Sources have told the Insider staff that Democratic Deputy Registrar Voters Lisa Santangelo, and Democratic Registrar Sandra Faraci , accompanied by personnel from the Common Council clerk's office have on multiple occasions been closing the doors at the Registrars' office during business hours and locking out their Republican counterparts.More disturbing is that by doing so they are locking out the public as well. By state law, the office is to remain open so that citizens may register to vote. Any variation of this practice must follow guidelines set forth by the State Elections Enforcement Commission which determines cases of voter suppression and other violations. Both parties have representatives appointed to the registrar to over see elections are run fairly. The Common Council Clerk office has no official business with the Office of Registrar.
Sources report that the Mayor's appointed Administrative Assistant Joseph Samolis, has advised City Hall staff to go against City Charter rules which title him "Administrative Assistant," and address him as "Chief of Staff." Not a huge deal? Well we all know where changing "job titles" has gotten us in the past when it comes time to determine salary! Across town, the Board of Education Administration has permanently hired Josh Berger, son-in-law of Councilwoman Hope Kasper as an Business Administrator after she played a key role in selecting candidates for that position. Berger , who has a work history primarily in real estate, did not rank in the top 10 qualified candidates. He, unlike any other BOE administrator will have a benefits package normally reserved only for teachers.
More back ground on this and other nepotism here.
Meanwhile, stacks of papers are piled high on the Mayor's desk as he spends most of his days campaigning for Democrats running for state offices, posing for photo ops at various events, mainly as part of the campaigning however, in Hartford lobbying, or and doing who knows what.... Drew can be found at work tops 2-3 days a week. The State Democratic Committee and Malloy machine pulled out all the stops to get Drew elected- spending almost $100,000.00. With no doubt the help of Malloy's crew who wanted to desperately to put another Democratic mayor in a major CT city, Drew received more out of town donations from big Dem donors from around Connecticut such as the Young Democrats, the Working Families political action organization, and labor unions.
It appears now, Drew has to return the favor to his creators at the expense of the public; Little Dano is obligated to Big Dan to reciprocate the favors, thus taking time away from his duties at City Hall.
As of late, aside from a few Council meetings, Drew has not been pulling too many late night committee meetings either. Working from home? If the public is not allowed to contact this public servant at home or on the road, then we don't buy it and neither should tax payers! Mayor Drew receives the full $87K tax payer funded salary no matter how often he chooses to grace City Hall with his presence.
* UPDATE! Your tax dollars at work: Since the initial posting of this piece, the Insider found Drew! Today the Mess published a article that has Candidate for State Rep. Paul Doyle and Matt Lesser cruising down the River in canoes yesterday during work hours with non other than Dan Drew- The event complete with reporter along was under the guise of "helping" DEEP Commissioner Esty check out the biological foray, but appears more like blatant campaigning to us- Wonder why no other representatives or candidates were invited?
Stay tuned for the Deputy chief Position Vote Tuesday- read background here |
