Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez is under investigation by the Chief State’s Attorney’s office for a North Main Street parking lot deal he struck with city businessman and political power broker Abraham Giles in November.
City officials and the Chief State’s Attorney would neither confirm nor deny that Perez is under investigation. But documents viewed by the Hartford Business Journal confirm the existence of such an investigation.
The exact nature of the investigation, led by Michael Sullivan of the Chief State’s Attorney’s public integrity unit, is unclear.
Last year, Perez entered into a no-bid parking lot management contract with Giles’ company, G & G Enterprises Inc. — replacing Central Parking Systems as the lot’s manager. Central Parking had managed the lot since 1983.
At the time of the management change, according to city records, Giles owed the city back taxes. He was also in default of a state law that requires businesses to file annual reports with the Secretary of the State.
However, Giles disputes the city’s records, and maintains the city’s tax office returned money to him because he had overpaid his taxes. “That’s a lie. I don’t owe any taxes. I’m paid up, and I have the proof,” he said.
According to city records, Giles owes $1,660 on a 2004 real estate tax bill and $187 on a 2005 tax bill for 726-734 Windsor St.
In June, when the city acquired the parking lot at 1214-1218 Main St. from Urban Investment & Development Co., the city drew up a contract with Central Parking to manage the parking lot through Oct. 31.
The agreement with Giles and the city was executed in October, and he began managing the lot on Nov. 1.
However, for the next three months Giles failed to comply with a Hartford ordinance that requires parking lot operators to apply for a permit from its Licenses and Inspections office.
Giles, who says he has managed parking lots in the city since 1982, said he had never heard of the permit requirement. “It was the first I’d ever heard of it. When I heard of it, I did it,” he said.
According to city records, Giles applied for a parking operator’s permit on Feb. 1 and paid $1,000 for it.
As part of the agreement, Giles has also paid a $1,000 monthly fee to the city since the contract went into effect, city officials report.
When the agreement was signed, Giles’ business was not in good standing with the Secretary of the State. In November, Giles had failed to file annual reports with the Secretary of State’s office since 2002.
However, on March 2, he submitted the mandatory annual reports with the Secretary of State for years 2003 through 2006.
In 1990, the Secretary of the State formally dissolved G & G Enterprises because the annual reports had not been submitted for several years. Since, a state law empowering the Secretary of the State to dissolve incorporated businesses has changed, and businesses may receive a certificate of existence if all required annual reports are filed, regardless of the time lapse, said William Silk of the Secretary of the State’s office.
In response to the disclosure that Giles may owe the city back taxes and had not filed annual state reports, the mayor’s office issued a written statement: “Corporation Counsel did the review and as condition of the license agreement the owner has to be in compliance with all city and state laws. The focus today is that the city is hoping the Hartford Parking Authority will get its process done quickly.”
End Of the Food Chain
Notably, this particular parking lot is not a huge moneymaker. While it can accommodate about 154 vehicles, monthly parking fees are $75, about half of what it costs to park at some of the city’s premier parking garages in the Central Business District.
The parking fee for special events is $4, again, about half of the average daily rates downtown.
“It’s going okay,” Giles said, referring to the parking lot. “We’ve never had a 100 cars yet. Had 99. We’re at the end of the food chain.”
New Direction
Regardless, Giles and Central Parking say that they will both submit bids with the Hartford Parking Authority to manage the lot once the authority publishes a request for proposals sometime this week
Following public criticism about Giles parking agreement, the Hartford City Council approved a resolution March 26 transferring oversight of the parking lot to the Hartford Parking Authority.
HPA chairman David Carson said the authority requested the transfer. The parking authority’s response, Carson said, is that the council and city should recognize it created a parking authority that would have a “better way of doing this … and to do it in an orderly way.”
“There were people, like us, who were concerned that city [officials] still haven’t really resolved the issue of getting out of the surface parking lot arrangements they have made informally over the years,” he said.
Conducting an open-bid process while giving appropriate and legal notice to terminate the Giles deal is the parking authority’s plan, Carson added.
Some city officials maintain that too much has been made of the Giles contract because the purpose of the deal was to ensure that the parking lot was properly managed while the city continued to look for a buyer of a larger adjacent property referred to as Lot 12B.
WFSB Channel 3 had initially agreed to construct its new television studio on Lot 12B, however, size constraints nixed the deal. Instead, Channel 3 selected Rocky Hill as its new location.
