Tonight on the Diner with Councilmember Kleckowski: Special Guest Judge Marino

Tonight on the Diner with Councilmember Deborah Kleckowski: 

Probate Judge Joseph D. Marino

Special Guest Judge Marino. 
Calls taken LIVE! 
860 613 3031 
8-9pm Comcast Local Cable Channel 15.

Message from Councilmember Kleckowski regarding errors in Water & Sewer bills sent recently to citizens:
"Please contact me directly if your water bill is incorrect.
Votedebktoday@yahoo.com
As a member of WPCA, the committee that oversee Water and Sewer, I will bring your concerns forward.
We have been addressing this matter. However, I need to hear from residents who are experiencing problems. "
Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski

Got Your Water Bill?

How many cycles do water and sewer bills have to go out with wrong information before anything is done?
 What about the report? http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/02/finally-water-sewer-investigation.html

Finally: Water & Sewer Investigation Report Reveals Disfunction

Professor Douglas Rae Investigation of Water & Sewer: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUweUYya3A1b2I3cnc/edit?usp=sharing
Subcommittee Findings: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwa2FCcUZwUjlBTTg/edit?usp=sharing
Water & Sewer Attachments: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwTHFCbjVEV0pDeG8/edit?usp=sharing
Water & Sewer Sub Committee Findings:https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwYUpaaUFqME9PTGc/edit?usp=sharing

The Water & Sewer Debacle:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2008: In 2008 $100,000 had been spent to overhaul the department including a reorganization plan that according to Mayor Giuliano, was never enacted by W&S Director Guy Russo as ordered.W&S was supposed to have made as of 2008 after the department had to be taken over by then Finance Director James Reynolds due to lost of funds, had still not been implemented. In addition to the extreme departmental debt and numerous warnings to basically fix things before they hit the fan, an  unprecedented number of grievances by employees were filed at this time and on the job accidents spiked leading to the logical conclusion that at the very least management needed to  be scrutinized

2009: Candidate Dan Drew stated on record in an interview with the Wesleyan Argus that:"Not to mentioned our city's sewer department is in dire straits financially. If it were privately owned, it would declare bankruptcy. We don't know where we're going right now."

In 2011 the Common Council voted to investigate the Water & Sewer department “to investigate

The underlying basis which led Mayor Sebastian N. Giuliano to order moving the Water and Sewer

Department’s administrative staff from headquarters on Berlin Street to City Hall.” This “investigation” was in response to a letter from the WPCA (Water Pollution Control Authority) objecting to this move. Apparently, the WPCA did not believe that the mayor had discretion to move the Director and Deputy Director to City Hall.  A firestorm of debate ensued with the end result being $10,000, yes, 10 thousand dollars being spent on this matter!
 

The Charter, Chaper 111 sec. 8, provides the Council to conduct an investigation; Council-not a consultant.  Disregarding the Charter, Professor Douglas W. Rae was hired by the sub-committee, Councilwoman Kasper, Councilman Bibisi, Council Klattenberg and former Councilman Bauer, to assist in the investigation by conducting preliminary interviews with key department and personnel.  The backstory is that there was and still continues to be management issues within the department.  The problem was not former Mayor Giuliano moving staff it was the incompetence of the “management team” and the grievances filed.

So, the Council decides to spend $10,000 because a Mayor moved staff, the investigator never interviewed all the employees of Water and Sewer and the $10,000 conclusion, “Water and Sewer’s central administrative spine is broken” according to the final report.  In the end, nothing changed, management has yet to withdraw from the Teamsters Union (Mayor Drew deciding not to adhere to the recommendation of the report), management HAS NOT received any training as indicated necessary in the report. 

 In conclusion, $10,000 was spent and NOTHING has been done.

 
The public needs to be aware that the report was done “illegally” because Council did not perform the investigation. Water and Sewer management continue to manage in the same “broken” manner with the same problems still present.  And, the public should demand to know why former Mayor Giuliano’s move of the director and deputy director set the stage for a $10, 000 report yet Mayor Drew has moved people and offices without so much as a peep from the Council. 

 
The entire Water and Sewer Investigation Report dated March 5, 2012 is posted for your review. The $10,000 question-“Was $10,000 wisely spent or squandered?”

2013: Several requests to get this report via FOI were made and dismissed.http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/wilson-foi-results-transparency-not.html

How many cycles do water bills have to go out with wrong information before anything is done?

Wilson FOI Results: Transparency? Not Really.

Over a month ago Republican Town Committee Vice Chair William Wilson sent an FOI request to the City of Middletown asking for answers to a variety of public information questions. His letter was sent on December 18, 2012. On January 4th, 2013 the Insider asked readers to help out by sending in copies of the same letter to try and get answers. By law, the only documents that fall under FOI are those already created, however, the fact that the answers to some of the questions below have no existing documentation by the Water Department is  troubling fact in itself! Only a receipt was provided for the plane ticket to China, no report as promised or itinerary from Mayor Drew Director Guy Russo of the Water & Sewer Department finally answered a few of the questions Wilson proposed on January 13, 2012, over 30 days later. By law, a response must be given in 4 days as to status. The memo was dated on Dec. 21, but was not emailed from the City until January 13 due to an"internal glitch", however it still shows that according to the email trail, Director Russo did not respond to the Town Clerk,who followed proper procedure, until January 11..  No word on the existing report that cost the City $10K in April of 2012 but never presented to the Council, that was conducted by an outside investigation team to determine why the department was loosing money so rapidly. This was mentioned in greater detail by the Letter to the Editor by John Milardo: His Town

Wilson's Original Letter and list of questions can be found here:
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/01/we-need-your-help.html

On Fri, 1/11/13, Russo-Driska, Sandra MiddletownCT.gov> wrote:

From: Russo-Driska, Sandra

MiddletownCT.gov>
Subject: FW: FOI Reuest - William Wilson
To: "'William wilson'"
Cc: "Russo, Guy"
Date: Friday, January 11, 2013, 4:14 PM

Bill,

This was apparently sent via interoffice email, however, due to an apparent glitch at our end, I do not have it in my FOI folder, sent box, or deleted box.  I apologize.  Here is Director Russo's response to your FOI request.

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Sandra Russo-Driska
Town Clerk

__________________________________________

From: Russo, Guy
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 4:09 PM
To: Russo-Driska, Sandra
Cc: DeSena, Linda
Subject: FW: FOI Reuest - William Wilson

Memo: Original here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1OYjxtLEgUwMFJNck10b01SeFU/edit
To: Sandra Driska-Russo, City and Town Clerk

From: Guy P. Russo, Director of Water & Sewer

Date: December 21, 2012

Re: William Wilson, FOI Request of December 18, 2012

Please note that in response to item numbers 1 – 4 of the subject FOI Request, that the Water & Sewer Department Offers the following:

1.How many discharges from the sewer treatment located at 100 River Road have there been in the last 5 years?  How many gallons per discharge into the Connecticut River during that time? Please provide any DEP reports of spillage & discharge for the last 5 years.
1) The Water and Sewer Department has a total of 219 pages of paper reports filed with DEEP (nee DEP) addressing this information request. We request prepayment of reproduction costs at the rate of $0.50/page, for a total of $109.50. Please advise if this is acceptable to the requester, and if so when prepayment has been received by your office, and we will provide the copies. Please advise.

2. Please provide me the relevant reports to disclose any and all spills into the Connecticut River stemming from Middletown's sewage treatment plant and relevant systems dating back five years. Have there been any other spills as documented by the City of Middletown into the Connecticut river where sewage has been discharged or overflowed? Please provide any and all  bypass reports.
2)  The Water and Sewer Department has a total of 9 pages of paper reports filed with DEEP (nee DEP) addressing this information request. We request prepayment of reproduction costs at the rate of $0.50/page, for a total of $4.50. Please advise if this is acceptable to the requester, and if so when prepayment has been received by your office, and we will provide the copies. Please advise.

3. Please provide documentation to answer the following question: Have there been any fines due to discharges or spills during the past five years to the Water and Sewer department? If so, when, why and for what amount?
3)  The Water and Sewer Department has no documents responsive to this request.

4.Please provide information regarding billing oversight at the Water & Sewer department. How many billing complaints have been filed in the past five years? How many customers have been misbilled? Please provide a record of this and the remedy.
4)  With regards to this inquiry, I request that Mr. Wilson be asked for specifics as I am not sure what more specific documents/reports he is looking for. If there are specific reports or documents, I will then be able to adequately respond. Additionally, some of this request would involve the creation of documents/reports that do not exist. Please inquire of Mr. Wilson as to how he would like to proceed.

Cc: Mayor Daniel Drew Timothy Lynch, City Attorney

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)

Taxpayers & Pensioners Time to Open Your Wallets

     

Story time kids! Word on the street is that Mayor Drew is trying to rid the City of two of his least favorite department directors, and to do so, he is planning to offer a golden handshake (read more details here) of gold shower caliber. Again this political punt is not only at the expense of  hard working individuals who had in the past spoken their minds against the Drew regime, but it is at the expense of tax payers. One of the directors being offered this buy-out is the Personnel Director, former aid to past Mayor Dominique Thornton (D). The Personnel Director’s past actions dealing with the Water & Sewer Department's mismanagement were unfavorable in the eyes of certain key Democratic Council members who presumably felt sold out that the Personnel Director actually worked in a non partisan professional way with the then Republican Mayor and did not entirely do the bidding of the Democratic party who felt that she be indebted to them.     (We will explain the  connection between the Council, Personnel Dept. & Water & Sewer below.)   If half of the eligible employees take this early retirement package, resulting in about a dozen upper management employees cashing out,  it will cost at least half a million dollars in bonuses. The pension fund is self funded; however, these bonuses will come from the general fund - tax payer money. That is not counting the retirement up to 85% of their pay for life which will put all current, and future retirees at risk of the fund running dry and not being able to sustain everyone it was set up to and had been able to.  Dan Drew and the Democrats on Council raised your taxes once already and are about to do it again. Should the Mayor be tethering Middletown to inevitable tax increases for his second year in office with these uncertain economic times over his petty differences with a couple of people in management he wants out??      You seen your water bill?!?? If you noticed a huge increase double or even triple your last bill you are not alone.  The Insider has received numerous reports of bills going out with huge increases, some without even a unit cost per unit shown on the bill! We have a few instances where businesses have be grouped in with other businesses and double billed. If this has happened to you speak up! In a brief synopsis here is why this is happening:       In 2009, then candidate Dan Drew stated on record in an interview with the Wesleyan Argus that:"Not to mention, our city's sewer department is in dire straits financially. If it were privately owned, it would declare bankruptcy. We don't know where we're going right now." Why does the Insider bring up this quote? Fact is Drew acknowledges on the record that the W&S is f***** in 2009, but in 2011 contradicts his own statement by advocating for an investigation to prove that actions taken to remedy a situation he acknowledges existed should not haven happened.  Huh? Yeah no kidding. After much resistance on the part of the Democratically controlled Common Council to remedy the situation, Mayor Giuliano, as any good teacher would with a wayward student- moved the pupil closer to the teacher's desk so to speak in order to keep a closer eye on the issues with the indebted and problematic department. Mayor Giuliano moved the managerial portion of the Water & Sewer Department from their location across town to City Hall. He then followed procedure with a indebted department and had the Finance Department monitoring funds to find out why the department was hemorrhaging money. Also at question was why changes that W&S was supposed to have made as of 2008 after the department had to be taken over by then Finance Director James Reynolds due to lost of funds, had still not been implemented.  In 2008 $100,000 had been spent to overhaul the department including a reorganization plan that according to Mayor Giuliano, was never enacted by W&S Director Guy Russo as ordered. In addition to the extreme departmental debt and numerous warnings to basically fix things before they hit the fan, an  unprecedented number of grievances by employees were filed at this time and on the job accidents spiked leading to the logical conclusion that at the very least management needed to  be scrutinized.         Flash forward to October 2011. In an attempt to legitimize Dan Drew as having some government experience (other than student government)  5 months before he is manufactured into their next Manchurian candidate, the Democrats pony him up to take the spot of Councilman James Loffreddo following his resignation. After this the Common Council,  voted to spend $10,000 to do an independent investigation of not just of the Water & Sewer Department, but the Mayor's Office & Personnel Department to see why they had suggested the moving of the  W&S Department, despite the fact that is was clear as day the department was mismanaging many areas. Dan Drew then is quoted extensively by the Press in no coincidence – as Viktoria Sundquivst is still editor of the Mess and lap dog of the MDTC. Drew went as to far as to accuse Mayor Giuliano of "grandstanding" by ordering the W&S to be looked into.  In March 2012 it was reported to the Common Council that the report was complete and that the Water & Sewer Department would be moving back to its building. Nothing more was said. No copies were made available to Council members, the conclusions were actually summarized to give the appearance of transparency but not full & lawful disclosure. The audit found that the department was in fact far in the red, taxpayers were still finding inaccurate billing incidences in large numbers, but other wise business as usual! The other recommendations by the independent auditors were never put in place, it would be nice to know what they were, but unfortunately this report has never seen the light of day - even though taxpayers paid $10K to find out why the W&S Department is bleeding money. What is there to hide?? How many chances does this director get?      Why is W&S allowed to be mismanaged as a dysfunctional and resource draining department? No one can be certain, but the fact that Majority Leader Councilman Tom Serra (D), a pivotal person & political puppeteer in the Drew regime, is the untouchable first cousin of W & S Department Director Guy Russo could be some cause for concern. Oh what a tangled web.  Now in 2012 nothing has changed and taxpayers are getting screwed with outrages bills & W&S is still in shambles. What say you now Mayor Drew? There is a special WPCA (Water Pollution Control Authority) Commission meeting this Thursday  at 5:30 pm Water & Sewer Dept. located on Berlin Street where citizens can bring water bills they believe to be miscalculated.   Why 5:30 pm when Council orders are to hold all public meetings at 7:00 pm to allow the working class public to attend? Well, some Commissioners just care more about themselves and would rather the public NOT attend.Word on the street is also that the  secret audit ( which by law the tax payers have a right to see since they paid for it!) will be the topic of discussion and with any luck there will be answers to what has been going so wrong in Water & Sewer. Articles for background information referenced above: http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2011/10/05/news/doc4e8d17df04a0b162206729.txt http://www.middletownpress.com/articles/2009/09/11/news/doc4aab058e09876715608832.txt?viewmode=fullstory http://articles.courant.com/2012-03-12/community/hc-middletown-wpca-investigation-0307-20120312_1_water-and-sewer-director-guy-russo-investigation http://articles.courant.com/2011-10-04/community/hc-middletown-wpca-investigation-1005-20111004_1_sewer-bills-water-and-sewer-investigation

Letter to the Editor: Time for Water Dept. Investigation

Dear Middletown Insider:

 Why are there problems with the new water bills using the new software that was presented to the council where Mary Bartolotta asked the question to Bill Oliver and Guy Russo :" Were they sure we are not going to have a repeat of the other failed implementation of yet more software to run the water department?" 

Another $100,000.00 plus wasted with no accountability.  Time for another investigation of the water dept.

M.E.  from Middletown