Careless or Corrupt: Taxpayers Foot the Bill

by Cindy Goldstein -

This article examines sewer repairs in the Village of Mamaroneck and apparently inflated bills that were submitted to — and paid by — the Village.  Before payment, the invoices underwent three separate reviews intended to verify their accuracy.  

Those safeguards should have been enough.  They weren’t.

Was this a case of carelessness, corruption or a failure of oversight?  While some questions have been answered, others remain unresolved.

Settlement to Address Pollution in Long Island Sound

In 2017, the Village of Mamaroneck (VOM) entered into a settlement agreement with Save the Sound, a nonprofit environmental organization, to repair its aging and deteriorating sanitary sewer system. The goal was to correct “inflow and infiltration” (I&I) — a condition where groundwater and stormwater enter cracked sewer pipes, mix with untreated or partially treated wastewater, and ultimately discharge into Long Island Sound.  This settlement had to be renegotiated in 2024 because Village commitments from the original agreement were not satisfied.  See HERE.

According to Save the Sound, the Village maintains more than 23 miles of sewer pipes. Mamaroneck was one of eleven Westchester municipalities and Westchester County named in the original lawsuit over sewage pollution.  See HERE.

Under the settlement, the Village agreed to repair all identified sources of I&I.  Because the required work was expected to cost millions of dollars, the Village applied for and received a $4.95 million grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in 2021.  See HERE.

Phase I Contract Awarded

In December 2020, the Board of Trustees (BOT), after issuing a Request for Proposals (RFP), awarded a sanitary sewer rehabilitation contract to Green Mountain Pipeline Services LLC for more than $5.1 million.  Work began in 2021.

Change Orders Approved

Between 2021 and August 2023, four change orders (COs) totaling $950,000 were approved, bringing the total contract price to $6.5 million.  These COs were documented in a resolution dated August 14, 2023 when former Village Manager Barberio requested a fifth CO.  (See HERE.)

Phase 2 – A Change Order or a New Contract?

At a particularly contentious BOT meeting on August 14, 2023, Barberio presented a resolution for Board approval to award the “Phase 2” sewer I & I project to the same contractor as Phase 1, but without any competitive bidding process.  Although the work was similar (I & I rehabilitation), it was based on two different engineering studies (one in 2018 and the other in 2022).  Additionally, the work would be done in completely different locations from Phase 1.  Regardless of the facts, Barberio asked the BOT to approve a fifth Change Order to the original 2020 contract for $3.5 million.  See HERE.

Trustee Lucas Stands Alone

At the meeting, Barberio made a few brief statements about Phase 2 as a continuation of the sewer remediation project mandated years ago, and that the Village will work under the same contract.  When questioned, Barberio justified his decision because the contractor “kept the labor costs the same” as the initial contract approved years ago in 2020.  He also claimed the Village Attorney Bob Spolzino sent the BOT an email that stated, “it was OK to move forward.”  (To date, that email has not been located.)

Barberio’s request for the BOT to approve the $3.5 million contract as a CO exposed the fissures between Trustee Nora Lucas and then Mayor Tom Murphy and then Trustees Manny Rawlings, Lou Young, and Leilani Yizar-Reid.

Before the vote, Lucas argued that it was improper to award a large contract as a change order because it was a new contract and not a change order.  Murphy talked over her, saying, “We must get this done posthaste under the consent decree.  We could be dragged into court any moment, so we can’t fiddle around.”

During the meeting, resident Stuart Tiekert commented that this was the “most bizarre resolution” he’s seen to just give a contract away without competitive procurement.  He stated the first contract had overruns of 30% and also asked if the first phase was complete, to which there was no response.

After the BOT approved the contract 4:1 with Lucas as the sole “no” vote, Barberio angrily defended the action, pounding the table with his fist and saying there was “no way in hell I am going to put a $3.5 million contract in front of you.  That’s insane!”  See below

for excerpted LMC Recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW8taT9FQeQ

The total cost of Phase 1 and Phase 2 was ultimately more than $10 million due to subsequent change orders, with only the initial 2020 contract for Phase 1 following the legally required procurement process.

Editor’s Note: NYS law requires a competitive bidding process when contracts exceed $35,000 except under narrow circumstances.  The goal of mandating competitive bidding is to prevent favoritism and ensure the economical use of public funds.

Project Oversight: The Consultant’s Job

As is customary for large public works projects, an outside consultant was hired by the Village to oversee the work and confirm the accuracy of the contractor’s bills before they were paid. 

For this Phase 1 sewer work, former Village Manager Jerry Barberio signed a contract in June 2023 to hire KSCJ Consulting (KSCJ), an engineering and consulting firm that also provided engineering consulting services to the Village’s land use boards starting in 2019.  (See HERE.)  Construction Management and Inspection work was to be billed on a “time and materials” basis with no outside limit.  Base Mapping and Design fees were specified to be just over $71K.

The specific contract language states: “Such documentation shall be used in establishing and verifying payment quantities submitted by the contractor for the project.  Furthermore, KSCJ Consulting shall review and provide recommendations for payment of requisitions submitted by the contractor.”

In other words, KSCJ was hired to be the Village’s representative in determining proper billing before payments were made, and that the Village wasn’t overcharged.

Second Review by the Village Engineer

At that time, the Village Engineer, Gino Frabasile, was the second line of defense to review contractor bills.  If he determined that the bill was satisfactory and met the contract specifications, it was sent to the Village Manager for oversight before final payment approval by the BOT. 

Mr. Frabasile left the Village of Mamaroneck employment in August 2025.

Questions Arise When New Consulting Engineer Arrives

After the Village Engineer left his post, the Village hired the firm of H2M to act as consulting engineers in the absence of a Village Engineer, and they took over the role of reviewing the contractor’s invoices.  KSCJ continued in their role overseeing the sewer projects and advising land use boards.

Soon after they were hired, H2M discovered certain issues and audited some of the paid bills related to the project.  In a memo on December 18, 2025, H2M outlined discrepancies and omissions from previously approved and paid invoices found in both Phase 1 and 2. (See HERE.)

Disturbing Omissions

H2M noted several disturbing and consistent errors and omissions when comparing the bills submitted to the contract.  They included the following for Phase 1:

·      Many of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) certifications were not signed or sealed (as required).

·      The contractor listed the same employees with two different labor rates on the same day.

·      Both the contractor and their subcontractor charged NYS labor rates instead of Westchester County labor rates, which increased the billing.

·      Full fringe benefits were charged that exceeded the 40% specified in the contract.

The audit also noted that out of 20 charges for Phase 1, only 3 payment requisitions had enough backup to perform a cost analysis of billed rates to contract terms.  Additionally, approximately $325K was billed and paid, but not formally approved by the BOT.

Phase 2 invoicing wasn’t any better.  These issues included some of the same issues with Phase 1 payments, including incorrect labor rates, insufficient backup, and missing signatures, and other issues that included incorrect overhead and profit, and the same employees performing different tasks on the same day at different rates.

Out of 23 charges for Phase 2, only 4 payment requisitions had enough backup to perform a cost analysis of billed rates to contract terms.  Approximately $134K was billed and paid, but not formally approved by the BOT.

H2M Conclusions

“The review indicates significant variances between contract terms and submitted invoices…..Both phases show inconsistent application of contractual limits on fringe benefits and overhead/profit.  Backup documentation for many requisitions was incomplete or insufficient to validate costs.”

Village Attorney Letter

The day after the H2M report was issued, Village Attorney Steven Pambianchi wrote a letter to Azuria Water Solutions, Inc. (the owner of the contractor Green Mountain) outlining the “irregularities” in the payment requisitions and asking that the discrepancies “be rectified to properly reflect the terms of the contract and resolutions of the Board of Trustees.”  (See HERE.)

KSCJ Resigns

Exactly one month after Pambianchi’s letter, John Kellard of KSCJ submitted the firm’s Notice of Termination of their consulting contracts with the Village on January 19, 2026, referring to the 90-day notice of termination contract requirement. 

An interesting sentence at the end of his letter states, “Within that timeframe, we would also be available to assist the Village in resubmitting previously issued documents, as needed, to complete the Village’s missing records regarding the Sanitary Sewer Contract.” (See HERE.) This sentence seems to indicate that KSCJ was aware of missing records, but the invoices had been approved anyway.

What’s Happening Now

When the irregularities were discovered, the Village refused to pay, and the contractor walked off the job with approximately 10% of the work remaining. 

Village Manager Kathleen Gill expects a new contractor to be hired to finish the job. 

Because the Village refused to continue payments after the H2M audit, the Village is holding back approximately $274K.  Gill cautioned that the H2M audit was not exhaustive and might not have uncovered all of the overcharges.  She also indicated that the Village might have to pursue legal action.

In the meantime, Village taxpayers are in a holding pattern waiting to see how all of this is resolved.