Asbestos abatement firm sues city

BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut â€"A Senior U.S. District Court Judge has ruled that Astech-Marmon, Inc., a Bridgeport asbestos abatement firm, may sue a development firm and its owners for violating their constitutional rights to due process and bid rigging. The suit filed by the lawyers for Astech-Marmon alleges that the asbestos abatement firm was shut out of work because of corruption in the Gamin administration. Christian Young and J. Robert Gulash and Ira Grudberg, the lawyers for the defendants in the suit, were granted additional time to question witnesses and file a motion for a summary judgment. Young and Grudberg are also preparing for trial in another multimillion dollar lawsuit, this one brought against the city, the Gamin administration and the father-son owners of United Properties, Alfred Lenoci Sr. and Jr. by a developer that was bounced off of the Steel Point city development. That suit claims that former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim deliberately stonewalled the project in order to hand it off to the Lenocis. That trial is scheduled to start March 4. Today’s ruling gave the lawyers until June 30 and July 31 to deal with the new suit. The new suit has been brought by Astech-Marmon, Inc., the only licensed asbestos abatement company in the city. The firm claims that it was shut out of work by the corruption in the Gamin administration. The suit alleges that Astech-Marmon never bid on work to clear asbestos from old homes and building about to be demolished or renovated because there was no bidding process to allow them access to the work. In fact, said a lawyer for the asbestos company, the defendants described a detailed scheme to get around the need for competitive bids on the asbestos work for the city. The suit alleges that Ganim, in his position as Mayor, illegally signed off on emergency orders to demolish dilapidated homes. Those emergency orders dispose of the necessity to put a city job out for competitive bids from other companies. The suit also claims violations of the civil RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act. The no-bid contracts were handed off to Lenoci Jr.’s firm, United Environmental Redevelopment Company, which subcontracted the asbestos abatement to ChemScope, Inc., a Wallingford asbestos surveyor, and Asbestos Abatement and Insulation Services of West Haven, an asbestos removal firm. Among the admissions at Ganim’s corruption trial, the owners of those companies admitted to being part of a scheme to bilk the city of hundreds of thousands of dollars in inflated fees for asbestos removal and surveying. Scott Arena, owner of ChemScope, admitted to inflating the amount of asbestos found in each billing and charging the city $100,000 more than the going rate. Brian Bannon, owner of the asbestos removal company, then charged the city $817,586 to remove asbestos basing the fee on the inflated reports. The suit filed by Astech-Marmon alleges that the two companies kicked back over $300,000 to the Lenocis, and the Lenocis kicked back $160,000 of that money to be split between Ganim and his admitted bag man, Paul Pinto. All men have been convicted. Asbestos removal has become a big line item in the budgets of many cities. The deadly mineral that was once so widely used in construction has become a major health hazard in many cities around the country. Exposure to airborne asbestos causes a number of serious illnesses, including mesothelioma, a rare cancer that affects only those with a history of asbestos exposure. While most firms dealing with the removal of asbestos are honest and above board, it’s important to check the credentials of any firm that you engage to remove asbestos from buildings and properties that you own. Failure to do so can result in large fines if they do not follow prescribed procedures to keep the asbestos from becoming airborne and causing a health hazard for the community. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)