BRIDGEPORT — After a six-month delay, the heat and hot water are back on for the more than 2,000 residents of the Success Village co-op but serious questions remain regarding the operation of the huge housing complex that straddles the Bridgeport/Stratford line.
This week law enforcement sources and sources involved with the complex confirmed that both federal and state investigators are looking into the previous operation of the co-op, the largest privately-owned housing complex in the state, after $1.3 million in insurance money slated for the repair of units damaged by fire went missing.
“We don’t know where the money went to and frankly it’s disgraceful,” said Stratford lawyer Barry Knott on Friday. Knott was appointed in September by Superior Court Judge Dale Radcliffe to take over the operation of the co-op.
His appointment came after Bridgeport, Stratford, United Illuminating Co. and the Southern Connecticut Gas Co. sued the then-co-op’s board claiming they were owed millions of dollars in property taxes and utility bills.
Knott is scheduled to formally release his first report on the operation of the complex before the judge on Thursday.
The rather lengthy report details Knott’s efforts to restore heat and hot water to the complex’s residents including hiring a new management company, On the Mark Management, an HVAC contractor, Edgerton Inc. and lawyers to handle the sales of units and employment issues.
A temporary, undersized hot water boiler installed by prior management was replaced, new heating boilers were brought in to supplement ones ordered shut down by state officials for safety reasons and as of Nov. 15, all units had heat and hot water.
But Knott’s report also raises a number of questions about the previous management’s operations and millions of dollars in unaccounted money paid by residents in common fees every month.
In July 2023, an elderly couple were killed in a fire that damaged eight units in one of the complex’s buildings. Two families were displaced by the fire and relocated to a local motel at the co-op’s expense.
Testifying in a court hearing in October on the Success Village civil case, John Cotter Jr., president of Nutmeg Adjusters, said he submitted the insurance claim for the fire on behalf of the complex’s then-management and received more than $1.3 million from the insurance company which he said he turned over to the complex’s former president, Tyreke Bird.
But, according to Knott, the money disappeared from the co-op’s bank account and was not used to make the fire repairs.
“We still haven’t found any of the money and at this point I’m not optimistic that it will ever be found,” Knott said on Friday.
He said in the meantime he has had the complex’s maintenance staff begin the process of fixing up other vacant units in the complex so that the displaced families can move in.
Sources told CT Examiner that state police detectives had begun a probe of the co-op’s operation but that their work has been overshadowed by an investigation by federal authorities. Neither would comment.
Knott said he has also learned that Bird, while president of the co-op’s board, contracted for a $250,000 security system for the complex. Unfortunately no one beside Bird has access to it.
“There are apparently cameras everywhere including in the offices but we can’t access them,” Knott said.
Knott told CT Examiner that money could have been better spent on the complex’s heating system.
According to Jose Sandoz, a former Success Village board member, he told Bird at the time not to install the security system.
“The board told him not to do it, I sent emails to him not to do it, that the money could be better spent on the heating system but he ignored all of us,” Sandoz said.
A security camera system could have come in handy to discover apparent acts of sabotage at the complex after Knott was given control.
Knott said parts of the heating system were taken and the water heating system damaged. He said there were reports of people spotted around the heating system in the early morning. He said he made a police report and the sabotage stopped. There were no arrests and the culprits have not been identified.
Reached by telephone on Friday with questions about the security system and the missing insurance money, Bird told CT Examiner he “never had an issue with the camera system,” but declined to comment on the money situation.
Sandoz said he was aware federal investigators were looking into the complex’s operation but said he had not seen any sign of them lately.