It wasn’t political — no one pressured him to write the e‑mail.
It also wasn’t personal — he wasn’t trying to sling mud.
“This is not a battle of politics. It’s a battle of right or wrong. It’s about doing the right thing.”
Those were the words of Andrew Cota, Derby’s part-time blight officer.
He was referring to an e‑mail he sent to Board of Aldermen President Ken Hughes on Nov. 14 about a dilapidated property in Derby owned by Alderman Stephen Iacuone.
Cota called the Valley Indy a few days after reading a story Nov. 18 titled ​“Should Derby Alderman’s Property Be On The Blight List?“
Cota felt some Derby residents who commented on the story were accusing him of being political.
“I’m nobody’s puppet,” Cota said.
Cota said he wanted to explain in more detail why he sent an e‑mail to Hughes about the property.
Background
In September, a subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen met to consider a recommendation from Cota to put 40 Gilbert St. on the city’s blight list.
The property is owned by Iacuone, a member of the Board of Aldermen. No one lives in the house. Iacuone has said he had to vacate the property due to damage caused by Derby drainage issues.
Members of the subcommittee included Alderman Iacuone, Alderman Hughes, Alderman Joseph DiMartino, Alderman David Lenart and Alderman Barbara DeGennaro.
Parts of Iacuone’s property have been damaged by long-standing draining issues in the Gilbert Street area. He has been in discussions with the city to find a way to resolve the problem for several years.
The discussions have included the city buying the property. In fact, the Board of Aldermen met in executive session May 27, 2010 for a ​“contract negotiation” regarding purchasing Iacuone’s property. The minutes from that meeting are posted at the end of this story.
The negotiations — meant to prevent a lawsuit Iacuone could bring against Derby — have not reached an agreement.
His attorney in the negotiations with the city is DeGennaro, a fellow Alderman. The negotiations pre-date their election to the Board of Aldermen.
In addition to the Board of Aldermen, the city’s Wetlands Commission has also discussed 40 Gilbert St. Minutes from some of those discussions are posted at the end of this story.
Meanwhile
While the city and Iacuone negotiate — and the city tries to replace and repair the failed drainage system under the Witek Reservoir, which includes obtaining easements from various private property owners — the house and property at 40 Gilbert St. are in disrepair.
The property is overgrown, while the house appears to need extensive work, including the roof.
In general, placing a property on the Derby blight list forces a property owner to begin to deal with the situation. It sets up a blight hearing process, where the owner can discuss what he or she is doing to address the alleged problems. Owners face a potential $100 fine for each day the property is on the blight list.
Cota wanted the Aldermen to consider putting 40 Gilbert St. on the blight list.
Instead of endorsing or rejecting Cota’s recommendation, a subcommittee of the Board of Aldermen tabled the matter. They took no action, apparently because Iacuone and DeGennaro were in negotiations with the city about the drainage problem.
Blight Problem
However, between September and November, seven other properties were added to the city’s blight list, Cota said.
Cota also said he had a call to check out a blight complaint in the Gilbert Street area. How could he start the blight process against a property near 40 Gilbert St. when 40 Gilbert St. wasn’t on the list? he said he asked himself.
In Cota’s mind, the drainage-flooding issues and the condition of the house are separate issues. At the least, the property needed to be considered for the blight list.
So, on Nov. 14, he ​“decided to shake the tree” to get the politicians to do something.
You’ve Got Mail
After waiting two months without a decision either way from the Aldermen, Cota sent an e‑mail to Hughes Nov. 14 outlining two concerns.
Cota’s goal was to get the Aldermen — whether it be their subcommittee or the full board — to deal with 40 Gilbert St. instead of letting it languish indefinitely.
“I just wanted everyone to do the right thing. That’s all,” Cota told the Valley Indy.
The e‑mail from Cota to Hughes, which is a public document under the state’s Freedom of Information law, read:
Congratulations on your re-election I hope you have smooth sailing for the next two years.
I am concerned about the 40 Gilbert St. property that was tabled a couple of months ago. Since this time seven other properties were placed on the blight list and it is still in committee. I understand all the arguments on both sides of the issue, however I am concerned about two things. The perception the BOA is giving special privilege to one of their own while others have their feet held to the fire and the actual blight of that property. From three corners of that neighborhood this extremely blighted property looks dreadful. I don’t know if you have looked at it or not but even with the issues at hand I cannot figure out why the grounds were left to deteriorate to such a degree. At one point the overgrowth was so bad that you had to walk in the road to pass by the property. This property has been like this for the four years Joe and I have been blight inspectors and we have been told hands off, yet no effort to clean up the property has ever been made.
We had an a blight appeals hearing on a property that is not half as bad as Gilbert St and the property owner brought photos of 40 Gilbert St and explicitly claimed we treat people different in Derby. At that time I assured him we do not and that this property was about to be placed on the blight list; so when it was tabled and remains so it made me a liar. I spoke on behalf of the city and the consequences of lying for the city is a heavy burden consequently I have told Dave Kopjansky that I can no longer continue to serve the city as a blight officer. This issue has never been a personal issue between me and Steve and if someone wants to make it this way so be it but that is not the case unless in Steve’s mind.
Andy
Cota’s e‑mail prompted Hughes to add 40 Gilbert St. to the agenda of the Thursday, Nov. 17 meeting of the Derby Board of Aldermen.
It was added to the agenda the day before the meeting. The agenda was sent to all the Aldermen.
The agenda item read: ​“Blight List: 40 Gilbert Street. Discussion/Possible Action.”
Click here for a previous story to read about the dust-up the item caused among the Aldermen.
See the video below to watch the exchange that happened between the Aldermen.
Why Send It To Hughes?
Cota did not intend the e‑mail to be shared with the public.
He said he sent the e‑mail to Hughes because Hughes is a member of the Aldermen who always asks and keeps tabs on blight issues in Derby. He said he regularly communicates with Hughes about blight issues.
He said the e‑mail wasn’t meant to coordinate a political attack on Iacuone and DeGennaro. They are the only Democrats on the Board of Aldermen.
Cota is the former chief of the Derby Police Department. He said he does not need the paycheck the city pays him for the part-time job. He said he is the blight officer because he does not want to see neighborhoods in Derby deteriorate.
“It has nothing to do with either political party,” Cota said. ​“My concern was that no one was defending the neighborhood. Who was speaking up for the people in the neighborhood who live near the property?”
Why Wasn’t The E‑mail Shared?
However, during the Aldermen meeting, DeGennaro and Iacuone, both Democrats, noted they had not received copies of Cota’s e‑mail in advance of the meeting — while at least one other Alderman, Beverly Moran, a Republican, did. Hughes is a Republican.
DeGennaro, the Alderman who is also Iacuone’s attorney, this week said she could not comment specifically on Cota’s e‑mail because she still had not read it.
She said she’s been representing Iacuone since 2000.
DeGennaro questioned why the discussion on 40 Gilbert St. was forced out of subcommittee and to the full Board of Aldermen — and why the full Board of Aldermen did not receive Cota’s e‑mail prior to the meeting, considering it was the heart of the issue.
“I thought it was political because there was a process,” she said. ​“I did not get the e‑mail. Steve said he didn’t get the e‑mail.”
About a week prior to every Derby Board of Aldermen meeting, the Aldermen receive a packet containing documents related to the items they will be talking about.
For example, the Nov. 17 agenda packet included four pages of correspondence — including e‑mails — about Courthouse Dogs, a hot dog vendor the Aldermen were thinking of fining for not having a permit.
Hughes said he did not include Cota’s e‑mail in the packet because he received it after the packets were distributed.
Hughes said he didn’t forward the e‑mail to the full board because of the potential litigation that could involve the city, Iacuone and DeGennaro.
At the Aldermen meeting, Iacuone indicated 40 Gilbert St. may have been raised in an effort to give Derby leverage in their negotiations with him.
“I’m the property owner and I didn’t get anything about (the e‑mail),” he said.
If he was to file a lawsuit against Derby over the alleged damage to his property, Iacuone would probably have to find another attorney, DeGennaro told the Valley Indy this week.
DeGennaro said the damage caused by flooding on the property include damaged furnaces, cracks in the home’s foundation — even a wall on the property falling down.
“There is a lot. Those are just some of the things,” she said.
Why not just put 40 Gilbert St. on the blight list so issues could be addressed?
DeGennaro said the property’s inclusion on the blight list was discussed by the Aldermen’s subcommittee in September.
“It was left there to get other information,” DeGennaro said. ​“That’s where it was. It was at the subcommittee level.”
Retribution?
The Aldermen meeting where 40 Gilbert St. was discussed happened Nov. 17 — nine days after an election that saw the Democrats take over the Board of Aldermen, the Board of Education and the Board of Apportionment and Taxation. The Democrats lost the mayor’s race by just 38 votes.
The first story on 40 Gilbert St. published by the Valley Indy drew sharp comments from two Derby Democrats:
“That sneaky ploy is pathetic, especially when the Republicans control the majority of seats on the committee and have a super majority on the Board of Aldermen,” former Mayor Marc Garofalo wrote. ​“They had at least two and half months from September 6, 2011 to follow their own procedure and they didn’t.”
“And to add insult to injury, the Republican Leadership allows the innuendo regarding special treatment for an Alderman to persist and is trying to blame those who are in the minority,” Garofalo wrote.
Hughes said if the motivation was to play dirty politics, the GOP would have sent a mailer out prior to the Nov. 8 election with photos of Iacuone’s property.
“It probably would have cost him the election,” Hughes said.
Meanwhile, other Democrats in the city are pointing to the fact Iacuone’s property — due to the long-standing flooding issues and his negotiations with the city — isn’t your typical blight case.
“There are obviously extenuating circumstances related to the condition of the property and the city’s culpability for that condition, which is the reason for the city’s inaction at listing the property as blighted,” Walt Mayhew, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for Alderman Nov. 8, wrote in the Valley Indy’s comment section.
Cota, meanwhile, said the city’s blight laws are too important to get bogged down in Derby politics. He’s disappointed the issue was tagged as political.
Cota said every property owner on the blight list has extenuating circumstances — which is why the city has a process in place to deal with blighted properties. Cota said the city works with property owners in an effort to alleviate the blight.
But the Aldermen have to take action, one way or the other, Cota said. Letting the issue die in committee isn’t a decision.
“If you don’t take action, you send the wrong message to the public,” Cota said.
Meeting minutes from a May 2010 Aldermen meeting where 40 Gilbert St. was discussed in executive session:
Gilbert Street Executive Session
Meeting minutes from a June 2010 Aldermen meeting in which 40 Gilbert St. was discussed:
Meeting of the Derby Inland Wetlands Agency where 40 Gilbert St. was discussed:
Gilbert Street Drainage Problem
No action on Derby Alderman’s dilapidated property
Neighbors to Derby Aldermen: Do Something
Derby to again consider adding Alderman’s property to the blight list