Monday, November 02, 2015

And Justice for All: Late Night Top 10 List by John Milardo

Top 10 reasons why Middletown residents SHOULD NOT re-elect Mayor Daniel T. Drew on

Tuesday, November 3,, 2015.

#10. Mayor Daniel T. Drew’s feeble attempt to restructure the Fire Departments job description

eliminating the mandatory Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certification for new hires, to

gain more minority voting for his re-election campaign. It took 4 years for Dan and his paid

political advisors to come with this scheme. “The Vinci Group”, Danny’s campaign funded

hounds, will earn over $50,000 from Dan for their services in this election. Until he had

opponent for the Mayoral seat, he didn’t care about the minority hiring in Fire or any City

department. Taxpayers now get to pay the cost of training new hires for their EMT

certifications, without the benefit of a reduced entry level salary.




#9. Mayor Daniel T. Drew states he has LOWERED TAXES in Middletown; "With Mayor

Drew's leadership we have managed to cut taxes and improve our bond rating,". Are you

kidding me! Our mil rates over the past three (3) years have increased 6.3 mils. It decreased by

a mere one-tenth of a mil this year – election year. He doesn’t mention the 6.3 mils of increase

under his leadership that provided no new services to benefit Middletown residents! The value

of your house went down, while the taxes increased to cover the cost of City operations. And

yes, we have great bond ratings...because the taxpayer is paying off this debt on time. See

what happens if we default for some reason or another? Nice try Dan!


#8. Mayor Daniel T. Drew’s complete City Department reorganization failure. There was no

monetary savings to taxpayers as he has stated. By the City’s own financial records, (their

publicly published fiscal year budgets), the yearly cost increase for the same exact services has

skyrocketed to over $400,000. Not to mention the additional $4.1 million of pension liability

for Dan’s early retirement incentive which he promised would reduce City government

operations, by $500,000 the first year and $133,000 every year after. Complete lie! Never

happened, never even got a brief look at any savings.


Mayor Dan claims that due to the reorganization, “the parks in Middletown have never looked

better.” So if that is a true and accurate fact, then why is he pushing for a $34 million dollar

bond for park and facility renovations? It’s called the patting thyself on the back. The more

Danny says it’s so, the more people will believe him.


#7. Mayor Daniel T. Drew has reduced lawsuits for the City of Middletown. Lie! He has a

total of 11 pending lawsuits by individuals suing the City. One has been settled for over 7

figures, but he kept that close to the vest, so no one would know about it. That’s more than all

the lawsuits combined in the previous Mayor’s 6 year reign. This Mayor’s blatant practice of

discriminating against women and other minority groups is well documented in Court papers.

Almost every lawsuit filed against the City is due directly to Dan Drew’s discriminatory

actions.


#6. His poor administration of departments by leaving assistant director, directorships and

other positions vacant for months and years. The average vacancy is filled in 28 days, from

start to finish. Middletown takes months and years. Putting someone in an “acting” capacity is

not considered to be filling the position.


#5. The heavy bonded debt Middletown now has for next decade or more. If the two bond

referendum questions on November 3rd pass, we will have a debt to repay of over $100 million

dollars. There are two questions on the ballot, $34 million for parks repairs, and an additional

$15 million dollars to complete the Mattabassett sewer pipe project. How a project cost could

be 100% wrong is unfathomable! How no one is responsible for it, is even more

incomprehensible!


#4. Under Mayor Drew’s leadership, we now bond for trucks, equipment, snowblowers,

mowers, chainsaws, office equipment and so on. Done away with is the City Capitol Non-
Reoccurring (CNR) budget which previously funded these items, and was paid through our

taxes. Mayor Drew believes it’s better to pay a premium interest rate on top of these purchases

and borrow the money. Most towns have CNR budgets, while some even pay for major road

work and construction without bonding. Mayor Drew believes it’s better to “charge”

everything.


#3. Mayor Drew’s tampering with over $800,000 of Middletown employee’s pension fund

money. In the past, the pension actuary would recommend how much the City should pay into

the pension fund to ensure its solvency. Mayor Dan said “to hell with the actuary, we are not

funding it!” Somewhere soon down the road, future Mayor’s and taxpayers will have to correct

this pension fund mistake. By the way, when Mayor Drew makes statements that he saved the

taxpayer $800,000 in pension fund payments- you know it’s not true – right? Of course that’s

not true, he has postponed it and made it someone else’s problem. Maybe we can bond that

each year too!


#2. Mayor Daniel T. Drew’s constant self-promotion at Middletown’s expense. His attending

out of town events which have absolutely nothing to do with city business; all to further his

political future. His re-election campaign fund of over $105,000, with more than $75,000 of

that coming from out of town sources. Right now, this very Sunday night, Dan is emailing

Democrats asking for monetary donations of $50, $150, or $250 to accumulate another $2,000

in campaign contributions for campaign flyers he wants to get out by Monday. What has he

done with the over $105,000 in contributions already? Sandra Russo-Driska has done much

more and spent her funds wisely with her grass roots campaign of $40,000! Dan has no concept

off how to control spending...and it’s just the way he runs our town!

Danny has the worst attendance record of anyone in the City. He feels he’s not an employee

and doesn’t have to answer to the stock holders (us) about his whereabouts. In just a short 10

month period this year, from September to this August, Mayor Dan Drew has been absent from

work for a total of 89.5 days! This is an incredible amount of time not performing Mayoral

duties. Weekends were not included in this calculation, just Monday through Fridays. How can

anyone in any type of work environment miss 18 work weeks in a 10 month period!!!! That’s

almost 50% of the time. This is unacceptable! It’s incomprehensible!


#1. Mayor Daniel T. Drew attended Columbia University for a Master Degree this past year,

when he should have been in Middletown performing his Mayoral duties for the people who

pay his salary. Instead, he hid his attendance of going to the University, and abused the power

of his position by behaving in an unethical manner and using public funds in gaining his degree.

He had people lie for him to cover up his attendance at Columbia University, not caring if he

was jeopardizing their jobs too. He didn’t care that he intentionally violated the City Charter, as

he could not be a full-time Mayor, if attending school at the same time. He has violated the

trust of the people in Middletown with his deceptive behavior. He will not comment on this

matter, so you can decide what the truth is.


I wonder how much better Middletown could have been economically, culturally and fiscally if

we had a full-time Mayor, not a part-time salesman. Time for Dan to pack up and leave!

Make sure to get out and vote this coming Tuesday, November 3, 2015. Every vote counts!

Stay strong. Stay involved. Stay together. Seek the truth.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions and views expressed in this newsletter reflect the opinion and view of the author, and should not be

construed as fact or advice. The author is a life long Middletown resident and taxpayer, and is sharing his opinions as such. The

opinions and commentary do not reflect the views of any political party, organization, or citizen group. This newsletter reflects

opinions and commentary which the author wishes to share with his friends.

3 comments:

  1. The Mattabassett commitee is responsible for the sewage pipe project going haywire, headed by none other than Phil Pessina. Middletown First!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Voters should pay close attention to #5 - We have a project that now has cost overruns of 45% and is not even half completed.
    Did CDR Maguire really underestimate the project by MILLIONS - or were the people of Middletown jerked around by not disclosing the true cost of the project?

    And you want 34 Million for parks - so we can have parks with nice green grass - surrounded by roads full of pot holes!

    Pretty soon we'll be bonding for the paper clips for city hall......

    ReplyDelete
  3. The pumping station that would feed Mattabassett went out to bid,only one came back at 15 million dollars over budget!.According to one contractor, the station was designed to fail.Due to this design flaw no contractor wanted to be on the hook when the plant failed.Tell me, who is responsible for this? That is why we need a bond for 15 million more.

    ReplyDelete

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