Cantor calls on DiBella to quit MDC. Says veteran Democrat’s ties to disgraced former state treasurer Paul Silvester should bar him from position. Where is Governor Lamont?

West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor entered the controversy over the fate of MDC Chairman William DiBella with a sharp-edged call to action. The West Hartford Democrat called on DiBella to resign in a Hartford Courant op-ed published Tuesday.

Cantor calls for the election of MDC commissioners by voters in the towns they represent, the commission to be subject to the state’s ethics code and the Office of State Ethics, disclosure to property owners of sewer charges, a recall and removal procedure of commissioners, and a ban on any commissioner who has been sanctioned for or found to have violated a public trust.”

If DiBella can be stung, that last proposal might have done it. Cantor points out that “a jury found Chairman DiBella civilly liable for aiding and abetting then Connecticut Treasurer Paul J. Silvester, in a fraudulent scheme involving state pension funds.” DiBella paid $800,000 in penalties and was accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of having “willfully disobeyed” a court order to pay the penalties in the state pension scheme.

Cantor’s proposals were prompted by the regional water and sewer authority’s board vote at its April 10th meeting to silence discussion of an independent report that found DiBella had used his position to intervene to send legal work to a friend and initially refused to cooperate with the investigation. The board voted to uphold DiBella’s rulings, allowing him to maintain his narrow majority of support on the board.

DiBella prevailed with the votes of members appointed by Governor Ned Lamont. The anti-reform Lamont appointees were Andrew Adil, Diane Lewis, Bhutan Patel, David Steuber and James Woulfe. That disappointing Lamont bloc provided decisive votes for maintaining the bad habits of quasi-public agency.

One of Lamont’s appointees and a DiBella loyalist, Andrew Adil of Wethersfield, issued a notably cringe-inducing statement Tuesday. Adil claimed in a foaming-at-the-mouth message sent to board and public members, “Through the incomplete and biased reporting of the Hartford Courant, the goal appears to sway public opinion against the Hartford delegation’s leader, Chairman DiBella,  and force his removal.” 

This would be a late but still appropriate moment for Lamont to speak with his obstructing appointees and explain that he didn’t pick them to serve as a gateway to the MDC’s hackerama of debts and favors. With his appointments, Greenwich Democrat bears significant blame for the growing public mess at the MDC.

Published April 18, 2023.