Excerpt from Nov. 5, 2017 email from Meriden City Manager Guy Scaife to City Council Leadership From: Guy Scaife Sent: Sunday, November 5, 2017 8:23 AM To: Brian Daniels <bdaniels@meridenct.gov>; David Lowell <dlowell@meridenct.gov> Cc: Kevin Scarpati <kscarpati@meridenct.gov> Subject: Fw: Juliet’s 11/3 Letter to City Manager and Council · Inappropriate behavior - On September 19, 2017 Mr. Carabetta Sr. wrote a letter to the Mayor offering to buy the Mills building with the intent to refurbish them so that the existing Mills buildings could continue to be a part of the downtown housing stock. Mr. Carabetta Sr. further stated that his proposal would spare the City the effort and cost of demolishing the buildings. Upon initially reading the letter, it was immediately recognized by the Mayor, myself, and hopefully any other staff member that his proposal was in direct conflict with mandatory plans to remove those buildings that were in the flood plain. Furthermore, this was a section of real estate essential to the expansion of the flood control project, and a critical part of the land swamp signed agreement associated with the future mixed used development on the Green. In simple terms, the answer to Mr. Carabetta Sr. was an obvious no. The only remaining question was, who would write the response politely explaining the “no” answer to Mr. Carabetta Sr. The Mayor forward the email to Juliet and me the same day he received it with the following note: “Would either of you care to respond?” (He obviously didn’t feel the need to give guidance on what the response would be.) I responded to the Mayor copying Juliet the same day with the following statement: “We will respond and copy you.” As you can tell by my response, the answer to the letter was in my view so obvious, I did not feel the need to gain the Mayor’s review and approval prior to sending the response out under my signature. I had initially assumed Juliet would logically feel that the duty to draft the letter would fall to her but after speaking with her about it, I elected to do it myself. Rather than realizing the simplicity of this, Juliet elected to go off on a verbal condemnation of the Carabetta organization. I counseled her on the spot that the harsh criticism was not warranted based on my question or relevant to the letter and that the task at hand was to generate a timely and respectful response. Her reaction and demeanor during the conversation in her office was inappropriate. I left the office stating that she could send me some relevant points but that I would pen the letter. The letter I sent on 9/21 to Mr. Carabetta Sr. is attached for your reference. Some days later I accidently learned during a hallway conversation with the Mayor that Juliet had in a phone call to Councilor Daniels complaing that I was in support of entertaining Carabetta’s proposal. It is unimaginable how Juliet could have come to that conclusion. It certainly is not a conclusion the Mayor made and there are no facts to support such a position. A few days later, I stopped by Juliet’s office to discuss the situation. My intent and tone was not confrontational. I told her that I had heard that she had expressed a concern to Councilor Daniels that she felt that I was in support of the proposal from Mr. Carabetta Sr. I explained to her that I was at a loss as to what I may have said to cause her to feel that way and asked if she could explain. Her first reaction was to verbally attack the Carabetta’s again. I stopped her and ask that she refocus on my question. She picked up the letter and stated, “Well, in the first sentence you say you are willing to meet with them.” She went on to be critical of my offer to meet and explain our position, starting that she would never meet with them due to fear of being sued. Her anger and apparent paranoia over writing a simple response letter was steadfast. In the end there was no substantive explanation as to why she told Council Daniels that I was in support of selling the Mills to the Carabetta. I elected to not push the issue at the time since the CIRMA investigation was underway and I did not want to create any perception of me creating a conflict. That time has now passed. Juliet needs to explain why she would make such a blatantly false statement to a Council member and if for some reason she had a genuine concerns as to how I saw the issue, why did she not share that concern with me?
From: Juliet Burdelski Sent: Saturday, November 25, 2017 10:22 AM To: Guy Scaife; David Lowell; Brian Daniels Cc: Debbie Moore; mquinn Subject: Fw: Mills Apartments High Rises For your information, below is the totality of the exchange between me and Guy related to the Carabetta proposal to purchase the Mills. I responded, in writing, to both the City Manager and the Mayor as well as the City Attorney to the inquiry within 24 hours. There was no “verbal condemnation” of the Carabetta organization nor a “verbal attack”. Now that Guy’s comments are in the public record, I feel that the City Manager should strongly retract his comments and that he owes me and the Carabetta organization an apology. There are other falsehoods in Guy’s November 5, 2017 email that I will address at a later date if that is appropriate. These comments, however were the most egregious and I feel like they need to be addressed immediately. Thanks, Juliet
From: Debbie Moore Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 9:49 AM To: Juliet Burdelski; Guy Scaife; Kevin Scarpati Subject: Re: Mills Apartments -
High Rises Good morning~ I’ve forwarded this information to the attorneys who are working with the City on the Carabettas’ two pending lawsuits in which they are seeking in excess of $375 million from the City. Please copy me on any response the City provides to the Carabettas regarding this matter so as not to be taken by surprise during an upcoming Court proceeding. Many thanks~
Deborah L. Moore City Attorney City Hall, Department of Law 142 East Main Street Meriden, CT 06450 Tel: (203) 630-4045 Fax: (203) 630-7907 Email: dmoore@meridenct.gov
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From: Juliet Burdelski Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2017 1:15 PM To: Guy Scaife; Kevin Scarpati Cc: Debbie Moore Subject: Re: Mills Apartments High Rises The US Department of Housing and Urban Development specifically approved the relocation of the Mills tenants and the disposition of the Mills units with the agreement that “the City of Meriden will demolish the existing housing and perform flood mitigation on the land it acquires from MHA.....Any future use of the MHA disposed land must continue to provide flood mitigation and be consistent with the Choice Neighborhood grant plan”. See HUD approvals, attached. A plan and funds are in place to demolish the Mills in 2018. Demolition of the Mills is a necessary component of implementing the fully permitted Harbor Brook Flood control plan at the site. Any changes to this plan would require HUD approval and would likely jeopardize HUD funding for the previously approved Meriden Commons development and would certainly jeopardize our state brownfield grant for the demolition and remediation project. For these reasons, it is my opinion that the City should not consider this request at this time.
I am unaware of a previously submitted request to acquire the property. Planning for the Mills demo, with countless public hearings and other public meetings, have been ongoing since at least 2012. Such a proposal was never discussed publicly to my knowledge. Thanks, Juliet From: Guy Scaife Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2017 5:07:01 PM To: Kevin Scarpati; Juliet Burdelski Cc: Debbie Moore Subject: RE: Mills Apartments High Rises We will respond and copy you. Guy From: Kevin Scarpati Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2017 4:42 PM To: Juliet Burdelski <jburdelski@ meridenct.gov>; Guy Scaife <gscaife@meridenct.gov> Cc: Debbie Moore <dmoore@meridenct.gov> Subject: Fw: Mills Apartments High Rises Would either of you care to respond?
Thanks, Kevin From: Joseph Carabetta Sr <jcarabetta@carabetta.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2017 3:42 PM
To: Kevin Scarpati Subject: Mills Apartments - High Rises September 19, 2017 IMPORTANT THIS E-MAIL IS BEING SENT ON BEHALF OF JOSEPH F. CARABETTA
Please see the attached.
Joseph F. Carabetta The Carabetta Companies 200 Pratt Street Meriden, CT 06450