Letter to the Editor of the Record Journal regarding “Woodgate”

As published in the Record Journal Sunday September 2, 2012

Editor: Woodgate investigations over. Conclusion: honest mistake. What a waste of time.

Right? Not so fast. Mr. Mangino, a public employee, had a contract with the town to haul debris, not including wood, to his private dump site. The contract required a permitted site, a million dollar insurance policy and for him to use his own employees and equipment. Consider these investigative findings:

1) Mangino stated in his bid application and his first interview with investigator Terry Sullivan that the address of his site (proven not to be a permitted one) was 1171 S. Broad St. He later stated the address to be 1173, his uncle’s address. The Public Works director who hired Mangino has stated that he himself had driven to the site where the wood was delivered and that address was 1179 S. Broad St. (Question - Who’s on first?),

2) the million dollar policy was never posted

3) town employees, on town time, loaded wood into town vehicles and delivered it to Mangino’s site

4) no proof that all wood delivered was returned to the town

5) Mangino burned wood to heat his garage at 1173 (there’s circumstantial evidence that he burned town wood because he received no financial consideration from the town for picking it up)

6) town employees definitely violated the town code of ethics.
After instructing Terry Sullivan to conduct an investigation and prepare a report a report the council found to be less than thorough - the mayor was presented with the finding he wanted – an honest mistake.

However, that same investigation revealed problems much more troubling than the taking of wood. It’s obvious that contractual requirements are meaningless and no one is held accountable when breaches are discovered. The laissez faire attitude of this administration assures us that these problems will continue.

VINCENT A. AVALLONE, WALLINGFORD

Wallingford councilors study deeper probe into wood allegations

Second report may do the trick - Wallingford councilors study deeper probe into wood allegations

By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff

lsalerno@record-journal.com 

(203) 317-2235  

Twitter:@LaurieSalernoRJ

WALLINGFORD — Many town councilors said Monday they will likely not vote for an independent investigation into allegations that Public Works employees mishandled town wood, after reading Personnel Director Terence Sullivan’s second report on the incident. “Do I think at this time I would go the next step and vote in favor of an official independent investigation? I would say no, not at this time,” said Councilor John Sullivan, a Democrat, one of the councilors who voted in favor of a second investigation in a 7-2 vote in May. “This was a much more in-depth investigation in my eyes — this level of detail is what I wanted.”

The 32-page report, with hundreds of pages of supporting documents, was made available to councilors on Friday afternoon. By Monday, all nine councilors had picked it up at Town Hall.

The report concluded that there was “no proof of any kind” to support allegations that town employees had taken town wood for profit or personal use or cut down healthy trees in town parks.

In January, Town Councilor Nicholas Economopoulos, a Democrat, asked the town to investigate instances of town wood being taken in town trucks to the private dumpsite of Public Works employee Randy Mangino. Mangino held an outside contract with the town’s Water Department to dispose of clean fill and debris, and said he was allowed by Public Works Director Henry McCully to take wood the department had collected from trees damaged in an October snowstorm. McCully said he had misread Mangino’s contract and allowed him to take the wood, though the contract calls for Mangino to use his own truck, and wood does not strictly fall into the category of what he was contracted to haul.

The incident was ruled “an honest mistake” in a January report by Terence Sullivan, and the wood was reportedly returned. In May, Economopoulos reopened the issue in a presentation at a council meeting, and in June the council voted to have Sullivan do a second, more thorough investigation, with his report helping them determine whether to seek an independent investigation.

Councilors are slated to discuss the report at their next meeting, on Aug. 14. Only three votes are needed to trigger an independent investigation.

After reading the report, many councilors were particularly confused as to why William Comerford — a town resident who was investigating the incidents with Economopoulos— had not given evidence when asked to either by the personnel director or an inspector with the New Haven State’s Attorney’s office named Robert Sage.

Sage’s investigation was prompted by a letter from Public Works employee Mark Staszewski regarding “inappropriate and possibly criminal activity by certain employees of the DPW.” Staszweski’s second interview with the Personnel Department reflected these claims, saying that Public Works employees were “basically looking for wood to cut into smaller lengths for burning.” Staszewski did not mention this in his first interview with Terence Sullivan. None of the other 11 members of the Public Works Department interviewed corroborated his account.

Regarding Comerford, Councilor Tom Laffin, a Republican, said, “How is it possible that there’s such a passion towards getting to resolution, but then asked for evidence, they never give it to anybody?”

Councilor Craig Fishbein, a Republican, said that having the state’s attorney continue to investigate would be a thirdparty investigator and would mean the town wouldn’t have to hire anyone else to do the job.

“I’m looking to save the taxpayers’ funds — if a state investigator is asking for information, then a state investigator is a third party. Why not just put it in their lap?” Fishbein said.

Comerford, reached Monday, said he hadn’t been given a deadline by Sage, and intends to produce the evidence he said he has collected.

“Sage is going to get it all; I had no deadline to do this. I didn’t realize that someone was contacting him,” Comerford said.

He said he refused to supply Terence Sullivan with the information when asked because he questioned the personnel director’s ability and interest in performing an investigation into the topic, saying his first report was too thin, and that Comerford thought he would be able to find enough of his own evidence to proceed.

Terence Sullivan was on vacation Monday and could not be reached for comment.

Both council Chairman Robert F. Parisi, a Republican, and Councilor Jason Zandri, a Democrat, said Monday they’d like to study the report more closely before commenting.

Vincent Cervoni and Rosemary Rascati, the two Republican councilors who had originally voted against an investigation in May, said they were not surprised by the findings.

“This is much ado about nothing — I’ve said that from the beginning,” Cervoni said.

Rascati said that she agreed with the report — that after seeing Sullivan’s interviews with 26 people, she also felt there was not enough evidence to substantiate allegations.

She said her constituents would be happy to put the matter at rest, that they’ve been telling her, “This is ridiculous, that we shouldn’t spend any more money and time on this.”

Fishbein said the report still left him with questions that he would like to ask the personnel director.

“I don’t think all of my questions are answered,” Fishbein said of the questions councilors were allowed to submit for the inquest. “He doesn’t talk about who loaded the trucks.”

Fishbein had asked who loaded trucks with wood taken to Mangino’s property, but the report gives only the names of drivers, Public Works employees Mangino and John Manke.

Economopoulos, who instigated the investigation and is being sued for libel and defamation by Mangino because of his involvement with it, said he thinks that the fact that some of the facts waver in the report shows that there is something to his claims.

“My story from the report and from what I originally reported ... has not wavered. Yet, if you look at their stories, they have wavered considerably,” Economopoulos said Monday.

One example he uses is the addresses of the property Mangino listed as a dump site on his bid contract with the Water Department. He lists 1171 S. Broad St. on the contract, which is where Economopoulos found pallets of shrink-wrapped wood, but later said the address is actually 1173. Mangino says this was an error, and solicited a signed affidavit from the owner of 1171, Roland Clavet, saying that the wood is his, but Economopoulos said it’s one of many discrepancies found during the investigation.

“There’s just too many questions that weren’t answered,” Economopoulos said.

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said the town would address questions that remain.

“Mr. Sullivan obviously spent a lot of time — I understand it’s close to 80 hours with the interview and review of things, so it sounds like a very thorough effort,” Dickinson said. “If there are other questions to be asked, they can be dealt with.”

Summer road project bigger than usual

As published in the Record Journal Thursday June 21, 2012

By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff
lsalerno@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235

WALLINGFORD — The sights and sounds of summer 2012 will soon include the smell of hot blacktop. In mid to late July, the town will begin a repaving project that includes the largest number of streets in years, thanks to state, federal and local funds, Public Works Director Henry McCully said.

The town is preparing to repave or reconstruct at least nine streets in the 2012-13 fiscal year. The work will be split over the summer and fall of 2012 and the spring of 2013.

McCully said he has not yet finalized the schedule. Tentative plans for this summer are to start milling and repaving all of East Center Street and Carpenter Lane; Ward Street from South Elm to Woodland; and much of Simpson Avenue. North Plains Industrial Road will also be repaved this summer, using $686,000 in federal stimulus funds. The town’s Engineering Department is overseeing the North Plains project, Town Engineer John Thompson said.

More likely to occur in spring 2013, McCully said, is work on Christian Street, Parker Farms Road, South Turnpike Road and North Main Extension from Route 68 to Yale Avenue, which was funded by a $214,200 Small Town Economic Assistance Program grant from the state. Work on at least seven of the streets will be paid for by the $1.7 million approved by the Town Council for the 2012-13 fiscal year.

The schedule could change, with work on some the later planned streets being done earlier if work on the initial roads goes smoothly. The work could also speed up once the town’s new transfer station is completed, expected to be between the end of July and mid-August.

“We have forces tied up with the residents’ drop-off center (right now),” McCully said.

The yearly decision of which streets to repave is made by Public Works, the town’s Utilities Division and Yankee Gas.

“The number one thing is we want to know if there’s going to be any excavations by any other utility — anyone who would have underground utilities and would have plans to excavate that road. We don’t want to spend a lot of money on paving and have them dig a trench,” McCully said.

He said the group looks 10 years down the road at possible excavation, though emergency excavations can sometimes foil the plans. Though the milling and paving work is done by external contractors, Public Works performs all the drainage studies and work on the streets first, McCully said.

Thompson said the work on busy thoroughfare North Plains Industrial will mostly occur at night, as per the choice of contractor Waters Construction, of Bridgeport. It will not be closed, but certain lanes may be closed.

“It’s the first time Wallingford has done a nighttime operation on a roadway reconstruction project — it’s a new experience for us,” Thompson said. “There’s a lot of businesses on North Plains; the contractor looked in and said this is how we should do it.” He said daytime prep work will begin the week of July 4, with nighttime operations likely to begin the following week.

“The whole thing should last less than 30 days,” Thompson said.

Attack on McCully provokes surprise and anger

As published in the Record Journal Thursday March 1, 2012

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff

rblair@record-journal.com 

(203) 317-2225 

WALLINGFORD — Several town councilors and the mayor said Wednesday they were surprised by a councilor’s decision to publicly level accusations of misconduct by the director of the Department of Public Works during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Nicholas Economopoulos, a Democrat who is planning to run for mayor this year, accused Henry McCully’s staff of cutting down healthy trees and selling the wood and of removing a tree from a town worker’s private property as a favor. McCully denies the accusations.

“I don’t cut people favors,” he said Wednesday.

Economopoulos’ accusations came when McCully appeared before the council Tuesday night to request a budget transfer for tree removal. Council Chairman Robert Parisi, a Republican, said it wasn’t the proper time to make such allegations.

McCully called Economopoulos’ comments “inappropriate and baseless.”

“I don’t want to get involved in politics. ... I want to put my energy into running my department,” he said.

McCully said that while he doesn’t run a perfect operation, he doesn’t deserve to be called out for misconduct.

“I don’t think it’s a deserved character assassination,” he said. “I’ve been here 29 years, I’m not hiding anything.”

“It was very inappropriate,” said Republican Councilor John LeTourneau. “Henry came for the transfer. That was the topic, not calling him out on alleged wrongdoings. It’s not the venue to do that. Those questions could have been asked by a phone call, he didn’t need to bring it out.”

Economopoulos said Wednesday that he was giving McCully an opportunity to answer the questions in public, and accuses McCully of lying about the two incidents. He said he plans to present evidence at a future meeting.

“I already know for a fact that wood was taken out of our town parks, and he’s denying that,” Economopoulos said. “I’m getting all my ducks in a row, and I’m going to get it on the agenda and prove that.”

Democratic Councilor John Sullivan said he had no comment on Economopoulos’ actions during the meeting.

Economopoulos has spent several months requesting documents and gathering information about the activity of the Public Works Department. He said it’s part of his mission to make town government more efficient and accountable.
Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr., a Republican, said that he’s willing to listen to Economopoulos, but that the meeting wasn’t the proper channel to make the accusations.

“If he feels that he has information of wrongdoing, we want to know about it,” Dickinson said.

But he admitted that it’s “difficult to respond at a public meeting when you don’t know the issue until it’s voiced.”

“At a meeting like that, there’s no way to be prepared,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson said that the two instances had already been investigated by the town and he didn’t think there had been sufficient information to justify accusing McCully or his staff of any wrongdoing. The tree removal occurred three years ago, McCully said.

Councilor Jason Zandri, a Democrat, said that he thought Economopoulos would be best advised to raise the questions at a future council meeting, after an item has been placed on the agenda.

“This is an ongoing thing he’s investigating, and I think he should bring it up at a future point,” he said.

Zandri said that McCully was prepared to discuss the budget transfer but may have not had explanations available.

Parisi said he tries to keep council meetings civil, and in his years on the panel, he hasn’t seen a situation that played out quite the same way.

“We have rules that cover being nice, we may have to review that,” he said.

Parisi said that he was caught off guard by the accusations, and that they were made with no backup.

“Most of the items on the agenda have some backup information,” he said. “To say someone is acting irresponsible should be backed up.”

LeTourneau said the council has the right to ask questions of department heads but it isn’t there to micromanage.

“We’re not their boss,” he said. “The mayor is their boss. A lot is up to the mayor or the Personnel Department.”

Money transferred again for tree removal

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday February 29, 2012

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff

rblair@record-journal.com 

(203) 317-2225

WALLINGFORD — A budget transfer of $35,000 for tree removal led to more than a half hour of debate during Tuesday night’s Town Council meeting about the activities of the Public Works Department.

Public Works Director Henry McCully appeared before the Town Council for the third time this fiscal year asking for a transfer of money to pay for contracted tree services. McCully said Tropical Storm Irene and the late October snowstorm contributed to the increased need for money.

“These storms have led to increased activity removing trees,” he said. “We have trees that are damaged, or with hanging limbs. We have to go until July 1 of this year, and there’s no money left in the budget.”

McCully had transferred $25,000 to the account twice. McCully said the money was for the whole removal of dead and diseased trees that are considered hazardous. Public works employees use bucket trucks to trim trees and will remove smaller ones, but typically don’t remove larger ones.

“As practice we don’t take down large trees,” he said.

But Town Councilor Nicholas Economopoulos, a Democrat, questioned whether the money was needed, and asked McCully to produce a list of the trees that he wanted to remove.

“I think there could be a different solution than having $35,000 come out of the account for materials and supplies,” he said. “To be responsible councilors, we should have a list of the trees.”

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said it isn’t practical to require McCully to produce a list to the council.

“I’m not sure that’s providing the service we want to provide to the public,” Dickinson said.

Economopoulos, who has been recently requesting documents about the activity of the Public Works Department, asked McCully about a tree that was removed from Marcus Cooke Memorial Park. Economopoulos said that the tree was healthy. He went on to accuse McCully’s staff of cutting healthy trees and selling the wood.

“You know what I’m implying, that they’re cutting good trees and using them for firewood,” Economopoulos said.

Economopoulos also accused Mc-Cully of removing a tree from a town employee’s private property.

“I’m implying that he’s a town worker, and you cut him a favor,” he said.

McCully denied the charges, and Town Council Chairman Robert Parisi said that council meeting aren’t the right venue to raise such accusations.

The $35,000 was taken from money originally budgeted for salt.

“We haven’t had to purchase a lot of salt,” McCully said. “I think we can get through March safely.”

The transfer was approved by a 8-1 vote with Economopoulos casting the lone dissenting vote.

McCully said that the tree-removal budget has ballooned in the last two fiscal years due to the large amount of snow in early 2011 and the two storms at the year’s end. He expected to ask for only $70,000 for the account going forward.