Drew slams council probe

MIDDLTOWN — An investigation being undertaken by the Common Council is a two-track examination of actions of the mayor and general counsel as well as a review of a school employee’s claim of gender discrimination.

While not slighting concerns about possible discrimination, the investigation into the two offices also is about “the scope of these offices, about how they do business and how decisions are made,” Councilor Deborah Kleckowski said Friday.

On Tuesday, the council voted 11-0 to authorize spending $20,000 to conduct an investigation into a complaint from the school department’s human resources director, who says she was unfairly denied a salary increase.

In comments earlier this week, Mayor Dan Drew described the complaint as “baseless,” and said it was part of an effort by the employee, Michele DiMauro, and her union to coerce the town into giving DiMauro at least a two-grade increase in her salary.

Three other employees whose job performances were reviewed along with DiMauro’s received a one-grade bump-up in their salaries, Drew said.

While DiMauro is technically a city employee (not a school employee), Drew said he was not involved in the decision about the increases.

In an article in the Hartford Courant late last month, Drew

said, “I didn’t have any decision-making role in that process. I had nothing to do with it.” . In a letter to the Press, Drew alleged that three councilors — Majority Leader Thomas J. Serra, Deputy Majority Leader Mary Bartolotta and Minority Leader Sebastian N. Giuliano — “are either related to (DiMauro) or have made public statements in support of her.”

“At a minimum, the appearance of objectivity has already been compromised given that this investigatory panel is made up of the complainant’s relatives and supporters and that one of the council members responsible for the investigation is my immediate predecessor, whom I faced in my first election in 2011,” Drew said in the letter.

”The majority leader and the minority leader both made comments supportive of the complainant at the November Common Council meeting,” he wrote.

”The council has now appropriated $20,000 in taxpayer funds despite the complaint being made without any evidence and have appointed relatives and supporters of the complainant to run the investigation,” Drew’s letter said.

In approving the expenditure of the $20,000 for the probe, the council also established a subcommittee to select “a law firm or professional organization” to conduct the process.

Serra, Bartolotta and Giuliano were the three councilors who were appointed to the subcommittee.

While not acknowledging (or denying) a connection to the complainant, Giuliano said, “Try and find anyone in Middletown (government) who is not related to someone else.”

Giuliano said he thought the council has “been bending over backwards to avoid making this personal” and instead had sought to keep the focus “on what are our duties under the charter.”

Earlier this week, Giuliano said it was his intent to find out if the system worked the way it was supposed to and if not, what “tweaks” the council needed to make to ensure the system did work as it should.

In choosing an agency to conduct the investigation, Giuliano said it is essential to engage a law firm, so a lawyer — acting as “a commissioner of the court” — can take statements under oath.

While it empowers the council to look into the actions of the offices of the mayor and the general counsel (city attorney), the resolution would also permit an expansion of the investigation.

“In the event the investigation … discloses the involvement of any other Department, Office, or Agency of the City, the Common Council may amend the resolution” to include those departments, offices or agencies in the investigation, according to the resolution.

The inclusion of that wording has raised questions about broadness of the investigation, and whether the council could use it to investigate other things that may arise but which are unrelated to the complaint.

Kleckowski sought to allay those concerns. She said while the investigation could ultimately involve other city agencies or departments, “They would have to be connected to the investigation.”

Drew