Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Richetelli Denies Anger's Allegations

The following quote appeared on the Milford Musing Blog run by veteran reporter Frank Juliano regarding the recent federal lawsuit and allegations made against the city.

"Mayor James L. Richetelli Jr. denied allegations in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by veteran assistant city attorney Cynthia Anger that she was fired because of her union-organizing activities.

But Larry Dorman, spokesman for AFSCME Council 4, said the union has filed a prohibited labor practice complaint against the city on those very grounds, and is seeking Anger’s reinstatement.

An informal hearing will be held March 23 in City Hall. If it is not resolved there it could go to arbitration, officials said."

This Richetelli rebuttal leads us no better off than when this first began, and the question still beckons what was his reasoning if his response directly challenges the thoughts of the person he fired?

This sounds like pure politics on the surface. This is also the first "non round-about" direct firing of a city employee by the Richetelli administration. Usually when a person crosses the Richetelli gang they end up being let go like Bob Adams, or in a manner that is very sneaky, confusing and stealthy never so abruptly.

Perhaps Anger was too well prepared for that kind of a practice and the direct approach was the only way he could exact his authority. Many people in town are still perplexed by this firing, few people were even aware that problems existed in the towns Law Department.

While we know that no one was previously fired for the failures of the Building Department, and no one said a word about firing anyone in the Tax Collectors office when their failure to collect taxes was outsourced. It would now appear that the Milford town authorities are only interested punishing those who are disobedient and disloyal to the expectations of their people.

Should Richetelli have fired someone in the building department, I think the town would have cheered. Had he fired someone in the tax collectors office for failure to collect the taxes he outsourced... the people probably would have understood and If he called for Barbara Lambert's resignation for playing Solitaire on the job he would have earned much public respect... but Cynthia Anger? We are still as perplexed today by this action as we were the moment it happened.

In all our endeavors, news articles and comments from locals it would appear that even Cynthia Anger appears to be confused as to why she was Fired. Can anyone explain how this is a justifiable dismissal I do'nt get it?

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