EDITORIAL: Soccer Stadium Mess Makes Hartford Look Gullible

Dec. 23--If Hartford residents are losing faith in the city's ability to monitor its money, they have good reason.

Last week, an insurance broker was found guilty on all charges of cheating the city and state out of more than $1 million. The city's insurance premiums and coverage were protected, but internal controls were either lacking or not followed.

Then there is the soccer stadium. A Courant investigation has found that a stadium developer, given more than $1.5 million by the city to bring professional soccer to Hartford, may have been enriching himself, his partner and their companies with much of that money -- instead of paying bills.

This week we learn that the baseball stadium project may be behind schedule and $10 million over budget, though the developer disputes both points.

It's getting tiresome to keep wondering: Who is watching over Hartford's money?

Fortunately, incoming Mayor Luke Bronin has a committee studying that question so he can institute more oversight once he takes office. The city cannot be a candy store for schemers.

Soccer

The soccer stadium fiasco is particularly troubling. To recap, Premier Sports Management Group won the bid to redevelop Dillon Stadium into a 15,000-seat soccer venue. Premier then merged with Black Diamond Consulting.

In sad hindsight, the city should have looked more closely into Black Diamond's owner, James Duckett. The Courant revealed in October that Mr. Duckett had a felony conviction for embezzlement and civil suits in several states accusing him of failing to pay debts.

The stadium deal fell apart almost immediately. By then, however, the city had reimbursed Premier more than $1.5 million for bills the developer claimed it had paid subcontractors.

Now the city is saying that $735,000 of those invoices were illegitimate. Subcontractors are saying they received only a third of that $1.5 million. So a lot of city money is unaccounted for.

Local police and the FBI are looking into Premier's finances. The Courant's Jenna Carlesso and Matthew Kauffman, in their own investigation, have found that hundreds of thousands of dollars were transferred to Premier and Black Diamond's leaders and the companies they control.

Sadly, Dillon Stadium still stands dilapidated, a symbol of the city's gullibility.

Baseball

As for the baseball stadium, the Hartford Stadium Authority issued a statement Monday saying the developer, Centerplan, and its affiliate, DoNo Hartford, "informed us that the ballpark may not be ready until late spring and there is a $10 million shortfall."

Centerplan CEO Robert Landino dispute the statement, saying the company expects to complete the stadium in time for the season opener in April, and that there is not a firm figure for the shortfall.

After signing a contract Feb. 4, Mr. Landino said Centerplan did not control the design of the project, as it expected to. Instead, the city oversaw preparation of the drawings, which envisioned a more expensive ballpark, he said. Despite cost-cutting, he said the budget is still in excess of the original $56 million committed to the project.

This is a problem because the city's approval restricts its funding to $56 million.

The stadium authority has asked for a construction schedule and financial information. Mayor-elect Bronin plans to meet with the principals to move the project ahead. One option might be to call on the expertise of the Capital Region Development Authority, which seems to avoid these kinds of problems in the projects it monitors.

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