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First Selectman Ken Flatto lost. Fairfield Concerned Citizens won. Theyve been fighting over who should oversee wetlands issues at the Metro Center development. On July 6, Bridgeport Superior Court judge Richard Arnold found that Flattos appointee held the post illegally.
Flatto said he would appeal. He charged the judge with bias, based on his commentary during the trial, and said he expected the ruling to be overturned. He added that the court case wont delay the project. A bid will be awarded soon for the developments public portions, which include a train station, an access road and a parking lot for 1,500 cars.
The controversy started in 2007, when Flatto removed Town Conservation Director Thomas Steinke from the job. BlackRock Realty LLC, which owns the private portions of the Metro Center, allegedly said that Steinke was delaying construction. The firm threatened to sue. Flatto named Gary Weddle, a former chairman of the Inland Wetlands Commission, to the post. The court decision effectively removed Weddle and put Steinke back in charge.
The Concerned Citizens who brought the lawsuit included RTM members Alexis Harrison and Edward Bateson, as well as other prominent members of the town's environmental community.
"It was perfectly clear from day one that the action of First Selectman Flatto in removing the Towns Conservation Director, Thomas Steinke, from his duty of general supervision on the train station project was in direct defiance of the Town Charter and obviously illegal," said the group's attorneys George Bisacca and Edward Kunin in a statement emailed to The Daily Fairfield.
Harrison said the group is gratified that the court showed the town cant arbitrarily remove a single department from their permanent duties. She added, We certainly were never enamored with the idea of suing our town but we wanted to see a wrong fixed."
The Metro Center construction project, begun 2000, slowed down when BlackRock wound up in foreclosure. Its loans have been restructured and new agreements reached with state and town officials. BlackRocks portion is supposed to include commercial space as well as a hotel.
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