Friday, January 04, 2013

We Need Your Help

A few weeks ago, William Wilson, vice chair of the Middletown Republican Town Committee sent letters to the Mayor, Town Clerk, and Water & Sewer Director under FOI for some documents that would show where tax payer money is being sent. Below is his letter. We are told, he has only received the receipt for Mayor Drew's plane ticket to China, and nothing more. The questions below are very important to tax payers. Do not let your city government get away with ignoring the voice of the people. They can ignore one, but not many! 
Download the FOI Here
If you care about where your money is going copy and paste this letter, sign your name & address, and either email or send to: 
question@MiddletownCT.gov 
cc: TownClerk@MiddletownCT.gov
Town Clerk, City Hall
245 deKoven Drive
Middletown, CT 06457 


To: The Town Clerk of the City of Middletown,
     I am sending this letter as an FOI request to be answered by the appropriate parties within the City of Middletown. I would like the all the relevant reports that will answer the questions below.

1.How many discharges from the sewer treatment located at 100 River Road have there been in the last 5 years?  How many gallons per discharge into the Connecticut River during that time? Please provide any DEP reports of spillage & discharge for the last 5 years.

2. Please provide me the relevant reports to disclose any and all spills into the Connecticut River stemming from Middletown's sewage treatment plant and relevant systems dating back five years. Have there been any other spills as documented by the City of Middletown into the Connecticut river where sewage has been discharged or overflowed? Please provide any and all  bypass reports.

3. Please provide documentation to answer the following question: Have there been any fines due to discharges or spills during the past five years to the Water and Sewer department? If so, when, why and for what amount?

4.Please provide information regarding billing oversight at the Water & Sewer department. How many billing complaints have been filed in the past five years? How many customers have been misbilled? Please provide a record of this and the remedy.

5. Please provide receipts& expense report for the Mayor's trip to China. Please also provide the detailed summary report he told the Common Council he would provide at the Common Council meeting immediately following his return. Please include a detailed list of whom he met with.

6. Please provide copies of the documents prepared by the architect hired by the Mayor to do drawings of a proposed addition to house the senior center at City Hall.

7. Please provide a list of open commission seats as of the date of this letter. A list is provided to the Common Council at the Mayor's request but not to the public.


8. In March or 2012, a report was summarizing for the Common Council stating that results of the independent investigation of the Water & Sewer Dept. A report was created at the expense of $10k. Please provide a full copy of this report.

All subsequent data provided may be returned to me as printable pdf files in digital format on CDs I will provide, in lieu of paper copies at the City's earliest convenience.

Sincerely,  Your Name & Address Here



9 comments:

  1. Good Job Billy!!! I love that show too!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The City is well aware that they have by statute, law, 4 business days to comply with any FOIA request. The information sought should be readily obtainable as most of the information must be reported to the DEEP. I would suggest that a follow up letter go to the "new" City Attorney and a copy to the Middletown Press. After all... isn't Victoria suppose to be the new investigative reporter??? Failure to provide this public information is subject to penalties including fines by the Freedom of Information Commission. It is easy enough to file that complaint as well with the State.

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    Replies
    1. I will be sending this off ASAP! So will everyone at my house. Seriously we deserve answers.

      Delete
  3. You don't understand. These people are well connectedDemocrats, they don't have to answer questions or have to account for their actions. How about the million dollars plus the board of ed is missing that no one seems to have to answer for. Whwn Giuliano questioned it, He was voted out of office.

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  4. Please file the complaint with the State FOIC. You will get the definitive answer that you are fools who don't know what is and is not subject to FOI.

    ReplyDelete
  5. How much was the plane ticket for? Are we to assume the balance was used for taxi, hotel, and food?

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  6. The FOI doesn'tmake them answer your question or create a record to answer your question. It does make them give you existing records. If the mayor didn't submit an expense record than they can't be required to turn over something that doesn't exist ib which case it makes you wonder why Carl Erlacher paid him with no evidence of receipts. Actually since this is Middletown, the laughing stock of the state, and Erlacher is a political homey it isn't a surprise.

    They have 4 days to tell you IF they are turning iver the records not to actually give them to you. If you don't hear after 4 days you can file a complaint with the FOIC.

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  7. Anon. 7:56 AM The City has 4 days to submit an answer of whether or not they have something on record in writing. It would be amusing if the City has to admit it has no records of discharges, of the China report Mayor Drew promised, or the $10,000 Water & Sewer Investigation it paid for. Sometimes it is not a matter of what is available via FOIC but what is NOT.

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  8. The elected officials think they don't have to answer to anyone. Take MyEyeEd for example - several years ago he files a complaint with the FOI about the BOE. He loses. Now he's on the BOE and he does the same thing he accused the former BOE of doing. Power corrupts and breeds arrogance.

    ReplyDelete

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