FRANKSMITHSAYSNB EDITORIAL:
The games have begun!
At Thursday night's council meeting, the Democratic majority has already gone ahead with their "we can do what we want" attitude. Despite the fact that the matter was not on the agenda for last night's meeting, the council proceeded with making their 3 appointments to the Mattabassett District.
One of the appointments is particularly troubling, at least when reviewing the city charter, but since the council leadership has a history of ignoring the charter, they no doubt will have little concern about the charter as it relates to this situation either.
Section 7-1 (h) of the charter provides that the Mayor may initiate proceedings to remove a member of any appointive board or Commission for any of the following reasons:...(3) conviction of a felony, (4) conviction of a misdemeanor which would undermine the public confidence in the member's ability to perform the duties of office.
The appointment of William Candelori raises serious concerns when compared to this language found in the charter. Mr. Candelori was an executive in Colonial Realty, Connecticut's own version of a Madoff style real estate ponzi scheme. According to the New York Times: "...William P. Candelori, a former state lawmaker and executive at Colonial, pleaded guilty to Federal tax evasion for failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income." (2 Partners In Investment Plead Guilty, The New York Times, Jume 9, 1993).
Then we also have the following information that the Securities and Exchange Commission reports on Mr. Candelori:
SEC NEWS DIGEST, August 31, 1995:
"WILLIAM CANDELORI BARRED"
"The Commission announced the entry of an order instituting administrative proceedings against William P. Candelori (Candelori) and the simultaneous acceptance of his offer of settlement. Candelori is a former associated person of Colonial Equities Corp., a broker-dealer previously registered with the Commission. The Order bars Candelori from association with any broker, dealer, municipal securities dealer, investment adviser or investment company.
The Commission found that on August 22 the Honorable T. F. Gilroy Daly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut enjoined Candelori from further violations of certain registration and antifraud provisions of the securities laws. The complaint, filed on March 9 against Candelori and six others, alleges violations of several antifraud and securities registration provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with a fraudulent unregistered public offering by Colonial Realty Company of 1200 limited partnership units in the Colonial Constitution Limited Partnership during 1989 and 1990. Candelori consented to the injunctive order without admitting or denying the complaint's allegations. The administrative order against Candelori was also based on his prior criminal conviction. (rel. 34-36170)."
With all this public information available regarding Mr. Candelori, how can the council seriously consider appointing a person with such a checkered past to such a powerful appointment to a board that will have control of an estimated $100 million or more of taxpayer dollars? This also raises serious questions about the lack of any vetting process regarding such important appointments.
Republican members of the council attempted to table these appointments until the candidates could be interviewed by a subcommittee of the council, along with 2 other candidates the Republican Aldermen attempted to add to the list of candidates, but the Democratic majority once again flexed their muscles by ramming through the appointments, but what is it about a person with such a questionable past that has the Democrats so anxious about giving him control of over $100 million in taxpayer dollars?
Now that the council moved ahead with ramming this appointment through, Mayor Stewart should do the right thing and veto it immediately. It would appear to be in the best interests of the 3 member towns to do so.
Outrageous. Couldn't bring myself to witness last night's meeting in person and forget trying to speak up as a resident. None of the democrats give 2 cents about public opinion. With New Britain contributing 70% of the costs associated with The Mattabassett District and being the body that votes in the Chairman, how bad does it reflect on us that we continue to promote a well known crook. It does make one wonder why
ReplyDeletethe democrats are so excited to put
Mr. Candelori in charge of 100million dollars?
Wasted Tax Dollars.
ReplyDeleteThe latest edition of the New Britain Educator was available this morning as an insertion to my Hartfod Courant. This full color paper spotlights the districts latest achievments and gives a little information on each district school. One board member
has a piece on the success of the
Kaizen Thursdays. We can all look back on the permanent weekly half days that Mrs. Kurtz established for staff development while working parents were left scrambling to adjust their work schedules and provide for regular weekly childcare. I believe in the end the city had to respond with care through expanded after school care. All of these measures
are of course costing taxpayers and the city buget alot of money.
Does any other town insert magazines about their school systems into the local paper? How many readers have an interest in
the paper? A copy will most likely be sent via the USPS today too. More money spent. Where does the buck stop.
What will suck is that if he vetoes it, Gerry Amodio is screwed. He won't get back on.
ReplyDeleteWould the Democrats endorse Candelori if he was a Republican? I think not!!
ReplyDeleteWhy are the Democrats so "hell-bent" to appoint someone who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, involving hundreds of thousands of dollars in undeclared income, to manage over $100 million dollars of our money?
ReplyDeleteWhat could be in it for them that they just don't seem to care about his outrageous past?
Bizy Bee said;" The Bizy Bee said...
ReplyDeleteWhat will suck is that if he vetoes it, Gerry Amodio is screwed. He won't get back on.
November 13, 2009 1:49 PM
To: Bizy Bee:The mayor can also use Article 7 of the NB Charter, Sec. 7-1 (h) to oust Candelori from that Commission. If he does veto and Gerry is a casualy, so be it. No one person is indispensible. Is it better to keep a convicted felon on that board?
Wasn't it "Deep Throat" who said "follow the money?"
ReplyDeleteOf course, they try to appoint someone like this to run the sewer plant, and you won't read a word about it in the New Britain Herald.
ReplyDeleteJust another example of how journalism is no more!
Are they even still publishing? They didn't have an online edition on Wednesday, or were they closed for the holiday so didn't put out a paper that day?
THE DAY, New London:
ReplyDelete"According to Sovereign, the investors with an interest in that property include some of the principal characters in the collapse of Colonial Realty in the 1990s, Connecticut's own Madoff-style Ponzi scheme in which local investors lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Among those with an interest in the Groton property that was put up to secure Thomas' loan, the bank said in court papers, are Jonathan Googel, a Colonial founder who pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud, bank fraud and tax fraud; Kevin Sisti, the son of another Colonial founder, who pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge for taking loan proceeds for his father, and William P. Candelori, a former state lawmaker and Colonial executive, who pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion."
What is the vetting process--you have a "D" next to your name, and nothing else matters????????
ReplyDeleteThe fact that we have to turn to a New London newspaper to find out about such an important appointment here in New Britain is a perfect example of the total uselessness of the Herald and the Courant.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, we still have Frank Smith to keep us informed!
Gerry Amodio is an honorable person. Hopefully, he will withdraw his name and not be tainted by association. BTW, serving on this commission is a crappy job!
ReplyDeleteFrank:
ReplyDeleteYou should remind the Mayor to veto the two add-on resolutions that were introduced by the Dems at the first meeting of this Council.
Of course the Mayor does not have to approve either one, he can simply not sign at which point they are approved anyway.
Reminds of two old sayings: " inaction on a whether to veto is also an action" and, "not to decide is to decide."
What will the Mayor do?
With regard to the Mattabassett vote on membership: you may recall that Sherwood used ridiculous reasoning of "proportionality" to declare that membership on Council subcommittees should be two thirds Ds and one third Rs. Selectively however the Ds don't want to do that when selecting MDC members. Once again, simply a Sherwood dance called the "sidestep sham."
ReplyDelete