After a lengthy executive session, the Board of Aldermen voted Thursday to offer Alderman Stephen Iacuone $90,000 to purchase his damaged and dilapidated property at 40 – 42 Gilbert St.
The Aldermen voted to make the offer “as part of fixing the entire Gilbert Street problem that we all know has been going on to long,” said Ron Sill, president of the Board of Aldermen.
It wasn’t clear Thursday whether Iacuone would accept the offer to sell his property.
“We’re much closer then we were,” he said immediately after Thursday’s Board of Aldermen meeting.
Neighbors complain that Iacuone’s vacant house and property on Gilbert Street is an eyesore. The property has been recommended to be added to the Derby blight list, which could expose Iacuone to fines of $100 per day until he addressed the issues at this property.
However, the Aldermen shuffled the issue from subcommittee to the full Board of Aldermen and then back to subcommittee and avoided placing it on the blight list. The moves prompted questions as to whether the Aldermen were giving special treatment to one of their own.
The problems with the property include a dilapidated house with a sagging porch, broken windows, detached gutters and a yard that is overgrown and strewn with trash.
Iacoune and his lawyer, fellow Alderman Barbara DeGennaro, have argued that the root cause of the property’s appearance is the city’s fault. Specifically, an undersized and failing drainage system caused extensive flooding in the area and damaged the property, they said.
Meanwhile, Derby is trying to repair the drainage system, but needs to purchase property easements to get onto private land to make repairs. Iacuone’s property was one of the properties Derby needs to make repairs.
However, the two sides have apparently not been able to agree on a price.
The Aldermen discussed Iacuone’s property in an executive session — a meeting closed to the public. The private meeting was allowed under state law, because Derby was discussing a real estate transaction.
Alderman Ken Hughes asked that the Aldermen meet in executive session to discuss the matter without Iacuone and DeGennaro present. That was a departure from several past Aldermen meetings, when Iacuone and DeGennaro were directly involved in the closed-door negotiations.
Hughes made the request because he said the city was at the point where they were going to talk a specific dollar amount to purchase a property.
“Never before have we had the property owner sitting at the same table,” Hughes said.
Iacuone and DeGennaro were excluded from executive session for about 30 minutes and then asked to join by Aldermen Carmen DiCenso.
When the executive session ended, Sill read a motion offering $90,000 to purchase the property.
DiCenso, Hughes, Sill, Art Gerckens and Jay Benanto voted to make the offer.
Iacuone and DeGennaro recused themselves from the vote.
Past correspondence from DeGennaro and the city show Iacuone wanted $120,000 for the property in 2009. That price included costs Iacuone incurred to replace a gas furnace and water heaters in the house, among other items. The property itself was valued at $90,000 in April 2009.
Sill said the Aldermen “will purchase upon the full and final release of all claims,” which means, presumably, Iacuone will waive his right to file a lawsuit based on damaged allegedly triggered by city drainage.
