Tetreau Keeps Conservation Dept. off Metro Center

First Selectman Mike Tetreau declined Friday to reverse a decision by his predecessor to remove the town's Conservation Department from environmental oversight of the Fairfield Metro Center, the biggest development in town history.

"Given the status of the project and the short time, I don’t have any plans to change the project personnel at this time other than bringing the Construction Manager onboard," Tetreau said in an e-mailed reply to town officials who had submitted a total of 58 questions on the project to his office.

In a related question, Tetreau replied, "Based on where the project stands with such a short time to a possible October completion, I do not see the benefit of changing the personnel at this time."

Former First Selectman Ken Flatto removed Town Conservation Director Thomas Steinke and Steinke's department from environmental oversight of the Metro Center in December 2007 after Blackrock Realty, LLC, a private developer on the project, claimed Steinke was holding up the project and threatened to sue the town.

Flatto then hired Gary Weddle, a former chairman of the town's Inland Wetlands Commission, as the Metro Center's wetlands compliance officer, a decision validated about two months later by the Inland Wetlands Commission.

But Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Richard Arnold ruled last summer that Weddle was illegally appointed to the Metro Center project because he wasn't under Steinke's general supervision. Arnold said in his ruling that the Town Charter required Weddle to be under Steinke's general supervision and ordered the town to remove Weddle from the project.

Weddle appealed Arnold's decision, and the case is now pending before the state Supreme Court.

Kathryn Braun, an attorney and District 8 member of the Representative Town Meeting who's been an outspoken advocate for returning the Conservation Department to environmental oversight of the Metro Center project, was disappointed to hear Tetreau planned to keep the department off the job.

"It's unfortunate," Braun said. "I was hoping that the new first selectman would really start with a clean slate and not carry on this ongoing violation of the Town Charter and allow the normal workings of the Conservation Department to protect the town."

"Had the Conservation Department remained on the job the last four years, it's very possible we might not be in the position we're in," Braun added, referring to a projected $2.4 million to $6.4 million deficit in the Metro Center's budget that is largely due to excess contaminated soil on the property. "The Conservation Department would have been the only town department that actually would have had boots on the ground to protect the town."

Meanwhile, a revised budget status on the Metro Center that Tetreau e-mailed to the media Friday evening says $28.6 million had been spent on the project as of May 31, with another $2.45 million obligated, and an estimated cost to complete that ranges from $9.39 million to $12.65 million.

As of April 30, $25.6 million had been spent, with an estimated cost to complete of $14.8 million to $18.1 million. This report didn't break out money that was obligated.

It's not possible to tell if the projected budget deficit on the Metro Center of $2.4 million to $6.4 million held steady from April 30 to May 31 because the report e-mailed Friday evening doesn't include projected revenue, which was identified in the April 30 numbers as $37.3 million in a "worst case" and $38 million in a "best case."

But the total project cost held steady at $40.4 million to $43.7 million.

On Friday afternoon, Tetreau said the town would look into attorney George Bisacca's analysis of the Metro Center project, in which Bisacca said Blackrock Realty may not be off the hook for cost overruns on the project. Bisacca was the attorney for residents who sued Weddle to get him off the project and who want Steinke and the Conservation Department returned to the project.

The state Department of Transportation, when it contributed $19.4 million to revive the project in April 2010, made clear that it wouldn't contribute any more money if the project went over budget, but a separate agreement between the town and Blackrock Realty, in which Blackrock provided $5.2 million ($843,564 of which was in performance bonds), did not explicitly say Blackrock wasn't liable for cost overruns.

The April 2010 agreements became necessary because Blackrock ran into financial problems and was being foreclosed on by its lender, TD Bank, N.A.

"Mr. Bisacca makes an interesting legal case. We can certainly look at that and see if there's something we can use," Tetreau said. "But, until that's fully evaluated by the town attorney, I can't say whether that's a valid perspective or not."

"At this point, we're doing everything we can to look for alternatives, and we're going to listen to any suggestion that comes our way," Tetreau said. He said the "discovery and disclosure phase" of his work on the Metro Center was over, and the next phase was "problem solving."

"We have 60 days to solve this problem, so we're on a different kind of clock," he said.

The 60 days refers to when available money for the Metro Center project is projected to run out.

Three members of the town's Board of Finance are scheduled on Monday to meet with Joseph Centofanti of Kostin Ruffkess & Co., which was hired to perform an audit of the Metro Center's budget. The meeting, which is open to the public, is at 6 p.m. in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

The Fairfield Metro Center is a joint project of the town, DOT and Blackrock Realty and involves construction of the town's third train station, about 1,400 rail commuter parking spaces and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial development on 35.5 acres at 21 Black Rock Turnpike. Construction work taking place now is for public portions of the project; Blackrock has to finance the commercial development on its own.

After Flatto left office May 3 to take a job in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's administration, Tetreau discovered that the Metro Center, as of April 30, had a budget deficit of $2.4 million to $6.4 million. Flatto said this week that he didn't know anything about a budget deficit before he left office.