People > Steven G. Mednick > Additional Info: Steven Mednick
Additional Info: Steven Mednick
In his representation of municipal and private clients Mednick may be negotiating a multi-million dollar technology transaction one month and prosecuting a construction delay claim before an arbitrator the next. Mednick has also argued major cases before the State Supreme Court on home rule and governmental powers. As President of the IJIS Institute Mednick has been a leader in the collaboration of government and private industry in the development of new IT standards, particularly in the world of integrated justice. WhySolutions offers Mednick the opportunity to bring that experience and the wide ranges of relationships to bear for the client.As the leader of a major organization in the world of Public Safety and Integrated Justice, Mr. Mednick was a charter member and has been President of the IJIS Institute for the past three years and a member of the Board of Directors for five years. In this role Mednick has become a leader on issues pertaining to county and municipal technology procurement protocols for the implementation of Integrated Justice Information Systems. Mednick has been part of an IJIS team which taught undergraduate and graduate level courses for Program Managers of Integrated Justice Information Systems; a leader in the development of a Pre-RFP Toolkit (a planning tool for state an, county and local officials developing information sharing initiatives) and recently gave a keynote speech in Los Angeles on “Emerging Information Sharing Technology” focusing on initiatives emanating from the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Transportation.
In his private practice Mednick has represented the State of Connecticut Departments of Information Technology, Motor Vehicles, Revenue Services and Public Safety on major multi-year technology transactions. At Whys Solutions, LLC Mednick, last spring, was part of a team that conducted an interoperability audit of police, fire and emergency services in 39 communities surrounding Hartford on behalf of the Capitol Region Council of Governments.
He also has represented the City of Bridgeport on unwinding and renegotiating matters pertaining to public housing and recently completed a multi-year project for the Bristol Police Department relating to a wrongful death civil action where he successfully invoked the doctrine of investigatory privilege to protect police investigative files in an 8 year old unsolved murder. On behalf of the New Haven Board of Education Mednick recently completed a complex school construction arbitration emanating from architect malpractice.
He is admitted to practice in the State of Connecticut and before the United States District Court of Connecticut, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law (J.D. - 1979) and Fairfield University (B.A. - 1974). He was also a participating columnist for the "Sum & Substance" series for the Connecticut Law Tribune from 1996-1998.
Local Government Representation
- City of Hartford.
Counsel to the Hartford Charter Revision Commission and special counsel for drafting the recently enacted civil service ordinance and the proposed procurement system. - City of New Haven.
Special Counsel for the sale of tax liens, negotiation of the Malley Property which is now being developed as Gateway Community College, negotiated the Arena Block/FBI building transaction. - City of Waterbury.
Counsel to multiple Charter Revision Commissions and assisted the city in the restructuring of procurement, civil service and ethics ordinances, contract negotiation and advice pertaining to tax collection methods. - City of Bridgeport.
Counsel to the City examining long-term housing issues and renegotiating contractual documents with the Bridgeport Housing Authority. - City of New Britain.
Counsel to multiple Charter Revision Commissions and assisted the City on transfer station privatization issues. - City of West Haven.
Counsel to the Redevelopment Agency and Charter Revision Commission and investigation of police department protocols. - City of Bristol.
Representation of police officials with respect to investigatory privilege, charter powers and ethics defense of the Police Chief. - New Haven Board of Education.
Co-Counsel on a multi-year, multi-party litigation of several school construction responsible for settlement of substantial delay claims by contractors and enlisting the settling parties to participate in the prosecution of the architect in a successful mediation process. - Waterbury Board of Education.
Counsel to the department on major procurements and contract negotiations. Currently developing contract documents for a major school construction project.. - Generally
Mednick represents or has represented the Mason’s Island Fire District (charter and by-law issues), the Council of Governments for the Greater Naugatuck Valley (DEP grant and RWA recycling), the Greater Waterbury Transit District (public procurements and general representation) and the West Haven Realty Holding Corporation (real estate development). Among the entities he has represented in dealing with local governments are Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital (zoning, construction permits, real estate and government relations), Christ Presbyterian Church (zoning), APT Foundation (real estate, zoning and government relations), SMG (Coliseum Authority Privatization and labor relations) and Poseidon Water Resources (wastewater treatment privatization).
Corporation Counsel, City of New Haven
As Corporation Counsel, Mr. Mednick supervised a staff of 13 lawyers and investigators. During his first year, the department included the Division of Labor Relations and Workers' Compensation. Mr. Mednick was part of the team that orchestrated the successful coalition bargaining effort that reopened and settled collective bargaining contracts with almost 70 percent of the bargaining units. In addition to wage concessions, the City devised a strategy to reduce 14 disparate health plans into a single managed care program and created a workers' compensation managed care plan.Mr. Mednick was involved in two important appellate cases in 1995 and 1996. In the first case, City of New Haven v. Local 884, 38 Conn. App. 709 (1995), Mr. Mednick persuaded the Appellate Court to reverse and direct a verdict for the City in a case involving "arbitrator misconduct." The case was, ultimately, reversed by the State Supreme Court (and, again, the Appellate Court found for the City on alternate grounds, currently on appeal before the State Supreme Court). In the second case, Board of Education of the City of New Haven v. City of New Haven, 237 Conn. 169 (1996), the City established the primacy of a city charter as the operative governing document establishing the parameters of capital spending for Boards of Education.
He also played a major role in developing the securitized sale of tax liens pursuant to C.G.S. §12-194h. The transaction, the first of its kind in Connecticut, resulted in the sale of over 3,000 liens and provided $18 million to a public school construction fund. In addition, Mr. Mednick was the lead city counsel in the two phases of the sale of the Park Plaza Hotel to an affiliate of the Cordish Company of Baltimore, Maryland: the purchase out of bankruptcy and the negotiation of a development agreement. Finally, Mr. Mednick was counsel for the City in the purchase of the Shubert Theater construction mortgage and the subsequent alteration of legal relationships, which will provide a direct annual subsidy of approximately $500,000 to the theater.
In December of 1996 he settled eight years of litigation resulting in the acquisition of the former Malley's Department Store. His efforts were acknowledged by Community Mediation, Inc, with the presentation of the Zampano Award for Excellence in Mediation in June of 1997.
Technology Transactions
- State of Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles.
Presently negotiating a real-time motor vehicle registration system for the State of Connecticut. As in the past, Mednick will lead a team of officials from the Office of the Attorney General and the Departments of Information Technology and Motor Vehicles. - State of Connecticut Department of Public Safety.
Negotiated the 800 MHz trunked radio simulcast portal for the voice and mobile data telecommunications system for the State Police. The competitive negotiation and contract discussions were the culmination of a decade-long process of upgrading its 55-year-old radio system including planning, site construction and procuring the microwave backbone for the system. In August, 1996 with the issuance of the RFP and for two-and-a-half years thereafter to the signing of the contract, Mednick worked with the interdepartmental evaluation and negotiating teams to negotiate a $45+ million contract. - State of Connecticut Department of Revenue Services.
Negotiated the first phase of procurement of an Integrated Tax Administration System for DOIT and the Department of Revenue Services (“DRS”). The $37+ million contract relates to the creation of a single integrated taxpayer case-based system including the development of detailed system requirements. - City of Waterbury.
Lead negotiator on a series of technology contracts for the City of Waterbury and its Board of Education.