NEW BRITAIN – Majority Leader Phil Sherwood said Friday that he would like to see an inquiry into the possibility that Mayor Timothy Stewart may have improperly tried to steer contracts.
Sherwood said Mattabassett District Chairman William Candelori is alleging Stewart lobbied for The Maguire Group, a New Britain engineering firm bidding on a project to design the district’s future upgraded facility. The project, originally bid out at $80 million is now estimated to be approaching nearly $100 million.
Sherwood said Candelori told him Maguire was near the bottom of the list in the choice for contractors. The district commissioners, over which the mayor holds no control, eventually awarded the contract to the New Hampshire firm, Wright-Pierce.
"Even knowing that, the mayor continued to lobby for that [Maguire]," Sherwood said. "We have an accusation of contract steering. We have an obligation not only to look at any new evidence regarding Candelori, but we have a serious obligation to look at this accusation of contact steering."
Stewart called the allegation another attempt to smear him in order to keep someone convicted of a crime, but friendly to local Democrats, in a powerful position.
"I don’t have anything to do with the decision of the Mattabassett board," Stewart said. "My problem with Mr. Candelori is that he is not the right person to be in that position."
Alderman and Minority Leader Louis Salvio also has questioned whether Candelori should be allowed to stay in his current position. Although appointed to a third term earlier this month by the Democratic majority on the council, Stewart vetoed the appointment on the grounds of "ethical lapses."
It was recently learned Candelori had been named as a current defendant in an alleged fraud case involving Sovereign Bank v. Michael Thomas, former chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council. In 1992 Candelori pleaded guilty to tax evasion after the collapse of Colonial Realty, a multi-million dollar investment scheme. The collapse, which cost Connecticut investors hundreds of millions of dollars, also saw guilty verdicts against Jon Googel, a Colonial founder and Kevin Sisti, the son of a Colonial founder. The New Britain Herald recently obtained court records on the Sovereign Bank civil case showing Candelori, Googel and Sisti all were involved in a land deal.
Sherwood said Friday that new information about Candelori’s alleged involvement in a fraud case was important.
"It’s very important that the council take ethics and the public interest very seriously in this case but it’s also important not to assume guilt," Sherwood said.
Sherwood said he didn’t understand why Candelori was being scrutinized when the city is known to have done business with contractors like the Tomasso Group, with the full knowledge that William Tomasso was convicted of a crime, or the Manafort Brothers, who Sherwood said also had an employee imprisoned.
"All who happen to be Republicans," Sherwood said Candelori told him.
Asked if it made a difference because Candelori was appointed by the city to his position, Sherwood said he did not see a connection.
‘It doesn’t look good to be associated with similar people who were involved 20 years ago, but that being said, I don’t think we should be buying into guilt by association," Sherwood said. "This isn’t China."
Source:newbritainherald.com
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