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.

State Senator Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) has sponsored a bill punishing participation in rebellion or insurrection. The purpose of the bill is to deem “state and municipal office holders who engage in rebellion or insurrection shall be permanently ineligible to be elected or appointed to any state or municipal office or to serve in the armed forces of the state in the future….” The proposal also bars “persons convicted of sedition, rebellion or insurrection, or a felony in relation to such act” from being employed by the state or any municipality.

The crucial missing piece is who determines if an office holder has engaged in a rebellion of insurrection and what standard will be applied to the accused. Must ineligibility be preceded by a conviction? Will a video recording suffice? The law provides little help.

The Duff proposal is, according to the Democrat’s testimony submitted to the Government Administration and Elections Committee, is modeled on the Disqualification Clause found in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Congressional Research Service points out in a memorandum updated in September that “[d]etermining who has engaged in either of the two disqualifying activities—that is, engaging in insurrection or rebellion or giving aid or comfort to an enemy—is likely to be a difficult task given the scarcity of precedents and lack of clear definitions.”

The memorandum continues, “Once an insurrection is deemed to have occurred, the question becomes whether a specific person engaged in it. Section 3 does not establish a procedure for determining who is subject to the proscription on holding office, instead providing only a process by which the disability may be removed (i.e., by two- thirds vote in both houses).”

Duff’s proposal provides ideal fodder for his twitter habit, but it would add only confusion as a Connecticut law. The response to attacks on the rule of law should not be to retreat from the rule of law, especially in the Constitution State.

Published April 17, 2023.

Jacqueline Crespan announced Sunday she will not seek a second term on Manchester’s Board of Directors, its governing body of nine members. Crespan was elected to her first term in 2019 and was chosen to serve as the leader of the board’s three Republicans.

Crespan was the Republican nominee for the 4th Senate District last year. The district, which includes Manchester, Bolton, Andover and part of Glastonbury, has become a safe Democratic seat in recent years.

Here is Crespan’s statement:

To my constituents, today I announce that I shall not seek re-election this November as a Director on the Manchester Town Council.
There are many people whom I have worked closely with that have done amazing work on behalf of our residents. I have decided not to seek re-election because I have personal goals that require more of my time and energy to achieve. This does not mean that I am going away. I plan to stay involved and help my community and the State as much as I can. If another public service opportunity arises in the future, I plan to keep my options open.
It has been an honor to serve and I would like to thank my fellow Board members and most importantly, my mother, my community, and friends for the enormous amount of support you have given and continue to give me. I would not have made it this far without you.
See you soon.

Jacqueline Crespan.

Published April 16, 2023.

A Hartford Democrat has broken ranks and his silence. Nick Lebron, the Hartford city council member seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor, resigned Thursday from the MDC’s finance committee. Lebron, a citizen member of the committee, expressed his “frustration and dissatisfaction with the lack of transparency of the board and unresolved investigations.”

Lebron revealed his frustration with the MDC’s commissioners’ focus “on political patronage, instead of the delivery of services to the Hartford community.” MDC chairman William DiBella succeeded Monday in blocking commissioners from discussing an independent report that revealed DiBella’s attempts to send MDC legal business to James Sandler. DiBella told commissioners last year that Sandler had represented him in personal members.

The report included details of DiBella’s repeated attempts to dodge cooperating with the investigation. The report has caused officials from Hartford’s suburbs to call for DiBella’s resignation.

Lebron wrote, “During my time as a Board member, I have witnessed firsthand the lack of oversight made by the board and its leadership.” The Democrat claimed “decisions were often made based on personal relationships and political considerations.” The rewarding of cronies, according to Lebron, has come at a cost. “[T]he residents of the North End of Hartford continue to have sewage overflowing in their homes. Our collective energies should be focused on the needs of the residents the MDC serves.”

Resigning from his position at the MDC, and explaining why, sets Lebron apart from the three candidates for mayor at the front of the pack seeking the Hartford Democratic Town Committee’s endorsement this summer. Democrats Arunan Arulampalam, Eric Coleman and John Fonfara have remained silent as the legal fees investigation at the MDC continues to provide embarrassing revelations on how the regional water and sewer authority is run.

William DiBella has been chairman of the agency for more than 20 years. His son, Marc DiBella, is the chairman of the Hartford Democratic Town Committee. Both are lobbyists.

Published April 14, 2023.

Friday’s finance committee public hearing agenda includes a bill authorizing $15 million in bonding “for the purpose of providing grants-in-aid to business and industrial development corporations” as defined by the state’s banking laws. Those non-bank banks, known in the state’s banking department as Bidcos, will use the funds “to provide assistance to minority-owned and women- owned small businesses serving or seeking to serve underserved or minority communities.”

Any participating Bidco “may use up to ten per cent in the aggregate of the amount of such grant-in-aid for operational costs and to fund a loan loss reserve fund.” No Bidco may receive more than $5 million in the authorized funds.

The absence of lenders is a hurdle that the legislation ignores. According to Department of Banking spokesman Matthew Smith, there are no business and industrial development corporations licensed by the state. There hasn’t been one, according to Smith, for several years. The last one, the regulatory agency’s website reveals, was Business Lenders, LLC, is incorporated in Delaware and maintains its office in Hartford.

Business Lenders, LLC’s president and chief executive officer is Penn Ritter, former clerk of the House of Representatives, brother former Speaker of the House Thomas Ritter and uncle of the current speaker, Matthew Ritter.

Published April 14, 2023.

MDC Chairman William DiBella withstood a challenge in what sounded on an audio link like a raucous meeting Monday. The commission voted 15-13 to table a discussion of a report critical of DiBella for funneling legal work to his friend James Sandler without authorization.

DiBella is in his 22nd year as chairman of the regional agency that provides water and sewer services to greater Hartford communities, eight of which have seats on the commission. DiBella detractors have been gaining gaining supporters since the Sandler invoices became an issue last year. They did not properly reckon with DeBella’s decades of experience thwarting challenges when he looks like the final act has arrived.

Rebels and reformers, remember the saga of East Hartford Republican John Grottole. In 2004, a majority of the members of the commission were Republicans. On paper they had the votes–until they did not. Republicans on the commission claimed that Grottole told them DiBella had been behind a land deal the East Hartford Republican made with Hartford. Grottole voted for DiBella. DiBella denied any role.

Monday’s vote signaled how determined DiBella’s supporters are willing to abandon norms to protect the veteran Democrat. They would not allow a discussion of the critical report. Nothing has changed.

Published April 12, 2023

It may be the beginning, but of what no one can be certain. Mayor Beth A. DelBuono of Newington called for MDC chairman William DiBella to resign in the aftermath of the release of an audit report on DiBella’s role in finding business for a law firm. If DiBella does not resign, DelBuono calls on commission members to use every tool at their disposal to remove him.

DelBuono wrote in her April 6th letter to commissioners, “I continue to have concerns regarding the ability for Chairman DiBella to lead the MDC Commission.  Based upon the Facts of Finding and the violations of the MDC’s Charter and By-Laws that are stated and expanded upon on pages 43-44 of this document, I respectfully request that Chairman DiBella resign effective immediately from any and all positions held within the MDC and Commission.  Should Chairman DiBella refuse to do so, I would ask that the Commission take any and all action possible to remove him from his position as Chair.”

DelBuono, a Republican, is serving her second two-year term as mayor. Her letter notes she is out of town and unable to attend Monday’s meeting but has asked “my Deputy Mayor, Gail Budrejko to read my letter into the record for your consideration.”

DiBella is a master of the dark arts of maintaining control over the MDC board–no matter who is on it. His opponents have an evenhanded report critical of his conduct but the voting commissions include a big block from Hartford–where DiBella maintains his residence by keeping supplies for his ablutions at his son’s condominium near the MDC headquarters.

The commission convenes a special meeting Monday at 5:30 p.m. to review the audit report. The meeting notice contains both a video and telephone link for members of the public.

Published April 10, 2023.

State Senator John Fonfara will today report raising more than $300,000 in his first campaign finance report of the race for the Democratic nomination for mayor of Hartford, Daily Ructions can report. That hefty number will put Fonfara about $100,000 ahead of Arunan Arulampalam, another contestant for the nomination that decides the election.

Fonfara has benefited from tapping into the network of lobbyists that need his help in passing or thwarting legislation during the legislative session that continues until early June. Lobbyist money is easy for the co-chair of the legislature’s finance committee to raise. Fanfara has been able to reach beyond the low-hanging lobbyist fruit (at $1,000 each) and a significant pile of the green stuff that folds.

Arulumpalam reports raising $225,000 in his first bid for public office in Hartford. He is well-connected in the business community and the state’s shrinking universe of Republican donors thought his father-in-law, Greg Butler, a top executive of Eversource, the state’s primary utility. Butler has been working the phones for Arulumpalam. Eversource has many tentacles. Butler is married to Themis Klarides, the former House Minority Leader who suffered a stinging loss to Greenwich Republican Leora Levy in last summer’s U.S. Senate primary.

Retired judge and former state Senator Eric Coleman is also seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor. Arulampalam, Coleman and Fonfara are the three candidates who are expected to advance to a primary after the Hartford Democratic Town Committee endorses a candidate in July.

Published April 10, 2023.

The MDC has released its report on its investigation of legal fees paid to and submitted by the law firm Sandler & Mara. The investigation was commissioned last year when members of the regional water and sewer authority discovered James Sandler had submitted invoices for performing legal work that commission members questioned.

The task of attorneys Patrick McHale and Jennifer Dixon, of Kainen, Escalera & McHale, P.C., appeared straightforward: Determine if the work on Sandler invoices had been authorized and performed. Interviewing witnesses–especially DiBella–proved a challenge.

DiBella, the longtime MDC chair, was interviewed for the first time on November 16, 2022. It lasted three hours. McHale, the report states, “was able to ask only a small portion of his questions because Chairman DiBella’s responses often strayed far afield from the questions asked resulting in lengthy responses consisting of information that was not under investigation. As a result, Attorney McHale needed to urge Chairman DiBella to answer only the questions asked which was something Chairman DiBella found difficult to do.” That is a kind interpretation.

Scheduling a second interview took weeks. DiBella’s attorney, Bart Halloran, wrote to McHale on December 27th of last year, “I believe a further interview, at this time, is not warranted. If you or the committee wishes to submit written questions to Chairman DiBella, we will review them and if appropriate, respond.”

The chair of the MDC was refusing to cooperate with an investigation authorized by its Audit Committee. DiBella agreed to meet with investigators on January 31, 2023. “After one hour and forty minutes, Attorney Halloran ended the second interview, and Chairman DiBella declined to cooperate further despite Attorney McHale’s request that he stay so that Attorney McHale could complete the interview. Consequently, the investigators did not pose all of their questions to Chairman DiBella.”

Without DiBella’s full cooperation, investigators were about to determine that in 2021, District Counsel Chris Stone intended to enter into a $50,000 retainer agreement with Sandler for the year. Stone “subsequently agreed to $70,000 after Attorney Sandler told him that Chairman DiBella had informed him that District Counsel Stone had $70,000 available for legal fees.”

DiBella could not recall all of the meetings listed in Sandler’s bills. He did remember attending breakfast meetings with Sandler, although he did not remember if they were in 2021 or 2022.

The money did not flow so easily to Sandler in 2022. DiBella asked Stone and another MDC official to “find work for Attorney Sandler in 2022, but neither of them had any work for him.” Nevertheless, Stone learned that Sandler had invoices for work purportedly performed in 2022.

Stone, who is becoming a counterforce to scheming at the agency, refused to continue hiring Sandler. DiBella and another board member Pasquale Salemi of East Hartford, found other ways. Growing attention on Sandler invoices last year and the initiation of the investigation preceded Sandler’s withdrawal of his final invoices.

The 46-page report of facts, findings and recommendations provides an opportunity for the agency’s full board to consider the way forward in discharging its duties in the public interest.

Published April 6, 2023.

The beleaguered Public Defender Services Commission is seeking approval for a $152,500 transfer at Thursday’s Financial Advisory Committee meeting. The request seeks to move appropriated funds from the personal services account . The request from Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis seeks the approval of the transfer for “training initiatives proposed by the Agency.” (See the full request at the end of this link.)

Among the asks is $55,000 for DefenderLab, a five-day trial skills training program. The adjustment request submitted to the state budget office states, “This year we have been fortunate enough to obtain approval to provide lodging to all attendees, and found a venue with appropriate facilities that had room for the faculty and attendees that week.” Not all the attendees are delighted with having to stay at the facility for five days. Connecticut, as Governor Lamont memorably once told a group of DC government relations professionals, “is a small landlocked state.”

The request includes an additional $30,000 to retain the services of Larry Pozner, a lecturer in cross-examining witnesses. Pozner will appear at the DefenderLab event and two other training events, one of them remote. This service could be provided from within the agency–it boasts plenty of skilled cross-examiners. Members of the private criminal bar have also volunteered their assistance at past training classes.

The request includes “an additional $24,500 to cover any additional unanticipated expenses that arise for the remainder of this year.” This fiscal year ends on June 30th, so there ought not be many surprise education and training programs that are not known when FAC meets Thursday.

Consideration of each request before FAC usually begins with state Senator Cathy Osten asking how many positions are approved and how many filled at the agency. There are other questions to pose Thursday to acquire a fuller understanding of day-to-day issues frontline public defenders face. One is the average caseload of prosecutors in the state’s largest G.A. courts. Another is the backlog of murder cases and the number of public defenders handling them in each judicial district.

FAC members, who appear to enjoy burrowing into the details of state government, will want to know how many retirees with 120-agreements to serve clients are in the division now–and how many were there in each of the past nine months. Committee members will also perform a service if they are able to determine how many contract/conflict public defenders the agency has working for clients and who determines how much they are paid.

How many offices have requested help due to lawyers on pregnancy leave? How many of those requests have been met with temporary replacements?

Members (or one member who will ask) solve a persistent mystery by asking Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis how much public money was spent on renovations, furniture and furnishings for her office. The five members who resigned en masse at the end of March are said to have tried without success to obtain details of those expenditures. Someone at the Office of the Chief Public Defender ought to be able to email those details to FAC members as they pose questions and listen to answers.

The division’s annual meeting is usually held on a weekday. This year it’s at the Holiday Hill resort in Prospect on a Saturday. The invitation includes public defenders, staff, plus ones and children. The day will include reflections by Bowden-Lewis, a sound healing session with Kelvin Young who will “release your suppressed emotions and nourish your soul” with crystals and Tibetan singing bowls….” Releasing suppressed emotions may not be a prudent goal in the divided division. How much is the event costing?

Dr. Maysa Akbar will deliver an hourlong keynote on urban trauma, which ought to touch on the caseloads public defenders in urban courthouses are carrying as Bowden-Lewis slow-walks new hires while lobbying for a public relations office within the division.

FAC is capable of shining a light on the workings of state government and the treatment of state employees when committee members decide to apply their knowledge to agency heads looking for money. Public defenders and thousands of clients will count on them to use the opportunity Thursday presents.

Published April 5, 2023.