DiMassa Was Rossi’s Designee for Allocating West Haven COVID Funds.

Mayor Nancy Rossi will spend the next 13 days straining to explain how state Representative Michael DiMassa was able to obtain access to $636,000 in public funds. The West Haven Democrat was arraigned in federal court Wednesday on charges accusing him of stealing the federal COVID funds.

West Haven voters may find Rossi, DiMassa’s fellow Democrat, guilty of failure to supervise DiMassa, a town employee. A December 28, 2020, City Council resolution authorized Rossi and her designees, Frank Ciepilinski and Michael DiMassa, to receive and allocate the COVID funds.

Rossi, a certified public accountant, has expressed her dismay at what she discovered when she recently reviewed documents expending the funds—months after the alleged thievery began. One early indication that something was wrong: DiMassa’s consulting bills were paid the day after he submitted them. If Rossi had paid even cursory attention to where the funds were going, that one-day turnaround was a bright line crossed.