New subpoena issued in school construction probe
The federal criminal investigation of the Lamont administration’s school construction program continues to grow.
Investigators served a subpoena on the custodian of records in the town of Tolland on Feb. 22. The subpoena seeks documents “for the period Jan. 1, 2015, to the present” concerning all school construction projects, “all communications with or related to Konstantinos Diamantis or any other employee or representatives of ” the school construction grants, and “documents related to any [school construction grants] project at Birch Grove Primary School.”
Diamantis, a lawyer and former Bristol state representative, supervised state school construction grants while he was with the Department of Administrative Services and then as deputy secretary of the Office of Policy and Management and director of the Office of School Construction and Grants Reviews. He no longer holds the state positions.
The new subpoena subjects investigators are paying particular attention to are the course the Birch Grove project took in 2019. Officials confirmed in late 2018 that the concrete used to build the school contained pyrrhotite, the mineral that causes concrete to deteriorate.
The town’s superintendent of schools, Walter Willett, requested on Jan. 14, 2019, that competitive bidding be waived for the $46 million project. Two days later former Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Melody Currey granted the request.
Six days later local officials attended a meeting at DAS with Diamantis and others, including two principals of D’Amato Construction Co.
Willett told this column writer on Feb. 10 that town officials were pressured by Diamantis to hire D’Amato and a second company, Construction Advocacy Professionals.
CAP is owned by Antonietta DiBenedetto Roy. She hired Diamantis’ daughter Anastasia at the start of CAP’s involvement on the Tolland project.
Willett wrote “representatives of the Town and the Board felt they had no real choice as to CAP and D’Amato because Mr. Diamantis routinely emphasized there would be detrimental effects to the project if Tolland chose contractors or consultants other than CAP or D’Amato.”
CAP was paid $530,000 for its work on the project.
Search terms in a previous federal grand jury subpoena served on the state contain the words “D’Amato” and “Antonietta” and “DiBenedetto Roy”; there have been no accusations of wrongdoing against any of them.
The Tolland project included the demolition of the school being replaced and the leasing and installation of portable classrooms. The original estimate of the cost of the portable classrooms for the project was $1 million; it increased to $9 million over the two school years they were used. The state paid the entire amount.
The project also included the discovery of unsuitable soils during construction. That added $1.8 million to the cost. It was a moment when some local officials suggested a brief pause in construction to examine where they were in the project and how to address the increasing costs.
The documents that Tolland provides to investigators will answer some questions and raise others. Building a school is complicated. Deconstructing the decisions made at each step of the way may be more complex.
In Tolland, investigators will enjoy the benefits of some excellent recordkeepers in town government. They will also be able to review the extensive records of building committee members the town council appointed to oversee the construction.
Having reviewed many records of the unusual circumstances surrounding the construction of Birch Grove, I have a sense of its dizzying number of moving parts.
Diamantis, who denies any wrongdoing, couldn’t have overseen the project alone. Plenty of others at DAS (and later the state budget office) would have participated in the planning, execution and funding of the school.
After months of questions, no one — not Diamantis, Lamont or anyone at DAS — has explained how or why certain companies were chosen. It also had to be unusual for the estimate of the cost of portable classrooms, a feature of many school construction projects, increased by 900% in a few months. Did anyone question millions more dollars going out the door than originally expected?
FBI agents on the case possess an enduring advantage: Most people have nothing to hide and will guide them through their piece of the process. Tolland officials may be relieved to testify under oath about the duress they say they endured to build a school.
Why did no one who saw something say something to other government officials, who could have intervened?
With another subpoena issued, answers may begin to outpace questions.