Is the Town’s Public Building Commission Serving Its Municipal Role?

News Analysis. Part 1

Is the town’s Public Building Commission ordinance serving its municipal role? An analysis of the first three projects to come before the commission shows each one taking a different route, in part because the overall ordinance is vague, ambiguous and, it turns out, advisory.

The Representative Town Meeting (RTM) adopted the Public Building Commission ordinance in June 2014. The idea was that all building projects would be decided by one town building commission, a commission established and in place, not one created for a specific project as in the past. This was First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove’s idea when he was first elected.

More than three years later the results are mixed. The Walsh School project, which is overseen by state law, went before the Building Commission from the outset because state law required it. The town’s Community-Senior Center project, didn’t get there until 40 percent of the planning and site work had been done behind closed doors, a decision that increased the cost from $8 million to $12 million, in part because it turned out the Community House is located in a flood zone. A third project, one involving a small fire station, was removed entirely from the public works commission, given its own committee outright.

Now there is a move to change the ordinance. RTM member Peter Hentschel (pictured), an architect, calls the current ordinance flawed. At the final October meeting of the RTM before the upcoming municipal election this Tuesday, Hentchel (D‑Stony Creek) said the flaws in the ordinance ​“make it virtually impossible to manage multiple municipal building projects effectively, efficiently and in the public interest.” He asked that his amendments be sent to the RTM’s Rules and Ordinance Committee for review.

RTM Moderator Dennis Flanagan (R‑5) told Hentchel this was the last meeting of the RTM with no committee meetings scheduled for the remainder of the term. A new RTM will be sworn in after the November election. Hentchel says he will resubmit his proposal whether reelected or not in order to change how the Public Building Commission operates. He has a second proposal concerning membership on the town’s Inland Wetlands and Planning & Zoning Commissions.

The language of the Public Building Commission ordinance says that the commission shall ​“manage such approved building projects as shall from time to time be assigned to it by the First Selectman.” The assumption was that this new Building Commission, five members in all, would oversee a town project from start to finish, providing oversight and guidance as need.

From ​“Time to Time”

One meaning is that the Public Building Commission gets the building project only when the first selectman decides to give it to the commission as he did after an architect was selected for the Community House project. Forty percent of the design work for the Community House, including site selection and design of the building, including major cost increases, had been decided by Town Hall before it was sent to the Building Commission. As a result there was no review of potential risks to the town.

Or it could mean the Public Building Commission doesn’t get the project at all. It turns out that the town’s first selectman has broad power in deciding exactly when to engage the Building Commission in a public project, if at all. A recent firehouse project was sent to a separate building committee, for example, with no Public Building Commission oversight. This is not the case for state school projects, which come under state law and require oversight from the outset.

More than three years after its adoption, the ordinance shows that from ​“time to time” has a host of meanings that may allow the Public Building Commission to ​“manage such approved projects.” But first it must receive the project.

There’s the rub. 

It turns out that Cosgrove, who previously ran the Cosgrove Construction Company, a Branford company started by his grandfather, Dan Cosgrove, is a lot like his grandfather. He likes to oversee construction projects. Dan Cosgrove was considered the master builder of his day.

“Buildings and infrastructure are things I definitely want to concentrate on,” Cosgrove said in an interview with the Eagle in December, 2013, a month after he first won election. 

Cosgrove and a small group of advisers, including the heads of the community and senior centers and the architect hired for the project, had been in charge of the Community House project until it was formally turned over to the public building commission 21 months after the project began. Cosgrove acknowledges that it was run out of Town Hall. 

Three Projects before Commission

So far three projects have come before the Public Building Commission: The Community House-Senior Center renovation on Church Street, a project that started at $8 million and is now at $12.15 million, a monetary increase accomplished without building commission oversight. The groundbreaking for the Community House took place last week.

Then there is the $88.2 million Walsh Intermediate School renovation project, the largest project ever undertaken in Branford’s history. In this case, the Walsh project was sent to the Public Building Commission, but a good deal of the project was overseen by the Board of Education.

The most recent project, the Indian Neck Firehouse building, is part of a state grant. The firehouse project totally bypassed the Building Commission because the Board of Selectmen by a 2 – 1 vote sent it to an independent building committee, one that does not report to the Building Commission.

None of these developments came as a surprise to Peter Banca, chair of the Building Commission. Asked if he was surprised that his Public Building Commission had received the Community House-Senior Center project with 40 percent of the design work previously completed, Banca said, ​“No. I know the commission is advisory.”

By advisory, he told the Eagle, that he meant that the Public Building Commission is advisory to the first selectman. So it is up to First Selectman Cosgrove to decide at what point the commission receives a municipal project, if at all.

In February, the Board of Selectmen (BOS) approved the next phase of the Community House-Senior Center project but not without dissent from Jack Ahern, the Democratic third selectman, over the absence of the Building Commission during the first 40 percent of the design process. 

“We’re not giving the Building Commission the power of oversight that they deserve and that they should get before the project is even started,” Ahern declared at the meeting.

At the first Public Building Commission meeting in March for the Community House-Senior Center project, two alternates were added to the commission out of a possible four stakeholders. Not surprisingly they were Alex Palluzzi, Jr. and Dagmar Ridgway, the two town department heads who have worked behind-the-scenes on the project from the outset. Cosgrove could have but did not appoint any other stakeholders to the two other available slots for this project.

The Public Building Commission ordinance is silent on the authority of first selectman to create a separate building committee for a special project, which is why the Board of Selectmen was able to create yet another building committee for the Indian Neck Firehouse project.

Indian Neck Firehouse Bypasses Public Building Commission

An examination of the town’s 2014 building ordinance shows the ordinance is designed to give the town’s first selectman all the power he will ever need to oversee a town project outside the scope of Public Building Commission. Bill Aniskovich, the town attorney, signed off on the ordinance, which was approved by the RTM.

However, it now turns out that a new project may bypass the building commission entirely. The construction of a new Indian Neck firehouse will do just that. It turns out the first selectman also decides when to create a special building committee for a special project. And while the Public Building Commission ordinance Cosgrove and Aniskovich designed is silent on the issue of creating a separate building committee that operates outside the scope of the Building Commission, the Board of Selectmen is not. 

So the Indian Neck issue came before the BOS.

Ahern, the town’s former fire chief, said at that BOS meeting that he agreed with Cosgrove that a special oversight committee was the best way to go for the Indian Neck project since the committee consists of officials with fire department expertise. However, he asked why the project wasn’t going to the Public Building Commission at all. 

Cosgrove said that reconstructing the firehouse is a straightforward project that will use a $500,000 state grant that has already been approved.
​“All projects are different in scope and size and scale and requirements,” Cosgrove said. He said more complex projects that deal with location and size is more appropriate for the Public Building Commission ​“who see the big picture.”

Hentschel said in an interview that when the RTM adopted the ordinance, ​“I definitely did not think it was being promoted as an advisory only group as opposed to a group that would manage town projects. From my point of view it was not discussed…“I do not think the RTM understood what the actual functioning nature of the commission was going to be. I think they took it on faith that it would act like any other building committee had acted in the past.”

Hentschel said in his view the original intent of the town ordinance creating a Public Building Commission did not envision a project being run out of Town Hall. 

Behind the Scenes at Town Hall

During the 18 months away from the building commission, decisions regarding the community house-senior center were made primarily by Cosgrove and Thomas P. Arcari, the head architect at Queensberry Arcari, the firm selected by the building commission to redesign and renovate the building at 46 Church St. Arcari explained at an RTM meeting that a decision was made to give the community house project to the Building Commission only after the RTM approved its funding.

Hentschel says any number of decisions regarding the Community House-Senior Center, including the decision to increase the cost of the project from $8 million to $12 million, were made with the Public Building Commission and the public standing outside the process, which, he believes, was not the original intent of the town ordinance.

Hentschel began to raise questions about the role of the Building Commission at RTM meetings. At one point, he asked Cosgrove if Banca, chair of the Building Commission, might come to an RTM meeting to discuss his commission’s role in the Community House-Senior Center project. Cosgrove said he did not think that was necessary.

Hentschel said he had studied the ordinance and does not believe ​“it was the intention of the RTM when they approved the ordinance, nor was it the apparent intent of the actual ordinance to allow the project to come before the Building Commission only when the first selectman decrees.

“I think what is happening here with this particular project is that the Building Commission was essentially left out. They are supposed to be given these major projects by the first selectman and they are supposed to manage them, which is a pretty intense process for a project like this. It would require a lot of dedicated focus time, meetings with architects and with the team and with the stakeholders on the project. And none of that is happening.

“My impression is, and I think it is borne out in some of the things Jamie has said, is that it has been handled by the administration internally and by people he has decided internally to deal with the architect. The role of the Building Commission has pretty much been left to the initial selection of the architect and some of the team members, but nothing more. Basically, in my mind, they have abdicated their public role in getting the public involved.”

In addition, his submission to the RTM says that the current structure of the commission makes it all but impossible to handle more than one significant project at a time, especially if full control is given to the Commission to oversee the projects. 

Hastily Called BOF Meeting

The first time the public learned that the cost of the project had increased from $8 to $12 million came at a hastily called special Board of Finance (BOF) meeting on Oct. 4, two months before the final RTM vote on the project.

It was so hastily called that two of the six-member board were absent and Chairman Joseph Mooney decided not to hold a vote that night. LINK. Mooney did observe at this special finance meeting that the Community House had turned into ​“an expensive project.”

While numerous public meetings were held in the lead up to the project and in the discussion of the needs of the town’s seniors, a process undertaken early on by Sandra Vlock, the architectural consultant who undertook the process for Cosgrove, there was little if any public discussion from Cosgrove on rising costs prior to the Oct. 4 BOF meeting.

By then Arcari had learned of historical contamination issues in and around the site located across the street from the old Atlantic Wire building and the Branford River, both highly contaminated areas, according to a major criminal investigation by former Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. The contamination issue had not been explored beforehand despite the location of the Atlantic Wire property across the street.

Cosgrove had also learned of a house and nearby property on Church Street that the owners were willing to sell. That sale would help with severe parking availability issues at the site. Parking had been a huge unsolved problem from the outset so an agreement was made to buy the property though the public only learned about this development late in the process.

In the end, the RTM received the project two weeks before it was scheduled to vote in December. As it turned out, a promise by Cosgrove to let seniors weigh in on their preferred location for the senior center never materialized. Even the Commission on Elderly Services was kept in the dark.

It was at the RTM meeting in December 2016 that architect Arcari explained the implications of making the Community House a refuge in the event of a major storm, especially since it lies in a flood zone. He told the RTM he would make the community house building flood resistant. The lower level of the building will become waterproof and flood barriers will be provided so water cannot get into the building. Additionally boiler and electrical service will be moved from the lower level so that electrical service will be placed on the second level.

“None of the infrastructure can be compromised by water,” he declared. 

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