Department of Administrative Services personnel took questions Monday from legislators who wanted to know what went wrong with the state's school construction program following a spate of contract steering complaints and a federal investigation.

Some state lawmakers had been calling for a hearing and an investigation into the handling of the state program by the Office of Policy and Management. 

Many who were present at Monday's session said it was not enough of a look into how the state bureaucracy allegedly failed, and called for further inquiry.

A federal grand jury issued a subpoena in October 2021 for documents, from January 2018 to the present, associated with Konstantinos Diamantis, concerning "the planning, bidding, awarding, and implementation" of school construction projects and hazardous materials abatement projects, and the State Pier redevelopment project in New London. Diamantis was formerly the deputy secretary of the Office of Policy and Management and head of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review. 

On Monday, legislators were relegated to discussing steps the DAS has taken since it regained control of the school construction program from the OPM in November of last year to root out and prevent any ethical or steering issues.

But some, including state Sen. Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, and state Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, found that difficult to do given the limited scope of the discussion. It's hard to talk about fixing a problem when what led to the problem can't be discussed, they contended.

"If I'm a taxpayer, if I'm someone watching from the outside, the idea all of a sudden that an audit is going to be done of an audit, is not exactly filling me with a great deal of confidence," Cheeseman said. "The inference seems to be that all of this started with the MOU that moved school construction from OPM to DAS. That obviously wasn't the case, there were longstanding issues."

Noel Petra, who took over the Office of School Construction Grants and Review from Diamantis last year, told those on the virtual hearing on Monday that the office has found problems during an initial review of past policies.

"We have rewritten or eliminated policies, procedures and parts of our system that were not strictly in compliance with statutes and regulations," he said.

Pushback from Groton

When the state told Groton in 2020 to use one of the state's qualified contractors for demolition and hazardous material abatement at the two new elementary school sites, the town pushed back to instead use the companies it had chosen through a competitive bidding process, the town's public works director said.

Irving Goldblum, president of Stamford Wrecking Co., which bid on the two Groton elementary school projects, alleged in April 2020 that the state Office of Policy and Management "intervened and potentially directed Groton to award the work to a contractor on the Emergency Bid List — not the low bidder for the worked based on the invitation to bidders for the Project," according to the document obtained by The Day under a Freedom of Information Act request.

News of the complaint made by Goldblum, and others related to projects in other municipalities, first was reported by The Connecticut Mirror. Diamantis told the CT Mirror that the list was to "help municipalities save money, not interfere in competitive bidding."

State Rep. Anthony Nolan, D-New London, and other legislators asked DAS Commissioner Michelle Gilman and Petra how the DAS is making sure local school districts feel free to come forward and report wrongdoing.

"In regards to districts that might've felt they were required to do some things that they would have chosen not to do under the last persons in charge, how do we get those districts to talk about those things without them having to worry about some retaliation?" Nolan asked. "In relation to those who felt or were under that pressure of hiring or choosing someone they'd prefer not to, who would they come forward to and not worry about a backlash?"

"We would encourage those school districts and others to come forward and talk with me and Noel, but also reach out at the same time or alternatively to the auditors of public accounts or to the office of state ethics," Gilman said in reply. "In some cases school districts and others may be fearful of repercussions, but as part of our commitment to promote a new program and full transparency and uncovering any misconduct that might've occurred ... we urge people to come forward if they have information."

Formica brought up State Pier and asked that similar attention be given to that issue. Formica also confirmed with Petra that he had taken over Diamantis's role and would be overseeing the State Pier project's budget.

Legislators repeatedly asked questions of Gilman that she didn't know the answers to because she was not at the DAS at the time of the alleged steering (she was the assistant state comptroller until March 2020).

"The acting commissioner seems a bit distanced from the details, and the details are what we need," Formica told The Day after the session.

Cheeseman asked Gilman what towns that have possibly been pointed toward questionable contracts can do. Gilman said towns can rebid on various contracts, and, "We would encourage towns to take a look at some of the contracts they have engaged in" due to "steering or impropriety through the previous process under the previous director."

s.spinella@theday.com