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Residents demand New Haven take ‘critical opportunity’ to get Coliseum site right

Mary O'Leary NEW HAVEN — They say they just want to get it right.

After a year of staff meetings and some public discussions, a vote on the first phase of development at the former Coliseum site was delayed as more information was offered on the amount of public space and questions were posed on internal traffic safety.

City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand made the case, which his colleagues all agreed with, to put off the vote “for a full opportunity to ask questions when we are not near exhaustion.”

Spinnaker Real Estate Partners, Fieber Group and KDP provided more details on the plans for 200 apartments, a public plaza and retail along an internal laneway.  It represents a portion of the first phase of a multi-year development that developer and residents agreed is crucial to get right as it sits at the entrance to the city’s downtown.

The City Plan Commission kept the public hearing open after three hours of testimony, to fully discuss the site plan at a meeting on Nov. 4. after additional information was presented in correspondence from the city and the Fieber Group.

The majority of the rest of the agenda was also transferred for action in November.

The purview of the commission was to vote on the narrow concerns of the site plan itself, while the residents continued to put it in the larger context of the full build-out, which was 700 apartments, retail and office space not detailed at this point. Phasing of developments of this size is common in New Haven.

The majority of questions for the developer have been generated by the Downtown Wooster Square Community Management Team, the Hill South Community Management Team and Anstress Farwell of the New Haven Urban Design League. The staff report on the Spinnaker plans recommends approval as it meets the zoning requirements and letters from the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, the Town Green District, as well as other businesses. praised the proposal.

Previous meetings were devoted to the 20 percent of the development that will be set aside for affordable housing.

The developer has agreed to market 20 of the first 40 affordable units to families at or below 60 percent of area median income. AMI is the point where half of the residents in the area earn more and half earn less.

The specifics of the development on this 4.5-acre owned by the city are governed by a Land Disposition Agreement reached in 2013 with the previous developer, Live Work Learn Play of Montreal, who dropped out when the plans stalled; Spinnaker took over in August 2019.Caroline Smith, chairwoman of the Wooster Square team, framed her concerns about safety within the development by pointing to the 12 pedestrians and bicyclists killed this year in New Haven by cars. The internal retail laneway is shared by pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.

Smith said she did not want “perfect to be the enemy of the good, I do want to be sure that all plans for projects like these ... are accessible, that residents can be meaningfully engaged and informed.” The presentation by the developer she said was one of the best she had heard, but much of it the public is seeing for the first time.The land disposition agreement calls for a Transportation Demand Management Plan aimed at reducing vehicular traffic and giving priority to transit, walking and biking.

“This is a really critical opportunity to make sure that we are doing our full due diligence to make sure that this property is safe for folks that are walking through and cycling by,” she said.

“... Why should me as a resident feel comfortable moving with this plan without that (the Traffic Demand Management Plan) being done?” Smith asked. She said it should be completed before site plan approval.

Smith and Farwell were concerned that the retail laneway is being counted as open space and Smith called for a more detailed accounting of that aspect.

The developer and Economic Development Administrator Michael Piscitelli, in a letter to the commission, said both the public plaza and laneway are open space according to the Land Disposition Agreement and the amount set aside exceeds what the deal calls for in Phase 1.

They also said that in Phase 2, in the southeastern portion, there will be another public plaza and will feature such things as a water element, local art and hopefully a sculpture by Lucky Climbers. The space can also be used for farmers markets and public movies.

$40 million for Westport’s Cribari bridge turned down, again

DJ Simmons  WESTPORT — Funding to repair the town’s historic William F. Cribari Memorial Bridge has been turned down — again.

“I recognize it’s important to support the ongoing maintenance of the bridge and keep it in a good state of repair,” First Selectman Jim Marpe recently said at a South Western Region Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting. “However, many Westport residents and I remain seriously concerned about the potential consequences of a major rehabilitation or replacement.”

Marpe similarly requested $40 million be removed from the State Transportation Improvement Program list in 2017. He said at the time the Department of Transportation had not completed an environmental impact study, nor clearly defined how it intended to rehabilitate the bridge.

SWRMPO again agreed to remove the funding after Marpe said the environmental study would not be seen until the spring of 2021.

“I’m not comfortable supporting the allocation of over $40 million in the proposed TIP to a possible solution that would be problematic for a significant portion of our population,” Marpe said. “I believe the time to consider the final design and construction costs will be after the environmental assessment is completed and we can assess how the real project reflects local needs and safety requirements.”

Kevin Nursick, a DOT spokesman, said the removal of the funds would not impact the environmental assessment because the preliminary design phase of the project — which includes the assessment’s development — was already previously accepted.

“Deletion of the project from next year’s STIP, however, could prevent the advancement of the final design phase of the project,” Nursick said.

But the decision to remove the funds sat well with town preservationists who look to maintain the historic structure. The swing bridge is more than 135 year old.

“Once again, Westporters rose up and let the Department of Transportation know how much the historic Cribari Bridge means to them,” the Westport Preservation Alliance said in an email. “Consequently, the October 15th vote - a vote that would have handed $40 million to the DOT long before the agency revealed what it intended to do to our bridge with that money - has now been temporarily withdrawn.”

However, other Westporters felt the decision was shortsighted.

Larry Weisman, a member of coalition for Westport, said he did not understand the rationale to turn down the funds.

“This is an important bridge because it leads to the railroad, it leads to Norwalk Hospital, and it leads to I-95,” Weisman said. “So it’s an important crossing and it needs to be done safe and in a way that is efficient that keeps the traffic flowing.”

He said some residents have raised concerns that if a new bridge was built, trucks would be able to come through the area.

“That’s a discussion you can have after the study has been made you don’t have to make that assumption now and turn down the money — it doesn’t make any sense,” Weisman said.

He said the town controls the approaches to the bridge with Imperial Avenue and Greens Farms Road. The town could prohibit through trucks on the town roads, or create a super structure on the bridge to keep trucks from crossing. If the funds had remained, the town would also still have input on the design process, he said.

“Nobody wants to see trucks, I don’t want to see trucks going through Saugatuck,” Weisman said. “It’s a problem that is easily addressed, but it’s only going to be addressed if we allow the study to continue.”

Stamford school officials grapple with short-term plans for schools deemed in need of replacement

Ignacio Laguarda  STAMFORD — Stamford school officials have identified five school buildings they say should be torn down and replaced. An immediate question before them now is how much to spend on those buildings to keep them habitable before replacement becomes reality.

According to administration estimates, completing five school replacement projects could cost hundreds of millions and take 25 or so years in total, assuming the projects are not done concurrently.

The school district is examining the possibility of using alternative “swing” spaces to house certain schools while construction is ongoing, but no timetable or actual details have been determined. The plan to rebuild the five schools — Toquam, Hart and Roxbury elementary schools, Cloonan Middle School and Westhill High School — was a priority last year and early in 2020. But the problem has not been discussed much at all since March, when the outbreak of COVID-19 caused school buildings to shut down and overwhelmed the district’s budget.

But the issue is back again, now that the school system has launched a new committee — dubbed the Long-Term School Facilities Committee — to come up with a plan. That committee met for the first time this month. But it appears to be far from answering questions about the future of the buildings — which has raised difficult questions about their immediate needs and could be complicating planning across the district.

Kevin McCarthy, a facilities manager with the Stamford Asset Management Group, which oversees control of school buildings, gave a presentation this week to the Stamford Board of Education about short-term and long-term capital projects slated to be completed at all Stamford schools.

School Board Member Jackie Heftman noticed that the five schools on the demolition list were not nearly as well represented as other buildings, particularly in the “Priority 1” category, which are the projects slated to be completed first.

“Other than Roxbury with their exterior door replacement, I don’t see anything in the priority one section that addresses any of the issues we have at the five schools that were identified,” she said.

McCarthy answered, “That was on purpose.”

He said, “I can’t commit to spending a lot of money on those schools not knowing what the long-term facilities planning process is going to take us,” he said.

Heftman said her concern is that the capital budget request has to go in prior to knowing what the long-range plan is, and what work to do at the five schools.

“So that puts us another year down the road unless there is some commitment from the city that there is going to be separate bonding money or some separate stream of funding to address the issues in these five schools,” she said. “I don’t know how in good conscience we can not have anything on the priority one list.”

Heftman added, “I don’t know what we say to these people that are in the schools and know that they need to have some work.”

Cindy Grafstein, another member of the Stamford Asset Management Group, said the Long-Term School Facilities Committee will start to answer questions once it amasses more information.

“Does it make sense to actually invest multi-million dollars into a school like Westhill or does it make more sense to rebuild completely?” Grafstein said.

Some of the identified buildings might not need to be demolished if the outside structure is deemed acceptable, which will be decided after a vendor is brought on to assess all of the district’s schools, she said.

A request for proposals could be sent out “in months” to get a vendor, Grafstein said.

On Tuesday, McCarthy presented a list of work needed at each of the five schools.

At Westhill, under “Major Work Needed,” McCarthy included the replacement of air handlers and unit ventilators in the school, a project that could cost up to $5 million if the district decides to do the work.

The school has three main HVAC systems that include 85 unit ventilators that sit under windows and a 1960s-era air handler system that services the inner core of the building, as well as the auditorium, gym and other rooms.

Hart, Roxbury and Cloonan need new boilers, rooftop air handlers and a new chiller, among other issues.

At Toquam, projects totaled roughly $10 million to get major issues at the school fixed. Those included fixing foundation window and brick leaks, and installing a new HVAC system and generator.

But McCarthy didn’t recommend doing the work.

“In my opinion, it’s not worth it,” he said.

He said to get Toquam back to an acceptable level, it would take a project comparable to the $25 million spent at Westover Magnet Elementary School to clean out massive mold growth at that building.

“Toquam, at a minimum, needs the same thing,” he said. “It needs significant work.”

Avangrid promotes natural gas vet to lead United Illuminating, CT operations

Alexander Soule  Avangrid has promoted Frank Reynolds to lead its United Illuminating and natural gas operations in Connecticut and Massachusetts — but reporting to his predecessor who stays on to focus on his larger role as CEO of Avangrid Networks.

Separately Tuesday in a possible $4.3 billion transaction, Orange-based Avangrid announced plans to acquire PNM Resources, which has nearly 800,000 utility customers in New Mexico and Texas. Avangrid would assume $4 billion in PNM debt as part of the deal. Hearst subsidiary Fitch Ratings issued an update Wednesday maintaining its “BBB+” outlook for long-term debt owed by Avangrid, calling the company “well positioned” with a manageable risk profile.

Avangrid and Eversource face another round of questioning beginning Wednesday from the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority over their response to Tropical Storm Isaias in early August, with prolonged power outages blanketing the state.

In its own hearing in August separate from PURA deliberations, the Connecticut General Assembly members praised Avangrid Networks CEO Tony Marone for United Illuminating’s planning and response to Isaias.

Not all were pleased with the utility, however, including Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim who complained the company was not responsive to the city’s pleas to prioritize power restoration to elevator apartment buildings with elderly residents. Gov. Ned Lamont subsequently signed a “take back the grid” act to allow PURA to weigh past performance by Avangrid and Eversource in the rates they are allowed to charge.

On Tuesday, Avangrid Networks reported a $94 million profit for the third quarter, up $6 million from a year earlier, with the company indicating storm restoration costs wiped out profit gains it would have otherwise tallied as a result of rate increases in its service territories.

Reynolds is now president of Avangrid’s electric and natural gas utilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts, which include Southern Connecticut Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas and Berkshire Gas. Under Marone who in turn reports to new Avangrid CEO Dennis Arriola, Reynolds will have 1,500 employees under his management providing services to 765,000 customers.

Reynolds has led Berkshire Gas since January 2019, also holding the role of vice president of gas integration. Earlier in his career, he worked for Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas, which are two of the state’s three big natural gas utilities along with Eversource.

He retired in 2004 from the U.S. Army National Guard with the rank of major.

Avangrid did not state immediately whether Isaias prompted any consideration of assigning an experienced electric utility executive to lead the Connecticut operations, and whether Reynolds has experience in leading a large-scale emergency response. Reynolds has familiarity with the company’s overall grid operations, having spent several years leading an “asset management” function within Avangrid with responsibilities including oversight of electric transmission and distribution planning and reliability, including tree removal and pruning.

In addition to United Illuminating, Avangrid owns New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric upstate, whose CEO Carl Taylor came through the electric utility side of the business; and Central Maine Power, whose CEO Doug Herling previously was Avangrid vice president of electric field operations spanning Connecticut, New York and his native Maine.

Reynolds grew up in Bloomfield and holds an undergraduate degree from Central Connecticut State University and an MBA from the University of New Haven.

Fort Trumbull is preferred site for future New London community center

Greg Smith  New London — Fort Trumbull has emerged as the most practical place to build a community recreation center.

That is the opinion of Brailsford & Dunlavey, the firm hired by the city to explore potential sites and develop an actionable plan for a regional recreation center. The company performed a market analysis and ranked five sites, finding Fort Trumbull to have the most available land, fewest construction hurdles and lowest projected costs.

Brailsford & Dunlavey envisions a 67,000-square-foot facility located on a 7-acre city-owned waterfront parcel that the city has marketed for years to developers without success. Details of the facility, along with choice of a final site, are still under development but could include a two-court gymnasium, a 6- to 8-lane swimming pool, fitness center, multipurpose rooms and other elements that could include an outdoor ropes course, tennis courts or ice rink.

The city also has expressed its interest in using the facility as headquarters for the city’s recreational departments and its programs.

Representatives from Brailsford & Dunlavey presented its finding to the City Council earlier this week and to residents at a town hall-style virtual meeting on Wednesday. More than 60 people attended Wednesday’s meeting. Suggestions included a community garden, outdoor lounge area, amphitheater and eatery. A completed plan is expected to be presented to the city by year’s end and will include input from a community center task force and community members.

One of the criteria for the project is “every New London resident should be accommodated regardless of their ability to pay,” said Brailsford & Dunlavey representative Andrew Lieber. “We want to make sure that New London residents come first, and we’re going to be thinking about how this facility operates in a way to ensure that happens.”

One of the biggest priorities expressed by Mayor Michael Passero, the City Council and residents has been sustainability and affordability. The recreation center is being designed as a regional draw with standard membership fees to help subsidize fees for low income residents.

Projected costs of the project have not yet been discussed publicly, but Passero has said that finding a regional partner is key to funding such an ambitious project.

Fort Trumbull, in documents presented to the city by Brailsford & Dunlavey, ranked first in a list of five potential sites. None of the other sites met the 4-acre minimum size needed to accommodate the complex and parking.

The city-owned municipal parking lot at 126 Green St. ranked lowest among the five contenders and is not considered to be a viable option. Also considered was a 2.4-acre parcel at 234 Bank St., home to Coastal Digestive Care Center, and a 3.4-acre wooded section of city-owned Bates Woods Park adjacent to the high school.

Rounding out the list of contenders was the 3.4-acre former Edgerton School property on Cedar Grove Avenue, which was once owned by the city and the proposed site of both a community center and housing complex. The 120 Cedar Grove Ave. property, along with three adjoining properties, are listed for sale for $800,000.

The Edgerton property ranked highest outside of Fort Trumbull because of its accessibility and size. Fort Trumbull, considered to be the lowest cost option, “has a clearer path to timely development,” said Brailsford representative Katie Lutton. On the downside, the Fort Trumbull site is harder to get to than other sites and sits in a flood plain.

Councilor John Satti said he favored the Bates Woods site, calling Fort Trumbull “prime real estate,” and not in a central location.

“New London already has enough non-taxable land,” Satti said.

Felix Reyes, the director of the city’s Office of Development and Planning, said the community center could be a companion to other developments at Fort Trumbull.

Other residents have suggested Ocean Beach Park and Crystal Avenue as places to consider.

Bridgeport resumes sidewalk work halted over FBI probe

Brian Lockhart  BRIDGEPORT — The city is re-launching a sidewalk repair program it halted over a year-and-a-half ago because the contractor was named in a subpoena from an FBI probe into local government.

The City Council on Monday, after being advised by municipal counsel that it could otherwise be sued by the company, in a nearly unanimous vote agreed to allow G. Pic and Sons Construction to resume fixing a list of sidewalks that were part of the local firm’s original three-year contract.

That $3 million deal was supposed to have run from February 2017 until February 2020.

“We have breached a contract — that is the truth,” Municipal Attorney Lisa Trachtenburg told council members during Monday’s teleconference. “We are trying to fix that breach.”

A spokesperson for G. Pic did not return a request for comment Tuesday.

Federal authorities in February 2019 subpoenaed four years’ worth of City Hall’s dealings with G. Pic and two other area companies as part of an investigation into allegations of too many no-bid contracts issued by the Department of Public Facilities.

The subpoena, coupled with some outstanding questions at the time about G. Pic’s pricing, led the council’s public safety committee that spring to pause the sidewalk work to review and potentially rebid the work.

However, the matter never moved forward and had been in limbo until recently when public facilities proposed allowing G. Pic to resume the sidewalk repairs before the temperatures get too cold to do so.

In a letter to the council Monday, Trachtenburg outlined the rationale for returning to the status quo. She noted how “to the best of our knowledge, information and belief” no one from G. Pic had been accused or charged with any wrongdoing related to the FBI probe.

In contrast, that federal investigation — it was subsequently revealed in April 2019 — also focused on 2018’s search for a police chief. And as a result, last month then-Chief Armando Perez and then-Personnel Director David Dunn were arrested for conspiring to help Perez become top cop with a five-year contract. Both men resigned and on Oct 5 pleaded guilty.

Trachtenburg in her letter to the council also said the law department consulted with private counsel James DeVita, hired last year to assist Bridgeport in responding to the federal inquiry. Trachtenburg wrote that DeVita was “not aware of any information that would require the city to cancel or not honor” its contract with G. Pic. She also said the federal government had not taken any position on whether Bridgeport should resume conducting business with the contractor.

“In addition it is our understanding G. Pic has been performing work for various other Connecticut municipalities, as well as for the state,” Trachtenburg wrote.

While her letter did not specifically conclude Bridgeport could face a lawsuit from G. Pic were the city not to honor the re-start the sidewalk repairs, Trachtenburg emphasized that possibility when addressing the council Monday.

“We have not fulfilled our obligation on our end of the contract,” she said.

The sidewalk program was created by Mayor Joe Ganim’s administration in 2016 as a temporary pilot initiative that would expire once the $3 million was spent. Under the program’s terms, the city would cover half the costs of repairing hazardous private sidewalks if the property owners agree to pay the balance. The goal was to try to reduce the number of trip-and-fall lawsuits filed against Bridgeport over damaged sidewalks.

In January 2016 a jury ordered the city pay a 73-year-old woman $416,000 for injuries she sustained from a fall.

According to the city, there are about 50 property owners on the pending list awaiting the work to resume.

Rochambeau Bridge Reconstruction Project Under Way

Ken Liebeskind  The reconstruction of the Rochambeau Bridge, which is actually two adjoining bridges in Newtown and Southbury, Conn., began on June 15 and will continue until December 2023.

The Middlesex Corp. of Littleton, Mass., is the lead contractor in the $52.87 million job that is being financed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT). Andrew Walter, a Middlesex project manager, said crossovers have been completed that redirect lanes on the eastbound and westbound lanes of the current bridge and they will begin to build trestles that will precede the demolition of the bridges before they can be rebuilt.

The Rochambeau Bridge carries I-84 over the Housatonic River and the reconstruction will require a work trestle and barges for work that will be done over the water.

Christopher Zukowski, a CTDOT project manager, said demolition and new construction will require a work trestle for approximately two-thirds of the structure and barges for the remaining one-third, where the water depths are greater.

"We will build the trestle from the shore to the water before we begin demolition of the first superstructure," he said. "We are constructing an access road on the east and west sides of the bridge with the surplus excavated earth generated by these roads being transported to a TRSA [temporary reuse stockpile area] located on state property. By providing a location for the soil to be stored on state property, we can avoid the expense associated with sampling, testing and potentially having to dispose of the soil."

He said the trestle will consist of multiple bents, supported by 24-in. round steel piles that are driven into the soil and tested for their capacity based on their friction with the surrounding soil.

"Demolition will begin on the westbound structure once the trestle has been installed," he said. "It will progress first by removing the bituminous concrete overlay, followed by the removal of the concrete deck. This will be achieved through the use of a Caterpillar 349 excavator equipped with a slab crab bucket. The deck and parapet sections will be snapped off with this large excavator. The supporting rebar will be torch cut as needed."

Once the demolition is completed, both sections of the bridge will be reconstructed. Modification of concrete piers and abutments is required as the new substructure must be widened to accept the new continuous steel plate girders, which will support the new superstructure of the bridge," Bukowski said. "The new 8-inch thick concrete deck will then be formed and poured, followed by installation of a cold applied membrane. A bituminous wearing surface will then be installed."

The job will take three years and is being done to maintain bridge traffic.

"It is a long duration project because each structure is done independently, so the impact to the public is minimal," Bukowski said. "Two lanes in each direction will be maintained with lanes closed only at nights for new steel delivery."

The department of transportation is thrilled that the use of crossovers through the median are possible on this project, he added.

"This technique will reduce the impact to the traveling public by maintaining the two travel lanes in each direction through the work zone for the entire duration of the project. We understand there is a cost associated with slow or stopped traffic and try on every project to include new and innovative ideas and techniques to reduce or eliminate delays to the public."

Subcontractors on the job include Eastern Bridge Works of Pleasant Valley, N.Y.; KTM Electrical Construction of Orange, Conn.; and Warning Lights & Scaffolding Service of Hamden, Conn. CEG

Wrongful termination suit against Trumbull schools heads for jury trial

Donald Eng  TRUMBULL — The wrongful termination lawsuit brought against the Board of Education by its former facilities manager appears to be headed for a jury trial.

Mark Deming filed the suit May 18, alleging the school board breached an express contract in terminating his employment. Deming, who served in the role from June 2014 to February 2020, is represented by former Trumbull First Selectman Timothy Herbst and is seeking damages in excess of $15,000. The school board is represented by Richard J. Buturla of Berchem Moses PC of Milford.

The claim for a jury motion came on Tuesday, the same day Buturla answered Deming’s original complaint. The two sides spent the summer wrangling over the complaint’s wording, with the school board objecting to Herbst’s use of terms like “2014 Annual Contract,” “annual employment contract” and “renewal” in the complaint. “The use of the word ‘renewal’ and the phrase ‘annual employment contract’ to characterize the nature of the referenced document is misleading as it presumes a legal conclusion for which there is no factual basis,” attorney Paula Anthony of Berchem Moses wrote on Aug. 17.

Herbst objected to Anthony’s request to reword the complaint, countering that the phrase 2014 Annual Contract “simply refers to the document that the plaintiff properly alleges is an annual contract as what the plaintiff alleges it is: an annual contract.”

Similarly, he defended his use of the word “renewal” and “annual employment contract,” writing that the complaint “properly contains the plaintiffs material factual allegations that he had an annual employment contract that was renewed each year.”

On Sept. 21, Bridgeport Superior Court Judge Irene Jacobs sided with Herbst, sustaining all 10 of his objections to Anthony’s requests.

In his response to Deming’s complaint, Buturla admitted Deming’s employment dates, and that Interim Superintendent Ralph Iassogna had informed him that his employment was terminated effective Feb. 7. Buturla also admitted the board received a letter from Herbst, protesting Deming’s termination and informing the members that he believed the board was in breach of contract.

But Buturla and the board deny any contract existed between Deming and the board. While former Superintendent Gary Cialfi had informed Deming in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 that the board had increased his salary for the upcoming year, the three-sentence notes had not mentioned contracts or renewal.

In the original 19-page complaint, Herbst outlined a timeline from Deming’s hiring to his dismissal, arguing the June 19, 2014 letter in which former Superintendent Gary Cialfi informed Deming that he was the board’s choice constituted a contract.

In the letter, Cialfi congratulated Deming and informed him that in addition to an annual salary of $125,000, Deming would also receive benefits, including a $225,000 life insurance policy and a time-off policy that included 20 vacation days, 18 sick days, five personal days, five sick family member days and 14 paid holidays.

The letter was dated June 19, 2014, and Deming signed it the same day. Over the next five years, the board allotted Deming annual salary increases of between 2 percent and 2.35 percent. By 2019, he was earning a salary of $139,163.

Herbst said the 2014 work agreement did not specify that Deming’s employment was at-will.

“Indeed, the board did not ever communicate with the plaintiff that his employment ... was asserted by the Board to be employment at will,” he wrote.

Relying on the annual employment letters, Deming agreed each year to continue his employment with the board, Herbst wote.

This, therefore, was “employment pursuant to an express annual contract of employment, not employment at will,” Herbst asserted.

Deming was hired while Herbst was first selectman, though the hiring was a school board decision. His predecessor Al Barbarotta, sued Herbst, then Trumbull’s First Selectman, for intentional interference after a deal between Barbarotta’s company, AFB Construction Management, and the Trumbull Loves Children preschool fell through. The two sides settled the suit for $20,000 in 2015.