactly when Laoise King and the Mayor were there to get the news about the state possibly pulling the plug on a new school in South Norwalk? And why weren’t the District B reps the first to know?

Mike Barbis learned of the District B meeting–open hostility towards specific members of the BOE, himself especially, armchair quarterbacking, unapologetic underminding of work the BOE had undertaking to bring new schools to South Norwalk–Barbis became livid. So he vented to the four people in Norwalk least worthy of his confessional–DTC Chair Ed Camacho, Vice Chair Eloisa Melendez, Chief of Staff Laoise King and Mayor Rilling. Perhaps each had an interest in the undoing of Mike Barbis. With the help of the person who wasn’t in the room that night, NAACP president and perennial troll Brenda Penn-Williams, any one of the four on Mike Barbis’s copy list could help make Bob Duff’s 2019 Christmas wish come true–a Norwalk Board of Education without Barbis on a single committe, gumming up the works and reminding people that nobody–but NOBODY–asked for a Brand New Norwalk High School.

Cleaning House in Hartford…because

it’s an Election Year

Lamont annouced his re-election bid in early November of 2021, shortly after Diamantis resigned from OPM, followed by Richard Colangelo’s retirement as Chief State’s Attorney in February, after it was discovered Colangelo had hired Diamantis’s daughter Anastasia as his assistant in an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a petition from Colangelo to Diamantis for salary increases for Colangelo’s staff; followed by the resignation of Budget Chief Melissa McCaw as Secretary of OPM in February.

Diamantis in 2020–Ely dropped off the List but NHS did not drop on

The first to go: Diamantis resigned in October 2021

Colangelo ‘retires’ taking his pension with him

https://ctmirror.org/2022/02/09/chief-states-attorney-richard-colangelo-to-retire-in-wake-of-investigation/

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Lamont-to-announce-McCaw-resigning-taking-job-in-16947447.php

Melissa McCaw, who waited over two years to respond to FOIA requests related to Diamantis, resigns

McCaw resigned in February 2022, amid the FBI probe of her former deputy, Kosta Diamantis

Enfield Subpoena: Search emails with “Giuliano”

https://ctmirror.org/2022/03/25/enfield-subpoenaed-for-documents-tied-to-diamantis-and-school-construction/

The FBI probe of Kosta Diamantis has yet to reach Norwalk–for now. Enfield has been subpoenaed to turn over seven years of records realted to school building projects involving Kosta Diamantis. As part of their search, Enfield town officials were asked to enter “Giuliano” and “CSG/Construction Solutions Group” in the search terms.

When the FBI finally takes their probe to Norwalk–and they will–how long before they land on Bob Duff’s doorstep? Senator Duff has a habit of avoiding constituents and questions he finds inconvenient. He routinely skirts the FOIA. He gets away with it because there are no consequences….yet. Try saying no to the FBI, Bob, when they subpoena every record with the search terms “Diamantis” and “Giuliano.” Looks like it’s going to be an interesting campaign season even without an opponent.

Jim Giuliano likes Bob’s dog Molly. But is that enough to win state contracts?

Will Lamont Pull The Plug on Norwalk High to Save Himself?

The heat is on for Governor Lamont. One year ago, he was virtually assured a victory. Since the Diamantis scandal broke, that inevitability seems less certain. What is certain is the role Norwalk’s political class–and isn’t the only class they have political?–assumed in usurping the work of an elected, bi-partisan Board of Education in order to do Hartford’s, and ultimately Ned Lamont’s bidding. Lamont wants to double the size of Connecticut’s cities. He’s been pushing for school regionalization. His soldier, Bob Duff, has been trying to destroy our locally elected Board of Education for years. The only thing standing in Duff’s way in the fall of 2019 was Mike Barbis, the lone maverick on the BOE who stood a chance of derailing Duff’s (and Diamantis’s) $225mm vanity project. Thanks to four people–Camacho, Rilling, Melendez and Laoise King–four Norwalk politicos who would sell their mother’s souls to the devil to advance the cause of politcal supremacy (“single party rule is okay as long as it’s ours,” quoth Harry), and a willing accomplice, Brenda Penn-Williams, Mike Barbis was sacrificed to an angry mob in late November of 2019–before Bob Duff and Kosta Diamantis unveiled their plan for a new regional Norwalk High in December.

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/thehour/article/Delay-contributes-to-rising-cost-for-Columbus-14570121.php?_ga=2.141626226.1121942774.1636386120-516656460.1636386120

Norwalk High School was supposed to be on the List, but wasn’t. Neither was Ely.

February 2022 follow up to Mildred Melendez, assistant to Melissa McCaw

Dear Ms. Melendez,

I have questions about the way my original FOIA request from 12-19-2019 was handled and why responsive documents were withheld by OPM for two years.  Hopefully, you and Ms. McCaw, before she steps down today, can clear up the confusion.  

Konstantinos Diamantis was appointed to OPM as Melissa McCaw’s deputy by Memorandum of Understanding on November 20, 2019.  By that time, Diamantis and State Senator Bob Duff had been meeting secretly, beginning in May 2019, to create a plan eligible for 80% state reimbursement for a new Norwalk High School.

Emails related to Diamantis’s involvement in the Norwalk High School project were not released by OPM until December 2021, after I asked a second time and after you replied two years earlier to my initial FOIA request that you had no responsive documents because Diamantis and School Construction Grants were under DAS.  

Keith Norton of SDE met with Diamantis and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff on October 2, 2019.  It is clear from Norton’s recap of the October 2nd meeting with Duff and Diamantis that Norton prepared for Superintendent Miguel Cardona that Diamantis and Duff were mostly interested in the 80% state reimbursement component–that and taking advantage of $200 million in state bonding.   

When their original pitch for an Arts Magnate didn’t meet state requirements for 80% reimbursement, they pitched ideas that would fit the funding model.  Get the dollars first and make the school fit the money.  On the fly, the group came up with the P-Tech idea in order to qualify for more state money for a brand new school construction project that no one on Norwalk’s Board of Education at the time asked for and for which no need had been identified.  

Since SDE official Keith Norton was already congratulating Diamantis on his promotion to OPM, where he would serve as McCaw’s deputy, on November 27th (see above), why did you and Ms. McCaw withhold responsive documents when they were requested more than two years ago?  Norton clearly believed then that Diamantis’s move to OPM meant he was taking the School Construction Grants staff with him.  

On December 20, 2019,  you sent the following reply to my FOIA request on behalf of Ms. McCaw and OPM:

For a further refresher, here is Melissa McCaw’s announcement of Diamantis’s appointment as her Deputy effective November 21, 2019, including moving the School Construction Grants staff from DAS to OPM.  

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis as Deputy Secretary for the Office of Policy and Management. 

Kosta holds a J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law School and was a sole practitioner for over 28 years. His practice focused on criminal defense, including work in juvenile court, abuse neglect cases, and contracts.  Additionally, Kosta served in the General Assembly from 1992 through 2006, and followed with a role as Special Counsel to the Speaker of the House James Amann. During his legislative tenure, he was named House Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee and served as the House Subcommittee Chair of Elementary and Secondary Education, and Judicial and Corrections. His legislative work also includes service on various committees, such Executive and Legislative Nominations, Insurance, and Health and Human Services. Kosta will immediately begin to support the agency’s work in the areas of Intergovernmental, Criminal Justice, Capital and other programs and policy.

Some of you may know Kosta from his time at DAS, where he previously served as the Director of School Construction, Grants and Review and most recently the Director of Construction Management. Together with his team, he continues the mission to provide adequate learning environments and facilities to meet the programmatic needs for our students as well provide state of the art facilities, while simultaneously maintaining frugality with state resources and over time reducing the annual outlay of required bond allocations from $850 million to under $500 million through active management of design, construction process, change order review, site review and payments.

In order to ensure the cost efficiencies in administering the school construction program and consistent with OPM’s responsibility to administer various municipal grants and municipal aid programs, Kosta will continue to supervise the school construction program, whose staff will be relocated from DAS to OPM in the near future.  For this reason, Kosta’s functional title will be Deputy Secretary for the Office of Policy and Management and Director of School Construction Grants, Review and Audit.  In addition, efforts will be made in the upcoming legislative session to transfer the statutory responsibility for the administration of school construction grants from DAS to OPM. The OSCGR unit and function will leverage synergies with OPM’s extensive work supporting our municipalities.  

Please join me in welcoming Kosta to OPM effective Thursday, November 21 and wish him success in his new role. I am confident I can count on each of you to orient Kosta to our great agency and the important work we do in the service of our great State. Without a doubt, he will come to know and appreciate the outstanding expertise and team members we are fortunate to have in OPM.

Best regards,

Melissa

OPM should explain why my initial FOIA request was closed on December 20, 2019 with no responsive documents when McCaw and others knew about Diamantis’s move to OPM one month earlier.  

Regards,

Donna Smirniotopoulos 

Norwalk, CT

My Last Duchess

(with apologies to Robert Browning)

Who’s #1?

“They’re eating our lunch!”

Jennifer Tooker, newly-elected First Selectwoman of Westport was the first to say it. In an exclusive Angry Taxpayer post-election interview, Tooker lamented, “I don’t know what they’re doing over there in Norwalk. They’re eating our lunch.” Tooker previously served on the Westport Board of Education and Westport Board of Finance, following a 22 year career at Gen Re, a multi-national reinsurance company with a global footprint. “We just can’t stay competitive with Norwalk on certain metrics. They’re eating our lunch,” Tooker repeated.

“Harry Rilling is Eating Our Lunch”

Tooker won narrowly against Jonathan Steinberg, who’s spent the past ten years getting nearly nothing done in Hartford, and who seemed primed to do the same at home in Westport. Like Rilling in Norwalk, Steinberg campaigned on making promises he couldn’t keep, like fixing roads and mitigating traffic congestion. In her faceoff against Steinberg, Tooker tried to align her message with the current zeitgeist in Norwalk, titling her campaign, “More More More” in tribute to the Andrea True disco theme from 1975.

Duchess Eating Lunch

Harry Rilling has been selling–successfully–the ballot box appeal of “More More More” for years. More development. More traffic. More taxes. More Free Lunch. And the jewel in the crown, a public school system that is second to none among the worst in the state.

“Harry Rilling was my white whale,” said Tooker. Asked how she accounted for her narrow win over Steinberg, Tooker said, “Jonathan supported dropping the Gifted program in our schools. Our residents love their “Hate Has No Home Here” and “Love is Love” signs, so we figured Jonathan was going to really eat our lunch on messaging there. Screw equity and inclusion! Turns out Westport voters really like great schools.”

Rilling, who prides himself on his townie street creds, is a specialist in high-stakes mediocrity–the kind of mediocrity that has helped put Norwalk on the map. From crumbling infrastructure to traffic gridlock to a business-crushing permitting process, Norwalk excels at being ‘meh.’ And Harry would like to keep it that way.

When things are going well for the Norwalk mayor–a lifelong Norwalk resident, former Chief of Police and proud father to three grown children, none of them currently in jail–Norwalk residents can sit home in their easy-chairs, pop open a few cold brewskies and watch the game, knowing Harry will continue his legacy of parking mismanagement, government overreach, fugly overdevelopment and favors for cronies.

But How Does He Do It?

Nobody ever said it was easy to take a beautiful town with an embarassment of physical riches and run it into the ground. But Harry Rilling takes this work seriously, rising bright and early every day at 10:00am to shake off the cobwebs from the previous night’s work holding up the bar at the Station House. First order of business: the mayor helps First Lady Lucia Rilling choose an outfit or four to meet the challenges of the day. From Ribbon cuttings to Ribbon cuttings, wife Lucia has a fully-accessorized outfit for every occasion. And if Harry knows what’s good for him, he picks out a tie to match.

The Mayor and First Lady looking somber in their coorindated shirts

After a quick TTFN, Harry heads off in NW1 (quick aside from the mayor–“You guys pay for this”) to the South Norwalk Boat Club for his first meeting of the day, a bipartsan panel discussion of last night’s Big Game, featuring a Who’s Who of Norwalk High Class of ’66. Then the mayor boards his boat, the S.S Runaground, standing proudly at the helm, where he surveys the city. On this lucky morning, I was invited to tag along for the ride. “I can see your house from here,” the mayor says as we begin our journey into Norwalk’s Heart of Darkness.

Norwalk is a City on the Move

“I coined the phrase City on the Move because, when I’m on by boat, I’m moving, but it looks like the City is moving.” He continues, “when I’m on my boat, I can see all the great things Norwalk has to offer. Norwalk is a City on the move. Take the flooding on Water Street. That water moves. And I did that. For a measly thousand bucks from Tom Rich to Friends of Rilling, F.D. Rich got to build six stories on the waterfront. He thought he was developing across the street from the water. But every time there’s a full moon, Harbourside SoNo is direct waterfront. That’s a fact.”

Direct Waterfront Rentals in Historic South Norwalk
“Here I am with my good buddies, Clay and Tom. They give me $1000 bucks every two years, and I let them do whatever they want.”

The Runaground motors along towards the upper harbor, passing the long-vacant Pad Site on our left. “Know what I wish? I wish I had a helicopter. Then I could avoid alot of the traffic driving from Scribner to the SNBC and just park my chopper right over there. Note to self–arrange a secret meeting with Tom Livingston and Mario, and find a way to get this on the Common Council Consent Calendar.”

We pass the new visitor docks at Vet’s Park on our right as we approach the bridge. “See those winos over there. I went to high school with a lot of those guys, and they still vote for me, sometimes three or four times in one day.”

Win, Lose or Draw

Heading towards the Stroffolino Bridge, the mayor gives a wave and a nod to the bridge operator, who lowers the gates and begins the exruciatingly slow process of raising the bridge to let the Runaground pass.

Trying to get to Westport, Jen Tooker? Not today! I’m eating your lunch!

“I don’t need clearance to get under here. But it’s fun to watch the draw bridge go up and down, and isn’t this one of the perks of being mayor? Grinding traffic to a halt for no other reason than “I said so?”

Mayor Rilling continues, “that guy in the NPA van writing parking tickets over there on Liberty Street? That’s my guy. The Norwalk Parking Authority is “quasi-independent,” but trust me, I created all these government jobs in Norwalk that your tax dollars pay for. They say it costs $63.00 to collect on a $20.00 parking ticket from the NPA. That’s a 300% markup. I did that. So if you’re stopping by Ninety-nine Bottles to pick up a sixpack or a couple nips and you get a parking ticket, thank me. I made it all possible,” adding, “actually, you can thank Hartford for the tax on nips.”

Tax on Nips–Hitting the Wealthy where it hurts most

Under me, the Norwalk Housing Authority left five families stranded neck deep in fecal matter at Washington Village a few years back. Did anyone care? Did concerned citizens form a Task Force and demand a new ordinance? No, most Norwalk people save their activist energy for turtles who eat plastic bags. If you want to keep greasing the wheels of the Hartford gravy train, you have to be willing to tell people, ‘if you don’t build this Vertical Lift Bridge, these meerkats will die.'”

And you chumps paid for my new $2,000,000 home.

https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Excess-Walk-Bridge-funds-to-pay-for-2M-meerkat-16367762.php#photo-2132318″

There are a lot of moving parts in a Mediocrity. Clay needed guaranteed rental income at Ironworks from State DOT once the EZ tax abatements expired. Eversource wanted to bury their cables. And the old IMax was due for a face-lift. Plus the meerkats needed a new home. When you want to get something done around here, it pays to know people’s weaknesses. I learned that when I was Chief.”

Mayor By Devine Right

,Harry chuckles as the boat heads north of the Walk Bridge towards the land that dregding forgot, waving at Devine Brothers as we pass just one of the many historic businesses that helped put Norwalk on the map. “You want rock crushing? We’ve got rock crushing. I sat down with my Economic Development Chief, Jess, and we asked ourselves, how can Norwalk attract more millenials. And the answer was ROCK CRUSHING.”

If you lived here, you would be home now.

“I f**king love those guys. You know they did me a real solid on this Walk Bridge boondoggle. As long as they refuse to move south of the Walk Bridge, the Walk Bridge has to go up and down to let them pass. I’ve got a few other buddies helping out too. They sail their boats past the bridge a few times a year so we can justify the billion dollar replacement cost. Most people have no idea how complicated my job is,” Harry continues. “The ink was dry on those government contracts the day the bridge got stuck in 2014. I was new on the job. The kids weren’t in any serious legal hot water yet. But I believe it’s smart to plan ahead and not be caught off guard when the sh*t hits the fan like it did in 2016 and 2017.

“Now which way is the Upper Harbor,” Harry asks, reaching into his pocket for a map. “I don’t use any of that fancy modern GPS stuff. I’ve been on boats my entire life. And when I want to know where I’m going, I reach for a map.”

Harry The Master Abater

Harry’s Map, Courtesy of the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency

They give me these maps over at the RDA for free, and they do come in handy. See all the highlighted areas? Looks kind of like a seahorse. All these areas are under some kind of tax abatement. My friend Mike built a big apartment complex up river. He got hosed on the reval, so we threw him a bone–expanded the EZ to cover the free parking lot I’m going to give him so he can move on to Phase II. I think my free parking lot count is up to three now. That’s the kind of progress you can look forward to in Norwalk under single party rule. Single party rule is okay as long as it’s us!”

CBD & Pain Management

Heading into the upper harbor, Harry waxes poetical–about the Great Flood of 1955, the old Woolworths, Kay-Bee Toys and My Three Sons, would-be home to Byron’s Bakery. “Norwalk was really something back then. I’d ride my Schwinn over to Wall Street, buy penny candy at Woolworth’s. My critics keep talking about the stalled POKO project. They just won’t let it go. But you don’t recover from a flood overnight. You need a Redevelopment Agency for that work, and it takes decades. Plus by the time one part of town is redeveloped according to exacting HUD standards for subpar crony development, the one you just paved over with fortress apartments is declared blighted and marked for infil redevelopment. Did you ever notice that the first three letters of “redevelopment” is “red”? That’s for redlining.

The Norwalk Redevelopment Agency 2021 Five Year Strategic Plan

I have to admit I kind of miss the crazy mixups we’d get into back when the Redevelopment Agency shared our tax exempt office space at City Hall. Now they’re eating up potential tax revenue over on Belden Ave, even though no one shows up for work since COVID. They’ve got a dynamic young new staff. One guy works out of his mom’s basement in New Haven. He cranks these power points out when he’s not playing D&D.”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aq6gTz4ntgjZJQh20YsGusqV4hVpPtZ4/view

Norwalk REDevelopment: Where Businesses go to Die

Estia, closed for years, is part of the RDA’s Five Year Strategic Plan

I’m Eating Their Lunch

Harry opens the RDA’s Five Year strategic plan and flips to the pictures. Harry loves pictures, especially when he’s in them. “I used to eat their lunch,” Harry says, pointing to the RDA plan featuring multiple pictures of Estia Restaurant, now permanently closed. “But they say I eat everyone’s lunch. That’s what I do. I eat other people’s lunches. Sometimes, if I’m still hungry, I head over to Duchess and I eat their lunch. Shhhh….don’t tell Lucia. She’s got me on a diet–again!”

Are you eating other people’s lunches?

Equity & Justice & Keg Stands for All at Norwalk City Hall

One of Connecticut’s Super Lawyers, Super Mario Coppola, Corporation Counsel, City of Norwalk CT

Norwalk Law Department Meets #MeToo

Three years ago #metoo trended on Twitter, following allegations of sexual harassment and rape against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.  From Weinstein to Al Franken to Bill Cosby to Louis CK, women were making themselves heard: we are not your playthings; we are not your sex objects; we are not your pawns in your power plays; and we are not your decorations at your frat house keg parties.  We’re as mad as hell, and we’re not going to take this anymore.  #timesup. 

Fast forward to March 17-18th 2021.  City Hall is still effectively closed to Norwalk residents. WFH is the norm for most senior staff including the Mayor.  And though we’re nearing the end of a global pandemic, conversations around last year’s marquee social justice moment show no signs of going away.  The events surrounding the 2020 death of George Floyd by Minneapolis PD officer Derek Chauvin sparked months of rolling protests and the resounding echo of a movement that grew in 2014 under President Obama following the death of Michael Brown in Fergusson Missouri at the hands of Police Officer Darren Wilson. 

Because this is America, both movements also gave rise to creative entrepreneurs eager to cash in on our mea culpa moments.  From Google to the MLB to small town America, anti-racist training supplanted the formerly de rigueur sexual harassment-in-the-workplace training of four years ago.   

Kelvin Ayala, Principle, All of Us, Bridgeport CT

Trouble is, just as Norwalk’s four term mayor, Harry Rilling, unveiled his own #blacklivesmatter effort, hiring a six-figure consultant out of Bridgeport (Bridgeport!) to lead the Mayor’s Equity and Justice for All Commission, the City’s Law Department, operating in their bathrobes and boxer shorts, were reliving the hijinks of #metoo (just the highs, not the lows), all within a 24 hour period from March 17 to March 18. 

The ink on the Mayor’s $150,000 contract with Led By Us, Kelvin Ayala’s consulting firm, was barely dry when Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola, part of Team Rilling since 2013 and a senior partner at Berchem Moses, emailed Darin Callahan, a subordinate in the Law Department, asking him to let an applicant for the open position of “Senior Legal Secretary” know that she had not made the cut. 

“let her down easy playboy”

Writing to Callahan, Coppola said, “I would like you to reach out to _____ on behalf of the Law Dept to thank her for her interest in the position and to inform her that we went in another direction.  I feel that you have the most experience in our office for handling these types of discussions after many years of breaking off relationships with your past girlfriends and flings.  Thanks, Mario F. Coppola, Corporation Counsel.” The subject of the email was “Senior Legal Secretary,” and the copy list included all Law Department attorneys–all white males as of this writing. 

Because no frat house is complete without a beta male to inflate the ego of the alpha, Assistant Corporation Counsel Brian McCann chimed in, “let her down easy playboy” in a subsequent email.  All emails in the queue were sent via Norwalkct.org email accounts, and all are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.  Coppola knows the FOIA. But apparently when you work at home at the pleasure of the Mayor, and there are no limits on your power and no expectations regarding your behavior, you can afford to be sloppy, stupid and arrogant. 

“let her down easy playboy”

Time’s Up Mario?

How the Law Department came to find itself in this awkward position—just ONE DAY after the Mayor unveiled a mostly cynical election year political gambit to seize #BLM momentum and court woke white voters—is a case study in bad luck unlawfully married to bad juju.  The emails appeared on screen during a Zoom deposition of Candace Fay, attorney for (and cousin to) frequent City Hall foe Jason Milligan.  Milligan was alert enough to get the screen grab, prompting Fay to ask Chief of Staff Laoise King who needed to be let down easy and who was the playboy. 

In an effort to allay Fay’s concerns, King offered a screen shot of the emails sent in reference to an applicant for an open position in the Law Department for “Senior Legal Secretary” and not in reference to Fay herself.  King also volunteered the screen shot presumably to avoid a FOIA request broader in scope than the limits of Fay’s March 18 deposition.  But where there is smoke there is fire.  The City’s lawyers are so comfy working from home in their togas and sandals, they’ve forgotten about the FOIA, let alone #metoo.  They don’t even seem to know who they work for, and the idea of being a public servant is nowhere in evidence.  Whether this is toxic masculinity or locker room humor, we can’t afford either. 

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME

A toxic culture has been allowed to flourish under Mayor Rilling, even as our national conversations on sex and race have expanded and grown more resolute.  Mayor Rilling has the audacity to create an Equity and Justice for All Commission, hiring Councilman Greg Burnett’s former fraternity brother from Bridgeport to run it, all while buying kegs for Mario and the gang at Delta House.  And just like that, it’s 1964 again. 

Warnolk–Saga of a City Who’s Who in Warnolk

LUCINDA ALVAREZ

Lyudmilla “Lucinda Alvarez” Alborzh, age 17, Tehran

Third wife of Mayor Marty Schultz. Born Lyudmilla Protopopova Alborzh to a Russian ballerina mother and a Persian father, Lucinda was born in Tehran in 1960. Lucinda’s father, Aziz Alborzh, had studied Equine Science at Aberystwyth University Wales, spoke the King’s English and was a royalist and courtier to Reza Shah Pahlavi. Alborzh was also responsible for maintaining the Shah’s polo ponies in Leeds, and made frequent trips to England and elsewhere in service to the Shah’s hobby. Lucinda’s mother, also Lyudmilla, had studied ballet in Leningrad briefly under the tutelage of a former protege of the famed Agrippina Voganova. Lyudmilla, Sr.’s father had worked for the politburo, and thanks to the good offices of his superiors, over the course of ten years, Lyudmilla, Sr. rose in the ranks of the lesser-known Metallostroy Ballet from apprentice to third alternate in the corps de ballet, where one lucky night, the first and second alternates having eaten a bad batch of borscht earlier that, were unable to perform their duties. That evening, as it happened, the young Aziz was in the audience, having traveled from Tehran to inspect a promising foal outside the city. Unimpressed with the animal, Aziz abruptly left the stable and asked his driver to suggest diversions to kill time until his flight to Tehran in two days. The driver suggested Metallostroy, and soon Aziz was seated in the 11th row of a cold, half empty theater, transfixed by a dark haired, slightly cross-eyed ballerina who piroutted left when the rest of the corps piroutted right. When the audience hissed at the clumsy girl, Aziz, wild-eyed, stood up to defend her honor. After the curtain fell, Aziz waited for Lyudmilla at the stage door. Thus began a brief courtship. Aziz sat in the third row the following night, and on the eve of his departure for Persia, in the front row center, a formidable bouquet of roses, twelve white and twelve red, swallowing his lap. This impressed Lyudmilla, whose opinion of Azis softened as her opinion of her own circumstances–trapped in the corps of a third rate ballet in a second rate Russian city–grew grim. Azis proposed on bended knee, and they were wed by Milla’s uncle, an official officiant of the politburo, in time for the morning Aeroflot flight to Tehran. The year was 1958. Lyudmilla’s marriage saved her father Sergei the embarassment of his daughter’s defection. Milla, for her part, having only known the hardships of Leningrad–the bread lines and bitterly long winters–tapped her toes resolutely on the plywood floor of the Aeroflot Tupolov TU-104–the very same plane that would crash killing all aboard a few months later. For Lyudmilla Protopopova Alborzh, the prospect of life in the glamorous city of Tehran–with its European flair and its Soviet secularism–was all polo ponies and rainbows.

Milla settled into her new life in Persia, learning enough Farsi to have her hair cut into a more fashionable boufant and buy dresses in the style of a French-speaking American senator’s wife. She put away the ballet slippers and learned the Tehran Twist. Along the way, Milla gave birth to the couple’s first and only child, a dark-haired girl with long limbs like her mother and sharp political instincts, more like her opportunistic grandfather, Sergei, than the sycophant her father had become.

In 1969, Lyudmilla, Sr. decided that Lyudmilla, Jr. would be sent to England to attend boarding school. The parents chose a school in Manchester, Chetham’s School of Music, a place her dark looks and curious name would go unnoticed among the daughters of the petit bourgeois Indian families who lived there. Chetham’s had just become coed, and while Aziz did not want his nominally Muslim daughter co-mingling with the opposite sex, Lyudmilla, Sr. saw the girl’s potential to use her dark beauty to her advantage. Aside from brief returns to Tehran, Lyudmilla, Jr. spent little time at home, her parents preferring to summer in the south of France, where Lyudmilla, Sr. could consort with the glitteratti and buy designer sunglasses. By the time Lyudmilla, Jr. finished finishing school, having failed her A levels for the third and final time, revolution was afoot in Iran. The Lyudmillas Sr. and Jr. recoiled at the thought of giving up their miniskirts and Virginia Slims. Meanwhile Aziz had more practical fears–death by hanging or firing squad. And so the Alborzh family fled, first to England, then to New York City and finally to El Salvador, where Azis found work driving a cab and Lyudmilla rediscovered an old skill requisite in the USSR and became a seamstress for the emerging bourgeois. On account of years spent abroad and a lacadaisical approach to academics, the now 18 year old beauty spoke Farsi poorly, English well and Russian not at all. Among her new friends in El Salvador, she was known as Lucinda. Lucinda was popular with the girls because she wore corduroy bellbottoms and fake Pucci polyester blouses in the blistering heat of San Salvador. She was popular with the boys because she was not like the other girls. Lucinda was tall and lithsome. She could have been mistress to an important businessman with foreign connections. She could have owned a flower shop or a millinery if hats had not gone out of style. She could even have been a lady in waiting to Sra. Duarte at the right time. But Lucinda, remembering her brief layover at JFK–the glamour of the Pan-Am terminal, the fresh towels at the airport Hilton–set her sights on New York City. The kolomikta kiwi, sadly, does not fall far from the vine. Like her mother who took advantage of the dispepsia of her betters to perform thrice in the corps of a third rate ballet company, so too Lucinda Alvarez aspired to mediocrity but fell short. Lyudmilla, Sr. had relations not in New York City but near New York City in Port Chester. Lucinda found employment in Port Chester in 1980 cleaning hotel rooms, but her height and command of English soon led to employment as Head of Laundry Services for Conde Nast in Old Greenwich, from whence the search for a proper husband–not a cab driver like her father or a political footstool like her grandfather–began in earnest.

2nd Hour – 12/28/20 by The Lisa Wexler Show

Listen to 2nd Hour – 12/28/20 by The Lisa Wexler Show on SoundCloud
— Read on m.soundcloud.com/the-lisa-wexler-show/2nd-hour-122820

Diane Cece talks about East Norwalk TOD and Kitty Kitty Kitty Kitty. Are they still relevant in a post COVID world?

Jason Milligan, Real Estate Mogul, describes the 13 year history of POKO in less than 3 minutes. Only mentions Mario once.

All this and more on the Lisa Wexler show.

Shave and a Haircut, Two Bits!

It’s COVID. Trust me I get it. No place to go. Nothing to do. For months on end. No work. Your office has even closed its doors. We’ve all let ourselves go a bit. Gained some weight. Stopped coloring our hair. Grown beards. Maybe we even spent a few too many of those idle hours on our boat, escaping the office grind that wasn’t. But at some point, it’s time to put on our button pants and rake a comb through our hair. That point came for Mayor Rilling–seeking a fifth term–last Saturday.

Mayor Rilling last summer before he announced his re-election bid

Will There Be Cameras?

On Saturday, December 19, over 100 East Norwalk residents and their supporters stood on East Avenue in the bracing cold to protest a proposed distribution center at Norden Place that promises to wreack havoc not only on local residential streets but throughout East and South Norwalk, sending 18 wheelers careening down Strawberry Hill and Fitch Street to access East Avenue’s I95 Exit 16. No one is happy about this. The mayor knows it. And like Punxatawny Phil, he knows the time is ripe to pop his head out of his hiding place and tell us how much he’s done to make Norwalk a better place to live, laugh and love.

“A little the worse for wear” plus “neatly trimmed beard” equals Harry’s 5th

Do I support this LULU?

Am I running again?

And so the mayor spiffied himself up a bit to attend the event, organized by the East Norwalk Neighborhood Association. Maybe lost a few lbs. Got a haircut. Trimmed the beard. Put on a festive red scarf, trophy wife at his side. Et Voila! Time to stand up in solidarity with a neighborhood for a photo op. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

“And you may find yourself….with a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?”

2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021…..another election year, another LULU

LULU, for the uninitiated, means “Locally Unwanted Land Use.” Sometimes LULUs are straight up NIMBY reactions (another acronym for Not In My Back Yard). In Norwalk, they’re often examples of the City’s land use bodies–all appointed by Mayor Rilling–granting special favors to big developers with big bucks and big lawyers who also do Mayor Rilling special favors each election year.

Campaign 2013–Fix Our Sidewalks and Reform P&Z

In 2013, the former Norwalk Police Chief and wannabe mayor campaigned while standing on Woodward Avenue in South Norwalk, decrying the condition of the sidewalks. He promised to fix the sidewalks and reform Planning and Zoning. The Woodward sidewalks got a cheap coat of tar in 2019 when the old video from 2013 resurfaced.

The Woodward sidwalks were redone again this year, better this time. Maybe Grasso needed their contract fulfilled, and Deering already got the cheap paving job last year. We’ll never know how much we paid last year to cover up Harry’s failed campaign promise from 2013.

And what about reforming Planning & Zoning? Don’t hold your breath.

2015–POKO RISES

Harry made his second run for mayor in 2015, which dovetailed nicely with ground-breaking and photo ops at the development that was going to finally put downtown Norwalk back on the map, sixty years after the famous flood of fifty-five. Dubbed “Wall Street Place,” the project swallowed up an entire parking lot–whole and for free–and still stands shrouded in Tyvek five years later. Here’s what the Norwalk Hour had to say about POKO back then.

NORWALK — Thirteen months after breaking ground and the beginning of demolition on Phase One of Wall Street Place, state Sen. Bob Duff (D-25) and Mayor Harry Riling, were given a building site tour on Oct. 28 by representatives from POKO Partners.

With an anticipated completion date of December, 2016, the roughly $45 million undertaking on Wall Street — calls for 101 housing units, 16,000 square feet of retail space, 23 surface parking spaces and an automated parking garage with more than 200 spaces available to residents and the public in the area of the Isaac Street parking Lot.

Well, that didn’t happen.

“Lucia, where’s my ‘Breast Cander Awareness’ pin? I’ve got a photo op with Bob at noon.”

2017: Are There No Prisons?

The summer of 2017 was the summer of Firetree. Part one of the Zoning Board of Appeals public hearing on Firetree’s first motion took place on May 4, 2017. The entirety of the ZBA’s consideration of the Firetree motions spanned multiple meetings over more than two months.

Once word got out on Quintard that improvements to Pivot House were not what they seemed and that a private prison operator with multi-million dollar federal contracts intended to open up shop at number seventeen, the neighbors organized a press event and barbecue during the summer of 2016. Mayor Rilling was there. So was Senator Bob Duff.

After Firetree submitted their application for a tenant fitup permit, denied by Aline Rochefort, the applicant filed two motions–an appeal of Rochefort’s denial and a request for a special exception–which teed up a series of ZBA meetings and continuances.

The first ZBA meeting was packed with Quintard neighbors and supporters, as well as local elected officials, including Harry and Lucia Rilling, looking gravely concerned.

https://1drv.ms/w/s!AuAvsaZcaOqOtz_gwC16lbEz3PVr?e=KdoQzN

The creator of this legendary sign is someone you may know

In the Council Chamber, the Mayor and First Lady, outfitted in their Sunday best, tsked and shook their heads performatively as Tom Cody of Robinson & Cole claimed a prison for 19 and a halfway house for 8, sandwiched between two family homes with children on a quiet residential street, were just about the same thing.

Ultimately, both the appeal to overturn Zoning Inspector Aline Rochefort’s denial of Firetree’s application for a tenant fitup permit, and the subsequent motion for a Special Exception to operate a private prison for Federal offenders at a former halfway house operated by Pivot Ministires were rejected by the ZBA with near-unanimity. Subsequent to the ZBA decisions, two separate civil rights suits were filed against the City by Firetree. The City announced a settlement with Firetree this time last year, more than two years after the hearings began and five years after the Mayor first received a letter from Firetree stating their intention to open a Residential Reentry Center, or RRC, at 17 Quintard.

Mayoral “tsks” are notable in that they signal support to a rapt audience while not actually moving the needle. The Mayor noted then as he did last Saturday that, while he cannot tell a land use board how to vote, he can encourage residents to voice their opinions. Early and often.

Last Saturday a few hecklers called out, “you appointed these people.” Duly noted.

https://tinyurl.com/ybr3p74b

An OpEd I wrote in June of 2017 is linked above, back when Nancy Chapman allowed me to publish on her site. By October, despite two Federal Civil Rights lawsuits against the City, the Mayor had this to say to former Chapman Hyperlocal Media board member Bob Welsh during a campaign interview:

https://tinyurl.com/y83vgg77

Firetree

Welsh: “Several years ago Firetree sent a certified letter detailing their plans to you for a federal halfway house on Quintard Avenue. Some have said that by not taking immediate action immediately after receiving that, that the City missed an opportunity to stop the project before it began. Is that a fair criticism?“

Rilling: “No, not really. You don’t send a letter to the Mayor of a community and expect that if you don’t hear back from the Mayor that it’s okay to move forward. There’s a process you follow. You have to go through a permitting process. The proper way to do this would be to come into the Planning and Zoning Department, bring your plans, say, “Here’s what we wish to do,” and determine whether or not this is a conforming use, nonconforming use, an expansion of a use that might need a special permit. When I got that letter, I sent a copy to my Corporation Council and I sent a copy to my Planning and Zoning. I get letters all the time. It’s not up to the Mayor to write back and say, “Oh no, we can’t do this.” It’s my Planning Director. That’s why I have a Planning and Zoning Director, that’s why I have a Corporation Council, to look at this and wait for the Firetree or whomever to come in and say, “Okay, here’s what we want to do, here’s our plans. The letter was very vague. The letter just said they wanted to run a halfway house. “

Well, that was a lie. Nancy Chapman refused to make a correction in the story–not the least of her efforts to run cover for the Mayor who keeps a roof over her head (Chapman lives in “workforce” housing).

Below is text from the letter Harry Rilling received from Firetree,LTD via certified mail on September 5, 2014.

Re: Notification of Proposed Performance Location

Dear Mayor Rilling:

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Firetree, Ltd. has submitted an offer to provide Residential Re-entry Center services or “halfway house” services for federal offenders releasing to Fairfield County, Connecticut. This action is being taken in response to a request for proposals (RFP) issued by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). The BOP encourages full and open competition in the procurement of these services; consequently, other offerors may also be responding to this RFP.

As part of the RRC contracting process, the BOP requires that all offerors notify and seek input from the local law enforcement authority and two levels of locally elected government officials. This letter will serve as documentation of partial satisfaction of this requirement.

Firetree, Ltd. is proposing to provide these services at 17 Quintard Avenue, Norwalk, Connecticut

Prior to Election Day 2017, Rilling, via his emissary Laoise King, signaled willingness to purchase the 17 Quintard property from Firetree in order to settle the lawsuits and make the neighborhood whole again. By March of 2018, Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola put the final kibosh on that idea. The City paid $1.3 million, between legal fees and settlement costs, to close the Firetree chapter–that’s $300k more than what Firetree wanted for the property. In other words, we’re $1.3 million poorer and we don’t even have a house to show for it. That’s the Rilling way! Great Success!

https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Norwalk-reaches-625K-settlement-barring-halfway-14930033.php

2019: Save the Garden Cinema

“Norwalk is a growing city. Norwalk needs to be run in a professional manner.”

The Mayor spent 2018 running cover for an unpopular reval (assessment appeals still clogging the courts) and pushing a costly “reorganization plan” so he could give Laoise King a raise for doing the job he was elected to do. By late 2018, the Mayor informally launched his campaign for a fourth term in the following ad, paid for by us.

A City on the Move–the ultimate photo op

You’ve got to appreciate the hutzpah. First the Council approved the Mayor’s million dollar makeover so he could bury Laoise’s raise in the details. Then the Mayor let new (now retired) Chief of Mobility, Transportation and Parking Kathy Hebert hire buddy Linda Kavanagh of MaxEx Publications to create this video promoting the City, but really promoting Norwalk’s favorite “power walking couple” Harry and Lucia Rilling.

There’s a smiling Harry and Lucia strolling down Washington Street hand in hand. Here’s a svelte Lucia at the yoga studio. There’s an amorous First Couple swooning over cigars.

In case you don’t get the picture, here’s the improved version, released a few days later.

You’ve reached the age to Know that a Lie Works better than the Truth

POKO Resurrected from Hades

By mid July, Harry & Co. were engaged in a full court press to approve a new redeveloper for the failed POKO project. The star? John McClutchy, of GroupJHM.

A Brief History of POKO

At the July 23, 2019 Common Council meeting, Item VII on the agenda covered Committee Reports. Letter D was assigned to the Planning Committe, Chaired by John Kydes. Remember that name.

https://www.norwalkct.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/14989

Kydes, the Loyal Soldier

At that meeting, according to the agenda linked above, the Planning Committee was seeking Council approval for the new POKO plan, which included nearly $10 million in fees for John McClutchy, millions in LIHTCs for Citibank, and 15 years of tax credits with a project value of $15 million.

As Chair of the Planning Committee, Kydes has been a loyal capo to Mayor Rilling.

  1. Kydes presided over the amendment to the Reed Putnam LDA that allowed the developer to forgo the promised hotel, leaving us with a 100% retail mall.

2. Kydes quashed public opposition to the Redevelopment Agency’s Wall West Plan (now the subject of a Milligan lawsuit).

3. Under Kydes, the Planning Committee supported a plan that would: lay waste to a local shrine to Independent Film (the only part that got the public’s attention by the way); reward a perennial democrat political donor (McClutchy), and shower Citibank with millions of taxpayer dollars like candy out of a pinata.

The kicker? No one is really sure Kydes is a democrat. Then again, no is is sure Harry is either.

Item III on the July 23 Council agenda was “Public Participation.” And participate they did, but not before the Mayor, unable to ignore the ground swell of opposition to the plan before the Council that included demolition of the Garden Cinema, announced that the vote had been tabled until September 10th. Because nobody wants to go into an election as the villain. And at heart, Harry is a magnificent coward.

In advance of the meeting, Marc Alan of Factory Underground and Frank Farricker of the Wall Street Theater collaborated on a petition to Save the Garden Cinema, and thousands of people signed to voice their support for Norwalk’s only theater dedicated to independent film.

2019 being an election year, the vote was not taken up on September 10th as Mayor Rilling promised on July 23rd. Instead the Mayor, the other mayor, Mario, Citibank and McClutchy went into closed door meetings for months, the details of their conversations heavily redacted because…..well, you know. Pending litigation.

The new and improved Wall Street Place plan was approved by the Council during a July 2020 Zoom meeting, with McClutchy and Citi still at the helm. The new plan calls for 151 rental units and a few square feet of un-leasable and unfinished “arts space” for temporary use (until the markets turn?) from McClutchy. The coup de grace? The new plan requires demolition of the Garden Cinema.

Kai Su, Kydes?

John Kydes recently announced formation of an “exploratory committee”–which may only mean he has to ask his wife permission–to consider a run for mayor in 2020. Within days, Mayor Rilling announced that he too had filed papers. Harry doesn’t have to ask Lucia’s permission to run. He has to ask her permission not to run.

When is a Bar not a Bar? When it’s a Record Store

On December 13th, Nicholas Ruiz, co-owner of the only LGBTQ+ bar in Fairfield County (with partner Casey Fitzpatrick), dropped a bomb on the Norwalk Community Facebook page. Ruiz said he was offering his design services to a Norwalk democrat interested in challenging Mayor Rilling in a primary. At this writing, it’s not clear what happened to spoil the Mayor’s romance with the Troupe couple. Unlike the Dry Dock, which got busted for offering a waiting take-out customer a beer, Troupe seems to have successfully gamed the system by reinventing itself as a record store (“Can I fix you a Slow Comfortable Screw while you browse?). For the record (no pun intended), I admire any local business that finds creative ways to survive the state’s draconian COVID measures.

Last year, Harry pandered for LBGT votes with the promise of a ridiculously costly rainbow crosswalk. The previous year, Troupe hosted Ned Lamont for a campaign event and shunned his opponent, whose platform, they claimed, was weak on LGBTQ+ issues. The truth? Economic downturns don’t discriminate.

What says the NRTC to all this brouhaha?

White Homelessness in Norwalk

Housing insecurity is a nationwide problem. From San Francisco to New York City, while the 1% luxuriate in Pacific Heights mansions and deluxe East Side apartments in the sky, our nation’s homeless sleep on the streets below. But the snowman homeless problem is seldom spoken of. Some say it doesn’t even exist, that it’s more conspiracy theory for disappointed Trump voters than truth. As Norwalk’s Planning and Zoning commissioners scramble to fast track thousands more fortress apartments, and the city struggles to get a handle on illegal occupancies, the snowman homeless problem is largely ignored, say activists. What is the truth about snowman homelessness? Angry Taxpayer took to the streets of South Norwalk to learn more.

Trending on NPfE

Days before Norwalk was hammered with twelve inches of drifting snow and damaging winds on December 16, leaving concerned parents with no internet and an inhumane five hour social media blackout, the following hashtag was trending on the Norwalk Parents for Education Facebook page–#snowdaysmatter. With some schools operating at 30% student capacity due to COVID quarantines, parents made their wishes clear regarding the NPS’s intention to continue remote learning despite weather-related school closures. Children need snow days. For some parents, snow days are critical to Social Emotional Learning (#SEL).

What started as a hashtag quickly went viral until the superintendent capitulated and gave kids who’ve already spent more time at home than at school the past year not one, but a flurry of snow days to last from mid-December until January 4th when classes resume….sort of.

Then, as if by magic, in the hours and days following the Nor’easter, Norwalk’s snowman problem began to emerge. First there was one, then three, then dozens, if not hundreds of snowmen on the streets exposed to the elements. Who is responsible for this emerging snowman homelessness crisis? Blame the snowflake children.

Christmas Snow

I asked a traffic cop about the snowman problem, and he replied, “once they come to life they don’t know nuthin’…….come to life?” The traffic cop declined to give his name, but his response was telltale. This was no mere conspiracy theory. This was a trail of crumbs, and the trail just might be leading to the biggest scandal to hit Norwalk since Spitgate.

This Traffic Cop decline to be identified for this story

Another cop, who spoke on condition of anonymity added, “every year we try to get them to the shelter, but most refuse. Even though they’ve got no legs, they don’t want to lose their mobility. You try and get them to come in from the cold, and they’re afraid they’ll melt or something. There’s a lot of mental illness with these types.”

Mentally ill snowman receiving light therapy

One resident who goes by Chris had this to say about the snowman phenomenon: “they’re made out of Christmas snow and Christmas snow can never disappear completely. It sometimes goes away for almost a year at a time and takes the form of spring and summer rain. But you can bet your boots that when a good, jolly December wind kisses it, it will turn into Christmas snow all over again. That’s why you see ’em…sometimes a lot of them….and then they just, poof, you know, they’re gone. The city doesn’t keep track. It’s a scandal happening right in front of our eyes.”

Snowmen–the Hidden Crisis in our Front Yards

As I combed the streets of South Norwalk, I was able to capture these images of homeless snowmen. Most were inadequately dressed for sub freezing temps. A lucky few had hats and scarves. Fewer still a morsel of food like a carrot.

No arms, no legs, naked to the world, with only a carrot and some sticks for comfort

A Crisis in the Making or White Privilege?

One snowman I met on my journey through South Norwalk asked to be referred to simply as “Frosty.” “Not Mr. Frosty,” Frosty added. “Mr. Frosty’s from East Norwalk. People get us confused all the time, but we’re not even related. We snowmen get a lot of that. We’re constantly judged by our color. People say we all look alike. We’re lazy. We’re fat. Or worse. A few months ago, some folks from Rowayton got into a fight over a sign on a fence, and they singled out snowmen. Said stuff about white privilege and white patriarchy.” Frosty went on to say that, while snowman is the most common term to refer to his people, most snowpersons are non-gender binary and non-gender conforming. “Whenever I hear that “white patriarchy” bs, I ask, ‘when was the last time you saw a snowman with genitals. Hell, we don’t even got legs.”

“Frosty”….not to be confused with Mr. Frosty from East Norwalk
This non-gender conforming snowman on Lowndes is practicing social distancing

Seeking Spiritual Comfort

Though COVID restricions…..and not having any legs….make coming together in communion with their fellows challenging, there is spiritual comfort for snowmen living in isolation. Angry Taxpayer spoke to a member of the snowman clergy to learn more.

Father Fitzgibbon ministers to local snowmen during Covid.

I met Father Fitzgibbon on Woodward. Fr. Fitzgibbon immigrated from Ireland 45 years ago. He said these dark times have been difficult for the faithful. “These poor solitary figures have no one to turn to during the joyous season of advent. Sadly, many turn to the drink,” noting an uptick in snowman deaths due to anti-freeze intoxication.

When asked what guidance he could offer, Fr. Fitzgibbon said, “I continue to offer mass daily, but the pews are empty. We tried Zoom mass, but snowmen live outdoors, and it’s hard to get a wifi signal unless they’re near a hotspot. And hotspots can be deadly.” Fr. Fitzgibbon has not seen his elderly mother Molly since he emigrated. Asked how he copes, Fr. Fitzgibbon replied, “fasting and prayer.”

Homes for the Homeless Snowmen

In addition to the burgeoning snowman problem, there may be an emerging solution or a new humbug for City Hall. Accessory dwelling units or “granny flats” are also popping up all over the City. AT sent an email to Director of Planning and Zoning Steve Kleppin, asking about the legality of these new front yard structures. Kleppin declined to comment. But an anonymous source inside City Hall expressed doubts. “None of this building was done with a permit. They’ve got all kinds of structural problems. And they’re all built inside the setbacks, except for one in Harborview. The only positive thing I can say is at least they’re not fire traps.”

This igloo type structure is clearly in the setback and shows signs of cultural appropriation.
Another culturally insensitive igloo, this one apparently created by–and for–children.
Illegal accessory dwelling unit in Harborview. No permit and no C.O.
Additional angle. This illegal dwelling shows evidence of fabricated materials.

Will There Be Blood?

Not likely. But that doesn’t mean the snowmen aren’t doomed to a violent end.

Said Frosty, “you’re acting like this is a new problem, but we all remember the massacre of 1903….all because a five year old didn’t get her way.”

The St. Louis Snowman Massacre of 1903

Frosty is referring of course to juvenile mass murderer “Tootie” Smith. Though born to a wealthy lawyer father, Tootie displayed other problem behavior observed by criminal profilers, including harassing neighbors, burning furniture in the street and faking her own attempted murder. But it is this image that Tootie Smith is best remembered for, wreaking bloody vengeance on innocent snow people because of her family’s impending move to New York City.

Where was Priscilla Feral to save this helpless and innocent snow polar bear?

Imposters and Other Strangers

Harsh living conditions. Lack of upward–or anyward–mobility. Inadequate or legally nonconforming housing options. No safe spaces. Created by children for children only to be destroyed by children. Said Frosty, “at some point you have to have the ‘conversation’……..you have to tell your kid that he’s standing around with a target on his jolly fat tummy–we call it the abdomen, right below the thorax. ” Frosty claims DPW’s street clearing after snow storms is nothing more than systemic shoveling directed against snowmen. “And then there’s the imposters.”

The Wannabes

Sure it’s no fun belonging to a historically oppressed and marginalized group. But you wouldn’t know it from the number of imposters–the Rachel Dolezals of the snowman population who try to ‘pass’ for the sake of social acceptance or simply to have a nice drafty attic to summer in.

I can live in a hothouse for pointsettias and not get all wishy-washy.
Last Halloween I dressed up as Sam from Rudolph.
Today I’m happy. But soon I’ll be deflated.
This vintage-inspired blow mold snowman is a collector’s item. He also creates unreaistic body image expectations for real snowmen.

No Room at the Inn

Even the Holy Family found shelter in Bethlehem. For Norwalk’s snowmen, however, there is no shelter except a tax shelter. Unlike Jesus, Mary & Joseph, who traveled so they could be taxed by Rome, and unlike the rest of us, Norwalk’s snowmen pay no taxes.

Said Norwalk Tax Collector Lisa Biagiarelli, “turns out snowmen are tax exempt. We checked it out with the IRS when the receipts for 2020 weren’t panning out the way we’d hoped. No luck. That’s why everyone else is paying a little bit more this year. It’s not the NPS driving up the mill rate. It’s the snowmen. But we’re hoping under a President Biden, we’ll be able to tax the snowmen while they’re around as seasonal workers, and then tax the water after they melt.”

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Merry Christmas~Happy New Year

Angry Taxpayer

NORWALK’S LITIGATION ADDICTION CRISIS

Step One: Admit You Have a Problem

For AA and other addiction support groups, there are twelve steps in the road to recovery. For Cities like Norwalk that are addicted to litigation, there may be fewer steps. But the first step is the same for both: admit you have a problem.

Norwalk is addicted to lawsuits. The litigation door is one that swings both ways. Though the city often finds itself on the receiving end of a complaint, the number of cases the City initiates and pursues interminably, through filing after filing, seemingly with zero effort directed towards negotiation and settlement, is sobering. Especially when we realize we are paying for it. All of it.

Check out the screenshot above to see a list of some of the cases involving the City of Norwalk. When the case is named “City of Norwalk v.” –that’s a lawsuit we started, and by we I mean the Law Department under the direction of Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola of Bercham Moses. Mario Coppola starts the lawsuits, keeps them going, and hires friends to represent the City. We pay for them. Every penny. In addition to Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola, who is paid $180k per year for part time work, the Law Department has a full-time house staff of four: Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeffry Spahr and Assistant Corporation Counsels Brian Candela, Brian McCann and Darin Callahan.

Mario Coppola is a Senior Partner at Bercham Moses, and has been named to the Thomson Reuters Connecticut “Super Lawyers” since 2013.

Eight Attorneys from Berchem Moses PC Named To 2020 Connecticut and New England Super Lawyers®

Bercham Moses likes to advertise their Super Lawyers right on their web site. Here’s what others have said about the Super Lawyers designation.

The process does….ultimately give attorneys the ability to nominate attorneys from their firm. Plus, they can nominate family members and friends. According to an article published in a Boston Business Journal, some attorneys feel it is a popularity contest.

Ehline Law Firm

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2006/08/07/story2.html

In New Jersey, use of the terms “super” and “best” were banned from advertising for lawyers in 2006, under Opinion 39. There was immediate pushback from the “super” lawyers, resulting in a 300 page opinion from one of the state’s Special Masters and modifications of the conditions under which NJ lawyers may use “super” in advertising, stipulating that the award selection process must be included in the advertising. The Advertising Committee of the NJ Bar wants prospective clients to know exactly what it means to be a “super lawyer” in that state. Sometimes it just means you owe someone–another lawyer–a favor. Or they owe you one.

Click to access n160518a.pdf

NJ Bar Committee on Advertising Decision on Super Lawyer Advertising

In other words, Super Lawyers may be recognizing top lawyers for reasons that have nothing to do with competence and accomplishments and everything to do with popularity and back-scratching. Thomson Reuters annual “Super Lawyers” unveiling could be nothing more than a giant attorney circle jerk. The Bercham Moses folks nominate their own. The Shipman Goodwin folks nominate their own. The Halloran & Sage folks nominate their own. And then, maybe, they nominate each other too. Maybe they nominate friends and family. It’s the “Aristocrats” joke of the legal profession. But that’s how the law firms that cater to Connecticut’s 189 towns and cities keep up the eternal golden braid of legalized graft–the free flow of millions in taxpayer dollars into the pockets of law firms dedicated to representing Connecticut cities and towns in court. The law firms and their partners pay a very small price for taxpayer largesse. In Norwalk they simply tithe at the Mayor’s counting table every election cycle.

Who gave big to Harry Rilling in 2019? Lawyers and Developers

Step Two: Identify the Source of the Problem

Mario Coppola’s “Super Lawyer” status may well be predicated on a “you scratch my balls, I’ll scratch yours” understanding with a few of the firms in the State’s CIRMA pool. CIRMA stands for Connecticut Interlocal Risk Management Association. Theoretically CIRMA makes it cheaper for municipalities to sue and be sued. In practice, CIRMA simply narrows the pool to make it easier for cities like Norwalk to sue and be sued.

https://cirma.ccm-ct.org/cirma-home/home-page.htm

The “preferred” law firms–Halloran & Sage and Shipman Goodwin for two–that get the business Coppola throws their way every time the City initiates a law suit–or the City is a named defendant in one–have earned Coppola the moniker, “Super Mario.”

Firetree: Robinson & Cole v. Halloran & Sage

For example, in a federal civil rights case filed in 2017 by Robinson & Cole on behalf of Williamsport, PA based Firetree, Ltd–a not-for-profit drug rehab and private prison operator founded by former Democratic Congressman Allen Ertel–Mario Coppola chose Halloran & Sage. The late Allen Ertel and his dubious non-profit do-gooder enterprise had a long history of litigation and neighborhood intimidation. Ertel famously even sued himself. A whistleblower case against Firetree and the Ertels remains sealed seven years after it was first filed. Getting sued in Federal court by Firetree on claims of discrimation based on disabling addiction required big guns–someone like Marcie Hamilton, who Robert Maslan, Corporation Counsel under former mayor Dick Mocciae, retained to defend the city in the infamous “mosque” case, another discrimination case that fell under RLUIPA protections.

https://www.thehour.com/norwalk/article/Norwalk-hires-high-profile-attorney-to-battle-8263972.php

So why did Coppola not exercise the “nuclear” option with Firetree, whom he knew to be litigious and who was suing under the FHA and ADA in Federal court? What special expertise in the practice area of civil rights discrimination and housing discrimination law did Halloran & Sage have? None. But Super Mario assured Quintard neighbors in the fall of 2017 that Halloran was extremely well qualified to defend the city and the Quintard neighborhood in a civil rights complaint.

Robinson & Cole deposed dozens of “witnesses,” from Mayor Rilling to Quintard neighbors. I was deposed in the spring of 2019 at Robinson & Cole’s offices in Stamford. I was grilled for six hours with a promise to continue the deposition at a later date. An attorney for Halloran & Sage attended the deposition, not to protect me but to protect the City. The City’s cost for that single deposition was probably around $3000 dollars. Ka-ching!

Two and a half years later after the suit was filed, the City reached a $600,000 settlement with Firetree. When added to their legal bills with Halloran, the City paid a whopping $1.3 million not to rid Quintard of residential rehab 30% over-capacity for the zone, but only to make sure there would be no private prison there. Firetree paid over $400k cash for 17 Quintard in 2015. They put $600k into renovations. According to Super Mario, Firetree would have taken one million dollars to walk away, leaving the house in the possession of the City of Norwalk. Laoise King, in the fall of 2017, even intimated that the mayor was warm to the idea of purchasing the property to use as a senior center or daycare site. None of this happened.

Mario Coppola stated emphatically in March of 2018 that the City would under no circumstances shell out one million bucks of taxpayer money to save the neighborhood. And why would Coppola support such an expense when he’s had no trouble at all funneling millions of dollars to his buddies at other law firms instead? The City could have opted to make Firetree whole and purchase the house for one million. Instead we shelled out $1.3 million just to get rid of Robinson & Cole with no house to show for it. Quintard was left with an equally over-capacity drug rehab run by the same scoundrel from Pivot Ministries, Tony Kiniry, who got us into this mess to begin with. But–and this is the important part–Halloran & Sage got a nice payday out of the fiasco.

Problems on Quintard didn’t end with Firetree. Another home on Quintard operated as an illegal rooming house for years, with evidence of illegal occupancy in the basement seen on two separate Health Department inspections. The property is owned by Mission Dupree, Ltd and listed as a foreign company incorporated in Delaware. The principle of Mission Dupree (which has been incorrectly labled a not-for-profit) is Englantina Gega. Gega is the wife of Joseph Gega, who got into heaps of trouble with the Nationwide mortgage scandal and was forced to declare personal bankruptcy. Though Mission Dupree was found to be in clear violation of fire safety and Health Department regulations, no fines were ever levied against the Gegas.

Step Three: Know when to Fold

Jason Milligan, balloons, Tyvek and reams of Wall Street legal papers get carried away

A familiar face in the Norwalk Litigation Craze is local real estate mogul Jason Milligan, who’s been at one end of a lawsuit or another for the better part of four years, starting with an action by the Norwalk Library Foundation against the Norwalk Zoning Commission.

Think of it as “City of Norwalk v. City of Norwalk.” Milligan, who found himself at the vortex of the city’s inner turmoil, said so at the time.

The city can’t sue itself, so the Library Foundation is trying to skirt the law. They are simultaneously saying they are the library and are not the library. The whole thing is sneaky and a huge waste of money. The city legal department is defending us and the zoning approval. The library foundation is suing us and the city/zoning commission.

Jason Milligan

https://tinyurl.com/yycd9kfz

The triumphal settlement achieved by the City looks something like this: Milligan paid $2.65 million for the lot with the intention of developing 86 apartments. The Zoning Commission said yes. The Library Foundation sued the Zoning Commission. Milligan settled with the City. The City agreed to pay Milligan $460,000 for an option to buy the parking lot within six years for $4,885,000. In other words, no one won, which didn’t stop Mayor Rilling and former Mayor Knopp from having a “break the chain” photo op. Rilling and Knopp obviously haven’t spent enough time listening to Rumors. You can never break the chain.

The Library lawsuit settled. But that didn’t stop the City, under the direction of Super Mario, from continuing to puruse Milligan in court, including a 30-plus month long epic legal journey involving Milligan’s purchase of an Isaacs Street parking lot that was part of the original LDA for POKO. Arguments have not yet begun in the case, and the City has already invested $1,000,000 in legal fees with Shipman Goodwin, led here by Joe Williams, to continue to fight Milligan. Milligan has spent at least half as much.

Step Four: Ask Yourself, “how much is this problem costing me.”

Time to revisit the first link to the State of Connecticut Judicial Case List for the City of Norwalk. Here’s a picture to help you.

Wow! That’s a LOT of lawsuits! And it’s not even ALL the lawsuits.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to determine the cost to the taxpayer of all this litigation. We can make requests under the Freedom of Information Act to review invoices. A FOIA request to see invoices from Halloran & Sage related to the Firetree case, for example, revealed over a quarter million dollars had been spent to date defending the City in Federal Court. That number more than doubled before a settlement was reached. And we know the City has spent close to one million on the cases involving Milligan. But there are lots and lots of similar cases which languish for years, generating just enough momentum to make it possible for Shipman and Halloran to hand out year end bonuses.

Step Five: Stop Commandeering the Local Blog to do hit jobs on your Enemies

On November 18, Jason Milligan submitted an OpEd for publication to the Norwalk Hour, Nancy on Norwalk and this blog. The Hour and this site published the piece.

https://angrytaxpayernorwalk.com/2020/11/18/poko-time-for-court-mediation/

Nancy Chapman, “reporter” at her eponymous blog, held onto the opinion piece for weeks, demanding edits and revisions, all while preparing an article of her own–a hit job–enabled by Super Mario with the help of a Chapman Hyperlocal Media board member with absolutely zero legal expertise in the particulars of the City’s case against Milligan–Sarah McIntee. McIntee is not admitted in Connecticut. She’s just someone who happens to be a lawyer who also happens to be on Nancy’s board.

The December 2nd story was published two weeks after Milligan submitted his OpEd to Chapman and a few hours before Chapman finally ran the Milligan opinion piece. Chapman’s intent with the “article” was to lay naked the damage of Milligan’s most recent legal defeat, which was not really even a significant setback as Motions for Summary Judgement are frequently denied.

Lawsuits ebb and flow. Our trial has not even started. The public parties have not complied with our initial discovery requests from over a year ago. They have not complied with any of our deposition requests. There have been minor victories for both sides that are somewhat meaningless in the grand scheme of the entire legal battle. For me to put on my case I need them to supply the requested documents and I need to interview many people under oath!

Jason Milligan, Real Estate Mogul

Nevertheless, Chapman consulted with two other lawers besides McIntee: Super Mario and an unnamed source. But McIntee supplied much of the supporting commentary that the decision was a loss for Milligan.

While {Milligan} is right, summary judgment is a tough standard to win on in most jurisdictions, it certainly isn’t impossible so I also wouldn’t say it is a meaningless victory.   And if it meant nothing, then why did his legal team file for it? To file for summary judgment, you are essentially telling the court that the facts prove the allegations and no trial needs to be had.  Defeating a dispositive motion like that is always a win.”

Sarah McIntee, Chapman Hyperlocal Media Board Member

https://tinyurl.com/yyfhemkv

Summary judgment motions typically are not filed until after discovery is completed.  Yet, Jason is complaining about inadequate discovery still…that ship would seem to have sailed if this was following the typical process

Sarah McIntee, Fan of Au Pairs

McIntee’s most recent foray into the “law” is linked below–a letter to the General Assembly asking that au pairs be exempt from the State’s “domestic worker” legislation.

Click to access 2020HB-05276-R000225-McIntee,%20Sarah-au%20pair%20exclusion-TMY.PDF

McIntee was a litigator in the DC area whose practice area was limited to securities fraud. Today she is a Health Compliance officer at NYU Langone, according to her LinkedIn page. In other words, Nancy Chapman’s use of McIntee as a legal resource is predicated on one thing–she’s handy. And Nancy needed someone in addition to Super Mario to lay waste to Milligan, seemingly in order to sway public opinion agaisnt him before his OpEd was published.

What McIntee, (unsurprisingly one of Bob Duff’s most unapologetic cheerleaders) fails to mention in her legal opinion is that the City’s avoidance of discovery has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s not for lack of trying that discovery is not yet completed. The City is willing to commit nearly ONE MILLION DOLLARS of your money and mine dodging Milligan’s discovery attempts. Super Mario has a lot of your money committed to keeping himself off the witness stand or facing deposition. There’s a lot he doesn’t want you to know. And he’s using your own money to make sure you never find out what those things are. And the discovery dodge isn’t the only arrow in his quiver. The existence of the lawsuits themselves enshroud nearly everything happening at City Hall in a veil of secrecy. “Pending litigation” is Super Mario’s favorite rhetorical device when avoiding the truth.

Neither McIntee, nor Super Mario nor the unnamed lawyer quoted in either the December 2nd story or today’s follow-up were asked, “what does the City have to lose by sitting down with Milligan? And more important, what does the City have to gain by continuing to pursue this in court?”

https://tinyurl.com/y58qvlaj

Today’s story, Norwalk Redevelopment Wins Battle in Lawsuit Filed by Milligan, is presented as yet another setback for Milligan, but it’s really more like a setback for us because after all, the court case is ongoing and time is money. Judge Sheila Ozalis, replacing Judge Lee, dismissed four of six counts on the grounds that the Redevelopment Agency has immunity as a (quasi) governmental agency. All six are tort claims (claims for damages), but do not represent the substance of Milligan’s case against the Redevelopment Agency.

The primary purpose of the lawsuit is to find that the 2019 redevelopment plan is void and unenforceable as a matter of law. Those claims were not stricken and remain in the case.

Real Attorney David Rubin

CHM board member McIntee again is asked to opine on things outside her wheelhouse, presumably to make the Milligan case against the Redevelopment Agency’s Plan look hopeless. Yes, McIntee is a lawyer. But asking her opinion on the Milligan cases–assessing how grave the recent legal setbacks are–is like asking a psychiatrist to read a pap smear. Her opinions don’t matter aside from their value to Chapman (as likely instructed by Super Mario and/or Harry) to make the situation look dire for Milligan and to reiterate that he’s a child (more child-like than childish IMO), and needs to let the big men in the dark suits who work for the City (and the law firms the City employs) decide what’s best for the City.

Ultimately it seems likely that the tort counts will likely all be dismissed based on this ruling regardless of Defendant. That is going to leave the declaratory judgment count and the Unfair Trade Practices Counts. I don’t know enough about the law or the facts to say whether he has enough to establish a case on those counts. But this ruling didn’t impact those and they still stand for now and the litigation can proceed on them. Time will tell whether these counts will remain as well but it seems they have plead them well enough to survive this stage of the pleadings.

Sarah McIntee, Sort of a Lawyer

McIntee doesn’t know about the law or the facts. But we can hardly blame her for coming to Nancy’s rescue here upon request. At least McIntee admits she’s out of her depths on these cases, which begs the question, why does Nancy Chapman ask her in the first place, and what kind of cherry-picking did Nancy do to find the ripest quotes for publication?

As Jason Milligan noted in his comments, the substance of the case is the validity of the Redevelopment Plan for Wall Street and West Avenue. Dismissing four counts on the grounds of governmental immunity is cold comfort. In other words, the damage claims could have merit were it not for the dubious claims that the Agency has immunity from liability. If the Redevelopment Agency is not accountable to plaintiffs with damage claims, to whom are they accountable? We don’t vote for the commissioners. And the longtime chair of the Agency’s commission, Felix Serrano, a republican, was just replaced, presumably by someone more felicitous to the Mayor’s agenda.

Step Six: Know When to Cash in your Chips

Neither the Norwalk Hour nor the blog have much interest in a costs-benefits analysis of all these lawsuits. That’s why you’re here, after all. We know that the Firetree settlement was a net loss to the city. Super Mario misplayed his hand and lost. But Halloran took that loss to the bank. As long as the law firms are making money, maybe it’s a net win for Super Mario. He keeps his job and he keeps his peers millions deep in billable hours. But what about us? Remember us? We’re the ones who got a 7% tax hike during a shutdown when the Mayor couldn’t bring himself to furlough a single employee. Shouldn’t our local media be asking, “what’s in it for the taxpayers? What’s the payoff? Are the risks worth the rewards?”

John Dias & Club El Dorado

Club El Dorado, Land of Gold or Money Pit?

El Dorado, a mythical golden kingdom, or a failed nightclub on Isaacs Street? Depends how you calculate costs and benefits. John Dias, the former owner of 20-26 Isaacs Street, was the owner of Club El Dorado. When Dias purchased the property, there was already a club there, VJ’s, and a Greek restaurant in the future El Dorado spot. Dias had plenty of the only other thing he needed besides tenants and patrons to make his investment successful–parking. Parking galore! Dias seemingly had access to fathomless parking right there on Isaacs Street, plus the near-empty Yankee Doodle Garage a hop, skip and a salsa step away.

Step Seven: Stop Giving Our Shit Away for Free!

But like most mythological kingdoms, El Dorado was doomed. Its doom came in the form of the 2004 Redevelopment plan, which designated POKO the preferred redeveloper for a three phase project called Wall Street Place. In exchange for zero dollars, POKO partner Ken Olson and brother Richard were given the Isaacs Street parking lot, worth an estimated million dollars. Instead of a golden kingdom, they put up a hideous structure swathed in Tyvek–the famed Tyvek Temple.

Step Eight: Dias v. City of Norwalk, aka stop screwing people over!

http://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/DocumentInquiry/DocumentInquiry.aspx?DocumentNo=19832321

The most recent memorandum in the Dias v. City of Norwalk case, linked above, was filed on November 24 by Assistant Corporation Counsel Brian Candela, just two days before Thanksgiving, and nearly three and a half years to the day from when John Dias filed an “inverse condemnation” suit against the City and the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency.

Mr. Dias, who moved back to Portugal in 2010, gave his POA to his son, Phillip, who retained Benjamin, Gold & Troyb to represent Dias’s interests. Dias’s claim was based on an understanding, expressed several times in writing, that the City and Redevelopment Agency had committed to purchase 20-26 Isaacs, which both the City and Agency had deemed necessary to the 2004 Redevelopment Plan and had included in the LDA. In other words, the plan could not get off the ground without the Dias property. But not wanting to dirty their own hands, the City put the ball in Olson/POKO’s court.

Dias was basically threatened with an eminent domain taking if he did not sell to Ken Olson/POKO. And an agreement was finally reached around 2007-2008 to sell the parcels for $2.5 million, but the deal never went through and Olson never closed on the property. Though the defendants blamed the recession, the truth is Olson was already buried in other financial woes made worse by the recession. And here we are, 42 months after the beginning of a lawsuit against the City with no end in sight, one side filing amended complaints and the other a memoradum for summary judgement. At some point it might have been cheaper–and easier–to hand John Dias a bag of cash and walk away.

This Judith Leiber Minaudiere could be yours for a mere $3995!

http://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/CaseDetail/PublicCaseDetail.aspx?DocketNo=FSTCV176032293S

But on Tuesday, June 18, 2019, instead of trying to settle with Dias, Assistant Corporation Counsel Candela was deposing him, excerpts of which are linked below, part of a 200 page transcript filed as Exhibit A in the City’s Memoradum for Summary Judgement.

http://civilinquiry.jud.ct.gov/DocumentInquiry/DocumentInquiry.aspx?DocumentNo=19832322

You don’t have to read too deeply into the deposition to understand one thing clearly–Dias got screwed by the City and the Agency. And while I cannot fault Brian Candela for doing the job he was hired to do, it’s fair to ask Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola why continuing to fight Dias was so important. How did dragging this lawsuit on for three and a half years benefit anyone other than the lawyers?

Step Nine: Surrender to a Higher Power

Does this bag of cash have Jason’s name on it?

The City can’t shake their addiction to lawsuits because the lawyers who underwrite the mayor’s campaigns are having too much fun making money at our expense. In order to shake off their addiction, they have to first surrender. And surrender in this case means openly acknowledging who they work for, who pays the bills, who pays for the lawyers and the settlements and the Law Department staff; and whose interests ought to be served whenever City Hall gets lawyers involved in real estate. And that WHO is US.

It’s time for a “come to Jesus” moment, the first step in our own recovery. The cost? The lawyers can no longer depend on billable hours as a result of endless litigation. Without endless litigation, there will be less money in the Mayor’s piggybank come election time and Mario will have fewer secrets to keep. He might even find himself less Super. The benefits? Priceless.

Correction

4/10/2021—a previous version of this post incorrectly identified Attorney Christie Jean, former Associate Corporation Counsel for the City of Norwalk, as the agent of service for the Mission Dupree Ltd. organization. Attorney Jean has not been affiliated with the City of Norwalk since 01/2020, nor was she involved in the Firetree matter during her tenure at the City. This author fully retracts any and all statements made concerning Attorney Jean and apologizes for the incorrect information.

The New Norwalk High School Gets a Haircut

https://patch.com/connecticut/norwalk/city-receives-151-million-state-new-norwalk-high-school

The story linked above was published on October 9, 2020, less than four weeks before Bob Duff’s re-election. ANd while the $151 million in state funding looked like a win for Bob, the fine print doesn’t make it to this Patch story. The projected cost for the entire project was $225 million. The 80% the state agreed to reimburse was based on a total project cost of $189 million. While Duff cruised to victory over Republican challenger Ellie Kousidis, the small details went unnoticed. We thought the state was committing to reimburse $189 million, not 80% of $189 million. Once the machines and mail-in ballots were counted, and Bob assured us with customary glee that he’d won both, the confetti settled and the grim reality began to sink in. The Norwalk Public Schools were facing a $75 million shortfall. Even adding in the $50 million in bonding capacity the Mayor unilaterally added back into the capital budget last June, over the objections of the Planning Commission, we’re still short $25 million. And that’s assuming the state doesn’t pull the plug entirely because the new Ed Specs approved on Tuesday, November 16 don’t resemble the Etch-a-Sketch version spun last December by Norwalk Public School Chief of New Facilities, Jim Giuliano.

https://csgroup-llc.com/team/james-giuliano

For years, we’ve given Jim and his team at Construction Solutions Group oodles of work, including this relic–the New Columbus Magnet School, coming soon to an incinerator near you!

https://csgroup-llc.com/work/in-design/new-columbus-magnet-school

woulda, shoulda, coulda

Check out the spiffy design before it vanishes. The NPS are holding focus groups in South Norwalk next week to discuss–as if for the first time–the need for new schools in our neighborhoods….just like they had focus groups years ago to determine the need for the Ely/Columbus Magnet Project and the unnamed school for the Concord site. No one I’ve spoken to keeps track of the money Norwalk wastes every time we invest in a school project that never breaks ground. But hey, at least with new schools, the money is only spent on hopes and dreams. We cannot say the same about POKO, sixteen years in the making and still nothing more than a mulit-million dollar hole in the ground covered by a Tyvek frame spun by an angry spider.

Board of Ed Approves New Ed Specs

In consequence of Bob under-delivering (and really, folks, when will we ever learn that Bob’s been shooting blanks for twenty years?), the facilities folks–Jim Giuliano, Alan Lo, Frank Costanzo and others–went back to the drawing board to revise the previously approved Ed Specs, the ones rushed through under the dubious claim that if the BOE failed to approve NOW, the opportunity for a Brand New School at 80% state funding would be lost forever. Sound familiar?

P-TECH on the Chopping Block

Among the cuts made to bring the project in under budget were significant square footage reductions to P-TECH. For those who don’t remember, the entire 80% state reimbursement promise was predicated on an expanded P-TECH program open to students from Stamford and Bridgeport.

Revenge of the FOIA

Pasted below is a Freedom of Information request sent to stakeholders and other involved parties regarding the changes to P-Tech approved by the BOE Tuesday.

To Whom It May Concern:

Under the FOIA this is a request to review all emails, memos, meeting notifications, meeting minutes, notes, telephonic records, appointment calendars and any other materials pertaining to the revised Ed Specs for the new Norwalk High School project approved Tuesday, November 16, 2020 by the Norwalk Board of Education, with particular emphasis on changes to Ed Specs for the P-Tech program and Arts Academy.  Since several members of the BOE noted prior to their vote that the state’s requirements are time-sensitive and there was no time to delay their approval, we should assume that the requested materials pertaining to changes in P-Tech and Arts Academy Ed Specs are readily available.  Please add Jim Giuliano to this request.  I do not have contact information for him. 

According to a story that appeared yesterday, November 18, in Nancy on Norwalk, two parent members of the P-Tech School Governance Council issued statements asking the BOE to table the vote pending further review.  Please release these statements in your responsive documents. 

To the extent that any meetings have taken place since the announced reduction in funding to discuss revised Ed Specs for P-Tech and the Arts Academy, please disclose for my review any emails and/or other materials related to such meetings, including meeting minutes and the names of all meeting attendees with their contact information if those persons are not already copied above. 

Based on information released during the BOE meeting Tuesday, it is clear that there have been cuts made to P-Tech and additions to the so-called “Arts Academy.” Since P-Tech is the linchpin of the 80% funding agreement, I would like to better understand how reducing total square footage for P-Tech, and making P-Tech classrooms more crowded than regular classrooms fulfills the promise of the original plan—an expanded P-Tech program that formed the basis of the promised 80% state reimbursement. 

Please also release for my review all documents related to Ed Specs for the Arts Academy, including square footage, total classrooms, special classrooms (darkroom, ceramics, etc.), anticipated enrollment and current enrollment; as well as documents concerning changes from the previously approved Ed Specs from last winter. 

Just to refresh everyone’s memory, the plan for a brand new Norwalk High School at an 80% state reimbursement rate originated with Bob Duff, in his dual roles as SGC parent representative and Norwalk State Senator, and Konstantinos Diamantis of DAS and OPM, in the spring of 2019.  The two believed they could bring a new regional high school to Norwalk with 80% funding, as opposed to the customary 30%, by offering an Arts Magnet program to neighboring towns—not Bridgeport and Stamford but affluent towns like Westport, New Canaan, Wilton and Darien—in order to achieve Governor Lamont’s goals of economic desegregation of Connecticut’s public schools and school regionalization. 

The SDE was not aware of any plans until late October of 2019 although talks had been ongoing throughout the summer between Duff, Diamantis and a few others.  Though former Superintendent Adamowski may have been aware prior to October, board members Mike Lyons and Bryan Meek, who were instrumental in the City’s school facilities work, had no awareness of this plan.  At this October 2019 meeting with SDE, Senator Duff asked for an Arts Magnet school and was informed that SDE could not fund at the 80% rate of reimbursement for an Arts Magnet. It was at this meeting in late October 2019 that Duff conceived of an expanded P-Tech program, which SDE officials said would pass muster for 80% reimbursement.  Hence a plan that began on the back of a cocktail napkin behind closed doors and originally conceived as an Arts Magnet school became an expanded P-Tech program opened up to Bridgeport and Stamford students.  The small detail of how extending seats to Stamford and Bridgeport residents achieves the governor’s goal of “economic desegregation” remains elusive.  Nevertheless, for more than one year, the foundation of the entire project has been an expanded P-Tech program. 

The plan was unveiled in early December, after the November elections changed the composition of the BOE, at which time Dr. Adamowski had been reassured by Senator Duff that the Norwalk High School project would appear on the State’s School Building Construction Priorities List.  It did not.  We know that Dr. Adamowski was displeased at this turn of events.  We were told last year BOE approvals of Ed Specs—hastily put together in early December–were “time-sensitive”—that if the BOE did not approve Ed Specs and the Council did not approve $50 million in bonding to cover the City’s 20% obligation, the project would not move forward at the state level and the opportunity would be lost forever.

Mayor Rilling had to override the Planning Commission’s capital budget request in order to restore $50 million in bonding capacity for NHS cut by the commission.  Though NHS did not appear on the State’s school building construction priorities list as promised by Senator Duff to the superintendent, Senator Duff was able to bury this funding in the School Building Construction legislation during special session mostly obscured from public view due to COVID restrictions, in order to secure what Duff said–and everyone else believed–would be 80% of the total cost, estimated at $225 million. 

Shortly after Duff won re-election, the rest of us learned that the state’s funding commitment would cover not 80% of a project total of $225 million but only 80% of a project total not to exceed $189 million, creating a significant funding shortfall (on a project that had never been identified by the Norwalk BOE School Facilities Committee as a necessity, as opposed to two new elementary schools in South Norwalk which were priorities). 

To be perfectly clear, I am seeking documentation of conversations, correspondence and meetings at which changes to the Ed Specs were discussed.

Please respond that you have received this request within four days of receipt.  After four days, a failure to acknowledge shall be considered a denial under the FOIA and subject to a FOIA complaint.  Should any portion of this request be denied, list the reasons for denial and any and all remedies available to me.  Thank you for your cooperation. 

Sincerely,

Donna Smirniotopoulos

Norwalk CT

Stay tuned to this channel for the next exciting chapter of….How Norwalk Gets Rooked by Bob Duff

POKO: Time for Court Mediation

If there were ever a time for negotiations, that time is now. POKO Phase I has a new site application in front of Zoning. Covid has slowed down all lawsuits. The Milligan lawsuits have a new judge. Court mediation is available at no cost to the City.

POKO was designed as 3 separate sequential phases. Phase I got started and then stopped almost 5 years ago. The Tyvek Temple and loss of parking have been the number one drawback for Wall Street for five years.

There is a new Phase I project currently under review by the Zoning Commission.

The new project is:

-Ugly & Out of place

-Too tall for the area (six Stories in a CBD zoned for four)

Tyvek Temple dwarfs historic downtown buildings

-Too expensive, getting $4.4 million in direct support from Taxpayers.

-Provides zero public parking spaces after getting a City-owned lot for free

-Won’t pay its fair share of taxes due to a special 15 year property tax arrangement

-Won’t be very “affordable”

Now What?

Zoning Commission will likely approve. I will likely appeal, and there will likely be years of additional litigation. Remember the POKO story winds back 15 years. How much longer can we wait? In the case of POKO, is something really better than nothing?

Maybe?

After 2.5 years of lawsuits, an actual trial has not even started. Everything so far has been preliminary. The City has spent $1 million of your money fighting me. Meanwhile, the old judge has been replaced by a new judge.

The disagreement of the main lawsuit can be summarized quite easily. The City legal department claims that I owe the City 88 public parking spaces because that was the original deal made with Ken Olson. The City is upset because they gave Olson a parking lot for free. But I didn’t get a parking lot for free. I paid $3.2 million for that parking lot. If the City lives up to their requirements in the original agreement, then I will live up to Olson’s part, including providing the 88 parking spaces.

The City agreed to build New Street–the central piece for the 3 phases. The City agreed to fund $4.4 million for New Street and other infrastructure. However, recently the City canceled the street but not the money. The City gave the entire $4.4 million to Citibank/McClutchy. The City cannot cherry pick the benefits to the bank and redeveloper of the original agreement and at the same time cancel their obligations to the people of Norwalk. Further, making material changes to Phase I undermines the viability of Phases II & III.

I am willing to follow the original agreement if the City is also willing to live up to that agreement. I am willing to cancel the original agreement. I am also willing to negotiate something else fair. AND…..I am not going anywhere.

  • I now own 38 total properties in the Wall Street area, including 8 that abut Phase I.
  • I have spent considerable time, energy and money improving my properties.
  • I have moved 12 new companies into the area, including 2 boutique manufacturing companies.
  • I have built or renovated 34 apartments and I have 74 more in the pipeline.
  • I have also commissioned more than 80 pieces of public art in the area.

My parking lot has approximately 130 parking spaces that have been available for public parking since the day after I bought the lot. The day I bought the lot, I cleared away 6 foot high fencing and truckloads of rotten building materials, broken glass, and abandoned unregistered cars.

The parking lot has been a bright spot for the area. It has become an Art Park with pieces of art created by local artists. It has been a tourist attraction and drive thru gallery during the pandemic. It has been used for 3 concerts. A dog parade. A major church event including baptisms and many more things.

Now is a perfect time to try Court mediation. There is a new project being considered. There is a new judge. Covid has made court even slower than normal. Court mediation is FREE. But it’s not always easy. Both sides have to want to compromise.

Please urge the Mayor and the City Council to enter court mediation.

Mediation has huge potential upside and zero downside…

Thanks

Jason Milligan

“We agree old MacDonald had a farm and that on his farm he had a cow.
What we need to settle is in subparagraphs E.i., E.i. and o.”