Bipartisan anger at Johnson over GOP mayoral hopeful's claim that not all city contracts "are done properly and completely above board"

When Republican mayoral candidate Ken Johnson told a crowd recently that he is "not satisfied that all contracts are done properly and completely above board" at City Hall, city officials and politicians said they were perplexed.
But when Johnson explained the next day that he was referring to last year’s decision to hire a Plainville real estate broker to help sell surplus city property, they got mad.
Calling the charge “an eleventh hour political ploy, Democratic city Councilor Frank Nicastro, said Johnson’s comments were “offensive as heck. He owes the city an apology.”
“He cast a general allegation against the city,” said Republican Mayor William Stortz, that made Bristol look bad without any justification at all.
Republican city Councilor Mike Rimcoski, one of the three real estate panel members that picked the Plainville firm for the pilot project, said, “If I had to do it again, I’d do it again.”
Democratic mayoral contender Art Ward, a council veteran, said that Johnson “cast dark aspersions” that he failed to justify.
Johnson said that some city firms that sought the contract to sell surplus residential property “were not satisfied the contract was awarded properly.”
Johnson said that his own real estate firm, based in Bristol, was one of the brokers shut out when the city tapped the Plainville-based Berarducci Realtors to handle its sale of surplus residential property.
It’s unclear, though, what anyone did wrong.
Roger Rousseau, the city’s purchasing director, said that the selection process that led to the hiring of Berarducci was “no different” than the way Bristol awards all of its professional service contracts.
He said the contract was advertised twice in both The Bristol Press and a Hartford paper, discussed at council meetings and the subject of news stories.
Still, though a dozen firms sought the contract, some agents complained later they didn’t know the city was looking to hire someone to sell off surplus land.
“Were local firms given every reasonable opportunity to bid on the project and every reasonable consideration to be selected?” Johnson asked.
In hindsight, Rousseau said, he would not rely only on the normal marketing methods. He said he would ask the Realtor’s Association to spread the work about a similar contract in the future.
Nicastro, who heads the real estate panel, said that everything about the selection of Berarducci was done in public and correctly.
Rimcoski said it led to the sale of $700,000 worth of property that has helped reduce the tax burden for residents.
The other member of the Real Estate Committee, Democratic city Councilor Kevin McCauley, said the panel “did everything above board. Nothing was done behind closed doors.”
“We have nothing to hide,” said Nicastro.
McCauley said that Berarducci got the nod because it offered the most attractive deal to the city, something that Nicastro, Rimcoski and Rousseau also said.
McCauley said he is disappointed that Johnson would attempt to make an issue of the deal after it was extensively discussed in public last year.
“Why didn’t he bring it up at the time?” Ward asked.
“I never saw Mr. Johnson at any of the meetings,” Nicastro said.
Nicastro said he was particularly offended that Johnson would put Rimcoski in the crosshairs.
“When he attacks a member of his own political party, that’s not the kind of person I want as mayor,” Nicastro said.




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Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com