Citing a full workload, the State Contracting Standards Board will "pause" a potential disqualification of the Mystic Education Center developer as a state contractor until the board finds out from the legislature in May what resources it will have.

Also during a meeting Friday, the board passed two motions related to the Connecticut Port Authority, a quasi-public agency that is the subject of a recent report from the State Contracting Standards Board. The board voted to request formal opinions from the attorney general regarding the port authority's ability to enter into public–private partnerships via its enabling statutes and regarding the legitimacy of the authority's harbor development agreement, a public–private partnership signed Feb. 11, 2020.

The board is working with the port authority on developing proper procedures for procurement, and the board has requested contracts, including for demolition work at State Pier in New London, Board Chairman Lawrence Fox and member Lauren Gauthier said.

In an update Friday about the process to potentially disqualify the Mystic Education Center developer, the board's Executive Director David L. Guay said that "our plates are full," and while he'd like to be an optimist, he's more of a pragmatist, so he's reluctantly asked to pause the project. He has 77 workdays before he retires, and after eight and a half years as executive director, he said he has a good sense of time management.

"I don't think I can complete this project before I leave, and, again, I'd like to be an optimist to think that we're going to get the lawyer we need and then we can proceed with this," Guay said, "but, if we don't, I would not like to have this halfway done and leave, so I'm suggesting we pause it for the moment until we get a better idea after May 3 of what the status of the board is."

Fox said the board is not abandoning the issue altogether, and hopefully the board will get some resources that would make the process much easier to continue.

The State Contracting Standards Board, which currently has an executive director and an intern as its only staff members, is seeking five additional positions: a chief procurement officer, staff attorney, accounts examiner, research analyst and trainer, The Day has reported. Gov. Ned Lamont's budget proposal for next year calls for $218,770 to hire three additional auditors under the Auditors of Public Accounts, but does not include funding for the five positions for the contracting board.

Fox said at Friday's board meeting that while it's difficult to predict the future, he thinks there is broad support in the General Assembly's Appropriations Committee and in the legislature as a whole for the five additional positions for the board. He also suggested the committee consider mandating the vacancies be filled by Sept. 1 and to allow the executive director, at the board's discretion, be reappointed for a period of time after his retirement to help with the transition.

Also during the meeting, the board passed two motions related to the Connecticut Port Authority, a quasi-public agency that is the subject of a recent report from the State Contracting Standards Board. The board voted to request formal opinions from the attorney general regarding the port authority's ability to enter into public–private partnerships via its enabling statutes and regarding the legitimacy of the authority's harbor development agreement, a public–private partnership signed Feb. 11, 2020.

The board is working with the port authority on developing proper procedures for procurement, and the board has requested contracts, including for demolition work at State Pier in New London, Fox and board member Lauren Gauthier said.

Last fall, after receiving complaints from several Groton residents, the board decided to determine whether to recommend disqualifying Jeffrey Respler of Respler Homes as a state contractor. Respler Homes had proposed a mixed-use development on the vacant, state-owned Mystic Education Center, also known as the Mystic Oral School, site under a lease he had with the state for the property on Oral School Road in Mystic. The lease has since expired and the state did not renew it.

That potential disqualification process would include a hearing; a recommendation by a subcommittee about whether or not to pursue a disqualification; an opportunity for the developer to submit comments, if disqualification is recommended; and then a decision by the full board.

The board has no jurisdiction over a purchase and sale agreement that Respler has signed with the state, or over the development agreement Respler signed with the town. The lease the developer had for the site has since ended, but Guay has said the potential disqualification process "really is about protecting the public going forward."

A state law gives the State Contracting Standards Board the authority to disqualify a state contractor for up to five years "from bidding on, applying for or participating as a contractor or subcontractor under, contracts with the state" based on reasons that include "conviction of or entry of a plea of guilty or nolo contendere or admission to, the violation of any state or federal law for embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification, or destruction of records, receiving stolen property or any other offense indicating a lack of business integrity or business honesty which affects responsibility as a state contractor."

As the former head of a plumbing company, Respler had pleaded guilty in New York in 2004 to four counts of fifth-degree conspiracy, a Class A misdemeanor, as described in a New York news release, which Guay has said could potentially disqualify him as a state contractor.

Mediation between Groton and Respler Homes

Meanwhile, the Town of Groton and Respler Homes are in ongoing mediation regarding a dispute over each other's obligations under their development agreement.

In an update before the Town Council Committee of the Whole went into executive session on Tuesday, Town Manager John Burt and Eric Callahan, an attorney for the town, said the first formal mediation session was held on March 3 and a follow-up mediation session is scheduled for March 14. They said both the development agreement and the mediator require confidentiality. 

"The council is staying the course with the goal of ending the development agreement with Respler Homes," Burt said on Friday.

Respler could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday afternoon.

Respler confirmed in January that he has an agreement in which Blue Lotus Group, described as a company specializing in elder care and age-restricted independent living communities, would acquire Respler Homes.

k.drelich@theday.com