The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Drew cleared in complaint
Mason: ‘We cannot conclude one way or the other’ if mayor influenced hiring
MIDDLETOWN — A report into the actions of Mayor Dan Drew was presented to the Common Council on Monday, undertaken following a gender discrimination complaint made against Drew by a Board of Education employee.
The report contained no bombshells, however. In fact, the only real fireworks of the evening came in Drew’s office after the meeting had adjourned.
Standing behind his desk, Drew criticized Margaret P. Mason, a New Haven lawyer who was the author of the report, and councilors Mary A. Bartolotta and Sebastian Giuliano.
“They should be ashamed of themselves,” Drew said of the councilors, who were not present to hear his denunciation.
“This entire process was poisoned from the very beginning” by their animus toward him, he said.
The two councilors embarked on a politically motivated attack on him and in doing so squandered thousands of dollars only to see “me and my staff were cleared tonight multiple times” by Mason’s report, the mayor said.
At issue was a complaint from Michelle DiMauro, the human resources director of the Board of Education, who alleged she had been denied a pay raise and that Drew was responsible.
“These allegations were discussed with the mayor who denied them . ... We cannot conclude one way or the other that the mayor actually influenced the process,” Mason wrote in a summary of her report. She said DiMauro has filed a complaint with the state’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, and, “We therefore defer to that process to resolve those
complaints.”
But Mason also said she and her associate Daniil P. Elliott were approached by 23 individuals, most of them town employees, who “affirmatively reached out to us and requested to be interviewed.”
“Most of them requested anonymity and a few requested to be interviewed in our office rather than in City Hall so as not to have their images captured on surveillance cameras, Mason said.
“Many of the interviewees wished to speak with us about what they perceived to be unfairness in the hiring process for various city jobs,” Mason said.
“A number of interviewees expressed ... that they felt as though the outcome of various job postings had been re-determined with — in some instances — political supporters of the (Drew) administration having been pre-selected for positions.”
Drew denied politics played a role in his hiring process, saying, “I only hire the best people.”
Mason was taken to task by councilor Gerald Daley because the interviewees were not sworn in or required to sign their statements.
Mason included a list of 11 proposals to alter or improve a number of hiring practices.
Drew dismissed many of them as either impractical or illegal.
He also said the basis for many of the complaints was a desire on the part of Bartolotta and Giuliano to gain control of hiring to further patronage jobs for friends, supporters and/or relatives.