ANSONIA — City Aldermen are considering bypassing the electorate on whether to borrow $3.1 million to finish the renovation of a city-owned building at 65 Main St.
As part of the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive allowing towns and cities to suspend in-person voting requirements for “critical and time sensitive municipal fiscal deadlines.”
An example of Lamont’s order in action is happening in Seymour. Usually the town and school budgets go out to public vote in May to meet a budget deadline set by the town’s charter. That is not happening this years because of the COVID-19 public health threat. Instead, the Seymour Board of Finance will accept or reject the budgets during an online meeting scheduled for May 26.
In Ansonia, corporation counsel John Marini said he believes that under Gov. Lamont’s order, the Board of Aldermen can vote to reject or deny $3.1 million in borrowing without holding a public referendum.
The Aldermen are scheduled to meet May 19, at which time they will consider and possibly approve the borrowing.
During an Aldermen meeting held online Tuesday, Marini cited two reasons under which Lamont’s order applies to Ansonia:
1. The potential financial hardship on Ansonia if the money isn’t borrowed, and …
2. The fact 65 Main St. involves public safety — the construction of a new police department.
The contract with the company building the police station is scheduled to expire in November, so Ansonia is under the gun in that respect, too.
“Certainly, the idea of not getting this project done, having to remobilize, having to do everything under less advantageous financial circumstances; all that speaks to financial loss,” Marini said.
Background
The Ansonia Police Department is currently housed on Elm Street in a former school building constructed in 1894. It’s a less than ideal location for a modern law enforcement agency. The back driveway is so narrow vehicles constantly snag the corner of the building. It needs constant upkeep.
Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti announced plans to build a new police station on Olson Drive in 2014.
In 2016, Ansonia voters approved the borrowing of $12 million to build a roughly 22,000 square-foot police department on Olson Drive. That plan did not move forward.
Instead, in 2017, the administration announced it wanted to redevelop 65 Main St. into a police station. The building was formerly the corporate headquarters of the Farrel Corp.
The administration announced the senior center would be relocated inside the building (still possible, though the city is now negotiating a lease to move the seniors to 158 Main St.).
In 2018, the administration paid $1.8 million to “take” 65 Main St. through eminent domain.
In 2019, the administration awarded a $11.6 million contract (the money approved in 2016, minus the payout to buy 65 Main St.) to renovate the top floor of the building into a police department.
A police department building committee was created to oversee the project. They had a tough challenge — taking a project and dollar amount that was supposed to go toward a new, 22,000 square-foot building on Olson Drive — and making it work within a 65,000 square-foot existing building (with a two-floor interior parking garage).
Now
The project is well underway, about 24 percent complete.
According to statements made at Tuesday’s meeting, while the $11.6 million budget covers the “core” of the project — a police department — it is not enough money to deliver an actual functioning, working police department; nor is it enough to renovate space in the building that will not be used by the police department.
Marini said the police commission looked at alternative building designs, but they worried some of the design changes would undermine the building’s security design.
The commission ultimately decided to stick with the current building design — and it requires an additional $3.1 million.
“It was strongly recommended that those steps not be taken,” Marini said, referring to alternative building designs, “and, given the condition of the market and the financial condition of the city, that we seek additional money.”
The Cassetti administration and its financial advisor are pointing to historically low borrowing rates, saying now is a good time to borrow, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re saying taxpayers won’t feel an impact on their wallets.
The Cassetti administration is also pitching the police station and renovated space as an important economic development project for downtown Ansonia, which has been making a comeback the past decade.
“This is an investment in the downtown at a time when the city needs investments,” Marini said.
What If We Say No?
The police department building funding saga triggered some raised eyebrows from Democratic members of the Board of Aldermen, a legislative body where the majority are Republicans.
Second Ward Alderman Bill Phipps cut to the chase during a long meeting Tuesday, asking the project’s architect what happens if the $3.1 million isn’t approved.
“You have the option of saying you’re going to get a completed, general construction project, but no ability to outfit the inside of if with furniture, no ability to move in, no ability to have radio communications. So if you don’t have those basic facilities, you don’t have a facility that the police department can move into,” said Brian Humes, a founding partner of Jacunski Humes Architects, LLC. The firm specializes in public safety construction.
That possibility didn’t seem to sit well with anyone.
An image from Tuesday’s Aldermen meeting, held on ZOOM!
Questions
Second Ward Alderman Tarek Raslan said he has requested to see construction documents from city hall that have yet to be provided. He also said Aldermen have not been kept in the loop, and have been told previously the project would not require money outside what voters already approved.
“If we knew we needed additional dollars for this project back in September … why are we first hearing this so much later, almost, you know eight, nine months later?” Raslan asked.
Sheila O’Malley, the city’s grant writer and economic development director, said two Aldermen are members of the police building committee.
Marini acknowledged that the city may have been “overly optimistic that the entire project was $12 million.”
In the initial press release announcing the city wanted to put a police department on Main Street, the administration speculated that the cost would be under $12 million.
Marini said the police building committee did everything it could to cut costs, and did so in public meetings.
“Ultimately, that did not work out. It didn’t work out because tinkering with the design would be adverse to public safety, would be adverse to the overall functioning of the building, and therefore could not and cannot recommend making those changes,” Marini said.
The city could push the police department vote until November (as it may do for other, less complicated borrowing items).
However, Sixth Ward Alderman Tony Mammone warned doing so could cost money, perhaps some $600,000 — assuming interest rates increase by November. The Alderman also suggested the time had come for the city to “sh** or get off the pot.”
Raslan said that a little more information could go a long way in helping he and some other Aldermen be comfortable proceeding.
Phipps echoed Raslan’s comments to some extent, signaling the city has to do what it has to do — finish the job.
“What it is, is what it is,” Phipps said. “You go down the road once, get her done, get her done correctly.”
