Board Of Education's Award On $48K Roof Project Collapsed: Report

EAST HAVEN, CT — A board of education-approved $48,000 capital project awarded to an East Haven contractor that would have roofs added to portable classrooms at Ferrara Elementary School is scuttled as town officials said the project should have gone out to bid, the New Haven Register reported.

In a message to Town Attorney Michael Luzzi, Patch confirmed the Register’s reporting that the Jan. 12 East Haven Board of Education blessing for the award went to East Haven’s A & G Contracting Inc., a company that is not on the state’s approved bidders list.

School, not town, officials approved the project award to A & G, Luzzi said, based on a representation from A & G that it was on the state's approved list.

"No one is assigning blame," Luzzi said. "All parties just want to make sure the proper procedures are followed."

Luzzi said Mayor Joseph A. Carora has, "made this clear to finance and the legal department, that we are to strictly scrutinize and enforce all bidding processes and requests," he said. "The charter is to be strictly adhered to."

Monday Luzzi wrote to schools Superintendent Erica Forti to clarify the towns' position. The BOE vote to award the project should be rescinded, and the capital project specifications should be sent to the town's finance director Jim Keely for the bidding process.

"The purpose of this clarification with the Board of Education at the request of Superintendent Forti was not to ascribe fault — it was to make sure that we were following a process that falls within the charter," he said, adding Forti and the BOE are "in complete agreement."

"We identified an issue and we've collectively resolved it. This always doesn’t have to be a zero sum game in the town of East Haven," Luzzi said. "But we do want to just get it right. We look forward to working with the Board of Ed moving forward."

Read the full story from the New Haven Register here.