Originally published below at the The CT Mirror.org
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/2013/03/22/health-clinic-favored-and-fbi-asks-why
By Mark Pazniokas
Note: This story ran in March of in the Connecticut Mirror in 2013. The editorial board asks: Where was the local press during the Masselligate issues that are currently taken place in town. Surely, Middletown Press editor, Viktoria Sunderleftwingquist could have ran some story to let the citizens of Middletown know that the friggin F.B.I. is looking through Masselli's computers and files. Where are the stories on the Middletown "We hate Landino" Eye about this issue?
It is a mystery that the FBI is trying now to unravel: On the last day of the 2012 session, how did legislators come to create a $15 million pool of bond money exclusively for a chain of non-profit clinics operated by Mark Masselli, a political supporter of then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan?
On April 3, the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee endorsed a $199 million bond package that included $20 million for a competitive grants program to finance the renovation and expansion of community health centers that serve more than 300,000 patients annually.
But by the last night of the session on May 9, that $20 million pool
open to all 14 of the state's community health organizations had morphed
into $30 million, divided into equal pools of $15 million. The bond
package won final approval minutes before midnight on the final night.
One $15 million pool was open to the 13 members of the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut.
The other was available to Community Health Center Inc., the non-profit that Masselli founded in 1972 with a single clinic in Middletown and developed into a statewide chain with revenues of $66 million.
"We don't know exactly how it happened," said Deb Polun, director of government affairs and media relations for the association.
http://www.ctmirror.org/story/2013/03/22/health-clinic-favored-and-fbi-asks-why
By Mark Pazniokas
Note: This story ran in March of in the Connecticut Mirror in 2013. The editorial board asks: Where was the local press during the Masselligate issues that are currently taken place in town. Surely, Middletown Press editor, Viktoria Sunderleftwingquist could have ran some story to let the citizens of Middletown know that the friggin F.B.I. is looking through Masselli's computers and files. Where are the stories on the Middletown "We hate Landino" Eye about this issue?
It is a mystery that the FBI is trying now to unravel: On the last day of the 2012 session, how did legislators come to create a $15 million pool of bond money exclusively for a chain of non-profit clinics operated by Mark Masselli, a political supporter of then-House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan?
On April 3, the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee endorsed a $199 million bond package that included $20 million for a competitive grants program to finance the renovation and expansion of community health centers that serve more than 300,000 patients annually.
Mark Masselli and his vice president, Margaret Flinter. They have a weekly health show on WNPR. (WNPR photo)
One $15 million pool was open to the 13 members of the Community Health Center Association of Connecticut.
The other was available to Community Health Center Inc., the non-profit that Masselli founded in 1972 with a single clinic in Middletown and developed into a statewide chain with revenues of $66 million.
"We don't know exactly how it happened," said Deb Polun, director of government affairs and media relations for the association.
