Second Ward Alderman Tarek Raslan during his Zoom forum Sunday.
ANSONIA — Second Ward Alderman Tarek Raslan held a Zoom meeting Sunday to raise questions about Ansonia asking for an additional $3.1 million to finish redeveloping a building at 65 Main St.
The city already received voter approval for a $12 million police station, which is currently under construction at 65 Main St., the former Farrel headquarters, but another $3.1 million is needed to finish the entire job.
Mayor David Cassetti’s administration has said the police department is within budget, despite the fact more money is needed.
The administration qualifies the statement by saying the “core” of the project — a roughly 22,000 square-foot police department — is on budget, but more money is needed to finish off the sections of the building that won’t be used for law enforcement.
However, during a nearly 2‑hour Zoom session, Raslan pointed to public meeting minutes from August 2019 showing the bids for the whole project came in higher than the city had hoped, and that officials knew from the get go that keeping the project within the dollar amount approved by voters was going to be difficult.
“There is this sort of mind set that I think was reflected in the minutes, that the city was just going to find this money from somewhere,” Raslan said.
The audio from Sunday’s Zoom forum is embedded below:
He said the Cassetti administration was not straight with the Board of Aldermen nor the public.
But the Cassetti administration has pointed out the police building commission included two members of the Board of Aldermen, and that the building committee meetings were conducted in public. But Raslan said the Cassetti administration should have done a better job communicating, especially given the fact they were talking about a significant amount of money.
Raslan also said the city should have went to voters in November 2019 if extra funds were needed, and questioned why some meeting minutes from the commission were amended.
The Valley Indy reached out to the Cassetti administration Sunday for a response to Raslan’s online forum.
At a public meeting May 12, John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel, acknowledged that he city may have been “overly optimistic that the entire project was $12 million.”
The $12 million approved by voters in 2016 was originally intended to build a police station on vacant land on Olson Drive. Instead, the city paid $1.8 million to take 65 Main St. through eminent domain and put the 22,000 square-foot station within a 65,000 square-foot existing building.
The City of Ansonia is very much under the gun on the project, because the contractor’s contract with the city expires in November.
On May 12 the Aldermen directed Marini to draft a resolution that could be voted upon Tuesday, May 19. The resolution, a copy of which can be obtained here, asks the Aldermen to use a COVID-19 related executive order from Gov. Ned Lamont that allows towns and city to suspend in-person public voting.
The idea was to limit large group gatherings, protect people most vulnerable to COVID-19, and to slow down the spread of the virus.
Normally, borrowing $3.1 million would go to voters for approval and a referendum would be held. But the Ansonia Aldermen will consider whether to use Lamont’s order and allow the Aldermen to make the decision, not the public.
Raslan, and members of the Ansonia Town Democratic Committee on social media, have been asking whether the renovation of 65 Main St. qualified under Lamont’s order, which talks about using the act to “avoid endangering public health and welfare, prevent significant financial loss, or that action is otherwise necessary for the protection of persons and property within the municipality.”
Marini previously said he believes 65 Main St. undoubtedly conforms with Lamont’s order.
However, there is no mechanism in state government that checks whether Ansonia’s intended use conforms with Lamont’s executive order.
“The (executive order) is now the law, and like all laws in ordinary times, towns are required to follow it,” David Bednarz, the governor’s spokesman, said in an email to The Valley Indy. “The same potential remedies that always exist for laws under normal times continue to apply in these situations.”
Potentially, someone could take the city to court and ask a judge to intepret.
The Valley Indy asked Raslan Sunday if he or Ansonia Democrats were willing to take the administration to court where a judge could decide whether Lamont’s executive order applies to 65 Main St.
“Personally, I don’t like that,” Raslan said. “Nobody wins in a scenario where we are spending money on legal fees, the Democratic Party is spending money on legal fees, the City of Ansonia has to spend additional money on legal fees, and we bring additional complications to an already complicated project.”
The Aldermen, the Cassetti administration, and the public all support the construction of a new police department. The current department is within a converted school building constructed in 1894.
The Cassetti administration has pitched 65 Main St. as an important redevelopment project. They envision it surrounded by apartments and new businesses along the street.
Initially the Cassetti administration said the senior center would go within 65 Main St. with the police department. That’s no longer certain, as the Aldermen are considering leasing space within an office building at 158 Main St.
There has also been preliminary discussions of putting a regional 911 dispatch center within the building, or a firing range to be used by police departments in the area. No decision has been made, and it’s up to the Aldermen, according to statements made at recent Ansonia government meetings.
In a text comment during Raslan’s forum Sunday, Fourth Ward Alderman Anthony Spigarolo, a Republican, underscored the fact the police department needs a new facility, and that the project must move forward in the interest of the city. A review of how the project progressed can happen later.
“We can continue our conversation on finding out how we went astray, and also implement policies to help guide any future projects,” Spigarolo said.
