Conservation Director Charged In Fill Pile Scandal Resigns

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield’s conservation director, who is charged in connection with the town’s ongoing fill pile scandal, has resigned.

Brian Carey stepped down last week, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick confirmed Wednesday.

“I accepted the resignation of Fairfield’s conservation director, Brian Carey, on Feb. 5, 2021,” Kupchick said in an email. “Due to the fact that this is a personnel matter and there is an ongoing criminal ongoing investigation, I have no further comment.”

Attempts to contact Carey late Wednesday afternoon were unsuccessful and his attorney, Robert Golger, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Carey was arrested in November and is one of five former town employees accused of conspiracy and illegally disposing of toxic polychlorinated biphenyls — or PCBs — during the 2018 construction of a berm at the fill pile, according to police. The week of his arrest, he was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.

Carey told a subordinate in 2019 not to talk to law enforcement and said police were “a bunch of liars,” according to an affidavit. Additionally, he failed to disclose at a 2019 public meeting that the berm was built with PCBs, the affidavit said.

Also charged in connection with the berm are: Emmet Hibson, former human resources director; Joe Michelangelo, former public works director; Scott Bartlett, former public works superintendent; and Robert J. Grabarek, an environmental contractor hired by the town, police said.

Carey oversaw the public works department for part of 2019 and most of 2020 after Bartlett and Michelangelo were fired.

Carey, along with Michelangelo and Bartlett, is charged with illegal waste disposal, receiving solid waste without a permit and an additional conspiracy charge after allowing contaminated material dredged from Owen Fish Pond to be dumped at the pile while the berm was being built, according to police.

When asked by a state inspector in 2020 for papers associated with the dredging, an upset Carey provided documents omitting information about where the material would be disposed, but eventually told the inspector it was in the berm, an affidavit said.

Carey is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 23.

Fairfield’s Conservation Commission is set to discuss Carey’s resignation at its meeting Feb. 17, as well as the search for his replacement. A job posting for the position dated Sunday specifies that an ideal candidate must maintain high ethical standards and ensure compliance with regulations. The job pays $110,000 to $125,000 per year.

The new conservation director will be appointed by the commission with the first selectwoman’s approval.

The November fill pile arrests were not the first.

In summer 2019, Michelangelo, Bartlett and former town contractor Jason Julian, of Julian Development, were arrested and accused of participating in a conspiracy to illegally run a dump for contaminated material at the fill pile and allow fraudulent billing, court records have shown.

Also charged in connection with the pile is Fairfield's former chief fiscal officer, Bob Mayer, who was arrested a year ago and accused of stealing a file related to the fill pile case and two folders on the Penfield Pavilion building project.

Fairfield hired Julian Development in 2013 to operate the pile and reduce the amount of unused project material on the site by 40,000 cubic yards. But over the next three years, the pile tripled in size, and days before the agreement was set to end, contaminants were discovered on the property. Police opened an investigation into activity at the pile in 2017.