An independent agency needs to investigate what led up to the awarding of a $389,000 contract to build an access road that winds through Sikorsky Memorial Airport property to the waterfront home of a developer who is a business associate of the airport manager.
Whether it's the Bridgeport Police Department, the FBI, the Federal Aviation Administration or some other agency, enough questions exist that Bridgeport taxpayers are entitled to know that a thorough, unflinching investigation took place.
The city's Labor Relations Department, which Mayor Bill Finch has assigned to investigate the matter, is by definition incapable of carrying out the task convincingly: Thomas McCarthy is deputy director of the department. He also is president of the City Council, which unwittingly, so its members say, played a role in the matter. And McCarthy is a member of the Airport Commission.
In short, City Hall investigating City Hall doesn't work. And to reiterate, it may be that everything done here was proper. That conclusion would be a lot more convincing coming from an independent investigation.
John Olson, a member of the Bridgeport City Council from the 132nd District on the West Side, proposed the other night that the council conduct a Congressional-type hearing, summoning witnesses to testify under oath.
Olson is a man of integrity and his idea is a good one. Unfortunately, the likelihood of such a hearing taking place is would seem pretty slim. This thing could turn radioactive quickly.
The problem is that once questions start getting asked, where do they stop? The questions might begin with the business relationship between John K. Ricci, the airport manager, and Manuel Moutinho, the shoreline property owner who not only got the access road but also was paid $389,000 to build it. But where might they go from there?
That the U.S. government might be interested is not far-fetched. For one thing, the FBI has been pretty interested in all things Bridgeport over the years. For another, the flap over the gravel access road might have been just another Bridgeport head-shaker -- "There they go again" -- but the cost of the road is a pittance, really, when measured against its role in the overall $40 million, long-awaited airport safety project that involves, among other things, moving Main Street in Stratford to eliminate a dangerous blast fence at the end of a runway and add material that would crumble under, and stop, the weight of an airplane. Federal money will cover 90 percent of that cost.
City officials, while proclaiming their ignorance about much of this, were quick to point out that no federal money was involved in the payment to Moutinho for construction of the road. Fooling around with federal money, of course, is inviting yourself to appear before a grand jury.
The actions involved here may in no way approach that threshold, but it will take an independent investigation to make that clear.
Source: http://www.ctpost.com
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