The Democratic Governor and his liberal cabal are using the same argument, telling the taxpayers of the state of Connecticut to "relax" that the state increases are "minor." While I already spent considerable time discussing the exploitation of the states taxpayers in this blog I plan to shift focus to the exploitation of Milford's taxpayers.
Lets begin with a reminder that our taxes have doubled in just a short 12 years. This doubling was accompanied by city services being cut to the lowest level Milford has ever had. This doubling and cutting has arrived during the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Lets look at today's news and work in reverse. Astonishingly our Mayor Jim Richetelli is not running for re-election, he instead found a way to escape the wrath of his terrible decade of "tax and spend" leadership in favor of a job that appears to be completely invented out of "politics." Lucky for the mayor this new job "deputy operations chief of schools" pays him 20% more money than he was earning as the Mayor. Wow! We can only assume that this post is being created with the approval of the Republican dominated board of Education.
Greg Smith the Republican Chair of the Board of Alderman has been at odds with the school district because they claim they are "Broke." They have closed schools, fired administrators, and threatened non-tenured teachers that they need to find new jobs. While this was going on the Mayor was scheming to deplete their budget another $120,000.00 plus his benefits and carrying costs.You would think that some respect would be allowed for the parents of our kids who have amassed in record protests. They have filled school auditoriums more than once in the last several years and as a result this Mayor has aggravated and opposed our schools and their improvements time and again.
Back in 2009 when Jonathan Law wanted an addition it was the lone dissenting vote of one brave Republican Alderman that improved our kids school conditions. Teachers, and parents pointed out that teaching was going on in the hallway on carts, and student restrooms were so dingy that the girls at the time were using the men's room.
Then came the wasteful Czars, the land use Czar, the Blight Czar, The Mgat Czar, and now our Mayor appears to have appointed himself as the Education Czar tapping into a budget that is in terrible terrible trouble. Our schools have been impacted by the loss of millions from the Federal Government, have been victimized by "No Child Left Behind" disparaged by a monumentally unfair ECS formula at the state level and taxed Milford's home owners into the ditch to pay for failure. Failure that rendered our students with terrible CAPT test scores at the state level. Our Schools according to Ms. Feser rank in the Bottom 1/3 for elementary schools, and the bottom 2/3 for middle schools.
Our last two Supers were a joke, one being fired for writing letters of recommendation to a teacher who was later arrested for having an affair with his student, and another arrested for lewd and perverted conduct toward his staff. Now we are going to add our former Mayor to a high level position in education. This position is one where he will keep company with individuals who are intellectually superior to him. Individuals who had to do the hard work of graduating with advanced degrees from universities that actually taught their students the complex mechanics of running a school.
The Mayor now seems to pompously and arrogantly trivialize this right of passage, he is attempting to use politics to create a job that he never had, to do a job that he never did, and is adding to an education problem that is never ending.
My step daughter and her husband had to get advanced degrees just to be considered to teach in a classroom. She has had to pay hefty college loans back and prove to countless professors and higher education administrators that she was even competent and capable enough to hold a state teaching licence. She then was offered a job that barely paid the minimum payment on her student loans.
The news today makes a mockery of the entire education system, proving that a person like our former Mayor can just sidestep into one of these positions politically. Despite the added financial hardship to the school budget, and the fact that his new post may require Three or Four bonafied teachers to be laid off, where does the school system and its administrators get off "signing off" on this incredibly political appointment.
Thus far it appears there was a rush to hire him. No serious ads posted for the job, no meaningful interviews of who the best candidate is for the post, and most troubling no public debate over the need for this post. Since when, for the sake of welfare, do we invade random jobs for politically connected people? The idea that the city of Milford should be creating jobs to help individuals who are too lazy or too unwilling to go out and find one (they way the rest of do) is really the epitome of corruption.
When Jim Amann stepped down and tried to create a crony job under Speaker Donavan, the people of our state complained loudly. The pay was substantially cut to match his credentials, he then refused the job. Why are we going to repeat this dangerous precedent at the local level? The worst form of corruption in government is nepotism, and favoritism if we allow this appointment to occur without a fight the parents and teachers of Milford deserve everything they have coming to them.
The final straw will be if the Board of Alderman pass the bloated school budget as yet another amazing surprise. Suppose we should all be so naive to think that the Mayors new post and the Superintendents demand for new money is somehow not a conflict of interests. This appointment has now marred any sincerity in purpose the Board of Alderman or the Board of Finance has. They are both Republican Controlled and their actions will be viewed as highly suspect. Could it be that the Mayor was offered a $120,000.00 a year job in exchange for passing the bloated school budget? Someone should find out.
TO READ THE OFFICIAL AOL HUFFINGTON POST PATCH PROPAGANDA CLICK HERE
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