Driveway inquiry picks up speed: Sikorsky Memorial Airport (KBDR), Bridgeport, Connecticut

BRIDGEPORT-- Call it the missing half-year.

As the City Council tries to get to the bottom of how they unknowingly bought a $400,000 no-bid driveway for a developer, then hired him to install it, members are zeroing in on how officials justified the project as an unanticipated expense to dodge the competitive bidding rules.

While the driveway deal wasn't finalized until spring, there are indications some city officials knew it was on the horizon as of late last summer.

"I'm sure there's a time line," City Attorney Mark Anastasi promised the council's Ordinance Committee Wednesday.

The committee wants to apply any lessons learned from the driveway inquiry to tighten purchasing rules.

Anastasi and the city's purchasing staff met with members Wednesday to begin answering their questions. Those offices, plus Sikorsky Memorial Airport Manager John Ricci, played key roles in the driveway project.

In April Mayor Bill Finch's administration -- unbeknownst to the council and general public -- hired millionaire developer Manuel "Manny" Moutinho to build the 1,000-foot gravel driveway for himself and three neighboring property owners.

The driveway runs from Sniffen Lane in Stratford, over city-owned Sikorsky Memorial Airport land, to the four private parcels along Stratford's shoreline.

Ever since Hearst Connecticut Newspapers revealed its completion in June, the driveway has turned into a political nightmare for Finch.

A neighboring condominium association last month persuaded a judge the project should never have been approved.

The mayor last week fired Ricci for allegedly not revealing his real estate dealings with Moutinho to the administration until after Hearst reported on them. Ricci is appealing through his union.

And sources have said federal authorities are now eying the situation.

The mayor's office has argued it owed Moutinho and neighbors the driveway because the city was taking away an older, dirt driveway for a runway safety project.

The administration has also said the council approved the $400,000 last September when members borrowed $3 million toward the Sikorsky Airport work. The $40 million runway safety zone is mostly federally funded, which is why the FBI and U.S. attorney are now paying attention.

But Anastasi hedged a bit Wednesday, saying the city had hoped Moutinho would assume the responsibility.

"At one point, there was also an expectation Mr. Moutinho on his own was going to do something," Anastasi said. "That didn't bear fruit."

The controversial developer -- whose allegedly botched sewer project in Trumbull is also part of an FBI probe -- previously obtained Bridgeport's approval to relocate the dirt driveway because it flooded. Last summer, he received permits from Stratford to build the new gravel access way, presenting it as his own $200,000 project.

But Moutinho never broke ground. Why, remains unclear, although Ricci in a statement following his termination claimed Moutinho held off because of the zoning appeal Breakwater Key condominiums filed last September.

After approving the $3 million for Sikorsky in September, the council in October OK'd an agreement with Stratford, where Sikorsky Memorial Airport is located, and with state and federal authorities for the runway safety improvements.

But according to records in Stratford, it wasn't until March that Bridgeport took over Moutinho's building permits.

Then, in April, the city hired Moutinho to install the driveway after waiving competitive bidding.

"So what happens between September and early April? That's a lot of time in-between," council President Thomas McCarthy, D-133, asked Anastasi Wednesday.

It's a key question because Moutinho was hired using city guidelines for "qualified purchases" that waive competitive bids when time is a critical and the purchases unanticipated.

But in a late April interview, lawyer Lisa Trachtenburg, the attorney in Anastasi's office assigned to the airport, told Hearst that as of late September or early October, she advised city budget staff to find money for the driveway.

"I went to my Office of Policy and Management director and said ... we've got to rebuild a driveway," Trachtenburg recalled.

Acting Purchasing Agent Berndt Tardy told the Ordinance Committee on Monday that the law department in April asked for the qualified purchase. He was told time was critical, the city was under a federal deadline to compete the runway work by 2016, and had to use Moutinho's permits and also hire him to get the driveway done.

"From what I was told, someone had the permits and if they didn't do the job, we'd have to pay them for the permits," Tardy said, adding that cost alone was $40,000. "I felt it was prudent to grant the request."

Even so, Tardy requested that the city, through Ricci, seek two other informal quotes from other contractors, both of which came in higher than Moutinho's price.

"How do we decide whether this is something where a department hasn't sat on this?" said Councilman Steven Stafstrom, D-130.

Tardy said he relies on the integrity of the city employee making the request for the qualified purchase.

"I just take their word for it," he said. "How do I go about proving they had time?"

Anastasi is expected to provide more details of what transpired over those several months at the Ordinance Committee's next meeting. Members also said they wanted to interview Trachtenburg.

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