Monday, January 28, 2013

Dumb Decisions Made By the Middletown Common Council

Dumb Decisions Made By the Middletown Common Council * (Aka things we bet you didn't know about the folks that run the city.)

Note: In order for things to get down in the city, it is the Common Council (Democrat controlled since 1991) that votes on proposed ordinances and not the Mayor. (I.e. A city mayor can propose a tax decrease in his./her budget, but the common council by virtue of 2/3 majority, can override that budget and replace it with their own plan.) According to the town charter, the mayor of Middletown can only vote in the event that there is a 6-6 tie on the floor.

1. Remington Rand- In 1999 the city took ownership of the 184,000 square-foot industrial building at 180 Johnson Street through a foreclosure settlement. According to a 2010 Middletown Press article: "Eighteen tenants, including a landscaper and a mail sorting business, currently rent space in the building from the city, bringing in between $60,000-$100,000 annually for the city's economic development fund." The problem one may ask: the Democratic controlled common council was projecting the sale of the property and putting that amount into the budget. Confused? It’s like this, imagine that you want to sell your car and use the money to pay for a new roof. Sounds good on paper and it seems pragmatic, but if you don’t sell the car and the roof bill shows up. That is exactly what happened with the Rand property, the sale never happened and the Dem approved budget had monies (sale of Remington Rand) in their budget that didn’t exist. Translation: The property didn’t sell and the Dems spent the money that they didn’t have.

2. $25,000 (Was it more?) to It's Only Natural- If you are the owners of Middletown's Natural Health Store, It's Only Natural (ION) then in your soy/tofu soaked mind it's a great decision: free money. This really happened folks, the ION owners decided to ask Middletown's Common Council for money to help their business; they claimed that due to the construction of the Arrigoni Bridge, their business was becoming dry and the owners were losing monies. Did anybody from the council ask to see data or evidence (their books!) that supported this claim of lost funds due to bridge construction? Nope, and the council quickly voted 10-2 in favor of giving ION the $25,000 they sought. The two dissenting votes: Two female Republicans named Linda Salafia and Debbie Kleckowski.

3. 1,000,000$ in Union Concessions rejected in 2009- In 2009, the MMPA offered to concede a $1,000,000 in concessions to the city of Middletown to help with the budget deficit? What happened? The mayor and his staff warmly worked with John Milardo and Local 6092/ MMPA to take advantage of the generosity offered by the union to help the city. Results: The common council in all their wisdom voted not to take this one time gift of a million dollars. Reminds one of the Jedi council rejecting Anakin Skywalker membership into their guild- worked well for them did it not?

4. The New MHS High School- Where does one begin? From wetlands to the indicated Tomasso LLC the project was a mess from the very beginning. The finished product: No locker rooms, a cracked pool, lack of fire lanes and a budget that ballooned approximately $15 million over budget. (source H. Courant July 16, 2005) According to other town and newspapers sources the school has been plagued with the following issues as well: the immobility of the grandstands in the gym, the minimal size of the pool deck, the collapsing retaining wall at the truncated Cynthia Lane and more all given to us by a Democrat controlled common council and architects hand picked by then Mayor Dominique Thornton.


Administrative Assistant or Chief of Staff..Mmmm?

5.Appointing Dan Drew to Vinny Lofreddo's slot- Here is how it went down: Vinny Lofreddo the once and future Middletown Councilman (and Mayor for a day in 1965) decided it was time to take his leave from the council due to a new job appointment in Hartford or wherever. The Dems in classic Dem fashion, appointed the town's 'savior' Daniel T. Drew to Vinny's old job making him a councilman by appointment not election. What does this mean? This means that you, the public electoral body of Middletown, did not choose the one time defender of a UCONN student show entitled "I Did Your Mother" to the role of councilman. Yes, we know he was elected Mayor all buy himself (with the help of Wesleyan students), but one needs to ask themselves: What would women’s right activist and Rush Limbaugh nemesis Sandra Fluke say about Dan’s defense of a show entitled, “I Did Your Mother?” When she showed up in Middletown in late October 2012 to help the cause, was she aware of Dan’s involvement with the UCONN show, “I Did your Mother?” What would she say to Dan about his abuse of females in meetings, most notably Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski who asked a very innocent question about proper time with regard to vetting the new Deputy Police Chief? One can guess that Fluke would ignore Dan’s digressions with regard to women in this case because of the politics involved.

Did you read : http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/guest-blog-his-town.html

12 comments:

  1. DOuble Standard for Drew: SInce he is a Democrat he can say "I was defeinding the 1st AMendment" but if he were a GOP member he would be labeled a sexist pig.. Yish! FOr him I get it, it's politcal gain, but for Fluke what a sell out.

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  2. That video is sick stuff

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  3. Looks like we all need to keep a closer eye on things and start attending the meetings. $ 25,000.00 of taxpayers money "gifted" to a local business will not fly anymore.

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  4. ION ought to be ashamed for robbing us of that money! Thanks Insider!

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  5. Someone do an article on why a manager, John Milardo , was allowed to go back to overtime from salary? I'm sure no favor there?

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  6. Dear ANON 5:44:

    If you would like we would welcome you to write the John Milardo/Overtime article, but make sure you have proper citations and data to support your claims. Take it or leave it, chum.

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  7. This is Middletown and democrats can do anything they want without repercussion from the voters. That is the problem here and it won't be fixed until real change happens come election time.

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  8. For point of clarification, I, as are all the Superintendents who work in the City, have always been hourly employees...nothing has ever changed now or in the past.

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  9. Milardo and other superintendent level personnel are hourly,he did nothing wrong.

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  10. I would like to donate a giant gong to the Council Chambers so that it can be rung everytime one of those 8 baffoons speaks.

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  11. John:

    You are saying you were never at any time in your time with the city a salary employee? Early 90's ring a bell and you begged to go back to O.T? Come on John it stinks in here

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