City Finds $9.5M To Pay Dirty-Cop Bill

The city plans to pay restitution for a wrongful conviction by raiding some of the capital fund balances of 14 city departments, alders learned Monday night. They had some questions about that.

Acting city Budget Director Michael Gormany, City Controller Daryl Jones, and Corporation Counsel John Rose outlined the payment plan for the Board of Alders Finance Committee Monday at City Hall during a public hearing.

The alder committee unanimously approved the plan, but only after about two hours of questioning of Harp administration officials about the impact of delayed purchases of equipment and postponed maintenance of some city facilities, and about why some balances go back as far as 2010.

The answer to those questions generally was that most of the equipment purchases and maintenance can wait a year — though in some cases only a year — and that some projects are multi-year.

The city has to pay the $9.5 million because it failed to convince a judge to throw out a federal wrongful conviction lawsuit filed by Scott Lewis, who spent 18 years in prison on murder charges trumped up by a New Haven police detective named Vincent Raucci. The detective was deeply involved in the city’s illicit cocaine trade and found to have fabricated the evidence that put Lewis behind bars for nearly two decades of Lewis’ life.

That settlement came in July, after the city had wrapped its budget process for fiscal 2017 – 2018 in June. So alders are being asked to amend the city’s capital budget and authorize the issuance of municipal bonds to refund the capital balances that need to be replenished such as the funds for the Grand Avenue Bridge project.

About $6.35 million will be taken from that project to pay the Lewis settlement but will have to be refunded when the state is ready to advance that project, according to City Engineer Giovanni Zinn. The remaining funds will come from various other city departments, including police and fire, but Harp officials and department heads assured alders that the reallocation of money would not hurt public safety or service.

The amendment has to be passed now because the settlement must be paid by Nov. 15, according to Corporation Counsel Rose.

Annex Alder Alphonse Paolillo Jr. and East Rock Alder Anna Festa both asked know why similar efficiencies weren’t found during the prior budgeting process. They also asked why the same department heads who often come to them each budget cycle asking for more money — and continue to say what is allocated is not enough — often seem to have money from previous projects languishing without a similar sense of urgency to reallocate those funds.

Controller Jones said alders will see a more data-driven approach to future capital budget asks and a more deliberate sweeping of fund balances that cannot be justified in the coming budget cycle.

Ultimately, alders voted for the amendment but asked the administration to bring them a total cost of borrowing $9.5 million in bonds; the impact specifically on projects for traffic and parking, police, fire, the community service administration and the city’s emergency shelter, and the Board of Ed; and which departments will need their funds replenished.

“Obviously, this is something we need to take care of,” Paolillo said. ​“This is the responsibility of the city, but the cost concerns are the bell we’ve been ringing for years now. There is still work that needs to be done … but this is the best in front of us now.”