DaRos, Carrano Duke it Out

A showdown between Branford First Selectman Anthony ​“Unk” DaRos and Board of Education Chair Frank Carrano has burst into public view over a two-way building swap that has taken on a life of its own. 

The relationship between the two has reached the point where neither is speaking to the other. Both men have occupied key positions in the Democratic Party. At one point Carrano was the head of the Democratic Town Committee; DaRos is the town’s top elected Democrat.

The public display of their positions played out in full Tuesday night before the Representative Town Meeting’s (RTM) Administrative Services Committee. After a long meeting, with many speaking and key issues still unresolved, the committee agreed to re-refer the swap issue to next Tuesday’s regular committee session. At a meeting Wednesday night the full RTM unanimously agreed to the re-referral. Seven Democrats were absent.

Gail Chapman-Carbone, who chairs the committee, told the group that the BOE also will hold a special meeting Monday, Dec. 13, at Walsh Intermediate School at 6:30 p.m. The BOE meeting will center on the ​“use, control and location” of the board’s central office.

The dispute centers on a DaRos proposal that originally involved swapping three buildings in town, then two. DaRos wanted a new senior center at the Giordano property at 175 N. Main St. Then Carrano said he thought the BOE might do well at the same building instead of the Canoe Brook Senior Center. If DaRos agrees to Carrano’s request, he wants the seniors to be assured of a place as well. There are so many questions yet to be resolved that the deadline might well come and go. The Giordano brothers have said at public meetings that they must have this deal done by the end of December. 

Tuesday night was the first time that all entities involved in what started as a proposed three-way swap last June were in the same room. In attendance were DaRos and Republican Third Selectman John Opie; Vincent Giordano Jr., whose Queach Corp. owns the building at 175 N. Main St.; Carrano; schools Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez; Tara Bartlett from the Commission on Services for the Elderly; Dagmar Ridgway, the executive director of the Canoe Brook Senior Center; and several members of the Representative Town Meeting, in addition to those on the committee.

The swap initially involved three buildings. It would move the BOE offices to the Canoe Brook Senior Center and renovate the 175 N. Main St building to become a new senior center. The North Main building would be swapped for the BOE building at 1111 Main St., which is owned by the town. The plan has now been changed to involve the current BOE building and the Giordano building.

This means that the BOE, which currently occupies a 4,000 square foot building, would not go to Canoe Brook Senior Center, its intended location at 8,000 square feet but to the 175 N. Main St facility, a 14,000 square foot facility. Fewer than 20 BOE employees would occupy this larger space. Carrano said he believes that 175 N. Main St. ​“is well-suited” for the board’s central offices. It is not clear how the BOE will use the space or if it will use all of it.

At the Tuesday RTM committee meeting, on one side of the room was DaRos saying he would not sign off on any deal that did not include accommodations for a new senior center. On the opposite side of the room was Carrano saying the BOE, not the town, has jurisdiction over the town building that is part of the swap.

Schools Superintendent Hernandez last month sought a legal opinion from Tom Mooney, a partner at Shipman & Goodwin, on the BOE’s legal position. Mooney cited statutes showing the BOE has jurisdiction over its current town building, a significant fact that only came to light with Mooney’s opinion.

Mooney was legal counsel to the BOE in Hamden when Hernandez was superintendent there. The two men know one another well, and it may well be that he will become the new BOE attorney here — a situation that will not sit well with other town officials. Shipman & Goodwin sued the town in the Tabor case (read about that here) and the town attorney does not talk with them. The recent Tabor settlement was arranged through a third party law firm.

Carrano has said that unless he knows where the central office is located, he will not budge from the current building facing the town Green. 

At the committee meeting DaRos said if the seniors are not included in the deal, there will be no deal. ​“I believe there’s no point in doing this if we solve only one problem. We have two problems.” He talked again about the original swap ideas. ​“I won’t support anything that doesn’t include the seniors,” he said. DaRos asked that the BOE give the seniors a place of their own, either the Indian Neck School or another school building that might be available.

DaRos told Carrano to ask the BOE if the seniors can have Indian Neck: ​“I would like some cooperation on that end.”

In a subsequent interview with the Eagle he said if the BOE does not give the town a school to move the seniors to, ​“then that will be a deal breaker. “ He said the reason for the swap in the first place was to get the seniors a new center. ​“And now we are not going to even consider them? What about the seniors, ladies and gentlemen, where this whole thing started? What about them?”

Opie pressed early on for a two-way swap. ​“This is pretty much the kiss of death” for a two-way swap if the seniors are tied in to it. He position was to deal with the seniors later but to take them out of the equation for now. At the meeting he sat next to Vin Giordano, whose cause both he and DaRos have pleaded in different ways.

A former first selectman who has lost to DaRos in subsequent elections, Opie supports Carrano’s position that the BOE go to the Giordano property. Opie has been openly critical of DaRos’s plan, referring to it as one of the most ​“screwed up” processes he has seen in years.

Sweetheart Deal Shelved

In other developments, a sweetheart deal that tied a two-way building swap to a deal that gave the Giordano family first crack at any town ​“construction or renovation” exceeding $100,000” at its 175 N.Main St. building has been eliminated from a proposed contract with the town. The latest version was unveiled Tuesday. The sweetheart deal caused consternation among many when it was disclosed earlier this month. 

The contract was revised after the clause elicited criticism from Republican RTM members and after it appeared that DaRos has not approved it. Still in the proposed contract is a proposed one-year lease agreement that requires the town to collect all rents from multiple tenants now purchasing space at the Giordano buiThis section requires the town to become landlord, rent collector and evictor of private renters, an unusual role for town officials to take on.

The school and land DaRos mentioned most for a senior facility is the Indian Neck School. But Carrano demurred, saying Indian Neck is adapted for special needs students and that the director there was ​“very much opposed” to moving elsewhere when a proposal was made a couple years ago.

Although the committee meeting was often contentious, Chapman-Carbone told the Eagle that she thought the session was productive because people from all sides gave their opinions.

DaRos said at the committee meeting (he was not present at the RTM meeting) that he met with Carrano and former superintendent of schools, Dr. Kathleen Halligan in early May and made a presentation to the BOE in June about their moving to Canoe Brook. He said a feasibility and needs assessment study was done by Quisenberry Architects and that conceptual designs were presented to the seniors. DaRos told them the Canoe Brook Senior Center would be renovated for the BOE. Given the renovations Dr. Halligan agreed to move twice if necessary and DaRos acted on that assumption. But Hernandez, the new superintendent, would prefer to move only once, Carrano said. That presents problems. 

DaRos said that the meetings of the Commission on Services for the Elderly ​“were used by a very small minority to bash the staff and delay any constructive movement.” 

He said the Center Revitalization Review Board and Planning and Zoning both signed off on using 1111 Main for commercial use.

“Recently the Elderly Commission made a survey and voted on their desire to be housed at 175 N.Main St., which was the original intent. More recently the Board of Educaiton showed a desire for the same space. This will require some discussion, for I could only support this if the seniors are accommodated in a suitable location — such as the Indian Neck School,” DaRos said in a prepared statement.

In addition, he said both buildings would have to be environmentally cleaned. He told the Eagle that the town would pick up the costs of outside cleaning but that he expected the Giordanos to pick up the costs of the inside of the building since they are going to gut it and renovate it anyway. 

Republican RTM member Peter Black immediately suggested re-referring the issue ​“We need to be able to review this.” Black is concerned about the environmental costs and who pays for what. 

Republican RTM member Dennis Flanagan asked Tara Bartlett if the Elderly Commission took the seniors’ feelings into account. Bartlett responded: ​“The commission most certainly took into account the feelings of the seniors. The majority of them supported 175 [No. Main].”

Genevieve Goff said Canoe Brook has parking problems, not enough space for programs and too many steps. ​“We want to move now.”

Opie again suggested surveying people in their 50s about need for senior center.

Genevieve Goff responded ​“When I was 50 I had no idea of what I’d want in my 80s.” She’s 83 years old.

Vincent Giordano pressed for ​“an agreement in concept with details to follow” He suggested a meeting of selectmen, the BOE, attorneys, the RTM, the Board of Finance and the Giordano family: ​“Get the merits of the swap approved in concept… let’s take the devil out of it and get down to the details.”

While Opie was pressing hard for the Giordano family, there was resistance from some Republican RTM members. The RTM is entrusted with final decisions on land issues.

Republican Rep. Jamie Cosgrove said people are uncomfortable voting on even the concept because there are so many questions.

Cosgrove’s sentiments were echoed by others. Republican Mark Riccio, for example, asked: ​“What’ the rush?” He said members need to know more information about the availability of other town buildings.

Flanigan said he thought they were only talking about the swap and possibly the BOE going to North Main. ​“This kind of changes the picture quite a bit.” He said he didn’t realize the seniors had to be part of the picture. Flanigan said ​“We’re just wasting a valuable piece of time spinning our wheels” if DaRos won’t agree.

DaRos responded ​“I believe the BOE is the one taking the ball and going home.”

Before the RTM meeting ended last night, Republican Michael Nardella said the town and the Giordano’s had both failed to present the swap ​“in a professional way.” He said RTM members are not experts and need presentations and information before they can act. He saw no problem in delaying or even ending the proposed swap, he said.

As for Carrano, he said he was dubious about the Indian Neck school idea. ​“There is no way I can bring a question like that to the board and have them respond to it immediately.” He said it’s a special program building but a move would be complicated,. ​“Would we consider it, yes. Can I promise you that it will happen? No.”

Carrano added: ​“It’s very disturbing to me and to the board to have us pitted against the senior center.” He said he doesn’t want it to be a battle between the BOE and the seniors. ​“I support something to be done as soon as possible to accommodate those people,” he said.

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