Austin Pager in The Advocate by Rye Country Day School

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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Feds subpoena city for records Similar mandates issued to West Haven and Trumbull as AFB investigation widens By Angela Carella

ment obtained Tuesday. The school board has until Sept. 7 to surrender contracts, leases, agreements, bids, invoices, payments, canceled checks, meeting records, emails, text messages, voicemails and other correspondence from the last six years to a federal grand jury in New Haven. The subpoena, issued Aug. 2, is connected to an FBI investigation into AFB dating

STAMFORD — The U.S. Department of Justice has subpoenaed the Stamford Board of Education for all records pertaining to its business with school facilities contractor AFB Construction Management, CEO Al Barbarotta and Conveo Energy, a company in which Barbarotta is a partner, according to a copy of the docu-

from March, when Stamford police began looking into a possible charge the company used its position to win business with another city contractor. The FBI joined the investigation in April. An earlier subpoena from April 28 that was also obtained Tuesday shows the Justice Department ordered the city to turn over emails and other electronic correspondence sent or received by Barbarotta

and AFB Energy Director Charles Benzyk. The request included images of the hard drives from city computers used by Barbarotta and Benzyk. That information had to be Barbarotta returned to the grand jury by June 1. Stamford Director of Legal Affairs Kathryn Emmett said Tuesday the city is cooperating with the federal probe.

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LABOR DAY WEEKEND RACE

Hearst Connecticut Media file photo

Former Stamford mayoral candidate state Rep. William Tong, left, talks with Democratic Registrar of Voters Ron Malloy at the Stamford Government Center.

Confusion over party affiliations By Liz Skalka

Rick Bannerot/Contributed photos

The annual Labor Day weekend Vineyard Race will get underway in Stamford Harbor on Friday. The race, sponsored and hosted by the Stamford Yacht Club, is sailed on three courses, the longest of which takes sailors to the entrance of Buzzards Bay and back, a distance of 238 miles.

About to set sail 82nd Vineyard Race coming to Stamford on Friday By John Nickerson STAMFORD — Southwest Connecticut’s premier yachting regatta, the Vineyard Race, is set to start at high noon on Friday, taking 83 competitors on the 238-mile course from Stamford Harbor to Buzzards Bay and back. All told, more than 100 boats are registered to take part in the race weekend sponsored by the 125-year-old Stamford Yacht Club, where the remaining yachtsmen and women will be sailing on two shorter courses that are contained to Long Island Sound.

The race is celebrating its 82nd running. It got its start in 1932 — it was not run for two years during World War II — and the value of the boats may make this event the region’s most expensive yearly get-together of the well-heeled whether on land or sea — including the Greenwich Concours D’elegance. This year’s contenders, hoping to get their names painted on the list of winners in the Vineyard Race trophy room at the Stamford Yacht Club come from as far away as Nova Scotia, Canada; Houston,

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NEIGHBORS LINK STAMFORD

Campers get special teen counselor By Nelson Oliveira

Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media

Austin Pager works with participants of an academic camp at Neighbors Link Stamford. Business.................................B10 Classified ............................B5-6

STAMFORD — Over its five-year history in the city, Neighbors Link Stamford has had the help of dozens of young, and even teenage, volunteers — but none of them like Austin Pager. Students and their parents who had signed them up for an academic summer camp at the immigrant center earlier this month were surprised to find 16-year-old Pager was not only teaching the camp — he had designed the program.

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The Pegasus, sailed and owned by Austin Royle of Wilton, competed in the Labor Day weekend's Vineyard Race in 2014.

STAMFORD — Nearly 1,000 city voters are members of a political party they may not know exists. About 2 percent of registered voters — 965 people, according to city registrars — are members of the Independent Party, “Most of a state-recognized them have no third party that sometimes runs a idea they’re a slate of candidates member of a for local and statewide office. party.” The problem? Ron Malloy, Voters in Stamford and across the state Democratic registrar may have never intended to be in the Independent Party. They may not even know what it is. “Most of them have no idea they’re a member of a party,” said Democratic registrar Ron Malloy, who estimates that at least 80 percent of independent voters in Stamford have registered in error. The Independent Party, which says it supports nonpartisan government by cross-endorsing Democrats and Republicans, has no national party, nor does it have a Stamford caucus. The party is

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Wednesday, August 31, 2016 | The Advocate | A5

NEWS/FROM THE FRONT PAGE POST ROAD EATERY

Shake Shack on pace for December opening By Justin Papp DARIEN — Shake Shack is inching toward its Darien debut. After months of backand-forth regarding signage, Shake Shack was officially approved in July and, according to David Genovese of Baywater Properties, could be on pace to open in December at 1340 Post Road, the site of the former Chuck’s Steak House. “We are cranking on construction now and hope to have Shake Shack open in December,” Genovese said

on Friday via email. Shake Shack first applied for a permit in March, asking for three signs, the letters of one of which would be 24 inches tall and face Post Road. The Zoning Board of Appeals expressed concern at the proposal, which exceeded existing limitations on signage. Shake Shack argued, through testimony from Richard B. Crawford of Mercer Sign Consultants of Pennsylvania, that smaller letters would result in a safety hazard for drivers on the busy stretch of Post

Road where Shake Shack is to be situated. In June, Shake Shack and the ZBA agreed to two signs and a decrease of four inches in the letters of the road-facing sign. A building permit was issued by the Zoning Board of Appeals on July 11, and construction started on July 12. “We are a few months behind schedule due to zoning issues that we faced regarding signage, but we hope to make up for some of the lost time now,” Genovese said.

Shake Shack sprouted from a hot dog cart in Madison Square Park in Manhattan to support the Madison Square Park Conservancy’s first art installation. The cart was quite the success, with Shack fans lined up daily for three summers. In 2004, a permanent kiosk opened in the park: Shake Shack was born. This “burger stand” serves burgers, hot dogs, frozen custard, shakes, beer, wine and more. justin.papp@scni.com; @justinjpapp1

Justin Papp / Hearst Connecticut Media

The future site of Shake Shack at 1340 Post Road in Darien.

VOLUNTEER From page A1 “From egg to chicken, he handled all of it,” said Christa Chu, the center’s development and communications manager. “He developed the curriculum for it. He delivered the curriculum for it.” Pager’s academic camp included hands-on activities in science, math, technology and English. The two-hour afternoon sessions, which were held twice a week through August, taught and entertained about a dozen middle school students whose families came from other countries. “These are kids who are not speaking English at home and may have additional challenges,” Neighbors Link Executive Director Catalina Horak said. The inaugural program also kept parents busy. While the children were with Pager, some of their parents were in an adjacent room taking English, com-

puting and other lessons. Pager, a junior at Rye Country Day School in Westchester County, is part of a fellowship program at the Edward E. Ford Foundation, which provided a grant to fund the camp project. The West Harrison, N.Y., resident said the goal behind the project was to provide underprivileged children a chance to learn important lessons while having fun. Airplanes and pretzels Among their activities, campers made paper airplanes during a math lesson and did some gardening as part of a biology lesson. They also baked cake and pretzels and did the classic egg-drop science project — the one where you design a way to protect the egg from a fall. “It’s really inspiring to see a young adult like Aus-

Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media

Austin Pager works with participants of an Academic Camp at Neighbors Link Stamford on Tuesday. Pager, a rising high school senior at Rye Country Day School in Rye, New York, volunteered a lot of time this summer engaging middle school students in math and science activities.

INDEPENDENT From page A1 active in Waterbury, Danbury, Milford, Watertown and East Haven. When Connecticut residents register to vote or change their affiliations, they can choose to be a Democrat or Republican, or to write in a third party. Many who are unaffiliated — not a member of any political party — write “independent,” not realizing that in Connecticut this puts them in the Independent Party. Still, unaffiliated voters make up the state’s largest voting bloc with 768,000 people, topping 758,000 registered Democrats and 434,000 registered Republicans. The trend does not hold for Stamford, where 21,000 of the city’s more than 60,000 voters are unaffiliated, while 25,000 are Democrat and 13,000 are Republican. But it’s the city’s third-party numbers that give Ron Malloy and others pause — the Green and Liberatarian parties each have about 50 members, whereas the Independent Party has nearly 20 times that number. This isn’t the only controversial issue for the group. Two rival Independent Party camps — one based in Waterbury and one in Danbury — have clashed for years over which should be recognized as the official party group. “It’s quite possible that people who are claiming to be independent don’t know the difference between being an Independent Party member and being unaffiliated,” said Waterbury’s Mike Telesca, the self-proclaimed chairman of the state Independent Party. “It’s not really our fault,” he said. “And it’s also not a terrible thing. It gives voters a chance to participate in a third party; as unaffiliated, they’re left out of the system completely.”

Chiara Rissola of Old Greenwich, a freshman at Greenwich High School, volunteers her time as an English tutor for parents who children participate in an Academic Camp at Neighbors Link Stamford on Thursday.

Matthew Brown / Hearst Connecticut Media

tin develop this idea from the ground up,” Chu said. “It’s his baby. He went and found the resources to make it happen.” Pager said the program also gave him a rare chance to interact with different cultures. “This is like no place I’d ever been to,” he said. “I live in a secluded area. I’ve been with the same sort of people my whole life.” Melting pot In Stamford, on the other hand, immigrants make up about 37 percent of the population, according to the center, which is an affiliate of Neighbors Link Network. In the 2014-15 school year, about 16 percent of the city’s 16,000 public school students were considered English Language Learners. The district estimates that more than 60 languages are spoken in those students’ homes. Peruvian native Aida

Confusion The Independent Party has about 17,000 members statewide, according to the Office of the Secretary of the State. Runners-up in third-party membership, the Libertarian and Green parties have 1,800 and 1,400 members, respectively. The groups Independence and Winstead Independent each have about 30 members, trailing We The People by 12 votes and the 300-member Working Families party. But only the Independent, Libertarian, Working Families and Green parties have statewide enrollment privileges, meaning that voters from any town can enroll in those parties. In 2013, state Democratic lawmakers proposed legislation that would have eliminated “independent” in party titles to lessen confusion. Republicans critized the move as a way to block cross-endorsements after the Independent Party endorsed WWE magnate Linda McMahon in her 2012 U.S. Senate bid. The bill ended up passing without that provision. Connecticut could make it easier, Telesca said, for third-parties to get on the ballot. After collecting signatures for a specific race, the state requires third-party candidates to receive 1 percent of the vote to avoid petitioning in the next election. Third-parties therefore lose their ballot lines when they don’t continuously run candidates. Greater ballot access would benefit the Independent Party, which Telesca said has been a proponent of open and honest government in Connecticut for decades. Most recently, the party secured a seat on the Waterbury Board of Education. To people confused about its message, Telesca said: “The Independent Party is exactly what you think it is.” eskalka@scni.com

Gutierrez said the program helped her son especially with math and English because she’s not always able to help him with schoolwork. “He likes it because he’s

learning and playing,” she said. The boy, 10-year-old James Quispe, said his favorite activity was making origamis. He seemed more than happy with Pager’s

teaching skills. “On a scale of zero to 10, he’s a 10,” he said. noliveira@hearstmediact.com, 203-964-2265, @olivnelson