Friday, August 02, 2013

Your Daily Spin from the Middletown Mess: Local 466 Union President Cautious of Mayor's Planned Dept. Mergers

A private citizen is looking for a new job, two guys running as third party candidates  vs. a story about the potential destruction of City government infrastructure & increased waste on the backs of tax payers... lemme think which is more relevant...

The Mess, in true Spin fashion dictated by certain unseen forces is attempting to detract attention from the issue of the upcoming vote on the City merging of departments by placing this critical City issue between obscure articles today. 

Despite the fact this will impact the quality of services the City offers its taxpayers, and also taxpayer wallets, the Mess doesn't make this a top story! ?

The Mess really is working overtime taking dictation from the Drew Crew and Serracratologists in attempts to derail the upcoming 2013 municipal elections and taint the waters against non-cult candidates. 
So how does it work, do you guys have a separate phone line directly to Mess Editor Viktoria's bedroom that you wake her up in the middle of the night to start spinning the web? Does Tommy send a car to pick her up?
So what are the top stories? The Mess wants people to focus on the fact that Councilmen Phil Pessina and Joe Bibisi (R) are both seeking the nomination of the Working Families (cough Democrats by a different name cough ) party. The Mess ( or who ever is really pulling the strings) makes the  top headline is that former Mayor Sebastian Giuliano applied for the town manager position in Cromwell back in April.  A former mayor, now a private citizen, tries to get a new job outside of town and move on with his private life and editors Viktoria and Alex  put it front and center. Perhaps the Democratic Town Committee will again get some Wesleyan College Democrats to protest another attempt by Giuliano to move on. History can then repeat itself with six news crews covering the ONE protester! Instead of posting this story in a blatant attempt to try and stir up opposition, one would think that spendacrats would want to keep it quiet in order for Giuliano to get a new job elsewhere and be less of a  thorn  in their sides as they see him. And people criticize us for what we choose to cover- we see a Pulitzer in you kids' futures, really.
On another tangent, notice how the Mess hasn't mentioned that Wesleyan Professor & Eye Founder Stephen Devoto is gathering signatures to primary the Democratic slate for a seat on the Planning and Zoning ballot in while? What's wrong D-Crew? Don't want the word Devoto may actually accomplish his goal getting out?
Back to the real story: Wednesday the Finance and Government Commission met in regards to the adoption of the Blue Ribbon Report  aka Mayor's Task Force on Efficiency report from April 2012. They discussed  the final stages of its implementation which is merging of departments. The Common Council votes on this merger at their Monday meeting. This spring, the council voted to merge the legal and personnel departments.
The Insider has published numerous editorials from a variety of authors who crunched the numbers and showed that this was not truly going to save tax payer money, but as written had parts if  enacted would create more spending. One issue the Common Council should look at, hopefully in between certain councilpersons giving speeches about themselves, is if in the months since the merger if in fact these departments have saved money as it was proposed. Mayor Drew touted over and over (and over) again that it would; now prove it. Did you know when Mayor Drew smiles rainbows appear in the sky? Don't believe us? Well he said so, so it must be true.
If  Drew's plans are adopted by the Council, according to the new organization, the parks division would report to the Public Works Department, and the recreation part would merge with Senior Services to form a new Recreation and Community Services Department. Sounds like the same thing with a different name? We thought so too. 

Mayor Dan Drew  was quoted by the Mess as saying he projects $150,000 in savings and “there are another number of savings that will become clear as time goes on.” Course he isn't adding in the pension packages he handed out to get rid of people the he couldn't manipulate.So what are the savings? Well, the apparently according to Drew, the Council will have to adopt it to see?!  What is so hard about showing some REAL data?? How about you be clear now- dare we say TRANSPARENT?
The Mess goes onto quote the Mayor as saying that essentially the merger needs to take place in order for Public Works and Park and Rec to share equipment. Again why they can't share now like big boys and girls is beyond us- and chances are they probably already do share! Excuse us Mr. Drew, these splendid, profound ideas you are having are really quite frightening in their deepness.

Christine Bourne,  president of  Municipal Employees Local 466, a city labor union, isn't buying the deal. Continuing to stand up - that's Ballz Bourne! 
You go girl!

The Mess quotes Bourne: “I think we’re trying to fix something that isn’t broken,”  “Any potential savings haven’t been shown to me, haven’t been shown to the union … our guys are concerned about what they’re going to be asked to do.”


The Mess article then goes on to talk about Bourne's recently settled labor dispute with the City which has absolutely nothing to do with the merger and appears to be a thinly veiled  and quite shallow attempt by the Mess to discredit Bourne. Nice try, but no cigar. 
Remember folks, Mayor Drew raised your taxes, cut your teachers, makes up new rules to the City Charter on a daily basis ( it's Administrative Assistant Joe Samolis - no such thing as Chief of Staff), perpetuated the violation of  the already violated worker rights of a union employee (Bourne) now proved by law, lies to the public, and we get 2 more years of our Dear Leader. Now that is a run -on sentence!
Don't worry, Kim Jong Un-Drew says for a cool $750K upfront cost, the City  can light the Arrigoni Bridge in colors of the the rainbow corresponding to his moods.
While less departments in theory sounds just dandy, previous posts laboriously explained the merger and by doing some no so fancy math to prove the numbers don't work are linked below: 
Editor's note background: 
 Want to know more about the Government ReOrg? Read the Insider Staff's analysis of the Government ReOrg here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/12/city-governmen-re-org-part-ii.html  

John Milardo spoke of the downsides of the Governmnet ReOrg in a previous Guest Blog piece here:://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/guest-blog-his-town.html

Councilmember Linda Salafia also comments on negative aspects here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/letter-editor-government-reorg-costly.html

Chairman of MRTC Ken McClellan discusses the reorg here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/02/letter-to-editor-mayor-daniel-drews.html

Read the full report for yourself here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/12/mayors-task-force-on-efficiency-report.html and packages here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/who-gets-what-drew-cleans-house-with.html

John Milardo writes again of how the numbers don't add up to savings in a previous Guest Blog piece here

15 comments:

  1. The reason the Mayor wants the departments joined together is so Tom Serra can have his house taken care of by the city. The parks department can mow his lawn.
    What the heck, the city is paying for repaving most of his driveway under a road bond job right now. No other citizen has ever received a complete driveway replacement during a road job.
    Just take a ride by his house on the Sisk Street paving job and see for yourself.

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  2. Someone needs to tell Big Bourne that no one is obligated to show her the savings. Sheesh her ego is getting as big as her body. Her "guys" might be required to work - a novel thought for city employees! She needs to go back to hacking.

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  3. I'm no fan of the Press, but they have been consistently publishing articles about the Town Manager search in Cromwell.

    Seb applying for a Town Manager job and pulling political strings to try to get it is newsworthy. Of course the thought of him being a professional town manager is pretty funny.

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  4. Anon. 9:12- I am curious about the driveway paving at Tommy's house- please sent the Insider some photos inquiring minds want to know more!! Crazy!

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  5. You bash a Mayor, but offer no candidates to replace him. Perfect.

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  6. Gee Bourne comes back to the BOE and as her first act....forgets to pay the teachers today! Some things never change. 350 teachers didn't get their direct deposit because she was too busy sticking her nose where it doesn't belong instead of doing her job.

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  7. Hey, I am fine with Tom Serra getting a free driveway, it's tough to live on a 164K state pension and do you know how much it costs to pay a colorist to dye your hair?

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  8. Anon 3:49 thanks for the info. We got an email this morning saying there were issues with payroll. We weren't told that someone forgot to pay us! I thought maybe there was a computer or bank glitch but it looks like we were purposely misled and to find out that she forgot to pay us is horrible! What does the mayor plan on doing about it?

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  9. Bourne doesn't start at the BOE until Aug. 12. Get your facts straight.

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  10. BOURNE DOES NOT START AT THE BOE UNTIL AUGUST 12 PEOPLE GET A GRIP!!!
    SOMEONE ELSE MADE THE ERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. People voted for Drew they DESERVE him! Its not anyone's responsibility to put forth a better candidate- the same argument could be made that the Democrats should have offered someone new and better

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  12. Bourne is back. I saw her several times this week.

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  13. To the Middletown Insider. How did the contractor damage 75% of Councilman Serra's driveway?
    Did the City inspector or insurance carrier take any photo's of the damage? Let's see them if they did?

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  14. Phil and Joe are looking to challenge Dems for seats on WFP ticket. How is that going to play or did Phil ask permission from Tom before seeking the endorsement?

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  15. Tom is the big papa on the council so he gets special benefits,i.e. his driveway repaved and fixed for nazas. He needs all the dollars he can get to keep his wife as Miss Prim and having her dress like a 20 or 30 year old. Ever see her at functions? Can't believe Tommy lets her out of the house looking like that. He and big papa Joe will take anything they can for nothing.

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