Ansonia Development Corporation Dissolved

FILEMore than a decade after Ansonia officials created a quasi-public agency to spur business growth and development downtown, the corporation dissolved itself Oct. 22 with its stated objectives largely unresolved.

Background

The Ansonia Development Corporation was created in November 2002 by former Mayor James Della Volpe, Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Bartholomew Flaherty, and Raymond McGee, the president of Ansonia Copper and Brass.

The non-profit, public-private partnership was created to promote the economic welfare and continued growth of business and industry within the City of Ansonia and within the entire downtown business/commercial and industrial area,” according to its incorporation documents.

One of its chief projects was the redevelopment of two downtown former industrial buildings owned by the city.

But after inking a deal to sell the buildings for $1.5 million to Duke Realty, a New Jersey real estate developer in 2008, Duke never presented plans to develop the properties and the deal was declared dead in October 2012.

The city has since put the buildings out to bid several times but has not received a single offer for them.

Now officials are trying to see if Moustapha Diakhate, who bought the former Farrel Corp. properties nearby in January 2013, would want to take the blighted structures off the city’s hands.

Prior to Monday’s meeting, the corporation’s most recent meeting had been more than 18 months ago, last March, according to meeting minutes on the city’s website.

Post-Election Shake-Up

Mayor David Cassetti made economic development one of the central themes of his campaign, and said the city hasn’t done enough in the past to attract new businesses to town.

Soon after taking office, Cassetti fired Peter Kelly, the Economic Development Director hired by former Mayor James Della Volpe, and replaced him with Sheila O’Malley, who had worked as the City of Derby’s Economic Development Director under Mayor Anthony Staffieri, who lost his own re-election bid in 2013.

At the time of Kelly’s firing, the chairman of the Economic Development Commission, Vinnie Scarlata, had threatened to resign.

Scarlata stayed on the commission, but stepped down as chairman to be replaced by Gregg Seccombe, of Seccombe’s Men’s Shop downtown.

Scarlata stepped down from the commission completely this month, citing time demands from a new job and his election last year to the Board of Education.

Cassetti said Wednesday his overhaul of economic development within city government is far from over.

He said it made no sense for there to be a quasi-public Ansonia Development Corporation, a separate Economic Development Commission, and a professional economic development director.

We’ve all got to work in sync,” the mayor said.

Glorified Events-Holders’

Cassetti also said he wasn’t thrilled with the direction the Economic Development Commission, of which he was a member prior to being elected mayor, had taken.

When I came in here and I saw Economic Development, I saw these guys as nothing but a bunch of glorified events-holders,” Cassetti said. 

The focus should be more on attracting businesses, the mayor said.

Cassetti said the city will look at what works for other municipalities to attract business and adapt that to Ansonia.

What specific form that will be is still up in the air.

Perhaps the city will create a system like Shelton’s, where a quasi-public development corporation works with city officials.

But isn’t that what Ansonia just abolished?

John Marini, the city’s corporation counsel, said a public-private partnership could be workable, but the Ansonia Development Corporation was set up in a way that wasn’t.

He said the corporation operated within the rules set out for public agencies in the state’s Freedom of Information Act — but didn’t really have to.

It’s an independent corporation and had no official connection to the city,” he said.

Though not officially a government entity, the corporation’s certificate of incorporation called for spots on the corporation’s board of directors for the mayor and non-voting spots for a member each from the Planning and Zoning and Economic Development commissions.

Marini said the way the corporation was set up ran counter to state law governing the way cities deal with land.

Decision to sell or lease city property, to acquire real estate, or to bind the city to long-term legal commitments can only be made by the Board of Aldermen and zoning board,” he said.

Beyond that, he said, the corporation wasn’t required to act at the direction of the mayor or city commissions.

A development corporation could work, I just don’t understand why it was set up the way it was,” he said.

Keep local reporting alive. Donate.ValleyIndy.org