Letter to Editor: Evaluation for City Employees Looked at.

Dear Insider.

I thoroughly enjoyed your insightful rumblings; however, I think that you missed one.  The City is currently going through a job evaluation for City employees.  The report has been posted on the City's website although you have to somewhat search for it. This is the link:http://www.cityofmiddletown.com/content/117/121/161/9831/default.aspx

It's going to be interesting to see what the City does with this study and how will it effect this budget - can you say appropriations.  Maybe we shouldn't worry about it too much - there have been previous studies that the results of weren't implemented such as the one of the Water and Sewer Department.  And others such as the consolidation task force that were implemented immediately such as the combining of personnel duties into the Office of General Counsel.

This is about the third job study done by the City; the first being the Thompson study and then the Maximus Study with various outcomes.  The Maximus Study (btw, the company behind the study is no longer in business, I believe) generated some sort of scoring system which is not shared with the employees.  One of the studies resulted in the Teamster (or whatever union they now are) union negotiating changing the hours the members were paid from 35 hours per week to 40 hours in exchange for accepting the suggested hourly payscale.  In essence: we think that your hourly pay is too high so we'll pay you more hours.

Going to be interesting to say the least.

Signed

Anonymous

Letter the Editor: Government ReOrg Costly In Many Ways

Letter to the Editor from Councilwoman Linda Salafia

Letters to the editor are published as courtesy and not necessarily reflect the opinions of Insider Staff.  Government ReOrg report his here: http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/12/mayors-task-force-on-efficiency-report.html

I voted against the incentive plan offered to the Teamsters and the non-bargaining directors because I feel that it's not a good move for the City.  However, I also believe that  the employees that opted to retire should not be blamed or faulted in any way for making their decision to retire.  I'm actually surprised that more didn't take the offer!!  Even though there is an MOU between the City and the union, retirement incentives are not generally negotiated; it's usually offered to the union by the administration as a take it or leave it situation; and since unions are in the business of looking out for their members' best interests, they agree.

Now, I feel that the incentive was not a good move because for the City to save money, they need to not replace the retiring employees at the same level that they were at.  Mayor Drew has said that he's only replacing those employees that are required by law and those in key positions.  Also, he promised that for the January Common Council meeting he would bring forward his plans for the reorganization that he has in mind.  However, so far, most of those positions vacated have been replaced by employees appointed in the acting capacity including the Deputy Personnel Director being appointed as Acting Personnel Director.  I realize that employees were promoted so that down the chain of command there are vacancies; however, this was not what was presented as the reason for the incentive:  the incentive was presented to allow for reorganization.  So tell me:  if you put people into the vacant positions with the exact same job descriptions and duties as the retiring employee had, how are you going to change those positions or eliminate those positions through a reorganization without affecting the employee in the position.  Seems to me that you're back to the same status that you were at before the incentive: an active employee in the position that you wanted to modify????  Seems to me that prior to the incentive, if you'd modified the job and the active employee didn't want to do the modified job, they could have retired; now you've got employees in the position that you want to modify that it's eligible to retire and will have to take a new job, reduced pay or something - I just don't see that happening.  That's why I think that the reorganization should have come before any retirement incentive.

By the way, we were promised that the plans would be presented at the January meeting but nothing.  I'll add it to the list of things I'm waiting for:  the report on the outcome of the China trip; the actions taken after the report on the Water and Sewer Department issues.  Although I have read the report by the committee on government efficiency, it has not been actually presented to the Common Council for approval and implementation.  Simply the administration could share with the whole council a flow chart of proposed hierarchy of departments and reorganization.  Hopefully, one has been done by now.

Another, reason that I've problems with the incentive that was offered:  it's huge brain drain on the City.  There were quite a few 466 employees who retired over the last few years and now with these retirements, the City is losing much of it's historical knowledge.  Seems to me that you're going to be repeating mistakes already made; these are the people who know what's been tried before and worked and what didn't.  Not to say that things can't necessarily be done differently, but you just extended the learning curve significantly and can we as a City afford that???

I certainly do not in any way shape or form, blame those employees who accept this incentive and wish them all well!!!  They all serve the City well and the City is in debt to their years of service.  I for one am sorry that they retired.

Linda Salafia

Common Council Member (R)

City 411:New Superintendent Contract in Plain English, Grievances, Settlements, & Dumbed Down Hiring Requirements

    The Middletown Insider has become aware of rumors afloat that there will soon be a special council meeting called to vote on the appointment of a new city attorney.  The city attorney position has been vacant for several years now since the retirement of Trina Solecki.   Deputy City Attorney Tim Lynch was appointed Acting City Attorney under Mayor Giuliano's administration.  When Mayor Drew took office, he decided to advertise for the position which the Personnel Office did.  There were applicants who were certified as qualified by the Personnel Department including the current Acting City Attorney.  At the June Common Council meeting, the job description for the city attorney position was changed in that the required number of years of experience was reduced from 7 to 5 years on the premise of widening the recruitment pool with no change in salary. 
    This was passed by a vote of 7 to 4 (Serra, Klattenberg, Bartolotta, Daley, Santangelo, Kasper and Berch in favor; Faulkner, Pessina, Bibisi and Salafia dissenting and Kleckowski absent).  The new job description reads:  Jurist doctorate with five years of municipal law related experience with an emphasis on employment law, labor relations experience.  It would be now assumed that the recommended candidate is going have a very solid 5 years of experience in that area.   It should be noted that the acting city attorney has indicated that he will be retiring from city service and had withdrawn his name from consideration.  Please note that there is also residency requirement attached to this position.
    At the time the job re-posted, the qualifications were still the more stringent, seven years' experience in municipal law, labor relations version. The Council, over the objections of the Republicans, led by Councilwoman Linda Salafia (if you recall, it was she who asked whether Dan Drew had someone specific in mind, as there appeared to be no other reason why anyone would lower the bar when there were three candidates who already met the higher standard) reduced the seven-year requirement (which had been inserted two years earlier at the insistence of Councilman Loffredo) to five years. Because this was done AFTER the posting was published, the posting had to be extended.
      Also, rumors are out there about the Council being asked to approve a job description for a second deputy city attorney.  This is coming from the recommendation of the Mayor's Bipartisan Task Force on Efficiency in Government, April 2012.  However, this we believe will require an appropriation as only one Deputy Attorney was budgeted.  After the interview for the City Attorney position, that Attorney Phrances Leverton Szewczyk was the choice along with the Michigan candidate and another attorney "from Middletown" (what that means is unclear, as it does not appear that it is currently a resident, but is someone who is "moving in.” The Insider reported before that Szewczyk does not appear to meet even the lowered qualifications, however, is a member of the Democratic town committee.Reader here. Readers should not that Councilman Tom Serra made on the record comments regarding  appointed Chief Patrick McMahon as not being a Middletown resident even though he bought a house here and was in town 5 nights a week- Serra objected and said on record  that McMahon wasn’t a true Middletown resident because he “didn’t worship here.” So kind how is someone from Michigan going to fit the precedent of strict enforcement of residency Serra set forth in the past?
   This report has not been officially presented to the Council, vetted by the Council or accepted by the Council; however, the Council is being (or as rumored d going to be) presented with accepting one of its recommendations that being the hiring of a second deputy city attorney.  This in effect would increase the legal staff in the office from one currently to three.  According to the report issued, the Task Force consisted of three members of the common council and 6 other members of the public plus Attorney Ryan Barry and Joseph Samolis as staff for the Task Force. 
     From the second paragraph of the final report: " Mayor Drew also asked the Task Force to make specific recommendations for consolidations and efficiencies within city government to the Finance and Government Operations Commission of the Common Council, and to make specific recommendations regarding the structure and hierarchical organization of city government."  It would seem that this was not an unbiased study of the mechanisms/ structure of the government operations.  The report indicated how much was spent on outside legal services during the past three years however, it was just a number inserted in the report without detail or explanation or history or comparison to current outside expenses or part expenses.  Oh, and no report or receipts from China... 
      There is a special council meeting scheduled for Tuesday at 7 to appropriate funds and approve a settlement agreement between the City and Local 466.  This settlement agreement will basically draw a line from which the city, the BOE and the union start fresh.  We could spend hours and hours debating the history behind the need for this settlement agreement and probably never come to a consensus on the cause.  We've a new administration now at the BOE with a new Superintendent of Schools so we hope that the atmosphere of intimidation and retaliation has ended and it seems as if it has.  However, this agreement comes with a dollar cost attached which is not insignificant, but again we will probably never be able to all completely agree as to responsibility.  Many hours were put into coming to this agreement and much discussion, it was not easy but a settlement agreement has been worked out that both sides seem to be able to work with.  Thankfully the despicable work environment that some of the men and women of 466 had to endure is over, they should be applauded for coming forward and being whistle blowers and doing what is right!
     The story broke today with headlines the Mayor Drew settled 30+ grievances and that according to him "the slate is clean." However,this is highly misleading. Basically, the City has chosen to pay out to the Union for the BOE administrations mistakes and infractions that the State Labor Board declared the BOE administration under Dr. Frechette did in fact commit. As readers should recall, Frechette refused to pay workers who were part of emergency operations at the storm shelter during last summer’s hurricane, and  communicate at all with former Mayor Giuliano when he called for an investigation into the missing $1 million dollars from the BOE budget. Read past explanations of the confusing paradigm here. 

Other grievances and lawsuits against the BOE still exist and have not been resolved; Drew's statement  that they all have is false. 

 Part of the deal is also that Councilwoman Hope Kasper's son in law illegal hire- Josh Berger, former real estate agent, gets to keep the job as Business Adminstrator at the BOE that was created for and given to him by a hiring committee that Kasper was on. 

     Last week the Insider published the Superintendent's contract ( here) Dr. Patricia Charles .
The legalese is not always easy to understand; so we have broken it down below and done the yearly percentage increases:
 
For 2012/13 Charles will receive:   Base Salary $187,000 + $15,000 to her retirement fund, $3,000 bonus for having a doctorate degree + $6,500 for mileage = $211,500.00 for the year
For 2013/14 Charles will receive:  Base Salary a minimum of $191,675 + $19,168 to her retirement fund,  + $3,000 for having a doctorate degree + ,$6,500 for mileage = $220,343 for the year
For  2014/15 Charles will receive: Base salary a minimum of $196,467 + $19,648 to her retirement fund, $3,000 for having a doctorate degree and $6,500 for mileage = $225,615 for the year.
 
The base salary for the last two years is tied into the  district’s highest  principals' salary.  The principals’ contract is up as of 6/30/2013, so school principal's will be negotiating a new contract; basically if they get a raise, Charles will probably get a raise too; to keep the spacing the same.  It appears Charles makes $50,000 more than the top high school principals, and because the contribution to the retirement fund for her is 10% of salary that would also go up.
     Superintendent Frechette also got a payment to a retirement fund in addition to his salary plus money for being a phd, and the mileage stipend. Charles is getting credit for the previous time that she worked for the BOE towards her retirement for medical insurance, plus the BOE are giving her back, reinstating, previously accumulated sicktime that she lost when she left her principal’s position.
Other superintendent contracts and salaries from Ct are available online, and it is a positive note that Charles chose to release the terms of her contract to the public. Superintendents in Ct are typically paid in the six figure range; Frechette's highest salary was approximately $154,000.

Common Council will also decide on upcoming Deputy Police chief position soon. Read background information &  one reader's concerns here:

Guest Blog: The Lesser Man

The Lesser Man
Part 3 of a short series of articles on Political Events in Connecticut by Tim D. Enchanter
Opinions expressed are those of the author, not necessarily the editors of the Insider

graphic by Insider staff as commentary

In the 100th State Assembly District, from what I have observed, it seems that Matt Lesser has declared war on all Republicans, deciding that representation should mean representing those who elect you rather than all those in the district.

This could be interpreted as laziness because it is easier to represent a smaller section of the population who share your viewpoints.
It could also be interpreted as Chicago-style politics used to establish personal power rather than serving the people.
The Middletown Insider has some interesting articles which indicate to me that they are dealing with the second interpretation:
Mayor Drew Appoints Crony as City Attorney
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/10/mayor-drew-appoints-crony-as-city.html
Your Daily Spin from the Middletown Mess: Liar Liar Pants on Fire
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/10/your-daily-spin-from-middletown-mess.html
Vote Kleckowski, Lesser Supported Largest Tax Increase in Ct History
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/10/letter-to-editor-vote-kleckowski-lesser.html
South Fire's Endorsement of Lesser 'Shameful'
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2012/10/guest-blog-south-fires-endorsement-of.html

     Some Middletown residents may wonder how they elected someone to represent their interests who now runs the town and dictates their interests. Somewhere in the world of journalism there might actually be some integrity left and an investigative reporter could actually conduct an investigation instead of just regurgitating talking points. This is why I have a list on my blog titled, “Whom Do You Trust?” For now, I can only speak to what I observed and allow the full analysis to be done by those who know more.
      Shortly before Election Day 2008, I learned a little about Matt Lesser and where he came from. I was told that the Democrat political machine chose a young man to appeal to the college students of Middletown and sent him to Arkansas for training as a Community Organizer. Upon his return, he used his new talents to convince the students at Wesleyan University to unite behind him and take over the town because they are the future, the future belongs to them, and their time has come.
     I was told how he promoted the idea of students registering to vote in the town where their college is located claiming their school residence as their primary residence. My first reaction was to ask if anyone is checking to find out if these students were also voting in their home towns via absentee ballot.
     When I raised these concerns to the FBI office in New Haven, I was told that there would have to be an investigation after Election Day but only if someone filed a complaint and could prove voter fraud. To prove it you would have to check the list of ballots cast by Absentee Ballot in one state and have someone witnessing the same voter voting in another state.
Continued: 

Portrait of a Typical Middletown Resident : Man Who Cares

The Man Who Cares.

In 2011 Ben Florsheim 14', president of the WesDems, President of the CT College Democrats & Middletown Democratic Town Committee member helped then Mayoral Candidate Dan Drew rally, register, and transport over 400+ Wesleyan students to vote in the municipal city wide election.  

High student turn out is expected for the presidential and state level district elections in this November. 

Anyone wishing to vote, students & city citizens alike can, are encouraged to get information about voter registration from the Office of the Registrar of Voters at City Hall downtown.

The point here is this: By supreme court order students are allowed to vote in their college town. The staff of the Insider encourages everyone to vote.
 If you as a full time resident disagree with who some one like Ben Florsheim chooses to put in office of  Mayor, BOE member etc, then make sure YOU and everyone you know votes in this year's election for president & state representatives! Where are the student's now ? Will they demand the "transparency" parents  demanded from the BOE for example?

"Tom Florsheim said Weyco is subject to the same headwinds many companies selling retail goods face today, such as the slow economy in the U.S., increases in material prices and rising labor costs in Asia, where most of its shoes are made. But he’s upbeat on the future." Original article here

The billion dollar company is sponsoring a generous contest to help the  less fortunate.
 "The Man Who Cares" contest ending December 2012 will give away a single $150 gift certificate
 ( however does not include taxes or shipping, & not nearly enough for a whole pair, let alone one shoe. In honor of Ben, offer not good towards Work shoes.) .

Middletown Mechanics Ready to Build New Jet Engine

Pratt & Whitney has announced that a good portion of the state-of-the-art geared turbofan jet engines for the Neo Airbus 320 and other planes will be built here in Middletown. The so called PurePower jet engines are already certified for flight in the Bombardier C-Series aircraft.

According to Hartford Courant:

Pratt & Whitney has decided to assemble some, and maybe the majority, of its engines for the Airbus A320 neo model — the largest booking of business by far for its new geared turbofan design — at its Middletown plant, an unexpected decision that was critical for preserving Pratt factory jobs in Connecticut. 

Factory workers have been waiting anxiously to find out if Middletown mechanics would be given the chance to assemble the PurePower engine, the model at the heart of Pratt's commercial engines future. 

"I've been after them for the last two contracts to give us some kind of inkling where they were going to build this thing," said Dave Durbin Sr., president of the Middletown local of the Machinists union, who was informed of the decision Thursday morning. 

More about these new jet engines:

                                             Pratt & Whitney PurePower Geared Turbofan Engine

In most jet engines (more properly called turbofans), the fan that pulls air into the engine is directly linked to the compressor that squeezes that air down for combustion, so they have to turn at the same rate. By placing gears between the compressor and the fan, decoupling the two, the Pure Power engine allows for a more efficient arrangement: a big, slow fan shoving air into a small, fast turbine. The result is a shorter, lighter engine that can produce the same amount of power as a larger conventional turbofan, while burning 12 to 15 percent less fuel and emitting 35 percent less carbon dioxide. Pratt & Whitney finished ground- and air-testing of the engine this year, and the first of them will go on the Bombardier C-Series jet starting in 2013.

Source: http://www.popsci.com/bown/2009/product/pratt-amp-whitney-pure-power-geared-turbofan-engine


Further reading: A Pratt & Whitney Flyover to Demonstrate New Engine