Conflicts Of Interest Hold Back Zoning Votes

In four years sitting on the Board of Zoning Appeals, Benjamin Trachten has shown up most often for meetings — but far more often than anyone else, he has ended up not voting.

Trachten (pictured) recused himself on 17 separate cases due to professional conflicts of interest. The other current zoning commissioners have had either one or zero recusals.

The Independent examined BZA voting records between April 2011 and June 2015 to tally the number of times each of the current members (and a couple of former members) declined to vote on a matter because of a personal or professional conflict of interest. Trachten emerged with the highest number in recent years, by far.

Most recently, his conflict of interest contributed to a more than three-month delay in Upper Westville neighbors’ appeal to stop Mandy Management from turning parts of two adjacent commercial buildings — at 150 Westerleigh Rd. and 1400 Whalley Ave. — into new apartments.

The question is whether the recusals demonstrate a healthy adherence to standards — or a reason for a person not to sit on the board.

A real-estate lawyer with his own practice, Trachten said he is ​“more sensitive to recusals that most people.” He said he is the only board member to have attended a conference at the University of Connecticut Center for Land Use Education and Research, which included a section about recusals and ethics. He sometimes does not know until the day of the meeting whether he will have to recuse himself from an item. The board hears about 12 new requests every month.

“The ethical obligation trumps the inconvenience of making applicants come back,” he said. ​“Would you rather have a biased vote or would you rather have an unbiased vote?”

He said he recused himself on the Upper Westville neighbors’ appeal because he ​“previously represented an entity somewhat connected to the current owner,” Mandy Management. His recusal in at least one instance ended up preventing the board from taking a vote.

Upper Westville Controversy

The neighbors Andrea Atkinson and Joe Adelizzi (pictured) first appeared at the BZA in March and asked them to overturn zoning staffer Tom Talbot’s decision to allow Mandy to build three apartments by right, without consulting the public. That month, board commissioners were unprepared to judge the appeal and did not understand the details of the debate. They pushed it to the next meeting to give themselves time to prepare.

In April, not enough commissioners showed up to hold a vote. In May, four commissioners, including two brand-new additions, heard neighbors renew their appeal with a new set of documents. They closed the public session but said they couldn’t vote until they took more time to understand the issue. In June, the two new commissioners on the board said they had not received or read the necessary documents and did not feel prepared to vote.

Trachten and zoning board Chair Pat King said they could not discuss an open case on the record.

Of those series of delays, only one was a direct result of the fact that Trachten recused himself with no commissioner to replace him. At April’s meeting, four board members were in attendance, including Trachten. The board needs at least four members to vote. With four members, the vote has to be unanimous, statistically decreasing the probability of the request being approved. If an alternate had sat in Trachten’s seat, the vote could have taken place.

With no quorum, King told Atkinson she would have to wait until the next month’s board meeting to argue her case. ​“You would get heard next month. And we would certainly hope, as we always hope, to have the full contingent of five board members here,” King said. ​“But it’s just not the case tonight and there’s nothing, unfortunately, that I can do about it.”

“You don’t have other alternatives?” Atkinson asked.

“No,” King said. ​“We need a quorum to act and we don’t have a quorum because we only have three.”

Alternate member Walter Esdaile walked into the meeting more than an hour late at 7:45 p.m. — too late for them to take up the issue again.

Otherwise Uncommon

Board chair King has recused herself once due to a conflict of interest, according to the records. In October 2014, she declined to vote on a request for a variance on an apartment building at 35 Church St. The four other members of the BZA approved the request unanimously.

When asked about that decision recently, King said she does not remember why she recused herself. She said she thought of Trachten’s frequent recusals as a ​“mixed blessing,” not a problem. He has conflicts ​“because he has an active practice” in real estate law, she said. ​“On the other hand, his real estate background brings a lot to the board.”

Trachten is also the commissioner most consistently present at board meetings. He is the only current member to have attended all 11 meetings between May 2014 and May 2015. King attended nine of those meetings, while Esdaile and Gaylord Bourne attended seven. Esdaile is one of two alternate members of the board, while Bourne, King and Trachten are three of five full members.

Other commissioners, including King, have abstained from votes on various requests because they had not been present at the public hearing. Trachten has been absent only four times in more than four years, not including the April 2013 meeting during which he called in to vote from Florida.

Former BZA Commissioner Regina Winters, an architect, also recused herself frequently — though not as frequently as Trachten in the past few years. In 2013, she and Trachten both recused themselves four times, including two of the same cases. In 2012, Trachten recused himself four times and Winters recused herself once.

“I’m not the one who shepherds everyone to make sure they’re in a meeting,” King said. That job falls to zoning staff.

Even when five commissioners attend a board meeting, abstentions and recusals can lead to a delay in a vote — or a violation of protocol.

In July 2013, both Winters and Trachten recused themselves from the same request, when Mutual Housing Association asked for a special exception at 193 Winthrop Ave. to build a smaller yard and a variance for fewer parking spaces than required by code.

Since another member abstained from the vote for lack of knowledge on the issue, just two members were available to vote on the special exception, which they unanimously approved. That is not allowed, Talbot said when this reporter asked him about that glitch. Special exceptions need at least three affirmative votes to be granted.

Variances need at least four affirmative votes, so the owner’s request for a variance was delayed until the next month.

The BZA is required by state statute to vote on the Upper Westville matter at its July meeting, when it reaches its maximum of 65 days after closing the public hearing. Trachten can be counted on to recuse himself again. It remains to be seen whether the other members will attend July’s meeting and whether they will be prepared to vote. Either way, they will have to vote.

Trachten said he enjoys being a commissioner. ​“My father was on the board for years,” he said. ​“I love that it has an impact on our city. It’s nice to note that the decisions we make enable the city to grow.”