spazeboy

Mayor Stewart’s “Rat”

As in “Legislative Rat,” which is language added to a bill so as to avoid public scrutiny, usually because it benefits a select few.

Last week at the New Britain DTC Candidates Forum, Chairman John McNamara mentioned that Mayor Timothy Stewart was unwilling to discuss New Britain’s budgetary needs with the governor, but somehow found time to pursue his own interests at the Capitol. The video below is the relevant clip from last week’s meeting.

The New Britain Herald sought a comment from Mayor Stewart about McNamara’s remarks at the forum, and Stewart responded by saying that “they are all liars.”

On July 3rd, CTNewsJunkie published a release from the New Britain Representatives John Geragosian, Tim O’Brien, Peter Tercyak and Senator Donald DeFronzo.

On July 4th, Representative Tim O’Brien added context to the release in a blog posting at My Left Nutmeg:

On Monday and Tuesday New Britain legislators, Sen. Donald DeFronzo, Rep. John Geragosian, Rep. Peter Tercyak and I issued a press statement about some events at the Capitol and we thought were inappropriate.

The whole issue involved an effort by Mayor Timothy Stewart to get a fellow Republican, Rep. Sean Williams to quietly slip through legislation that would allow Stewart to sidestep the regular personnel laws and rules in order to qualify for a full pension.

But, the issue got much larger when Stewart approached me, before final action to reject this special pension deal, and said he would make working conditions worse for city fire fighters (who he has a running feud with) as a result of the legislature rejecting this special pension legislation.

It was a completely inappropriate and threatening abuse of power for a public official to hold the welfare of public employees under threat in order to gain extra pension benefits for himself.

Also on July 4th, the New Britain Herald reported on the DeFronzo, O’Brien, Geragosian, Tercyak release:

Since being elected in 2003, [Sean] Williams said, he has discussed the matter with many elected officials and found that in some cities they can stay union members while they are in office and pay dues toward their pensions. The amendment, which was tacked onto a bill to make state Social Security laws reflect federal changes, was passed by the house but scuttled by the senate.
In large part, that was because of DeFronzo, Stewart said.
DeFronzo told Stewart the New Britain city firefighters union had called him asking for a vote against the Williams amendment. Hearing this, DeFronzo said, Stewart went ballistic.

Is Mayor Stewart upset about someone killing his little legislative vermin? Take a look at these Stewart quotes from the July 4th New Britain Herald article and judge for yourself:

“If it is not political, then why make a public press release out of it?” (7/4/2007 – New Britain Herald)

…because you called everyone liars.

“It’s an election year. The Democrats will do anything they can to attack my administration or attack me personally. And this will go on until November. I am surprised they haven’t gone after my wife and kids.” (7/4/2007 – New Britain Herald)

Yes, someone dared to mention in a public forum that you’re looking out for your own interests to the exclusion of the city’s interests and you call him (and everyone around him) a liar, and you are the one who is being personally attacked?

“This isn’t just for me,” he said. “It would make it easier for people like me to be able to qualify and pay into a pension. Who is going to want to run for mayor if you can’t get a pension out of it? Why would you want to do it if you are going to be hurt financially?” (7/4/2007 – New Britain Herald)

You also got your feelings hurt, apparently. But seriously, if you’re in this for the money, you may as well get out of public service. A person with your bullshitting talents could earn a lot in the private sector.

“The firefighters union did not want me to get anything,” Stewart said. “To scuttle somebody’s livelihood because you don’t like him – what does that say about what kind of people they really are?” (7/4/2007 – New Britain Herald)

Brilliant strategy there, questioning the characters of our firefighters.