HYPOCRITES!Aldermen Phil Sherwood, Michael Trueworthy: THE ULTIMATE

EDITORIAL:

The Herald reported that Alderman Phil Sherwood joined Majority Leader Michael Trueworthy in calling for the dismissal of the city’s auditing firm for “failure to follow the rules of the city charter.”

(“Aldermen claim possible auditing conspiracy” Aug 5, by James Craven, Staff Writer).



The article went on to quote Alderman Sherwood as saying that he felt the auditor’s failure to comply with the rules and not sending a representative to answer to this subcommittee had a “conspiratorial feeling” even though he acknowledged that their representative had been on vacation until at least August 2. But what about the conspiracy that Sherwood, Trueworthy, and the rest of the Council Democrats engaged in back in February--when Alderman Catanzaro committed a violation of that same charter right in front of them all.



In fact it was such a serious violation, that the city charter cites it as cause for Catanzaro to be expelled from office as a result. As I have previous reported, the city Ethics Commission, by a unanimous bipartisan vote, found Alderman Catanzaro in violation of the city ethics rules, and issued a recommendation to the council suggesting that he be reprimanded over an issue whereby as an Alderman, he voted against contracting out work by the same city department he works for, requiring the work to be performed by city employees and creating a situation whereby he possibly could have received personal overtime.



At the February council meeting, Alderman Catanzaro spoke against his own Ethics Commission ruling, and then joined his fellow Democrats in voting to reject the commission’s ruling—both in direct violation of the city charter. These actions occurred on the public record, and in the presence of the council members.



Section 4-7 of the city charter states in part: “No member of the Common Council shall be heard to speak upon, nor shall be allowed to vote upon…any matter in which the member has a pecuniary interest.” That same section goes on to state: “Any violation of this provision shall be grounds for expulsion of any member violating the same…”



Alderman Catanzaro committed these violations in the presence of the other Democrats on the council, who were each sworn to uphold the Charter of the City of New Britain, and they have failed to perform their sworn duty by enforcing that section of the charter. The problem is that it is left to the members of the council to enforce charter violations against fellow aldermen, and this council apparently is unwilling to enforce violations committed by members of their own party.



Isn’t it ironic now that an election is approaching, some of these same aldermen profess to be champions of enforcing the charter when they feel it will benefit their own campaign, despite the fact that they are on record as blatantly disregarding charter violations committed by their fellow alderman?



Apparently they believe it is within their discretion to pick and choose what sections of the charter they will enforce without regard for their oath or the law.



Isn’t this the ultimate in hypocrisy?