The New Britain Herald Writes All Negative Comments from City Hall

Over the past two weeks The Herald has posted a few negative articles regarding city business that sing the same old song coming from the Mayor’ office, to wit, everything “bad” is the fault of the previous administration.

 One article entitled, “Pay up” and the other, “Downgraded.” Recent research into City Commission archives provides ample evidence that claims by the City regarding blame for a loan being given to a prospective developer without a contract - and using HUD funds - were blatantly incorrect. As reported by the Herald, because of these faulty claims by the city that “accepted accounting principles” were not used, the City will have to repay HUD, $100 thousand.  Interestingly, that is the same amount of money O’Brien gave to a PR firm to do what? Was there a contract approved by the Council here? Guess!

The article entitled, “Downgraded” reports that the City’s Bond Rating was reduced by Moody’s Investors Service. Phil Sherwood, “Blame Guru” of the Mayor’s Office, once again blamed the previous administration citing “ ... several years of structurally imbalanced budgets.” I conclude that this claim is false since when I left office as a Council member in November of 2011, New Britain’s Bond Rating was the highest it had been in many years. In addition it has been determined that the practice of the City sending representatives from the Finance Dept. and the Mayor’s Office to the Investor services offices for questioning and presenting evidence, had been abandoned during O‘Brien’s tenure. Thus, Moody’y just went by what they were given by the Mayor’s Office.

As for the former Shaw’s Supermarket proposal. I think it’s a BAD idea to use this property as a CREC School. Where is the gym? Where are all required school safety measures in place? Where is the outdoor recess or playground area? Are there ample bathroom facilities? Have all health considerations been addressed? Are all academic considerations satisfied? What happens to taxes if CREC decides to buy the building after four years? Right, no more tax revenue! Too many questions, too few answers.

 

 Lou Salvio