Federal Bankruptcy Judge Julie Manning on Thursday afternoon sided with the municipalities of Bridgeport and Stratford opposed to a “bad faith” bankruptcy filing by management of Success Village co-op whose roughly 2,000 residents are without heat and hot water with the cold weather season coming.
The bankruptcy filing placed a hold on a state trial hearing in which Judge Dale Radcliffe was weighing a request by the municipalities to appoint a receiver to oversee solutions to the heat, hot water and financial chaos at the co-op.
Manning’s decision is immediate. She announced she will file her written opinion on Friday. So this decision returns to Judge Radcliffe for action on the receivership request.
If the judge designates a receiver, Bridgeport and Stratford have both approved loans for a combined $700,000 as a short term fix for heat and hot water.
How long will it take for arrest warrants to be issued for the embezzlers that put the lives of several hundred modest-income homeowners and their 2000+ dependents in indefinite turmoil?! I truly hope that the federal investigators make fast work of their investigation of the Success Village financial situation and round up and jail the miscreants that knee-capped that community.
And truly, the people of Success Village need and deserve maximum state and federal assistance in reclaiming their home-asset value, comfort, and emotional lives just as surely as the victims of any “natural disaster” deserve such assistance. Where are Lamont, Murphy, Blumenthal, and Himes on this issue? (There are probably at least 1000 votes that they need this year, or in the future, located in Success…)
Where is a Bridgeport Fair Housing Commission that might have heard, TWO YEARS AGO, about a Board and Administrator who were providing no regular info to them whil they were tendering common charge payments of $500 or more monthly? Perhaps FAIR Housing might have had no enforcement power, but it could have found a more speedy way of guiding the ‘members’ in their struggle to maintain financial equity as well as to have a voice in their affairs of self-governance.
And who have been the voices of the legal community providing advice and receiving payments from the owners? Did they look at the By-Laws and not identify these as the operating “rule of law”? Did one or more have an ultimate design on the acreage for future development by incapacitating the owners in legalese and ultimate bankruptcy? Is this ongoing struggle something that the local Bar Association ought to research or investigate for the purpose of rebuilding citizen respect for “rule of law”? Time will tell.
Jeff, to be precise, 823 units are without heat. As of 10/15, we (taxpayers) start paying for each to be moved out to temporary quarters by the Health Depts of Bridgeport and Stratford. In addition, we have other costs like the educational disruption of the affected children, the increased policing in my neighborhood with 823 vacant units, …
This is a good decision/step towards fixing a ridiculously outrageous situation that should never have gotten to this point!
Judge Radcliffe should dissolve this so called BOD and order a new election.
There was supposed to have been an election this summer, never happened!
Ok,now,what’s the plan for these people in a few weeks when they have no heat? Oh,that’s right,there isn’t a plan,I guess space heaters and they will have to go to a local gym for showers?
That was Dennis Bradley’s suggestion in Judge Radcliffe’s Court before the sleazy effort to keep current leadership in power through the Bankruptcy Court filing. Sadly, the electrical system can’t handle space heaters so the taxpayers will have to pay for it.
Ok,let’s just say receivership is appointed,& Bpt/Stratford loan the $700,000 to fix the boilers,I may have missed it,but is there a timeline on how long the repairs will take?.. I’d imagine it isn’t going to be quick, which leads us to the question,”what’s the plan?”
If damaged highways/highway bridges meant to service hundreds of thousands of vehicles (including huge trucks) on a major interstate can be demolished and replaced inside of a month (Bridgeport and Norwalk, 2005, 2024) — without completely shutting down the highway — the replacement of a couple of industrial-scale boilers and conduit piping for heating and hot water can be engineered and accomplished for 2000+ deserving citizen-inhabitants in Success Village within a couple of weeks before the start of heating season.. The municipal., state, and federal representation of the people of Success Village need to get moving to get $ in place to facilitate action by appropriate housing agencies to hire/oversee the right companies in getting the heating and hot water mess corrected in a timely way — even as the criminal/legal mess is sorted out in court. This is an immediate emergency for 2000+ people.
Where are the Governor, Congressman Himes, and our US Senators in facilitating action to ameliorate this unfolding social disaster?! Surely, if there are provisions to provide grants/physical aid in cases of natural disaster, there must be the equivalent for man-made disasters in the government’s repertoire of remedies for situations of homelessness/impending homelessness inflicted by humans on other humans… It would seem that this type of situation should fall under the purview of the Connecticut DECD/Emergency Preparedness and HUD/Disaster Management, in addition to the local agencies trying address the situation….