David Cornett

Barbarotta's first business relationship with the city started in 1999, when David Cornett, now an AFB vice president, began helping the Board of Education obtain federal technology grants.

At that point, AFB had one school facilities management contract, with the town of Trumbull.To date, the company has overseen more than $45 million in construction projects in that town.

For an annual fee of about $35,000, Cornett started helping the Stamford district apply for federal money to subsidize the schools' telephone and Internet access bills.To date, the firm has helped the district win more than $900,000 in such grants, Cornett said.

"That work paid for itself 17 times over," he said yesterday from AFB's suite of offices on the fifth floor of the city hall.

That contract was AFB's foot in the door.

Barbarotta described Cornett's grant work as "the hook that gets us started in a city," and Stamford was biting.

Shortly after Cornett began raising grant money for the Board of Education, Barbarotta started exploring the possibility of managing a large construction project -- the long-delayed code compliance upgrades at Stamford High School, estimated in 1999 to cost about $8 million.

The meeting grew contentious when Chris Kuczo, shop steward for the custodians' union, jumped up and called AFB Vice President Dave Cornett a liar.
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Board members questioned Barbarotta and Cornett, assistant facilities director for Stamford schools.
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The request for proposals that went out to interested companies "was to get a competitive bid for a labor pool," Cornett said.
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According to Kuczo, Cornett said yes, causing three potential bidders to leave because they could not supply manpower to do that.
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When Cornett said last night that all the people who responded to the request for proposals understood that the school district would handle some grass cutting and plowing the parking lots, Kuczo stood up and said, "Cornett is lying to you. . . As a taxpayer, it's terrible what he's saying."
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When Cornett said last night that all the people who responded to the request for proposals understood that the school district would handle some grass cutting and plowing the parking lots, Kuczo stood up and said, "Cornett is lying to you. . . As a taxpayer, it's terrible what he's saying."
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Besides Melillo and the company that was disqualified, three other bidders met Cornett at Scofield School on June 18 to review the work.
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In the story, Cornett was quoted as saying that, besides the $150,000 AFB and the school board hoped to save by privatizing the work at Scofield, Melillo's low bid would save another $50,000.
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But last night, Cornett and Barbarotta said they will continue to have custodians plow most of the parking lots, leaving the walkways to Melillo.