Thanks the digging done by The Day reporting David Collins, the public has been reminded of who is living in their backyard - on the land held in federal trust for the "native americans" recognized as the Mashantucket Pequots.
Collins column published on April 12, 2009 is a reminder of the lack of quality and character by which this Tribe is led. Its leader, Thomas, is a former drug dealer and it appears and he is being sued over a $5,000,000 loan that he has not repayed to Sovereign bank. The suit has actually been brewing for a while and the claim has risen from a $1,000,000 to $5,000,000. Thomas via his attorneys is now claiming that the loan was a "bribe". A smattering of famaliar names including scheming realtors from the 1980's right up to present day have been named in the lawsuit. Just up everyone has a prior record. So much for rehabilitation.
Perhaps the Mashantuckets should revise their charter to provide that former felons cannot hold office, but then they wouldn't be aspiring to be like Providence, Rhode Island.
My point here though is not to reiterate what David Collins has pointed out, but rather from a community perspective call attention to the fact that Ledyard has been grossly impacted by the existence of the Tribe's resort casino and has received little of its benefit.
The current Ledyard Mayor knocked on my door when he ran for office, and told me that he was in close with the Mashantucket leadership, and that he would work a deal for the town so its tax payers would get their just desserts. Well now that I see who that is, I have to say I am quite concerned and rightly so. I am concerned that our Mayor is in way over his head with what ever deal he is working on with the Tribe. When Wesley Johnson was Mayor the town used to receive a lot of assistance from the Attorney General's Office in dealing with Tribal matters. What do we get now?
Hopefully, some Citadel quality leadership will be enough....
Monday, April 13, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Budget Time
This week, the Ledyard Town Council voted to send a $48 million dollar budget to a public hearing. The public hearing is coming up in just a little over a week on April 20, 2009 in the Ledyard High School auditorium. The vote came after a month of deliberations by the Finance Committee over the underlying assumptions of the budget and a detailed review of expenses by budget line item.
The Mayor, who has the responsibility for proposing a budget and therefore gets to make the first move in the budget process, was late for the 2nd year in a row in delivering his budget to the Town Council for review. The Town Charter requires that the budget be delivered by the first Monday in March. The Mayor's budget called for maintaining services and no mill rate increase. The Town Council in their review of the budget was forced to cut over an additional $1 million out of the proposed general government and board of education budgets in order to get to the long expected promise the Mayor made for no mill rate increase.
The mill rate is essentially the rate charged for property taxes for every thousand dollars of assessed value of property. Assuming there are no changes in your property value, a no mill rate increase would create no increase in your property tax bill. A noble goal. Unfortunately, because of the lack of accounting to back up the Mayor's proposal the Town Council was forced to cut and cut in order to get to that no mill rate level. With these cuts, services cannot be preserved at the current level.
The Mayor failed to meet the expectations he promised over nine months ago. The Town Councilors did the best they could with the revenues they could expect to receive and tried hard to present a budget that they think the voters could support.
Reportedly, cuts to general government include reductions in code enforcement, public works, administrative support for the clerks office, tax collectors office, and the assistant to the assistant to the Mayor's Office. Cuts to Board of Education include 12.5 teaching positions, half an administrator, and four paraprofessionals. Make sure you turn out for the public hearing and learn about the budget and the process.
The Mayor, who has the responsibility for proposing a budget and therefore gets to make the first move in the budget process, was late for the 2nd year in a row in delivering his budget to the Town Council for review. The Town Charter requires that the budget be delivered by the first Monday in March. The Mayor's budget called for maintaining services and no mill rate increase. The Town Council in their review of the budget was forced to cut over an additional $1 million out of the proposed general government and board of education budgets in order to get to the long expected promise the Mayor made for no mill rate increase.
The mill rate is essentially the rate charged for property taxes for every thousand dollars of assessed value of property. Assuming there are no changes in your property value, a no mill rate increase would create no increase in your property tax bill. A noble goal. Unfortunately, because of the lack of accounting to back up the Mayor's proposal the Town Council was forced to cut and cut in order to get to that no mill rate level. With these cuts, services cannot be preserved at the current level.
The Mayor failed to meet the expectations he promised over nine months ago. The Town Councilors did the best they could with the revenues they could expect to receive and tried hard to present a budget that they think the voters could support.
Reportedly, cuts to general government include reductions in code enforcement, public works, administrative support for the clerks office, tax collectors office, and the assistant to the assistant to the Mayor's Office. Cuts to Board of Education include 12.5 teaching positions, half an administrator, and four paraprofessionals. Make sure you turn out for the public hearing and learn about the budget and the process.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Day brings to light legislative proposals to limit public information
An editorial today by semi-retired journalist, Morgan McGinley, highlights attention of 17 bills making there way through the General Assembly that would limit the public’s right to what is currently public information. We bring this up here on this blog because the current administration has not been friendly to the rights of the public to get access to public documents or to attend meetings that should be open under the Freedom of Information Act. In fact, the behavoir of the current administration has eroded the understanding of local officials knowledge of the public’s rights and the level of access to information.
Not without example, shortly after taking office at the end of 2007, the current administration “conspired” with members of the Zoning Commission to keep secret a document ( a legal opinion) that was requested by residents at a public hearing. Ostenibly, it was kept secret because it undermined the committments to pre-determined decisions already made by Zoning Commission members before the public hearing was ever opened. One resident made a follow up request in writing to have the opinion made public, but was further denied access. The whole matter was then appealed to the Freedom of Information Commission where a zoning commission member dodged a subpeona to appear and left a minor town official on the hook to answer questions. The current administration was left untouched by the minor scandle.
Unfortunely, those responsible were not held accountable by the Commission and remain in office without the public having adequate knowledge of their actions.
Its important to contact your elected state officials and ask them to oppose any bills that would limit the public’s right to PUBLIC information.
Not without example, shortly after taking office at the end of 2007, the current administration “conspired” with members of the Zoning Commission to keep secret a document ( a legal opinion) that was requested by residents at a public hearing. Ostenibly, it was kept secret because it undermined the committments to pre-determined decisions already made by Zoning Commission members before the public hearing was ever opened. One resident made a follow up request in writing to have the opinion made public, but was further denied access. The whole matter was then appealed to the Freedom of Information Commission where a zoning commission member dodged a subpeona to appear and left a minor town official on the hook to answer questions. The current administration was left untouched by the minor scandle.
Unfortunely, those responsible were not held accountable by the Commission and remain in office without the public having adequate knowledge of their actions.
Its important to contact your elected state officials and ask them to oppose any bills that would limit the public’s right to PUBLIC information.
The 10 Wise Men & Women
Ledyard’s general government and the budget of the Board of Education are overseen by 10 very wise elected men and women. If you don’t believe me, you should just go to their meetings and see for yourselves (about their wisdom), you can find their meeting schedules at www.town.ledyard.ct.us. By the way if you do believe me I’ve got a bridge to sell you. Please reply by comment regarding your interest in the bridge.
So of the ten you’ve got 1 Mayor, elected at large by the voters for 4 years terms and 9 Town Councilors elected at large for two year terms. The Town Councilors are presided over by an august Chairman, elected from amongst themselves (ussually the high voter getter of the Republican (I mean majority) party. The Town Council further splits itself into four subcommittees who go off in a room to try to figure things out and package them back up and present the business to themselves with a neatly tied bow on it. The four subcommittees are: Finance, Land Use/Planning/Public Works, Community Services, and Administration. I hope you are following all this…
The Mayor kind of does his own thing, meaning, of course that he is like an army of one. He or she is the chief elected official and in addition to kissing babies ( I wouldn’t let the current Mayor kiss mine), also gets to preside over the various administrative and operational tasks associated with general government. Top experts are still working on what that actually means. However, we have determined for certain the following: there are lots of meetings to attend with lots of coffee to drink and hopefully some other sugar filled goodies (that are definitely a perk for the job). If these duties appeal to you perhaps you should consider running. I’ve heard that the current Mayor won’t be interested in running again. Actually, that remark came from his own lips.
So of the ten you’ve got 1 Mayor, elected at large by the voters for 4 years terms and 9 Town Councilors elected at large for two year terms. The Town Councilors are presided over by an august Chairman, elected from amongst themselves (ussually the high voter getter of the Republican (I mean majority) party. The Town Council further splits itself into four subcommittees who go off in a room to try to figure things out and package them back up and present the business to themselves with a neatly tied bow on it. The four subcommittees are: Finance, Land Use/Planning/Public Works, Community Services, and Administration. I hope you are following all this…
The Mayor kind of does his own thing, meaning, of course that he is like an army of one. He or she is the chief elected official and in addition to kissing babies ( I wouldn’t let the current Mayor kiss mine), also gets to preside over the various administrative and operational tasks associated with general government. Top experts are still working on what that actually means. However, we have determined for certain the following: there are lots of meetings to attend with lots of coffee to drink and hopefully some other sugar filled goodies (that are definitely a perk for the job). If these duties appeal to you perhaps you should consider running. I’ve heard that the current Mayor won’t be interested in running again. Actually, that remark came from his own lips.
Who are our local elected officials and what are they up to?
Do you know who is running the show in Town? Probably not, I mean, maybe you know their name, or heard something about them, but you probably don’t pay much attention to local politics. Federal and state politics suck up most of the news and debate. Local news is allocated to small time media like the Norwich Bulletin, the Thames River Times, and The Day. Even then, not much rises to the top. The economics of local print media just doesn’t justify the time or effort.
So, for the time being, along as I and some others have the energy and time, we are going to try to keep track of a few things going on in town. Hopefully, we will generate some interest and debate.
So, for the time being, along as I and some others have the energy and time, we are going to try to keep track of a few things going on in town. Hopefully, we will generate some interest and debate.
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