A recent audit by state officials found that the TBI Construction Company—the firm contracted to build a new $79.9 million high school in Middletown—not guilty of corruption in making contracts with Governor John Rowland’s administration.
Middletown Republicans have expressed suspicions that Mayor Domenique Thornton’s administration had practiced similar improprieties in awarding TBI with the contract for the new high school.
Last year, Thornton appointed a nine-member High School Building Committee—headed by Democrat Joseph Serra, Middletown’s representative to the Connecticut General Assembly—to look into the Board of Education’s proposal for a new high school on Wilderman’s Way.
The Building Committee changed the site of the proposed high school to a location on East Street, and chose an architect, DeCarlo & Doll, Inc., and a contractor, TBI, to undertake the project. The price of the project was set at $91.5 million.
The referendum on the proposal, held on June 4, 2002, resulted in a resounding defeat of the proposal.
After the proposal was defeated, the planning process began again. The high school was discharged, although when all members were invited to return when it was reconstituted, only three did.
One of the returning members, David Larsen, the former Superintendent of Schools in Middletown and an Independent, was named chair of the committee.
A new proposal was submitted by the Board of Education, again recommending Wilderman’s Way as the location of the school.
In the time between the first referendum and the first meeting of the second High School Building Committee, it was announced that TBI was being investigated for corruption with regard to the awarding of contracts by Connecticut Republican Governor John Rowland’s administration.
While no charges have been brought against TBI and state auditors have recently cleared the company of wrongdoing, there was still concern that the company might not be the best choice, given the allegations.
Due to time constraints, there was no new selection process for an architect for the project by the second building committee, and DeCarlo & Doll was once again awarded the contract.
A search for contractors produced three firms, including TBI and two from out of state. TBI was chosen in a five to four vote.
The Building Committee’s final proposal was for a $79.9 million project, and the subsequent referendum, on June 10, passed.
However, the Thornton administration’s selection process has garnered criticism among Middletown Republicans. Republican Town Committee Chairperson Corinne Gill alleges that TBI was not chosen based on its merits as a construction company. She cited that the company has gone millions of dollars over budget on two recent projects in the area, including a project for Middletown’s Water and Sewer Department. Gill added that TBI has no experience in building high schools.
“Many believe that we chose a bad construction manager,” Gill said.“[There has been] favoritism, cronyism…[in selecting] personnel…selecting contractors.”
Gill said that she suspects ties between members of the High School Building Committee and The Tomasso Group, TBI’s parent company.
Joseph Serra, the head of the first Building Committee, is also the head of Connecticut Association of Street and Highway Officials—a group that hosts an annual event at a TBI owned resort in Farmington.
The allegations served as a focal point of Republican Mayoral Candidate Sebastian Giuliano’s unsuccessful bid for mayor. In an Oct. 21 mayoral debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters, Giuliano referred repeatedly to a lack of “fairness” in the way that the city does business. He also asked Thornton whether she was would take responsibility if TBI went over budget or over time on the High School project.
Thornton has denied all allegations of impropriety in awarding contracts. She said that she supports the choice of TBI because it is her policy to support the decisions of her committees. Thornton added that TBI had an advantage over the other firms in that it was the only Connecticut-based company of the three recommended by the subcommittee.
“My issues are about Connecticut jobs for Connecticut people,” she said.
Thornton said that TBI’s eighty-year history of good labor relations was another factor that influenced her committee’s decision.
“Tomasso Brothers have an eighty year history of good dealings with labor. I was approached by more than one labor representative, I was directly approached by 611, the laborers union, to please give the contract to Tomasso,” she said.
According to Thornton, Republicans have criticized the new high school construction project because historically they are not supporters of public education.
“There was a lot of people that didn’t want the high school at all,” Thornton said. “Those people are still mad that we got our way and there’s going to be a new high school.”
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