Nalini Srinivas denies resigning

Today would be an interesting day to be a fly on the wall at City Hall. According to today's New Haven Register, Nalini Srinivas is denying having tendered her resignation, and plans to report to work today, saying:

"I have not offered my resignation. As far as the (investigative) report is concerned, I have not assaulted anyone. I have not harassed anyone, and the police report clearly states I have not done such things," she added.

"It was suggested to me by the mayor himself that I was to consider resigning or, alternatively, he would have to let me go. But there was nothing beyond that. I was recipient of his information and that is all," Srinivas said.

WHVoice: Penske truck terminal to occupy Bowl Drive-In

See "City to get revenue from registrations" (Nov 16, 2006). Planning and Zoning was expected to approve the subdivision of the former Bowl Drive-In site on the Boston Post Road, so that Lawrence Mall of New Haven could put an estimated $4 Million Penske truck terminal. Chick Celentano is a part owner of Lawrence Mall, and is apparently insisting (along with Mayor Borer) that the trucks be registered in West Haven, so that there will be registration income as well as tax income.

WHVoice: Mayor Picard to have 3 step deficit reduction plan

The November 23 West Haven Voice contains an article entitled "Picard points to 3-step deficit-reduction". This article focuses in on three income components to reduce the indebtedness and to offset the shortfall:

1. The recent sale of the city tax lien list for $1.05 on the dollar. (I find this surprising - why would a company pay MORE than what the outstanding taxes are worth? I think this must mean that West Haven will not get the interest or other penalties).
   
2. Selling a second older tax lien list (will get less on the dollar, and apparently this contract is in the works - but if it is hard to collect money, anything is better than nothing, I suppose).
3. Audit the city's business personal property list, and collect monies from businesses that are re-evaluated. (This is currently only in the RFP for the auditor. I wonder if this might be of limited use - too many businesses are really small potatoes in this town).

Other items discussed:

• Building Oversight Committee has found $4 million to date in reimbursements to be requested from the state for reimburseable school projects.
• Project bids are coming in below budget for the first time in years.
• Controls have been put into place for the bidding process that eliminate certain potentials for misconduct.
  

A more positive spin on the Bayer news

Business New Haven has a slightly more positive spin in the article "Bioscience Czar Sees Silver Lining in Bayer Closing".

Paul Pescatello, president of Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE), says he's already gotten a dozen calls from rival companies looking to hire Bayer workers. And the pharma giant's facility, which has been underutilized since Bayer first hit a rough patch in the 1990s, could be subdivided into a research park to attract startups and diversify the local industry.

(read the article for more on the property, and tax incentive deals from CT and NJ).

UI asks for 38-50% increase

UI is asking for a 38% increase for residential customers, and up to a 50% increase, for business customers, according to this New Haven Register article...

Nepotism in the Board of Ed?

Today's New Haven Register has an interesting article entitled "Ed board hiring raises question of nepotism". In a nutshell:

City Councilwoman Nancy R. Rossi, A Better Future-7, said Monday despite her request to table the measure, the board voted unanimously last week to hire Rose Palmieri, the mother of board member Mark Palmieri, as a cashier at St. Lawrence School. Though Palmieri has served as a substitute cashier at Seth Haley School, Rossi said she wanted the board to table the vote until it could research whether Rose Palmieri’s hiring was inconsistent with the board’s past practice of hiring the longest-serving individual on the substitution list for a particular position.

More on Bayer...

Today's New Haven Register article entitled "Bayer profit drops 35% in 3Q, beats forecasts" reveals that the company had turned down a $60 million state incentive package that they would have received if they stayed, and that there are 1000 workers affected (some of whom may transfer to New Jersey).

Statement from the source RE: the West Shore Fire District Blog

I received an email today from WSFDFF regarding the West Shore Fire District blog. I'm republishing it (with permission) exactly as it was sent to me.

We tried to provide what we thought was an
educational site for the West Shore taxpayers and
others as well. It turned into a pissing contest with
every explanation that we tried to provide being
turned around into a challenge of the facts. We only
wrote true facts. We never tried to mislead anyone. It
was so bad that I started to take it very personnal
and that We felt was a bad thing and defeated the
whole purpose of the site. The site wasn't intended to
provide a spot for people to type false and misleading
statements. It wasn't a site to provide space for
stiring the pot. After seeing the enormous amount of
false and misleading information that was written not
by you but by many others we wanted to try to provide
a place where people could ask us questions. It never
happened. So we decided to take the blog off for a
while and let all cool down. I promise that we will
put it back on at a later date. If there is still
anyone out there that has a question regarding the
WEST SHORE FIRE DISTRICT,  please feel free to contact
us at this e mail address and we will answer.

I did get a chance to view the blog last week before it disappeared; things seemed to get rather ugly before it disappeared. I know the feeling - this blog (Lower West Haven Taxes) gets ugly comments from time to time, too. I cannot edit the comments that people make - but I can choose to not publish them, and there are many that have never seen the public eye. That's my choice - this blog isn't a democracy, and I have no political agenda. My nature isn't one that enjoys strident discourse -- I guess I would say that I prefer intellectual fact-based discussion. It's not that I think people shouldn't disagree or discuss the difficult topics; it's more that I think that they should disagree without being mean or hateful.

I would really like to concentrate on solutions and discussion on the TAX issue on this blog (Lower West Haven Taxes), not simply on the fire consolidation or the fire departments.

Having said that, in fairness, I've received emails from a person who participated on both boards who is concerned that perhaps the firefighters are publishing blogs while on duty. My impression is that the complaint wasn't about improper use of time, but that it is felt that there is too much downtime to warrant the current staffing levels. They felt this was important to disclose, so I've put this forth.

I suppose I should state that my own feeling on this matter is that there will BE a lot of downtime in this sort of profession... but when there is a need, it's far more dangerous to not have enough to answer the call of duty.

At any rate, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and I don't expect to be online for the extended holiday weekend. If I haven't responded to an email or I haven't published your comment, it's likely just because I'm offline.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone... for tonight, I'm just going to close by saying that I'm thankful that I live in a country where I can state my mind, and I can disagree with others... and I'm thankful that there are those who are willing to stand up and disagree with my opinion, too.

Selective leaf vacuumming practice unfair

Today's New Haven Register has an article on the unequal leaf collection practices of West Haven. I had no idea that some people get the leaf vacuuming - and the rest of us are forced to bag ours. I'd prefer it if ALL OF US had the vacuuming - it would save countless hours of work, and save money on purchasing those lousy paper bags...

West Haven Asks UI to consider Bayer Site

In today's New Haven Register, there is an article that explains that West Haven officials have approached UI to look at the Bayer Site.

Ironically, I was just saying this to someone the other day. UI was looking at the West River Crossing site - but this might be an even better place for them to house their head quarters - 125 acres! If they come to town, earlier reports said it would be about $4M to us in taxes...

State and City officials look for Bayer Replacement

According to a Veteran's Day article in the New Haven Register:

State, regional and city officials will put their heads together to develop a strategy to replace Bayer HealthCare and its 1,000 jobs.

Interesting in the article is that 300-350 of the 1000 employees to be affected will be offered positions in New Jersey - that's a large amount of jobs that will be laid off.

According to all involved, they are hoping to find another biotech company (or two or three) to fill the 125 acre site.

More problems at the Tax office

The New Haven Register reports on more problems at the West Haven tax collector's office... Revenue Collection Clerk Kristy Gargiulo was suspended without pay for 5 days for removing what apparently she perceived as a large sum check (> $2 million) from the city vault without proper supervisor authorization back on November 1. Apparently, she had removed what turned out to be a copy of a check deposited back in 2005 to bring it to the attention of the mayor's office and the finance office, because she thought it was undeposited. Tax Collector Christopher V. Valente now wants her fired because he feels "I can’t trust her".

The article makes this sound like perhaps it is a witchhunt. The Mayor's office had a meeting on Nov 2 where it was determined that it was a copy of a check, not an actual check. On Nov 3, Valente "documented the issue with the police", but there is no formal investigation by the police on this matter. Not surprisingly, the Union which represents Ms. Gargiulo is filing a greivance.

More on Bayer - The Day

The Day had an interesting angle on the news about Bayer.

More about the Bayer move...

The Stamford Advocate article on the Bayer move gives a few different details than I've previously read:

Company spokeswoman Susan Yarin said most of the West Haven oncology research operations are expected to cease by the end of March 2007, with any remaining operations slated to end a few months later.

Other functions will end after that, with the entire site expected to close by early 2008.

Bayer is gone

Bayer will be consolidating operations, and will be out of West Haven by mid 2007, according to the Connecticut Post. Ugh. There goes $2.2 million in tax revenue..

(all, I'm sorry that I've had little time for blogging lately... I know there's a bunch of comments to moderate, etc. I'll try to get caught up soon.)

West Shore Fire District Blog

Thanks to WSFDFF, a new blog has been created called West Shore Fire District which will be devoted to explaining the workings of the West Shore Fire District.

We've gotten a bit off topic here on Lower West Haven Taxes; while the Fire Consolidation is one potential help to tax relief, it's only one segment of a broad spectrum of possible changes.

In my sleep-deprived state at the end of last week, I let some posts go through that I now regret, as they seem to have 'fanned the flames'. Many will notice that I have not posted their comments from this past weekend. In doing so, it's not because I'm trying to limit perspective - I'd say that there were equal numbers of posts on both sides of the issues that I haven't put through. Instead, I've decided that posts that are either inflamatory, attacks, or overly defensive aren't going to be posted. We should be discussing ideas, not attacking each other.

Additionally, for the Fire Consolidation Good/Bad areas, if the posts were discussing the ideas, I'd like to ask you to hold off on that post until we get to the Discussion post that I promised later this week. We're a few posts short in that area, though, and I'd like to see more in the Good/Bad first.

I have some other news topics that I'll soon be blogging about - while I welcome additional discussion about the fire consolidation under the appropriate topics, I really want to see both sides act with respect. There is no need to be outraged on either side here. While we are discussing topics that are near and dear to our hearts, we can still try to keep an open mind, and assume the best intentions in all posts, as opposed to thinking everything 'is fighting words'. Let's educate each other instead of being 'morally outraged'.

Short Break until next week

Hi All -

Just wanted to make certain that you all don't think that I've deserted you, but I'll have some limited availabity until next week. That little thing called work is going to take up a good portion of my time, and take me out of town for a bit.

I'll try to check in tomorrow (Friday) for a bit, if I can -- if not, keep the ideas on the Fire Districts coming, both for and against... and I'll roll up more of the thoughts.

Then, later next week we can get down to the work of discussing those ideas.

Why Our Readers Feel Fire District Consolidation is Bad.

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING:
We're trying something new. Please post comments to this blog entry as to why you think Consolidation would be a bad thing for West Haven. (I've also added some posts from others - my apologies if I haven't attributed these ideas properly.)

You'll notice that we've set up a separate blog post for "Why Our Readers Feel Fire District Consolidation is Good."

Unless you can show that something is flat-out untrue, please do not argue points in these comments as they will not be posted. In comments to this entry, only post your thoughts on why consolidation is bad. I will pull these entries up into the main post.

Once we have compiled a list of thoughts on why Good and why Bad, we will start a new topic entitled "Weighing the Pros & Cons of Fire District Consolidation" to discuss and debate both sides of the issue, and hopefully to come away with a better understanding of the issues.

Summary of Points in Comments:

• BAD: Response times would increase should firehouses be closed.
• BAD: Should City Hall be in charge of the fire departments, taxes may be unfairly attributed to fire district consolidation.
• BAD: Should fire houses be closed, people would likely lose jobs.
• BAD: City has had a hard time managing its own finances; should they mis-manage fire department finances, it could mean people's lives, not just their homes and livlihoods.
• BAD: Previous studies have shown no significant cost savings and no improvement in service by consolidation.
• BAD: Consolidation will move control directly from taxpayers to City Council.
• BAD: Consolidation would create a huge incase in pension costs as longtime firefighters would retire en masse ahead of consolidation.
  

Why Our Readers Feel Fire District Consolidation is Good.

PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING:
We're trying something new. Please post comments to this blog entry as to why you think Consolidation would be a good thing for West Haven. (I've also added some posts from others - my apologies if I haven't attributed these ideas properly.)

You'll notice that we've set up a separate blog post for "Why Our Readers Feel Fire District Consolidation is Bad."

Unless you can show that something is flat-out untrue, please do not argue points in these comments as they will not be posted. In comments to this entry, only post your thoughts on why consolidation is good. I will pull these entries up into the main post.

Once we have compiled a list of thoughts on why Good and why Bad, we will start a new topic entitled "Weighing the Pros & Cons of Fire District Consolidation" to discuss and debate both sides of the issue, and hopefully to come away with a better understanding of the issues.

Summary of Points in Comments:

• GOOD: Less salaries as some roles (such as fire chiefs, secretaries, fire inspectors) may be able to be consolidated.
• GOOD: Less higher end administration may mean a reduction of the high end pensions.
• GOOD: Some functions (such as legal advisement) could be covered under City contracts at no additional cost to the fire budget.
  

And now, for something different

I came up with an idea this morning. What if I create two blog entries:

• Why Our Readers Feel Fire District Consolidation is Good.
  
  
• Why Our Readers Feel Fire District Consolidation is Bad.

Then, under each of those posts, readers can explain their thoughts on the topic. I'll then pull the 'talking points' up into the main post.

My thought is that in the arguing back and forth, we're losing the points (good or bad) that people are trying to make.

Then, after we've put our points into the two topics, I'll create a new entry:

• Weighing the Pros & Cons of Fire District Consolidation
  

Where we can discuss each side's ideas, and try to come up with points we BOTH can agree on.

What do you think? Worthwhile? Or should I just create the Weighing the Pros & Cons of Fire District Consolidation?