How Investigations Start–Sometimes It’s A Pen Pal

By all accounts, so far the investigation by law enforcement officials into the city’s construction management and Minority Business Enterprise programs and internally in City Hall as a personnel matter began as a letter that found its way to the mayor’s office. The letter claimed some funny business was going on. How could the folks in charge, with the help of others, wire work to themselves?

The Connecticut Post and OIB have received several communications of late from someone claiming to be inside City Hall accusing this one and that one of unspeakable stuff. Irrespective of what local law enforcement is looking at criminally and what the city’s Labor Relations Department is examining internally it’s at the very least a damning declaration of city responsibility that city officials could steer work to themselves without supervisors catching this stuff in lieu of a whistleblower’s anonymous letter. It would, of course, be a lot worse if the letter outlining the allegations had been ignored.

Law enforcement investigations don’t necessarily start as a flashpoint. Sometimes a newspaper article urges curiosity or perhaps a knock on the door of a federal agent by someone who’s pissed off because they claim the fix is in, or they weren’t included in the fix. The federal case against Mayor Joe Ganim began circa 1996 when a veteran FBI agent read a Connecticut Post article about the Fairfield-based developer United Properties winning a controversial zoning approval to build a Super Stop & Shop on Madison Avenue in the heart of a residential area. The agent, Robert Marston, decided to poke around about influence in City Hall. It wasn’t long before Ed Adams, another veteran agent, investigated in earnest, and then dozens more in one capacity or another revealed conspiracies that went well beyond the suspicions of the Stop & Shop accusations. Federal investigators were, in fact, aided for many years by an anonymous letter writer who claimed this one and that one were on the take. The letters at the very least provided insight into the city’s political players if not providing direct information of impropriety.

The man who replaced Joe Ganim in office, by virtue of City Charter regulations, City Council President John Fabrizi, had baggage of his own (anonymous letters pointed out), even if it did not rise to the level of Ganim. The worst-kept secret in Bridgeport political circles was Fabs’ profile as a party animal, be it alcohol or nose candy. The newspaper from top to bottom didn’t want to touch it, until a drug dealer’s information revealed in a court document that some of his stuff had ended up in the mayor’s possession. Fabs was forced to admit something he had denied for so long, that he had indeed used cocaine on an occasion. The admission contributed to his mayoral downfall.

Anonymous letters have a purpose, so do the contributions made by OIB readers, but just because they’re sent or shared doesn’t mean they’re accurate. It also doesn’t mean they should be discarded. It’s stuff that should be checked out.