Report finds ex-official tried to defraud Lowell
While he served as a Lowell city councilor in 2008, Alan Kazanjian illegally connected a commercial building he owned in Chelmsford to the Lowell sewer system, in a “scheme’’ to avoid tens of thousands in utility costs, according to a report of state Inspector General Gregory W. Sullivan.
The 10-page report released today contends that the well-known Lowell developer deliberately tried to defraud the city by arranging a Lowell sewer tie-in for a 15,000 square-foot commercial building he developed on land in Chelmsford that abuts the Lowell boundary.
“Kazanjian was motivated by significant cost savings,’’ said the report, the result of an 18-month investigation. “A sewer tie-in through the Chelmsford system would have cost significantly more to permit, construct, and operate . . . and would have lowered the market value of the building.’’
Kazanjian, reached by telephone yesterday, declined to comment.
The inspector general’s report says Kazanjian and his lawyer blamed a mix-up in communications for the tie-in without permit to the Lowell system.
However, the inspector general rejected that assertion.
The inspector general’s report calls for the city of Lowell to take “appropriate enforcement actions’’ and notes the city ordinance allows for civil fines of up to $5,000 a day for sewer violations, an amount that “could potentially exceed $3 million,’’ if calculated from the date an occupancy permit was issued in July 2009 to Friday, when the report is dated.
“It was our position from day one that this was an illegal tie-in,’’ Bernard F. Lynch, Lowell city manager, said yesterday. “We think there has to be some accountability here.’’
Lynch said fines and a disconnection of the tie-in are under consideration.
Kazanjian also served five years as Lowell Zoning Board of Appeals chairman.
Kazanjian gained permits from the town of Chelmsford in 2008 by submitting documentation showing he had a tie-in to Lowell, the report said.
Meanwhile, he received a sewer connection permit from Lowell for a tie-in to a vacant lot he owned that abutted the property he was developing across the boundary in Chelmsford, the report said.
A connection was made before July 2009, when Chelmsford issued an occupancy permit for the commercial building, the report said.
In October, the new owners of the commercial building contacted Kazanjian’s lawyer to ask why they never received a sewer bill from the city, the report said.
The lawyer then contacted Lowell officials, the report said.
In a letter to Lynch dated Friday, the inspector general’s office said the Middlesex district attorney “has declined to prosecute the case.’’
Sean Murphy can be reached at smurphy@globe.com 
