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Wednesday, June 15, 2016

MORE AMATEUR MOVES, THE STADIUM AUTHORITY NEEDS TO BE REPLACED...IMMEDIATELY

 
"DONE DEAL" Not even close Pedro
 
Just when you thought you had heard the worst of the Dunkin Donuts Park stadium mess, it gets worse.

Apparently DONO,LLC, the developer of the Stadium that was thrown off the job last week had a "Builder Risk Policy " for insurance during the construction of the stadium. Apparently that policy remained in effect while the builder was operating on the site. A Builders Risk policy, according to sources, needs to be renewed annually and the policy terminates when construction is complete or the builder stops building.

Apparently when DONO and Centerplan were thrown off the stadium project, the Insurance policy lapsed. There is presently no Property and Casualty Insurance in effect on the property insurance. The liability insurance on the property is questionable as to whether that would be honored if a claim were to be made.

This the height of incompetence that no one on the Mayor's appointed Hartford Stadium Authority, not even Development Services or the Chief Operating Officer or the City's Risk Manager, or even the Mayor himself ever thought about letting the insurance coverage on a $65 million dollar project lapse. And before you say "what could happen at the stadium?", imagine the cost of a dirt bike or ATV getting inside and tearing up the field or a broken pipe flooding the locker rooms or luxury suites

At the very least, the entire Stadium Authority needs to step aside and new members that know something about construction and  why they are there need to be found. If the Authority members won't step aside. they need to be replaced by the Mayor and the Hartford City Council.

Enough is enough or do we enjoy being the laughing stock of the region and the State because of a Stadium project being run by fools. In my  June 3rd posting, I raised a couple of points that were critical to a construction project. I wrote "Typically on a construction project someone is monitoring, and enforcing all relevant requirements. Is your licensing up to date and current? Do they have copies of you current license? Is your liability insurance up to date and current? Do they have copies of your current insurance certificates? Is any required letter of credit or bond up to date? Do they have current copies?" You can read that complete posting here

I guess the crystal ball was working that day, but this a basic concept and someone on the Stadium Authority or at City Hall should have known better. At the risk of saying "I told you so", shouldn't the City's COO have been ahead of the curve on this and have followed up as to what relevant steps needed to be taken before the drastic step of throwing the developer off the project?

This is just lunacy considering once again the huge amount of salaries we expend on incompetence at Hartford City Hall, and get very little in return. If I Charles Matthews and the rest of the Hartford Stadium Authority had one shred of decency, they would be tendering their resignations immediately.

A complete recording of the Insurance lapse discussion will be posted to the blog shortly so you can hear the discussion for yourselves.

27 comments:

Harshal Patel said...

If this does not finally lead to I Charles Matthews' removal, I do know what will

Ideas???? said...

It will be blight for many years while the work is stopped. There is no money to finish it. Is the place even ready for winter? A burst pipe would not be good in january with no heat running .....
Maybe we can put all the stray animals in the stadium, like a zoo for people to pay to see ...

Anonymous said...

Who is the City's COO? It's hard to tell.

Anonymous said...

I've been calling for heads to roll at the Authority for awhile now. The members have no clue how to build a stadium and only sat on that Authority to pad their resumes. I'm sure they'll be deleting it soon, if it hasn't been deleted already. Because if anyone asked me about how that position went in an interview, the answer wouldn't be, "Oh, it was great." The real answer is, we had no idea what we were doing, we should have hired professionals to run this operation. As for the insurance, you are correct, this type of insurance requires a "project" to be insured. Since Centerplan has no project, there is no insurance. The City could get it's coverage to add it under their umbrella policy but the project hasn't been turned over to them yet. It's also possible that the city's comprehensive general liability coverage covers the building under the "other insurance" clause. And if not, then pray it doesn't burn down.

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

Darryl Hill

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

7:54PM,

as you will hear on the audio when it is rendered and posted, Hartford's City Auditors were told by the City's Risk Manager that Traveler's will NOT cover the Stadium under the City's umbrella policy for City Buildings. The building is currently uninsured, The City would be "self insured" for any losses until coverage is arranged

concerned hartford citizen said...

And we are the insurance capitol - so you would think it would come to mind! Shameful - i do know that people make mistakes but all of these people ? Really ? Moving too fast and not paying attention to details that is for sure - Mayor Luke - if I were you i would get better advisors and fast ! And could we please please please have more accountability and oversight - we need it desperately in Development Services - NOW!

Anonymous said...

Act in haste. Repent at your leisure. Didn't we all learn that from our grandmother's by age 10 or so? What was so urgent that Bronin had to throw Centerplan off the job that day, that minute, by press conference? My understanding is he was in such a rush he didn't even consult the Council before he did it.

Of course, one would have hoped all of this would have been researched thoroughly over the past 6 months, rather than after the deed was done, but that's not how we roll here in the old City of Hartford.

Darryl Hill? I seem to recall some other questionable decisions he's made. Are any bad decisions ever bad enough to get you replaced? Had hoped Bronin would hire a cracker jack COO, but here we are. Same old, same old.

Anonymous said...

Typically owners also carry builders risk insurance.

Anonymous said...

Bronin announced Bonnie Malley from the Phoenix Insurance as COO six months ago.

http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hc-hartford-bronin-coo-0123-20160122-story.html

Is Malley there sometimes? HIll is the acting finance director, but he has been in the middle of the stadium train wreck from the start. Is there anybody with experience working at 550 with proven experience in managing complex construction projects?

Anonymous said...

The monster on the left in your photo - Pedro Caviar Segarra - who created this miserable stadium and failed stadium authority, just took 760 Prospect avenue off market. Did he change his mind? Did he decide to stay in Hartford after all? Was the the $685K asking price - most likely $160K more than what it's worth - too high? What happened to the 'pending sale' of last month?

Anonymous said...

Maybe Mr. O'Garro can bind the coverage.

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

8:57PM

As you can clearly see, no one at 550 is managing much of anything, unfortunately.

Bonnie Malley was named as COO back in January, but she was critical in her role as the CFO for the Phoenix as they went through a merger. I think that merger is pretty much complete and I look forward to her arriving full time at City Hall and hopefully bringing some sound business practices with her arrival

Anonymous said...

Not a fan of Pedro here, but when are we going to stop blaming him. After six months in the job for someone that was the general counsel for the Gov, this Mayor is not looking like a pro at all. it is looking more and more like "Honey, I shrink the kids" I know many people have buyers remorse, but hard to admit; I do. SaraLuke mayor is a disappointment so far. Hard to believe that the City of Samuel Colt, Mark Twain and J.P. Morgan can't find a decent Mayor. Travesty!

Anonymous said...

I. Charles must go.
I. Charles must go.
The entire incompetent authority, bunch of idiots, must go.

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

10:14PM I agree with you, at this point, Mayor Bronin and his Administration clearly own this mess, the time for blaming Segarra ended a few months ago, now it is all Luke's. I think we all expected far better decision making than what we are seeing now

Anonymous said...

@10:31

Kevin, aren't you forgetting that you and everyone else wanted Bronin to fire everyone? Oh, how quickly we forget.

Anonymous said...

9:31 PM:
Pedro/Charlie already listed their Prospect Av home for sale in April 2008 for $660,000 but removed the listing a few weeks later.

Evelyn Richardson said...

Hmmmm. Bronin too busy blocking prople from e-mails, phone calls, community lists, and important information that all residents should have to focus on making sure his team is doing due diligence thus protecting him from every possible blunder. How in the world does an ivy league scholar " " allow and manages to forget or overlook insurance on a humongous project like that?? Unfortunately it appears hes still too busy focusing on who is going to get kick backs from the piggy bank to focus on protecting this investment and possibly citizens from danger there.
Bronin strikes again!

Anonymous said...

Should have just the let the developers finish the project instead of kicking them off. No no one is working and now there is a giant 60 million dollar project uninsured. At this point the project was late just let them finish and accept the lateness.

Anonymous said...

Well, it's a done deal...

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

2:26PM

I think you will find in the end the total cost will be well over $100 million from what I am being told

Anonymous said...

2:26 pm
It's impossible to "just let them finish". Landino & Co. are unprofessional; they don't know what they're doing. In 60 days they'll call for another meeting asking for additional 60 days and so on. They should have been fired months ago.

Anonymous said...

The total cost of this Segarra-idiotic-fantasy is WELL OVER $100,000,000.
It's in the $60M territory only in Pedro's dreams. Yes, that bastard who forced a stadium on us the taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

Armageddon. May the wrath of God be felt.

Anonymous said...

The sign reads:
BRINGING BASEBALL HOME.

Whose home? Segarra's?

Anonymous said...

Hey Lukee Dukeee - thanks for taking the attention away from the comedy of errors happening at the BOE. I can't figure out which one is worse Bronin or the Superintendent. I tell you that Ivy League education. Sure glad I went to University Connecticut Hartford branch.