After months of reading and watching the new administration’s distorted public relations campaign, I can remain silent no longer. An intense amount of criticism has been levied against me and my administration for allegedly leaving the city with an enormous financial deficit with respect to this year’s budget. Politicians, employees and others seeking to profit from the City have continued to levy charges of financial mismanagement, structural deficits and other situations that have brought me to write this letter telling the people of New Britain the truth.
For several years (including before my administration) have relied on one time revenues to balance the city’s budget and largely have been successful in doing so. Unfortunately many cities like New Britain have had to rely on revenues outside of the ever decreasing state budget. Continued state and federal mandates with shrinking revenues have caused significant concern amongst many cities throughout the state over the past several years. During my eight years as mayor I not only did not raise taxes during that period of time but also produced budget surpluses in seven of my eight budget years. In fact last year the city finished the fiscal year with a $2.5 million dollar surplus that was added to the fund balance because of a policy that was set in place during my last term in office bringing it to nearly our goal of 5% of total expenditures.
As is the case for every annual budget, last year’s budget was adopted by the Democratic controlled Common Council by a vote of 11-1 with the only no vote being Alderwoman Mary Morocco the lone republican in attendance at the hastily called budget adoption meeting on a Friday evening in late June. Two items of particular interest in this budget were the sale of city property and a line item that was put together to reflect various savings mechanisms from city union concessions and unfilled vacancies in various departments. For the record, these two items are the responsibility of both the Mayor and Common Council to work together to find savings in an already stretched thin budget. All parties including the City Finance Director were involved in these budget discussions prior to its adoption. Over one million dollars was added to the sale of property at the last minute to ensure compliance with a federal grant to hire police officers. Now fast forward to mid-November and week two of Mayor O’Brien’s administration.
During his state of the city speech Mayor O’Brien referred to a visit from the Finance Director to discuss the state of the City’s finances when it was revealed that the city was facing a deficit of nearly $11 million dollars. The question I continue to ask myself is if this truly were the case why didn’t Mr. Curry come to me prior to leaving office to tell me of his concerns? At no time did Mr. Curry ever express any level of concern towards the state of the city’s finances except with regards to cash flow a couple of years back that was addressed by the tax collector.
Suddenly as if a meteor hit the city head on, the situation is so drastic that the Finance Director and the Mayor need to address the crisis with a deficit mitigation plan. Stealing $10.5 million from the Water Department Reserve Fund to balance the city’s books is the only way to accomplish this herculean task. Included in this plan is $180,000 additional monies for the Mayor’s own office and strangely enough around $3 million would come from existing accounts deemed surplus by the Mayor’s office. Wow, wasn’t that the purpose of the line item in the budget that was adopted by the Democratic controlled council last June? This was only six months into the fiscal year and $3 million was already generated from savings? Looks like if they had done nothing that $6 million in savings would have been met and there would be no deficit in that line item. Another $1.8 million was generated from the sale of 17 acres of land at Pinnacle Park off of Slater Road to CREC to build a regional magnet school. This was also accomplished during my tenure and not closed on until the next administration. Add to this over $1 million sitting in a fund for a program to assist seniors that the Democratic controlled council has never adopted and the not yet quantified savings from various health care policy changes in many municipal contracts, renegotiated energy contracts and the results from yet another municipal spending freeze and I firmly believe that I would have been able to make that budget work without resorting to the pie in the sky tactics that Mayor O’Brien has used for the past several months.
In a recent article where the Mayor cited a recent rating upgrade from Moody’s Credit Service from A1 to A3 with a negative outlook, Moody’s stated that years of structural budget deficits would need to be fixed? Can somebody tell me what that means? If the city experienced years of surpluses then where are the deficits? Some revenue accounts underperformance was supplanted by surpluses in other areas because that is what is done when a budget document is reconciled at the fiscal year end, not six months into the year. The fact is this was not a rating increase but only a national recalibration of the municipal ratings market resulting from several class action lawsuits filed against them over the past three years. All municipal agencies across the country, not just in New Britain, received a bump in their ratings because of this fact. Furthermore, ratings agencies rely on the municipalities to inform them of all debt obligations, budgetary performance, policy decisions and anything else that might impact the City’s financial performance including their analysis of the City’s political climate.
Working within the framework of a budget is part of the responsibility of the mayor and I believe that he has neglected to do his job in a professional and ethical manner. The constant blame he levies against my administration shows his lack of problem solving ability as well as his willingness to politicize the many issues that affect the hardworking people of New Britain. When I initially took office in the fall of 2003 it would have been very easy to look backwards and levy criticism on the prior administration but I made a conscious effort to focus on moving forward and tackling the issues in a more professional manner than this administration has. I suggest that the current administration do the same as the challenges facing New Britain can’t afford to wait until the political game playing is over!
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24 comments:
These liberals have to blame someone for their failed administration because they have no record of their own to tout, other than total failure.
I'm happy stewart's. brand of punk politics is not part of the mayor's office any longer,so it does not matter what he has to.say
This doesn't read like an attack at all. It reads more like a well thought out strategic defense against the daily attacks levied against Mayor Stewart by the unstable Sherwood. If more people took stands like this, maybe he would leave town. We would all be better off.
Keep telling the truth Tim. Harry Truman said to give em hell by simply telling the truth.
Derwood's continual crying is wearing thin.
Stewart in 2013!
7 of the last 8 budgets returned a surplus under Mayor Stewart. If this is punk politics we need more of this. The current occupant is in way over his head.
The current occupant won't even know he is in way over his head unless Sherwood tells him so, because he knows only what his keeper allows him to know.
Real punks don't tell the truth Frank. If this idiot is so down on Stewart then why don't you meet him and tell him so?? I think you are the punk you coward!
Now I hear Sherwack has reporters sniffing around because of some foolish claim that Stewart somehow took 2 months extra salary before leaving office.
These guys will stop at nothing!
Mayor Stewart, just for the record, the vote in May 2011 on the budget was 10-1. Of the 11 Democrats, ONLY 10 were in attendance. I was NOT at the meeting as I was out of state on business. Anyone can check the minutes of the meeting to verify. In addition, I also voted NO to the budget in 2010 as I did not see significant reductions in spending. Respectfully, Carlo Carlozzi, Jr.
If there were a play book on how to take down and totally destroy a city, it might be considered a biography of the O'Brien administration!
Sally Eigenraam,
Carlo, thank you for setting some small details of your voting record straight. I also recall a capitol equipment bond vote that you were absent from whereby the commission voted to approve that bond. You then arrived..... and the commission did a retake with your vote and Sherwood stumbled and stammered ultimately tabling the motion. Do you remember that instance Carlo? Total lack of ethics and deserved an ethics review and complaint. I voted for you Carlo because I thought you were going to be a different kind of democrat but I was wrong.
His is not talking about the number of Democrats that were present but the number of council members. 11 council members present all but one approved the budget.
" Anonymous said...
Real punks don't tell the truth Frank. If this idiot is so down on Stewart then why don't you meet him and tell him so?? I think you are the punk you coward!
March 22, 2012 7:59 PM"
You know, dumb things are written on blogs but the one quoted above has to go down as one on the dumbest.
This person refers to Frank Smith as a punk and a coward yet uses the alias, "Anonymous." in case it has escaped you mr. anonymous, this blog belongs to Frank Smith! He picks what to place on this blog.
Thus he is telling O'Brien and Sherwood that he (Frank) feels the commenters are feee to say what they wish, like you. Frank never called anyone a punk or a coward but you hide behind your anonymity to refer to him with those terms. Maybe you should call another dumb alias, "Jerry vale" and go over name calling terms, you COWARD!
Sally, I do not want to get into a war of words with you on the committee vote to which you refer, because there really is no need for that among people who volunteer their time and efforts for the betterment of our beloved city. However, your comments deserve some clarification. As a member of the Board of Finance and Taxation at the time, you were also a member of the subcommitte on the Bonding Commission, that refers reports back to the Council for Council action. When I came in late to the committee meeting, there was an ongoing discussion about a motion that was ALREADY on the floor. That motion was simply to refer the report of the subcommittee back to the Council for Council action. All subcommittee reports go back to the Council for final action. Given that I came in late to the meeting, you might recall that I did not plan on voting, There was a debate about whether or not I should vote and it was ultimately decided that I could, I stayed silent during that debate. The ONLY thing that was being voted on was the report back to the council. It was ruled that I could vote and so I did, but again, that vote was simply to refer the report out of committee and back to the Council. I appreciate your statement that you voted for me. Thank you but Sally, you might recall I did not run a city wide campaign but only for Ward 5. Last I cheked I think you Live in Ward 1 and therefore would not have been able to vote for me. Nonetheless I do appreciate your support. To the other blogger, Mayor Stewart says the vote on the 2011 budget was 11-1, with all 11 democrats voting for the budget. The facts are the vote was 10-1, as I was out of state on business. Thank you. Respectfully, Carlo Carlozzi, Jr.
O'Brien is in good company.
Obama will go down in history as being responsible for the most failed presidency ever, Danny Boy Malloy will go down on the history books as being the most failed governor in Connecticut history, and I have no doubt O'Brien will be responsible for the most failed administration in New Britain history.
Failure seems to be the only word these radicals understand.
Sally Eigenraam
Carlo,
Do accept my apology regarding voting for you. After posting I realized my error so I will admit it. However, as a resident you had my support, note "had". On occasions there have been difficult votes for you to make and it has been evident that you have caved to your party. It has been dis-heartening.
The vote and meeting was not an open discussion. Prior to your late arrival the vote had already passed. It was not open for further discussion or further voting. As a volunteer member of the community I was told by none other than Phil Sherwood after the meeting that I should get used to it, this is politics.
Unless and until we have ethics, we can not expect to have members from the community who are genuine stepping up for the betterment of the city. Volunteering at city hall is a total waste of one's time and energy. Everything is governed and controlled by the majority.
It's good to know that there are still a lot of honest people with good character who quickly acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes.
It is not by coincidence that they all belong to the same party.
Carlo it's nice to see a democrat reading Frank's blog. My apologies for the error in the vote tally but the point was that all d's on the council voted for this budget! To claim ignorance of any knowledge of revenues is a flat out lie! Just wanted to clarify my point.
Mr. Mayor,
From the regular scuttlebutt around town hall, I believe it is safe to say that most, if not all, of the Democrats are reading Frank's blog every single day. This apparently is the only one with the cojones to publicly admit it. The rest of his fellow Democrats seem to be more comfortable hiding in the shadows.
I have little doubt that as these socialists run out of money and have to drastically raise taxes over and over and over to pay for their failed programs, it will repeatedly be blamed on former Mayor Stewart much in the same way that Obama continues to blame President Bush for Obama's own failures. I have no doubt that the history books will forever report that Obama was the most inept and incompetent person ever to be elected President and we may have a similar resident in the mayor's office of New Britain.
Who cares if the dems read this blog or not. Or that Carlo admits to reading it. The issue we all should be worried about is that we blog and blog and they win elections!
I could care less what the dems do on their spare time. So long as we invest more time in blogging in the Herald or a real news site like this blog than we spend campaigning we will continue to lose and O'Brien will get re-elected again.
Good letter Lisa! I know Mr. Stewart didn't write that!
But it's still not ok for sherwood to write stuff for the democrat mayor right?
The Dems don't like it when someone counters their web of lies - good for you Mayor Stewart for setting the record straight.
Shameful that they are so petty to claim you didn't write your own letter. My recollection is that you were the one quoted in the press during your tenure, not your staff proving you are perfectly capable of speaking for yourself, unlike the current Mayor who is a great ventriloquist and Sherwood is the dummy.
And by the way whose Lisa?
This was a very informative editorial by the Honorable Mayor Timothy T. Stewart and I wish it would be reprinted in the Courant and the Herald as it deservedly should be seen by the eyes of all who have some level of access.
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