City of Middletown of Middletown Retirement Board member John Milardo sent an email to the city’s Common Council questioning the city’s arrangement with retired fire chief Robert Kronenberger to manage the Keating Building, and asking the council to investigate how and why Kronenberger received the no-bid contract without the Council waiving the city’s bidding requirements.
“Mr. Kronenberger’s LLC is not the issue, the contract award is the issue,” Milardo wrote in his September 2 email to the Common Council. “This issue is about an Administration violating the Purchasing Ordinance of the City of Middletown upon multiple occasions, and as a result of the avoidance of the rules of the City of Middletown, removing improperly funds from the City’s pension.”
Milardo goes on to state that through multiple Freedom of Information requests, he had been unable to find any documentation as to who wrote the contract with Kronenberger, why the mayor’s office did not seek bid waivers, and why the proper contracting process was not followed.
“I am requesting the Common Council, as stipulated by the Charter, conduct an independent investigation of who wrote the contract(s) in question,” Milardo wrote. “As an elected member of the Retirement Board I have questioned this process to the Pension Board, the Mayor, the Finance Department and to the Office of General Council. I have filed numerous FOIA requests for documents relating to the execution of the Agreement, only to be told by the City that no documents, emails, text messages or any type of correspondence exists regarding the negotiation and construction of this Agreement.”
Following his retirement in 2021, Kronenberger set up an LLC called RWK Enterprises and immediately received a no-bid contract from the city to manage the Keating building, despite the city’s rules around personal service contracts requiring competitive bids or a vote to waive the bidding process. The city later renewed the contract and doubled the payment to $72,000 per year, again with no votes or competitive bidding. Kronenberger continues to receive his city pension of roughly $118,000 per year.
The Keating building, also called the Remington Rand building, is a city-owned small business incubator that had previously been managed by the city’s planning and zoning director, and then by John Moore who operated an automotive business out of the Keating building until he passed away.
Milardo and other members of the Retirement Board have questioned this latest arrangement, arguing that Kronenberger should be considered a city employee and therefore have his pension payment suspended. City attorneys, however, have argued that since Kronenberger is operating under an LLC and not entitled to benefits, he is not an employee and can continue to receive his pension.
Milardo says, however, that because the city is providing Kronenberger an office, electronic devices, and a city email address, and that he must get work approved by the Economic and Community Development director, he should be considered an employee.
The State of Connecticut uses a more rigorous standard than the federal government for determining whether someone is an independent contractor or employee called the ABC test. According to the Connecticut Department of Labor, to be considered an independent contractor an individual must be “free from direction and control in connection with the performance of the service;” the service must be performed outside the usual course of business, and the individual must be “customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as the service performed.”
Milardo argues the city should reimburse the city employee retirement fund for the pension payments Kronenberger has received while working under this contract because “the burden of complying with City rules, regulations and procedures lands upon the doorstep of the City, not the vendor.”
The City’s contract with RWK Enterprises expired on June 30, and the city’s purchasing department said they have no knowledge of any extensions to the contract. There are no bids or requests for proposals listed on the city’s website for management services for the Remington building.
The City’s Retirement Board counts among its members Mayor Ben Florsheim and Finance Director Carl Erlacher, both of whom signed the contract with Kronenberger.
“As members of the Common Council you swore and took an Oath to uphold the laws, regulations and Ordinances of our City,” Milardo wrote. “I’m asking you to perform your due diligence. Neither the Mayor, or any Department Director should be allowed to circumvent the Charter or Ordinances of the City to which they also swore to maintain and uphold.”
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I want an investigation
Middletown should try harder to stay out of the funny papers with better judgement and less favoritism and mismanagement highlights dragging us backwards.
This Mayor and his favorites have ruined our town He is a corrupt Major who needs to go to jail for stealing money that is not his . He’s very sneaking . There definitely needs to be a investigation.He should not be allowed to run the city while it’s going on . He’s corrupt so he’s capable of trying to “fix things”