Local DemocraticThrow Stones from a Glass Houses!

In a September 13 posting on his web site, Chairman John McNamara offers little more than ranting and raving about his dislike of 2 local blogs—mine and that of The Bizy Bee. In my opinion this is just an attempt to deflect responsibility because one of his understudies has been caught red-handed! Do we need to remind Mr. McNamara that it was he, and not the editors of my blog, or The Bizy Bee who had to be called before the editor of the Herald for improperly quoting a Herald Reporter’s story?

Recently, The Herald has been filled with quotes from Democratic leaders who were all critical of the coverage The Herald has given to state computers being used to post personal attacks against Mayor Tim Stewart. Making that list in addition to Chairman John McNamara, is Senator Donald Defronzo, Alderman and Majority Leader Michael Trueworthy, State Representative Timothy O’Brien, and Alderman Greg Gerratana.

The central theme among many of the comments from these elected officials has been to downplay these postings as being no big deal, or to somehow try to transfer blame onto someone else. Apparently they see it as no problem that someone misused state equipment in violation of state regulations and may have done so while being paid by your tax dollars to be performing their official State of Connecticut duties.

What is even more troubling are the circumstances surrounding the apparent conflicting statements of Alderman Greg Gerratana, the Democratic candidate for Tax Collector. According to the timeline in James Craven’s September 15 article “Gerratana Suspended,” on last Friday Mr. Gerratana admitted to an official at the state legislature that he was responsible for the postings in question and that he knew what he was doing was wrong.

The most troubling part of this report is that Mr. Craven reports that on last Thursday, the day before Mr. Gerratana is reported to have admitted responsibility for this improper use of state computers, he went to the offices of The Herald where he gave a tape recorded statement repeatedly denying any involvement and even going further to say that he “would neither post to a blog, nor engage in character attacks against a political rival or his family.” Gerratana is further quoted as telling Craven “I have never lied to you.”

These statements raise several unanswered questions. First, were the tape recorded statements given to The Herald the true account, or is the reported confession to a legislative official the accurate accounting of Mr. Gerratana’s involvement?

Next, since the political attacks were against Representative O’Brien’s political opponent, and Mr. Gerratana is Representative O’Brien’s legislative aide, what did Representative O’Brien know about this activity and when did he learn about it?

Finally, is someone who would admittedly engage in personal attacks against the mayor and his family, while using a state computer in violation of state regulations, and then giving conflicting statements about it, really exhibiting the type of personality qualities needed in such an important position as your tax collector? The tax collector is responsible for collecting millions of your tax dollars, and is responsible for maintaining sensitive information on municipal computer systems. Would the activities of the last several days convince you that this is the person for such an important city job?

Mr. Craven and The Herald did a fantastic job reporting on this issue, but in my opinion more questions need to be answered before this youngster is handed the keys to the city and the computers that run it.