Tetreau Plans Oversight Initiatives After Fairfield Contamination

FAIRFIELD, CT — Fairfield's first selectman has plans to introduce several initiatives that he hopes will promote oversight and transparency in town after two Fairfield officials were charged in connection with illegal dumping at the public works yard and contaminants were uncovered at sites all over town.

The first item is the establishment of an environmental safety committee that would supervise where to test for contamination and how to remediate any contaminants, according to First Selectman Mike Tetreau. The committee would also answer questions that come in through the town email designated for contamination concerns, he said.

"There are broader questions coming up in terms of our community and how we make sure that our community is safe," Tetreau, a Democrat, said.

Committee members would be appointed by the Board of Selectmen, Tetreau said, adding he will recommend the committee not include elected officials and that he hopes to see it come to fruition in the coming weeks.

Tetreau expressed a desire to shift the burden off the health and public works departments, which have been involved in the testing and remediation process, but Selectman Christopher Tymniak objected.

"I think taking the burden off of the paid employees, who are paid to solve these problems, and putting the onus on appointed volunteers is — it's a lot to ask the volunteers to sort through," Tymniak, a Republican, said. "... He's the first selectman. It's his responsibility to make these decisions."

Tetreau also plans to ask the town ethics commission to evaluate Fairfield's code of ethics and consider where it requires enhancement. He wants to see the commission work with the human resources department to create an environment where town employees feel comfortable raising concerns.

In addition, Tetreau will ask the ethics commission to oversee a whistleblower hotline, which will go live later this week, he said. The hotline will have both phone and email options, and it will initially be available only to town employees, but later will open to the general public. A third party vendor will take the hotline calls, which will then be directed to the ethics commission, according to Tetreau.

Tetreau will recommend all three items to the Board of Selectmen at its meeting Wednesday. In response to a request for comment, Selectman Ed Bateson, a Republican, said he wanted to hear more from the first selectman about the initiatives before commenting. Tetreau also plans to ask the ethics commission to update selectmen on a regular basis moving forward. The commission currently has two vacancies, but appointments for those seats will be considered by selectmen Wednesday, Tetreau said.

Tetreau's recommendations follow an eventful summer in Fairfield. In August, two town employees and an official with Julian Development — the company that operated the public works yard when contaminants were found at the facility — were arrested. Former director of public works Joe Michelangelo, former superintendent of public works Scott Bartlett and Julian Companies Owner Jason Julian are accused of crimes including larceny, forgery and dumping. Both Michelangelo and Bartlett have since been fired from their town jobs.

Around the same time as the arrests, asbestos was reported at a local park, and not long after that, the town released a list of 20 priority contamination testing sites that received fill material from the public works yard when it was operated by Julian between 2013 and 2016. Of those sites, 10 have been confirmed to contain contaminants such as asbestos, arsenic, lead and PCBs. The town is working with a specialist and state officials to remediate the locations, and announced a second list Friday of sites that received fill from the yard during the time Julian ran it.

Fairfield hired Julian to operate its public works yard and reduce the size of a pile of unused project material by 40,000 cubic yards. But over the next three years, the pile more than doubled in size, and days before the agreement was set to end, PCBs and lead were discovered on the property.

After conservation officials said the transportation and dumping of contaminated material could have violated state or federal law, police opened an investigation in 2017.

In addition to the criminal case, Fairfield has sued Julian for millions in damages and Julian has sued the town for defamation.