Delauro & Slossberg Cry Sexism Over Mayors Ethics Complaint

East Haven's mayor April Capone Almon is no stranger to controversy. Just a few short months ago Ms. Almon was arrested for interfering with police business. She obstructed police from towing illegally parked cars from a Town Beach parking lot and made state wide T.V. with her arrest.

Almon's issues with the Police began shortly after she was elected, her and her associate Mr. Strand had a falling out when she stormed over to East Haven's Chief of Police (Leonard Gallo) and brazenly told him he was "fired" and she was "taking over the Police Department."

Ms. Almon's Animosity toward the Police did not end there, they emerged again when an ethics complaint was filed against her by a East Haven police board member for giving an excessive raise to her personal secretary friend in government. This is an allegation that Ms. Almon denies, saying that her relationship was "appropriate" and so was the raise.

Needless to say, and come election time, the public and her Republican opponents have made campaign issues out of these monumental events. Issues that Rosa Delauro has called a "slimy political attack" and a "distraction" she also went on to say she stands "with her and the great work that she has done for the town of East Haven." Delauro who was accompanied by our Senator Gayle Slossberg, and a squad of other women leaders made a very large and public spectacle in Ms. Almon's defence.

Rosa Delauro led her contingent of women to East Haven, and decried that this attack is politically motivated and sexist, or in her own words "the kind of thing that women leaders have to go through." Since the allegations began in a conflict with the East Haven Police department the scope and nature of the dispute will most likely result in a Board of Ethics hearing to explore the nature of a $9,960 raise she gave to her secretary.

This also follows on the heels of her record of presiding over one of East Haven's Worst Tax increases, and earned its city a place in Connecticut's most foreclosed towns. Ms. Almond is a Democrat Seeking Re-Election, and these issues have become the "cannon fodder of choice for the East Haven Republicans none-the-less. What some are wondering here in Milford, is why are our state and Federal leaders ignoring her record, and the fact that campaigns are the time to bring about these issues?

From a personal standpoint I will maintain that it is not our elected leaders prerogative to interfere or engage the public over the criminal behavior of any city leader until the legal and legislative branches of government have completed their inquiries. The only difference I see here, is that none of these women Democrats came to the aid of Joe Ganim when he was arrested or Eddie Perez of Hartford or Mr. Philip Giordano of Waterbury for that matter.

In conclusion, even though this story has little to do with Milford, beyond the few elected leaders we share, I find it deplorable that this kind of intervention is what our leaders are doing with their time. When a common person gets in trouble with the "law" no one comes to our aid, as a matter of fact we too just like the lovely Ms.Almon can get arrested for doing reckless things and must answer to the very same legal system we all share. Politicians are not above or exempt from the law and should be held personally accountable in the same way the rest of us are.