Every Town Council Meeting in the Town of East Haven happens on the First Tuesday of every month but previous to that meeting there is the Administrative Services Meeting that sets the agenda. It is not a common occurrence to "add" items to the agenda the day of the meeting unless of course it happens to be a matter of urgent business or you're trying to sneak an item on the agenda that might be controversial like say.... mixed use of senior housing and public use of 200 Tylers St aka The Old High School? Something the taxpayers in 2009 DID NOT VOTE for!
The underlining matter is something has to be done with the Old High School; I think everyone in the Town realizes that but at who's cost, expense and benefit? Back in 2007 the Maturo Administration tried to pull a fast one by selling the Old High School for under $500K when the property alone is worth far more. The goal was to develop over 200 units of senior housing and when this was presented to the general public there was almost a riot. In my 7 years of service on the Town Council I never saw the public so upset. I got the message loud and clear and stood up against the project and eventually it died. It's the behind the scenes operation and schemes the East Haven Tax Payer needs to be aware of. Again who benefits by so many various projects?
Well the East Haven Vine has some interesting information and a possible connection on this current project that you the tax payer and reader might raise an eyebrow at. The presentation of concept delivered by Councilman Paul Carbo and his 200 Tyler Street Sub Committee. It included a presentation by Landmark Architects of East Haven and its President Paul Pizzo. Landmark's Organizational Chart includes several companies but one is of particular interest to Mr. Arthur Desorbo, East Haven Director of Administration, Nafis and Young of Northford.
After Maturo's defeat in 2007 to April Capone Almon, Mr. Desorbo gained employment with Nafis and Young and according to Mr. Desorbo's Zoomifno.com profile the relationship has been quite extensive. Take a look for yourself....It’s quite clear that Mr. Desorbo definitely has something to gain by employing his former employer, longtime business partner and political contributor. Maybe if Maturo loses this fall there is another position awaiting him? See below where Mr. Desorbo acknowledges his longtime relationship with Nafis and Young.
http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/person?personId=49698475&targetid=profile
Tonight at the Town Council Meeting, I raised two points to Mr. Pizzo and the Town Council. First, if we were to build a mixed use facility to include senior housing has this been done anywhere else and how did it work? The answer from Mr. Pizzo was no. My next question was since there will be children at this facility using the pool, basketball court or auditorium what would happen if we had a sex offender or other unwanted individuals that are forbidden to be around children residing in this facility? How would that work? Who would be liable? Town Attorney Joe Zullo injected that we haven't gone that far in the process and he would have a lot of research to conduct to make sure that Town wouldn't be held liable.
These are questions that need to be asked at this point because I can assure you that this is an election year and there is money to be made and short time to do it. The Maturo Administration has demonstrated by the 1st attempt of sale of the Old High School and the Candlelight Project that it has no handle on managing a large scale project without it starting to smell of backhanded deals and corruption because of the lack of honest and forthcoming proposals. Tonight there was no need to "add" this project to the agenda. It could have waited until the next Administrative Services meeting to be added in January 2013. Once again we all need to keep a very close eye on this proposal and hold our elected officials and their appointees to account! We can not allow valuable Town property to be mishandled nor given away to friends of Joe Maturo and Art Desorbo.
(Editor's Note: Links to other posts and outside websites were added by East Haven Patch.)
