Details of tip on pandemic spending won’t be released

WEST HAVEN — Allegations made about potential misuse of federal pandemic relief funding are exempt from public disclosure, a state agency said Friday.

The Office of Policy and Management’s decision not to release information on an anonymous tip detailing “other issues of concern about CRF funds” in the city came three days after an official representing OPM told West Haven officials their office received received the tip.

OPM said the tip information then was provided to “federal authorities.”

The New Haven Register requested information on the tip Wednesday. On Friday, OPM denied the Register’s request for any written or recorded information received by OPM that contain any suggestions or allegations about how West Haven has spent CARES Act pandemic fund money.

Citing a statute, an OPM paralegal said “notes compiled for an open and ongoing law enforcement investigation, agency investigation and forensic audit are exempt from disclosure.”

The denial also said “the underlying responsive records constitute draft attorney work product.”

Thomas Hennick, the public education officer for the state Freedom of Information Commission, said Friday he could comment only in general on the availability of documents, not on this specific case.

He said that, in general, drafts and preliminary notes can be exempt from release, as are certain documents of law enforcement agencies when the case is pending.

Among records of law enforcement agencies not otherwise available to the public are those records compiled in connection with investigations, if the disclosure of such records would not be in the public interest because it would result in the disclosure of signed “statements of witnesses, or information to be used in a prospective law enforcement action if prejudicial to such action,” the FOI law says, among other reasons.

Kimberly Kennison,

OPM Secretary Melissa McCaw’s designee to the Municipal Accountability Review Board, said this week state officials “provided this (anonymous tip) information to the federal authorities” but also to auditors with CohnReznick, the firm hired by the state to conduct a forensic audit of the city’s finances.

Kennison spoke about the tip Tuesday during a meeting of a MARB West Haven subcommittee. She said the tip was submitted anonymously but did not say what it alleged.

McCaw also informed the city this week that roughly $4 million in restructuring funding for the current fiscal year will not be released until conditions of a memorandum of agreement between the MARB and the city are fulfilled.

Currently, West Haven’s finances are being looked at by multiple agencies. Two former City Hall employees — former Democratic state Rep. Michael DiMassa and former housing specialist John Bernardo — were arrested and charged with wire fraud after they allegedly rerouted as much as $636,000 in federal pandemic money to a shell company through fraudulent invoices.

Investigators are looking at city federal fund expenditures, as are auditors from CohnReznick at the behest of the OPM. The City Council also has authorized an auditing firm to conduct an audit of the city’s finances for routine budgeting purposes.