City May Sue over Asbestos Abatement Issues

New Haven, Connecticut – The Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut is considering suing those responsible for mishandling asbestos during an abatement project, as problems created by the mishandling may mean the city cannot collect nearly $1 million in reimbursement for the work.

Mayor John M. Picard hopes to try and change the state’s mind about what costs the state is willing to reimburse, and plans to use litigation as a last resort to try and recoup the money spent on the project.

Picard plans to try all possible methods to ensure the city is reimbursed, saying, “I want the taxpayers to know that litigation is possible. I’m not going to stop until we get reimbursed one way or the other.”

The state has so far agreed to reimburse the city $955,000 for asbestos abatement completed several years ago at West Haven High School. However, the state has also said that $1.2 million of the $2.5 million spent is ineligible for reimbursement.

According to the state, costs are not reimbursable if there is no evidence of a public bid for the work, no plan review, inadequate documentation for the work, and no submitted charge orders.

The problem arises from the fact that the project to remove and replace the asbestos-containing façade of West Haven High School ended up almost twice as large as originally planned.

Partly due to those initial miscalculations over the size of the project, it was expanded without the extra paperwork which would have preserved the project’s full eligibility for reimbursement.  Some of the work was carried out to address air quality issues at the school.

Picard says he will first attempt to convince the state to reconsider what costs are eligible for reimbursement. To facilitate this, members of West Haven’t state delegation will ask the state to extend the deadline for seeking reimbursement for the work. The city has already sent last-minute documents which might make an additional $375,000 eligible for state reimbursement.

Litigation will be a last resort. At this stage Picard has declined to name any people or companies that might be named in a lawsuit.

However, Building Oversight Committee Chairman Kenneth Carney has said that litigation will target “whoever is responsible for allowing work to proceed without it going out to bid and without filling out proper paperwork to get state reimbursement.” Likely targets may include contractors who carried out the work, or individuals involved in bidding out the contracts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 12th, 2008 at 11:24 am and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Asbestos Litigation, Connecticut. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.