Tetreau, MacNamara Respond To Patch Report On Police Meeting

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield's first selectman is adamant that his knowledge of an investigation of illegal dumping that resulted in the arrest of two town employees and a contractor was limited, even after the town's director of human resources received certain details of the probe.

First Selectman Mike Tetreau spoke in response to a Patch article recounting a Board of Police Commissioners meeting Wednesday, at which Chief of Police Christopher Lyddy discussed the investigation.

"I had every intention of approaching the first selectman with the material," Lyddy said, telling the board that he spoke to Tetreau in December 2018 and learned that Tetreau was aware of the investigation and knew who was the subject of the probe.

The first selectman was concerned about interfering with the investigation, Lyddy said, and when Lyddy spoke with Tetreau he held the specifics of the case in his hand and wanted to share them, but did not go into detail. The same day, he brought specifics of the case to Human Resources Director Emmet Hibson in the form of a draft police report because the information included "very bad things," he said.

The draft Hibson received focused solely on former public works superintendent Scott Bartlett, Hibson indicated to selectmen at a meeting last week. Lyddy, too, said that until July 2019 the investigation was centered on one town employee. In addition to Bartlett, former public works director Joe Michelangelo and Julian Companies Owner Jason Julian face charges. Bartlett was terminated last month and Michelangelo was fired earlier this week.

"If I held this information from the town of Fairfield up until now I think you would have the right to crucify me," Lyddy said to the board.

The Wednesday meeting followed an eventful summer in Fairfield. In addition to the charges, which include larceny, forgery and dumping, sites all over town were tested after receiving potentially contaminated material from the public works yard between 2013 and 2016. During those years, the facility was operated by contractor Julian Development. In August, 10 of 20 sites on a priority testing list released by the town were found to contain contaminants, such as arsenic, asbestos, lead and PCBs.

Tetreau said Thursday that while he did not officially know who the subject of the investigation was in December 2018, there were rumors, although neither the chief nor any other official source confirmed the identity of the subject to him at that time.

After receiving the draft, Hibson discussed the document with Lyddy and met with Det. Sgt. Fred Hine to request police interview two town employees, before shredding his copy of the draft in February at Lyddy's request, Lyddy said. Tetreau said he had no involvement in any of those conversations.

Former Fairfield chief Gary MacNamara offered his insights about the investigation after police commissioner Jamie Millington, who is also the Fairfield Republican Town Committee chair, recounted at the meeting communications he had with MacNamara.

MacNamara told Millington he opened the probe after it was requested by the Representative Town Meeting's public works subcommittee, and that former town meeting member and current police commissioner Ronald Pine, a Republican, sought the investigation into possible fraud involving Julian following the subcommittee vote, Millington said. Tetreau concurred that the investigation was necessary and received updates from MacNamara about the investigation, according to Millington, although MacNamara told Millington he did not recall the specific content of the updates. Tetreau, a Democrat, told selectmen last week that he was not given updates about the investigation.

When reached by Patch on Friday, MacNamara said he spoke about police involvement related to the public works yard with Representative Town Meeting members, including Pine, as well as the first selectman. MacNamara said Pine mentioned the subcommittee vote, but he's unsure if he ever discussed Pine or the vote with Tetreau. MacNamara also clarified that police first became involved with the public works yard from a traffic standpoint, due to an increase in truck traffic in the area about a year before the public works fill pile was shut down in 2016.

Tetreau said Thursday that communications with Conservation Director Brian Carey about a possible violation of state or federal law with regard to the public works yard led him to contact MacNamara and seek an investigation, adding that to his knowledge he was the first to do so. MacNamara did not contact Tetreau about Pine or the subcommittee vote, Tetreau said.

"I think it's a combination," said MacNamara, when asked who initiated the investigation, adding he had discussions with both Pine and Tetreau about starting a probe and that he is unsure who contacted him first.

At the time when the investigation was starting, who said what when was "very insignificant," MacNamara said.

"This has evolved and it's very difficult to go back and pinpoint specifics about an evolving situation," he said.

MacNamara also confirmed that early in the investigation he had brief discussions with the first selectman about the probe, and that those conversations did not necessarily include specific details.

Tetreau said he recalled one update, when MacNamara told him the police would be speaking with town employees, and that at some point MacNamra told him the investigation was underway, but he wasn't receiving any specifics.

"I wanted to make sure it was totally independent," Tetreau said.

Fairfield hired Julian in 2013 to run its public works yard and reduce the size of a pile of leftover project material on the property by 40,000 cubic yards. Over the course of Julian's three-year agreement, the pile more than doubled in size, and days before the agreement was set to end, contamination was discovered on the property. In addition to the criminal case, Fairfield has sued Julian for millions in damages and Julian has sued the town for defamation.