Alderman Louis Salvio sets the Record Straight

3/12/11


To: Editor, New Britain Herald


“Double dipping” and “double standards” are always in vogue with New Britain Democrats. Case in point; in the Special Election for 6th District State Senate held in February, Gerratana used two major dirty tricks type points as her total campaign strategy, to wit, “double dipping” and, “no bid contracts.”


Gerratana clamed that if Tim Stewart was elected, - he wasn’t - and if he stayed on as Mayor even for a reasonable transition period, Stewart would be "guilty" of "double dipping.”


Gerratana had as one of her campaign managers, former Alderman, Phil Sherwood. While still an alderman, Sherwood joined with Alderman Mike Trueworthy in accusing Stewart of awarding “no-bid contracts” - no such thing exists – to Republican Aldermen Mark Bernacki and Wilfredo Pabon. The issue was defeated by the Democrat controlled , Common Council. Sherwood resigned from the Council in January but soon was hired by Gerratana as a campaign worker for her State Senate bid. Apparently, and one can only surmise, that the no-bid contracts issue originally brought up by Sherwood while on the Council, was resurrected in the Gerratana campaign by Sherwood. While this ridiculous issue was shown repeatedly to be hogwash,, Gerratana used it again and again throughout her campaign. This dirty trick accomplished its intended purpose but in the process, had a further detrimental effect on the division between Republicans and Democrats on the Council.


Double Dipping; the Special election also covered the election of someone to fill the State Rep. Seat vacated by John Geragosian. the Democrat candidate, Bobby Sanchez was unopposed.


Gerrratana and the Democrats claimed that Stewart would be double dipping if he won and kept the job as Mayor. That charge too would prove to be specious. Gerrantana and the Democrats apparently have no problem with the fact that Bobby Sanchez continues to be employed by the local HRA Office, will keep that job and will collect another paycheck as a State Rep. NO PROBLEM AT ALL! In addition, Sanchez, although not paid for it has stayed on in his APPOINTED position as a member of the NB Board of Ed. No conflict there? That’s OK, Don DeFronzo did it. Sanchez will be voting on a state budget that has important relevance to the NB Board of Education budget , a Board on which he still sits. No conflict there either?


On Friday, The Herald printed a wonderful Editorial (Our View) decrying the damage that had been done by the “no-bid contract” fiasco to Aldermen Mark Bernacki, Willy Pabon and Mayor Stewart. Some commenters posted comments to the Herald, on line that said the effort was, “too little, too late.” The damage had been done . However I think some commenter failed to understand that the Herald was actually chiding Democrat Alderman Dave DeFronzo for continuing the Democrats’ vendetta, (Author’s opinion) against the Mayor, Bernacki and Pabon. Guess what, Council Democrats pushed the issue along. As I said at the beginning of this letter, “ Double dipping” and “double standards” are always in vogue with New Britain Democrats.” Please allow one final paraphrasing from a very famous novel; it seems that in NB, [all politicians are equal, but Democrats are more equal that others ].


Lou Salvio, Alderman.