Rumblings! Strike a Pose!

1. Who was absent from the most important council meeting of the year, the one where the city budget is explained? Treasurer Quentin Phipps! Why should the city's chief financial leader show up to only 1 meeting a year? $4,800 stipend to be City Treasurer of Middletown while living & working the the Bronx, not too shabby!  But Que made it back to Mtown to strike a pose front & center in the St. Sebastian Feast Parade!

2. How many times can Mayor Drew pat himself on the back at the budget hearing?  And how many times can he thank the public for coming to watch his spectacle? How many times can he thank the public for giving him the privilege of having a public forum in which to pat himself on the back? Well, you get the idea.

3. Knock knock. Who's there? Its just Mayor Drew patting himself on the back again. 

4. The audits in and Sodexo is costing taxpayers way more than inside services would. BOE  member Linda Syzinkowicz told us so over a year ago btw.

5. Councilman Grady Faulkner, on behalf of the NAACP believes no African American police officer should ever be allowed to exercise free will and leave the force to take another job, perhaps even a better one, outside of Middletown ever. Huh? He said so at the Councils budget meetings.

6. The recently passed budget increases spending by $5 million, gives each Council member a raise of $1,200 and makes the mayor's salary to $90k but it managed to cut taxes slightly. So what's missing? Can you say appropriations?

7.  The Democrats on Planning & Zoning were too cheap to request money be spent on a master plan for the riverfront because they all are planning experts and feel they are more than qualified to do it themselves. In the first sign of the Apocalypse a red heifer was born yesterday and Democrats exist who are against spending money. Luckily, the floating zone idea was recently flushed by the R's like the floater it was.

8. Rumor has it trustfund shoe fortune heir Wesleyan Grad & former National College Dem leader Ben Florsheim will be part of the D's p&z ticket. Will he put his money where his mouth is & bring jobs and have his family open a flagship shoe store in Middletown? 

9. Democrats want to appoint Lisa Santangelo Registrar. That's impartial right? Having the elected Town Committee Chair running elections?

10. Councilwoman Kasper got a break on her property taxes because she says her house is haunted. We wish we had made this up. Call Board of Ass.Apps. member Sal Micchula  if you think we're kidding.

11. Next Law & Order SUV Piddletown: A liberal elitist college jock sues his female assault victim for slander after his conviction.  Mariska Hargitay as Sgt. Olivia Benson & Charlie Sheen's exoskeleton as his wealthy CEO of a nonprofit health center father who just wants to clear up the misunderstanding with a little green. Guest starring convicted Dr. Tory Westbrook from the CHC as "Dr.McFeely."

12. Ed4Ed gets to hold a meeting in the high school auditorium to rally parents to reasons  as to why the BOE should pass the budget. Who pays for the janitor & police overtime? Not Ed4Ed that's for sure. If a GOP board member wanted to hold a public meeting at the same venue to discuss reasons not to pass the BOE budget with parents, who do you think would pay if even such a notion were even to be allowed? Its Ed4Ed campaign 2.0. Its an election year after all people! For the kids!!

13. Screw ups pay. Name that city employee who hired an individual for an unfunded position and is down for $10k+ bump in salary in the newly passed budget.

14. Inland Wetlands is illegal as far as party affiliation of membership which means all decisions are illegal. So nows the time to fill in that big swampy area while its open season.

15. I got 90 problems and they are all grievances by city employees. I thought we were ending lawsuits?

15 1/2 .Problems? What's going on with NEAT?

16. Suddenly Ed4Ed and Dr. P Charles are traffic engineers and have redesigned the road in front of Farm Hill School. The idea was wrapped in last years $1.8 million road bond referendum.  Never an issue suddenly is a crisis.  For years buses approached on the side of the school but because Public Works Director & Serra Cousin Bill Russo needs to flex his muscle, a plan that worked forever is getting tossed for a crazy concept infringing on private property. Quick: Suspend logic and start beating the "it's for the kids drums"!! What's it based on? The Complete Streets cut & paste manifesto lead by John Hall.

17. God bless Councilman Bauer & the R's for asking for an amendment to keep a rumored  specially created position for the good Reverend/Arm Chair Biologist/Jonah Bologna Center Dude/Wife Killer Defender John Hall  out of the budget before it was passed.

18. Speaking of God, Mayor Drew ended the practice of honoring National Prayer Day at City Hall, but couldn't even admit he caved to pressure from leftist progressive constituents. Instead, Drew  made participating clergy scape goats claiming they wouldn't allow other denominations. Funny, all other years the event was non denominational for multi faiths. And a month later, he marched  with clergy at the St. Sebastian Feast parade with Quetin, an event attended by hundreds of city faithful. Guess your belief in a secular society only matters to you when the event won't be widely photographed enough for your liking.

19. Just in time for Memorial Day: Bet you didn't know Mayor Drew gave the temp buildings housing the Veterans Museum the boot from the Eckersley Hall lot. Charming way to treat folks who fought for freedom ! Drew banished the veterans to a glorified cardboard box by modular building co. Mod Space ( follow the campaign $) at Vets Park. Thankfully the vets objected and are funding their own real ground up building with real walls, glass windows. and um insulation fancy that.  Also off the table is the dog park at Vets Park. Good job vets for finally getting the message across to Mayor Drew that excrement doesn't mix with a memories of heros'. Keep that sh*t confined to City Hall. And God Bless our veterans.

Malloy & Bye Keynote Speakers at Gun Violence Prevention Convention Wesleyan Sept. 28th ($75)

On  Sept. 28 Wesleyan University will host a Gun Violence Prevention public forum with featured speaker Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. He is joined by Ct state Senator Beth Bye.

The Conference on Gun Violence Prevention will be held on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on campus.The event is hosted by Connecticut Against Gun Violence, the Wesleyan Association of Christian Thinkers, Wesleyan’s Center for Community Partnerships and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Psi Upsilon, Womanist House, Buddhist house, 200 Church residence hall and Wes Democrats.

Participants may attend sessions on “Past, Present and Future of Gun Violence Prevention in Connecticut,” “Guns 101: The Terminology and Technology,” The 2014 Elections: How YOU can Impact the Results,” “Beyond Mass Shootings: The Hidden Epidemic of Gun Homicide,” “Marching for Change: Building a Movement,” “Legislative Strategy: Making Your Voice Heard,” and “Maximum Impact: Effective Social Media Strategy.”

The conference is open to the public but a fee of $75 for attendees who are not students is required.
 
Sessions will include discussions on homicides with firearms, legislative strategy and social media strategy. Redding Police Chief Douglas Fuchs will speak on gun terminology.

More information, links pre register and pay the attendance fee as well as a full list of speakers is available here:
http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2013/09/16/gunviolenceconference/ 

and here: http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/files/2013/09/WES-CONFERENCE-ONLINE-DETAILS-AND-REGISTRATION.pdf

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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  

The misleading merge of City Legal & BOE Legal:http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/apple-oranges-boe-budget-hikes.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

http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/04/guest-blog-reorganization-by-john.html

Wow! Cold

New Obama Video: True of False You Decide

The last 5 minutes of this video say a lot about Obama's affiliation with the DSA and Reverend Wright.  Check it out and make your own decisions.

If this guy were a Republican he wouldn't be around!

 

Original video created by CNN, posted for discussion purposes.

January 3 2007! Read and Think

An Alternate History Lesson by: Robbie Sipangelo

A history lesson you will not find in the news, weather TV or

Print. You won’t find it in our schools  either.

         Do YOU REMEMBER JANUARY 3, 2007?

This is NOT a political message, but rather a clarification to remind us all of the correct facts.

Remember that on October 9, 2007, 11 months before our “economic crisis” occurred

(that was actually created), the Dow hit its highest point ever, closing at 14,164.53 and reaching 14,198.10 intra-day level 2 days later.  Unemployment was steady at 4.7%.  But things were already being put in place to create the havoc we’ve all been experiencing since then.  And it all started, as this email explains, on January 3, 2007.  --LFL

This tells the  story, why Bush was so “bad” at the end of his term. Don't just skim over this, it's not very long, read it slowly and let it sink in. If in doubt, check it out!!!

The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009; it was actually January 3rd 2007, which was the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.

The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since

the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is

"Bush's Fault", think about this: January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress.

At the time:

The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77 The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5% The Unemployment rate was 4.6% George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB GROWTH

Remember the day...

January 3rd, 2007was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.  The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?  BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

Unemployment... to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie - starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy.

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie? OBAMA and the Democrat Congress.

So when someone  tries to blame Bush.  REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd,

 2007....

Letter to the Editor: Ben Florsheim, Chair of Wesleyan College Democrats

Ben Florsheim, Public Figure

You are within your rights to make wild, baseless accusations and live your life in an alternative reality of paranoia and ignorance. You are not, however, entitled to use my image on your website in association with this behavior. Take it down immediately.

Sincerely,

Ben Florsheim

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The Insider never labeled Florsheim's picture, however, he has chosen to identify himself in the post previously published here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/09/whats-up-did-anybody-in-2011-vote-2x-in.html .

Florsheim is president of the Wesleyan College Democrats, a Middletown Democrat Town Committee elected member, and the vice president of the National College Democrats. He worked on the Gov. Malloy campaign and aided MDTC in providing buses and pizza to bring students to the polls. Florsheim helped to register over 400 students last election.

Florsheim made false accusations towards former Mayor Sebastian Giuliano,  and then P.Z. Candidate Molly Salafia, Registrar Janice Giofriddo in an SEEC (State Elections Enforcement Commission) complaint filed by a fellow College Democrat. All allegations were dismissed, and in fact the SEEC ruled all were actually PROMOTING voting in their actions in which the complaint was based on. 
Several letters of protest from Florsheim and other  Wesleyan students seem to have aided in the retraction of the appointment of Giuliano to SEEC chair last year. The full ruling, which is also publicly available on the SEEC website can be read here:http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/06/state-elections-commission-throws-out.html 

Had they not been, each could have faced up to 5 years in prison with a minimum mandatory 1 year served for the felonies..... Florsheim circulated

State Elections Commission Throws Out Allegations of Voter Fraud Against City Officials made by Wesleyan Student

The full document of the complaint & ruling is here:
 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwUElDbEJGRUE0QWs/edit?pli=1

Florsheim, Blumenthal, De Golia, photo from Middletown 

Patch, by C. Day

Wesleyan student  and Windsor CT native, Paulina Jones-Torregrosa filed a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission accusing local City officials Incumbent Mayoral Candidate Sebastian Giuliano, Registrar of Voters Janice Gionfriddo (R), Registrar Anne Tommassi (D), and then candidate now Planning & Zoning Commissioner Molly Salafia of voter intimidation  & fraud during the last local election held in November 2011. Jones-Torregrosa alleges that by allowing students at the University who in the past were allowed to register to vote with P.O Box's to change this to an on campus address as it was found by the SEEC &  State Attorney General to be necessary by law, would cause undo steps for the students and impede their voting rights. The student alleges that by trying to help students remedy this before the election, the incumbent Mayor and Registrar's from both parties were committing voter fraud. The student also alleges that a letter  to a local blog by Salafia that was found by the SEEC to actually encourage  the voting students, and to vote across party lines (see last page of document above) was in her opinion voter intimidation and should be punishable by a felony fine and  mandatory imprisonment. The SEEC dismissed all allegations by the student, and in its conclusions, states that the Commission feels all were trying to help in making voting easier; the opposite of what Jones-Torregrosa alleges. It is unknown at the time if Jones-Torregrosa is or was a member of the Wesleyan College Democrats who  handed out flyers & wrote press releases along side student presidents Gabriela DeGolia and Ben Florsheim stating that the same accused persons were trying to intimidate students and encouraging student voters not to vote for them. Florsheim and DeGolia worked with various campus groups to mass register over 400 Wesleyan students and bus some of them to the polls for the last municipal elections.  Florsheim, who is president of the National College Democrats, claimed that the registering of students and bussing was a non partisan issue, but was quoted in the Wes Argus in September of 2011 that he and the Wesleyan Democrats would do everything possible to assist the Drew campaign. http://wesleyanargus.com/2011/04/29/students-prepare-for-mayoral-race/ Florsheim and DeGolia have since joined the local Democratic Town Committee.