Mayor O'Brien's Administration Lacks Transparency!

If one follows politics at all on any level - national, state or local - you must have recognized a common thread woven through all levels; of course I am speaking of a common behavior of the leaders, the “blame game.” Obama blames Bush, Malloy blames Rell and O’Brien blames Stewart. Instead of working hard to make things better, National and State Constitutions and our Municipal Charter are ignored, negativity reigns and nothing improves.

I’ll concentrate on the local scene. In the nine months since O’Brien took office we’ve bee treated to: a hiring freeze that did not materialize - we have to hire thirty police officers; the announcements of two different budget deficits neither of which has ever been explained; the raiding of $10.5 million from the Water Dept. Reserve Fund - this Fund is used to pay down the debt accumulated from building the refurbished filtration plant; this debt will become an added burden on taxpayers; O’Brien announced he would reorganize all City departments - 22 departments will become 6 - yet he violated Section 5-4 of the City Charter by not publishing a Reorganization Plan and not holding a required public hearing.

The heads or Directors of many key departments have been “retired”, fired or have resigned. The fired Finance Director (as reported by the Herald) has been replaced by an Acting Director; the Fire Chief has been replaced with an Acting Chief; the Police Chief has been replaced with an Acting Chief; the Director of Municipal Development has retired and his position’s duties have been taken over by Chief of Staff, Klotz and various others; the Building Department Director has been replaced by Phil Sherwood, Deputy Chief of Staff to O’Brien. This is puzzling since I think a special license is required for this position. Sherwood’s undergraduate degree in Music hardly qualifies.; The Public Works Director has assumed some duties of the Parks Department; The Health Director has been “retired” and his position’s duties will be assumed by a staff member who is not an M.D.; The Community Services Department (I believe) will be adding the Health Dept. under its umbrella. It’s been rumored that the City Property Manager will soon retire. All acting department heads, chiefs or directors have been given healthy raises. For example, Phil Sherwood started as Communications Director for Mayor O’Brien at $45 K/Yr.; after becoming Deputy Chief of Staff Phil was raised to $60K/Yr.; now after assuming leadership of the Building Dept. it is rumored that Phil has been “raised” again to over $85 K/ Yr. Some employees opting for retirement packages have been called back to work part time. “Nice work if you can get it!” Don’t you just love the business acumen of O’Brien.

Lou Salvio