Wake up Stratford

As we draw closer to political season, known in some circles as the silly season, I would like to bring to the attention of the Stratford taxpayers and electorate, some issues that will probably never be addressed by the local press. There are a number of issues that I will address over time but I would like to begin with the Town Department that gets very little publicity and yet has a large effect on taxpayer dollars. That Department is the Office of the Town Attorney and their Charter to protect the interests of the citizens of Stratford in the legal arena while as officers of the court, doing so within the laws of the State of Connecticut, the ordinances of the Town of Stratford, and most importantly, the Constitution of the United States of America.

There are three cases that I will use to show that the Town Attorney’s Office seems to be acting in a way that is not in the best interests of Stratford and in a way which seems to be more in the interest of the individual attorneys at least as far as the amount of time they spend in court that they are compensated for.

The first case is the Dawn Pieger animal cruelty case. This case, which was completely mishandled by Stratford Animal Control, took 10 months to prosecute leading to countless hours of court time for the attorneys and a very large expense for Piegers attorney’s fees.  The reason that this case took so long is because the Town attorney’s continuance after continuance and postponement after postponement until Ms. Pieger’s attorney’s fees forced her to settle the case. I would not call this justice.

The second case involves Marion Periera, a 90 year old woman, who was also charged with animal cruelty by the Animal Control Office, has been in court for 20 months, with no end in sight, only because Ms. Periera , who is widowed and living on a small pension, is being represented by a public defender. When this case concludes, no matter what the verdict, how much in fines do you think the Town is going to get or does the Town plan on putting a lien on her home. This is another case where the Town Attorney’s Office has used the same stalling tactics of continuances and postponements to pile up court room hours and take this case into what may be its second year. As Ms. Periera’s daughter said, “What is the Town waiting for her to die?” before this case is settled.

The third case, and this is probably going to wind up costing the Stratford taxpayers thousands of dollars, as the case has already been found against the Town, involves Donna Best, formally the Town’s Director of the EMS. I have known Donna Best and her husband John for almost 30 years. When Donna became the EMS Administrator after Bruce Connery left the Town, it was a seamless fit because as we all knew, Donna had been pretty much managing the entire EMS operation for a number of years. I have worked with Donna in a number of situations regarding EMS and Stratford Animal Control over the years and found her to be what I would call the perfect Administrator/worker. She knows her job, she knows the strengths and weaknesses of her staff, and she has an absolutely  perfect temperament to deal with not only knowing her job, but dealing with the public during stress full and sometimes traumatic events.

Unfortunately a number of years ago, Jonathan Best contested John Harkins throught the Republican Town Committee to run against former Mayor Miron. After Harkins won that position and after besting (no pun intended) Miron in the election, Harkins filled a number of  positions including the position of Chief of Staff, a position that had been created under Miron and was in effect the same position as the Town Manager, the position that had supposedly been eliminated so as to fill the position with a mayor. After waiting an appropriate amount of time, so as to not to appear to be a “political” move, Mayor Harkins technically demoted Donna Best and appointed someone of his choosing. Donna Best did something that I believe the average person would not do. She stayed on the job with Harkins handpicked candidate and continued in her work as a first responder. She held no grudges and continued at the level she always worked at and that is the highest level.  She also sought justice through the courts and to date the Town has been found to be at fault. The Mayor promises the Town will continue with its claims against her and his appointed lawyers will continue going into court and asking for continuances and postponement until Donna Best can no longer afford to pay her lawyer. THAT AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN.  This case is now 2 ½ years old.  Tax payers pay attention. Your Town is again in trouble because of “Politics As Usual “. Pay attention, call or E-mail the Mayor, call your council person, and if you just sit back and watch this all take place, shame on you and you’ll get what you deserve in the next election. Then you will have lost the right to complain about the Politics of Stratford.