Whose $28 million Stimulus Is It?

Citing failure to enforce the Metro Center tripartite agreement between Blackrock Realty and the Town of Fairfield and noting a lack of transparency of the process, several Fairfield town residents have banded together insisting First Selectman Ken Flatto be held accountable for the failure of the Metro Center project to proceed and question Flatto's push to use $28 million of state distributed stimulus money to finish the job the developer failed to complete. The members of the group, Edward J. Bateson II, Alexis P. Harrison, Jeanne Konecny, Pamela Ritter, Philip Meiman, Les Schaffer, Joy Shaw and Jane Talamini are calling for the Representative Town Meeting to appoint a bipartisan commission chaired by an independent non-Fairfield County resident to investigate all of the facts of the Metro Center project and recommend a pragmatic and cost effective solution for the Town to pursue. The Fairfield Metro Center has been designed as a mixed use 35-acre office development, with an 11-acre preserve, on-site hotel and Metro-North train station. The group states that the Town was unsuccessful in holding the developer, BRR to the agreement by failing to collect a $500,000 letter of credit from BRR. This letter of credit and accompanying funds was to be put in place to guarantee the completion of the train depot portion of the project along with any additional remediation work. According to the agreement, if BRR did not build the depot the Town would use the funds to build the depot and address any remediation work. In the meantime TD Banknorth has brought a foreclosure action against BRR to recoup approximately $20 million. The group notes that since it appears unlikely BRR will be building the depot, without the letter of credit to draw on, the Town will be footing the bill to build the depot. When questioned about the letter of credit and if the $500K was ever supplied to the Town of Fairfield, BRR President Kurt Wittek said, "No, it was not and a lot has been made of it but it is not as big a thing as some make it out to be." Wittek explained that the Town is holding $960K of the developer's money in the form of a cash bond. In requesting state stimulus money Flatto explained Governor Rell's office asked for a list of "shovel ready" projects for public community benefit from the mayors and first selectmen of each of the states' municipalities. According to Flatto the state gave each town leader 10 days notice in which to comply and Flatto supplied Rell's office with a request of approximately $60 million with $28 million to be earmarked for the Metro Center project. "If I had not asked for this stimulus money when requested," said Flatto, "I would have been derelict in my duties." Responding to his critics on this topic, Flatto said that this small group of people is expressing a point of view, which is very much out of favor. "They are totally washed up and ignorant and if they really cared about this town they would have called my office," said Flatto. Reacting to Flatto's stimulus request the group said, "The gall of our Town officials in making this request without prior notice to the public is unmitigated and it displays no sense of responsibility for their failures." They openly questioned where Town officials got the authority to decide the priorities for using any stimulus funds to which the Town is entitled. The group questions the legitimacy of Flatto requesting $28 million in stimulus money for a project on land not owned by the Town but by BRR, which is now in foreclosure with TD Banknorth the holder of the mortgage on the land. They explain that even if a deal can be worked out with BRR and the bank for the Town to purchase the land for the public project, the net effect of the deal will be that the Town pays down BRR's mortgage for nothing in return, since according to the agreement BRR was going to donate the roads and lease the commuter waiting area to the Town and the depot to the state for 99 years at $1.00 per year. If the Town required BRR to complete its work on the project in a timely manner, the group insists the Town would be able to divert the $28 million in stimulus money to other Town needs such as education or replenishing the pension funds thereby making a Town tax increase preventable. Asserting the stimulus funds belong to the people of Fairfield the group stressed that the money should not be taken from the residents and appropriated by Flatto without the residents' informed consent. READ MORE: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20279223&BRD=1653&PAG=461&dept_id=686445&rfi=6