WESTON BUILDING; REDEVELOPMENT LINK.



Former judge and prosector heads power plant probe
By Michael P Mayko, Greenwich TIME STAFF WRITER
Published: 11:46 p.m., Friday, February 12, 2010

Gov. M. Jodi Rell called upon Former Judge and Prosector, Alan H. Nevas, to head the commission investigating the the Kleen Energy LLC plant explosion.  As the state's U.S. attorney in 1981 Alan H. Nevas knew a concerted federal effort was needed against organized crime when mobsters' bodies began turning up in greater Bridgeport backyards, parked cars and streets.

"They had become relatively arrogant about their dominance in certain businesses," said Nevas, who pointed to the assassination of Frank Piccolo, a Gambino crime family captain, on Bridgeport's busy Main Street as an example. "It was something that had to be addressed," he said.

Over the next four years, more than five dozen Connecticut crime figures, including ranking state leaders of the Genovese crime family believed to have participated in the Piccolo hit, were indicted, convicted and incarcerated.  As a federal judge and former state politician, Nevas' anger boiled whenever he heard Connecticut derisively referred to as Corrupticut. It erupted at the sentencing of former state Sen. Ernest E. Newton III, who admitted misusing campaign funds and taking kickbacks and bribes.

"I served in the General Assembly for six years," said Nevas. "It's inconceivable to me that anyone ... would make a business out of it. His selling his office for personal gain offended me."

Nevas sent Newton to prison for five years, a sentence the former legislator is still serving.  As a state representative from Westport, Nevas said he took his job seriously. He submitted 25 bills during his first year, including one that required used-car dealers to warranty their sales.

"I kept a notebook of ideas," said Nevas, who was ranked by a magazine among the top three legislators in those years. "But I was naive ... I thought you file bills and they get passed. Boy did I have a rude awakening."

On Feb. 8, just a year after he retired from the federal bench, Nevas found himself back in public service.  Gov. M. Jodi Rell called on Nevas the day after the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown exploded and killed five construction workers, to head a commission investigating what happened and why.

"I feel very strongly about public service," said the soon-to-be 82-year-old. "This is a matter of extreme importance to Connecticut, its people and its workers. How can I say no to the governor?"

Nevas had administered the oath of office to Rell in 2007.

"He is the perfect choice for this," said William F. Dow III, a New Haven lawyer who represented clients before Nevas as a judge and defended others who were prosecuted by Nevas' office.

"As the U.S. attorney, he had a direct hand in several large, far-reaching and thorough investigations," Dow said. "As a judge, I believe he was one of the most focused. He'd spot a problem and address it correctly "

Above all, Dow said Nevas is "his own man ... he calls things the way he sees them."

For now, Nevas said it's "too early" to focus on any particular reason why the gas-fire power plant may have exploded.

He has scheduled the commission's organizational meeting for 3 p.m. Tuesday in the state Department of Public Utility Control headquarters in New Britain. Present at the session will be John A. Danaher III, a former federal prosecutor and commissioner of public safety; Amey Marrella, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, whose husband is a former federal prosecutor; Linda Agnew, acting director of the Department of Labor; Jerry Farrell Jr., commissioner of the Department of Consumer Protection; Lisa R. Humble, state building inspector, and Kevin M. DelGobbo, chairman of the Department of Public Utility Control.

"I know John Danaher, who I have a lot of respect for but I haven't met any of the other commissioners yet," said Nevas. "One of the first things we'll have to do is talk about a schedule. Then we'll set goals for our areas of responsibility."

Nevas said the governor charged the committee with determining what happened and how it happened. Then the group will propose suggestions to prevent this from happening again.  To accomplish that task, the governor asked the commission to look at whether all the necessary permits were obtained, workers were properly licensed and whether there was sufficient on-site supervision at the time of the explosion. The group also has been asked to determine if labor requirements and regulations, safety measures, and fire and building code provisions were followed.

"I have no idea how long this could take," said Nevas. "We are under no time frame. But I think its in everyone's interest to do this as quickly but also thoroughly as possible. I'm not going to rush through this."

Once Nevas' panel completes its work, the findings and suggestions will go to a second group headed by James Thomas, former Glastonbury police chief who recently retired as the commissioner of the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.  His panel will include representatives from the Department of Public Utility Control, the State Fire Marshal and Building Inspector's offices and the Department of Public Works, as well as private engineers and architects.

This panel will review recommendations from Nevas's commission as well as building codes, permitting processes, training and safety protocol. It also will look into the level of oversight in the construction of power plants and industrial buildings with on-site generating facilities. The panel will recommend changes in legislation or regulations.

Since retiring as a federal judge in February 2009, Nevas has been working as a private mediator and arbitrator. He also maintains an office as special counsel to Levett Rockwood, PC, a Westport law firm.
A leading indicator for new construction - to the economy's "lagging indicator" housing industry?
Construction Spending Falls More Than Expected
NYTIMES
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 10:04 a.m. ET
July 1, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Construction spending fell more than expected in May, a sign the problems facing the nation's builders are far from over.

The Commerce Department says construction spending dropped 0.9 percent in May, nearly double the 0.5 percent drop that economists expected. Adding to the signs of weakness, activity in the past two months was revised lower.

Construction rose 0.6 percent in April, lower than the 0.8 percent originally reported. A March increase of 0.4 percent was replaced with a decline of the same amount. That left the April gain as the only increase in the past eight months.
Wobbly crane leads to evacuation, road closing
Stamford ADVOCATE
By Monica Potts
Published August 28 2007

STAMFORD - About 400 people were evacuated from downtown homes and offices after one of four cranes at the Royal Bank of Scotland construction site became unstable yesterday, interrupting rush-hour traffic and preventing about 200 residents from returning home late into the evening.

Washington Boulevard was closed from Station Place to Tresser Boulevard, and Clinton Avenue was closed from Richmond Hill Avenue to Tresser Boulevard.

The train station remained accessible via Atlantic Street, Police Lt. Sean Cooney said.

"We've established a safety zone, a perimeter, around the area," Cooney said. That allowed Turner Construction Co., the general contractor, to assess the site, he said.

The building, on Richmond Hill Avenue between Greenwich Avenue and Washington Boulevard, has been under construction for about a year. RBS will relocate its Manhattan banking operations, along with its subsidiary, RBS Greenwich Capital, to the 500,000-square-foot building in late 2008 or early 2009.

Turner Construction notified police at 5:45 p.m. that one of its cranes had become unstable and that it recommended evacuating the area, Cooney said.

Two or three horizontal bars that form latticework support for vertical beams on the crane boom broke away from one beam. Two other horizontal pieces also had buckled. The broken beams were about 20 feet from the crane's base, Cooney said.

There was no structural damage to surrounding buildings or any reported injuries, police said.

No one from Turner Construction was available for comment yesterday.

Officials at the work site late yesterday were awaiting the arrival of equipment from New Haven that will allow them to stabilize or dismantle the crane, Cooney said.

Work could continue until as late as 4 a.m., officials estimated.

Lisa Gruner, 33, who lives at 29 Division St., was told to leave her house just before 6 p.m. She was cooking dinner for her two children and sitting on her back porch when officers evacuated her home.

"They said I might get a good show, but also the crane might smash our house," she said. "If it falls on the house, there's no more house."

RBS reserved rooms at Stamford's Hampton Inn for families unable to return home and with nowhere else to stay.

Ronnie Tella, director of emergency services for the Darien/Stamford Chapter of the American Red Cross, said her agency helped coordinate the effort and by 9:15 p.m. had arranged for 30 people to stay at the hotel.

The Red Cross also provided water and snacks to residents.

Winnie Teal, who has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, was heading home from her job with the city Department of Social Services but was unable reach her house at 113 Clinton Ave.

She was worried about whether her house was in danger or had been damaged.

"You like to see what's going on at your house when you get home from work," she said.

THE URBAN ZONING EXPERIENCE:  could it happen here?
Feds: Lenoci bribed officials;  Graft cited in Milford, Bridgeport
By MICHAEL P. MAYKO, BILL CUMMINGS and GREG SHULAS, CT POST Staff writers, July 23, 2003

A federal prosecutor accused a major Fairfield County real estate developer of paying tens of thousands of dollars to an official in Bridgeport and another in Milford to push controversial projects through their cities.  Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald S. Apter dropped the bombshell during Tuesday's sentencing of Alfred "Sonny" Lenoci Sr., the 68-year-old president of United Properties.

Lenoci previously admitted in federal court that he was part of a scheme to pay former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim and the mayor's confidant, Paul J. Pinto, $1 for every square foot of development his company received.  He also admitted providing $35,000 in home improvements to a former state and economic development department employee who supported Lenoci for $6.5 million in state funding of a project that later fell through.

Now, Apter claims Lenoci paid $30,000 to a Bridgeport planning and zoning board official for arranging approval of a Super Stop & Shop project on
Madison Avenue in 1995. He also said Lenoci gave $10,000 in cash to a Milford planner to shepherd the Great River housing development and golf course through that city's process.

Questioned after the proceedings, Apter refused to identify the officials allegedly involved and declined to further discuss the accusations or
whether arrests would be made.  Apter said Lenoci admitted to federal investigators that he paid the money to the officials in Bridgeport and
Milford.

Both projects were controversial and met with strong public outcry that was disregarded.  But Ira Grudberg, Lenoci's lawyer, said the Bridgeport payment constituted extortion of his client.  Grudberg said a "good friend" of "a powerful person on the [Bridgeport] Planning and Zoning Commission came to Lenoci after they turned him down" and demanded money. The payoff took place in a car with the person telling Lenoci "we'll get you your store."

He declined to discuss the alleged Milford deal. Neither Lenoci nor attorney John Robert Gulash would comment.  Officials in Bridgeport and Milford reacted with concern when told about Apter's statements.  Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi expressed shock at the allegations.  "This person needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," the mayor said.  "Any alternative we have to make that happen we will initiate."

"We should use all our resources to make sure this individual doesn't have any connection to Bridgeport city government or any other municipality for that matter," he said.  Milford Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr., when told of the prosecutor's statement, said he would seek more information about the matter from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"I am kind of taken back by it," Richetelli said. "It is the first time I have heard [such] comments."  Planning and Zoning Board Chairman Jack Jansen, R-1, who was not on the board at the time of the Great River Golf Estates application, said he was baffled by Apter's statement.  If a city official took part in corruption, Jansen questioned why his board wasn't notified about the alleged wrongdoing.

"Why wouldn't a prosecution be going on?" Jansen asked. He added that he knows of no case where federal authorities subpoenaed zoning records. Frederick Lisman, who was Milford mayor when the development was approved, said: "Had that ever been known, that person, I'm positive, would have been arrested and tried.  "I can't believe a federal prosecutor would say somebody gave a bribe and no one was arrested for accepting it," he said. "We would have insisted on a complete investigation and prosecution. I find it most unusual."

Democratic mayoral candidate Linda Stephenson said the disclosure is troubling.  "I am very concerned about city residents who want to make sure that things are done the right way in Milford," Stephenson said.  Retired Building Inspector Edward Liskiewicz, who said questions were raised when he retired from his job in 1999 and took a $10-an-hour job at Great River, said the federal government never told him he was a target of a federal investigation.

As a chief building inspector for the city, Liskiewicz took part in the regulatory approval process for the golf course.  During the federal inquiry into the administration of ex-Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, Liskiewicz said he received a letter from the FBI.  The document informed Liskiewicz that because the government was monitoring calls that Lenoci Jr. made on his cell phone, investigators knowing that the developer had conversations with him   would be wiretapping such calls.

But Liskiewicz said the letter was the last he heard from the FBI. He said the only reason he went to work at Great River is because he loved golf.  "I did it because all employees got free golf" at the time, Liskiewicz said. However, he noted that the company fired him about two years ago.  In Bridgeport, three current or former members of the city's Planning and Zoning Commission said no one bribed them to approve the controversial Stop & Shop on Madison Avenue.

Clarence Williams, who is no longer on the commission, and current P&Z Chairwoman Dorothy Guman and member Barbara Freddino said they have no knowledge of bribes being paid when the project was approved in 1995.  "I know nothing about anyone getting money," said Guman, who is the mother of City Councilman John Guman, a Democratic candidate for mayor.

"I heard someone had gotten a sum of money, but it certainly was not me," said Guman, who did not vote when the project was approved in 1995. Williams also said he never received a bribe.  "Absolutely not. I could not think of doing that," Williams said.  Williams said after the Stop & Shop was approved, "somebody mentioned that they had zoning board members in their pocket." He declined to elaborate.

Freddino, who voted against the project, said no one offered her a bribe.  "I don't know anything about that. This is the first time I've heard that," Freddino said.  For much of 1995, the Madison Avenue supermarket proposed by United Properties of Fairfield sparked controversy as neighbors pleaded with the P&Z not to approve the project.

The March night the P&Z voted 6 to 3 to grant permission, members of the audience shouted "fix" after hearing the tally.  JoAnne Collins, who was chairwoman of the P&Z when the supermarket was approved, could not be reached Tuesday.  The vote to approve the supermarket came quickly despite 18 hours of public hearings over three days. The nine-member panel took less than 30 minutes to approve a zone change and special permit for the supermarket.

Initially, commissioners Freddino, Marie Tedesco and Alex Schillaci made a motion to deny, but it failed to pass.  Sheila Lungi, an alternate appointed by former Mayor Joseph P. Ganim, made a new motion to approve, seconded by Eldridge Dorsey, another recent alternate appointee of Ganim's. The commission voted 6 to 3 to approve, with Guman and veteran member Lucille Sullivan not voting.

"I've been offered so many things over the years if I had taken them I could be a millionaire," the 84-year-old Williams said.  Freddino said FBI agents never asked her about her vote or allegations of payoffs.