on 04-11-2009 02:32 
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Board tells Ventetuolo he has 10 days to ‘cure' prison's problems
By VINAYA SAKSENA
CENTRAL FALLS - The board charged with overseeing the operations of the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility has served the consultant running the jail with a notice of default for allegedly jeopardizing the facility's financial well-being, while almost simultaneously receiving notice from the consultant that the board allegedly failed to address a similar grievance his attorney served the board last month.
The exchange of notices comes in the wake of a meeting Wednesday night of the Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation's Board of Directors, at which the board voted unanimously to issue the notice of default against Anthony Ventetuolo and his company, Avcorr Management, LLC. According to Chairman Daniel Cooney, Ventetuolo has 10 days, beginning Thursday, to "cure" the problems the board alleges have arisen at the facility under his watch, which stem largely from the death last summer of a former Wyatt inmate, Hiu Lui "Jason" Ng.
"There are multiple violations of the contract," Cooney said. "One of them is that the facility is in financial difficulty. We just feel that we have to go in another direction. We know this is a dramatic move, but we feel it is necessary."
One of the things the board is seeking to have Ventetuolo do before the 10-day deadline is to convince the U.S. Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to resume sending detainees to the facility, restoring what Mayor Charles Moreau has said is a considerable sum of much-needed revenue. In December, ICE removed all 153 of the detainees it had been keeping at the Wyatt, pending the results of an internal investigation into Ng's death. The facility's management conducted an internal investigation of its own into the matter, resulting in termination or other forms of discipline against several facility staffers who allegedly mistreated Ng and in some cases denied him medical attention while he was suffering from what was later determined to be advanced-stage cancer.
Ng also reportedly had a fractured spine. Despite the allegations, however, former Wyatt spokesman Dante Bellini maintained that Ng had received more than adequate medical care, which led to the diagnosis of his cancer.
If the problems noted in the board's notice of default are not cured, Cooney said, the board will consider taking further action, including termination of the corporation's relationship with Avcorr. And while he pointed out that the board had not taken any such action, he said that in the event of the relationship with Avcorr ending, the board may put Warden Wayne Salisbury and Chief Financial Officer Tammy Novo in charge, at least on a temporary basis.
"We have not made that as a decision, but I'd certainly be very comfortable with that," Cooney said. "Both of them are very competent."
On the same day the board voted to issue its notice to Ventetuolo, however, it also received a notice of breach of contract from Ventetuolo's attorney, Joseph McGair, Cooney acknowledged. McGair said the notice followed a notice of default that he had filed on Feb. 11, alleging that the board had refused to communicate with Ventetuolo on numerous occasions, often bypassing him in making decisions regarding the management of the facility. McGair said the board had issued a response to his notice of default that fell "in the general denial area," but had failed to cure the problems outlined in the notice.
McGair said he had just learned of the board's notice of default against Ventetuolo on Thursday, and had not yet had the opportunity to decide how to respond to it. He added that he believed that for the board, the notice merely served as a step towards getting rid of Ventetuolo.
"A lot of this is just pretext to get to the arrangement that they're trying to (reach)," McGair said. "It doesn't do anyone any good."
McGair questioned, for example, the board's decision - shortly after four of the board's members, including Cooney, were appointed by Moreau - to disregard Ventetuolo's pleas and terminate contracts with several consultants Ventetuolo had hired, only to bring some of them back shortly thereafter. Asked about this decision, Cooney noted that the board had wanted not to terminate the contracts permanently, but to suspend them until board members had time to review them and determine if any of them were not necessary. The reinstatements, he said, were the result of this process. As for the accusation of bypassing Ventetuolo, he said that such decisions were the prerogative of the board, not the consultant managing the facility, adding that Ventetuolo's spokesman, Dave Layman, had questioned his ability to oversee the facility's operations.
"Who's the boss, him or us?" Cooney said. "That's the question that's in some people's minds. He (Layman) questioned my intelligence. Try doing that with your boss."
Both Cooney and McGair said that communication had broken down between Ventetuolo and the board, and both maintained that the parties they represented were not to blame. Cooney said that the board, the mayor and even the state's congressional delegation had received less than full cooperation from Avcorr and Ventetuolo, a statement McGair said was "just flat wrong, and he (Cooney) knows it."
"We would still work with this board, because we want to get the facility to a great standard," McGair said. "Avcorr's done a great job. I think everyone agrees with that except for people who have a political agenda."
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