‘What did we get for our $40,000?’

Official calls for further review of report on gender bias complaint

MIDDLETOWN — City Councilman Gerald E. Daley isn’t finished with the investigation into allegations of gender bias against Mayor Daniel T. Drew.

The probe, conducted by a New Haven attorney, found no evidence of wrongdoing as to whether Drew had intervened to block a raise for a female Board of Education employee, as she had charged.

“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,” the report’s author, attorney Margaret P. Mason, wrote in her summary.

Instead, Mason said the issue should be decided by the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

With some justification, Drew said the report cleared him — even as he denounced Mason’s handling of the probe.

He charges 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, he said.

Drew has requested, under the Freedom of Information Act, all correspondence between Mason and members of the council. The Press has filed a request for the same information from the town clerk.

“The attorney-client relationship contemplated by this agreement is considered terminated when we have completed the services that you have been retained to perform,” the engagement letter sent to Mason said.

Mason acknowledged during her presentation that subcommittee members charged with requesting the report, including Sebastian Giuliano and Mary Bartolotta, were privy to the information.

“Did you provide any information, preliminary findings, draft recommendations or outlying bullet points to anyone prior to tonight?” Daley asked Mason.

“I gave an oral report to the subcommittee,” she said.

“What are councilmen Giuliano and Bartolotta hiding? They possess no attorney-client privilege and are refusing to disclose public records,” Drew said Wednesday afternoon.

“Councilman Giuliano and Councilwoman Bartolotta claimed they didn’t know what was going on with the investigation . ... They need to tell the truth and stop hiding records.”

Daley now is insisting the council go back and review the report and, in particular, its $40,000 cost.

He outlined his complaints about the report in a three-page memo he circulated to his council colleagues.

“From what I have heard, most of you, and many taxpayers and residents, are dissatisfied as well, believing that the report raises more questions than it answers. I believe our dissatisfaction is well-justified and stems primarily from one central question — What did we get for our $40,000?” Daley wrote in the preface to his memo.

He contends the report did not live up to its stated goal: conducting “an independent investigation of the Office of the Mayor and the Office of the General Counsel in connection with a complaint of alleged violation of sexual and other harassment policy as well as in responding to correspondence from the UPSEU Local #6457.”

Daley says the investigation “did not yield any clear evidence-based conclusions, and did not make any recommendations concerning responding to the letter we received from the union local.”

As he did when the report was released Aug. 13, Daley focused extensively on a series of interviews Mason and a colleague, Daniel P. Elliott, conducted with a number of city employees.

Mason said she was approached by nearly twodozen city employees at various levels, including a number of those in “highlevel management positions” who asked to speak with her about how they believe personnel decisions are made in City Hall.

Some of the employees asked to be interviewed in the offices of Mason’s firm LeClair/Ryan so their identities would not be captured on the City Hall security camera system, she said.

“Many of the interviewees wished to speak to us about what they perceived to be unfairness in the hiring processes for various city jobs,” Mason said her report.

“A number of interviewees expressed to us that they felt as though the outcome of various job postings had been predetermined, with — in some instances — political supporters of the administration having been preselected for positions.”

“Others complained that they or a family member has been targeted for adverse employment actions biased on their political opposition to the administration. Yet others complained that they had been subject to discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics.

“A number of these employees complaints were brought to the attention of the administration witnesses, who, in turn, denied the allegations and provided what they considered to be justifications for a number of hiring and workplace decisions,” Mason wrote.

During last week’s council’s meeting, Daley repeatedly came back to those interviews, asking Mason whether she had sought out employees who might be more favorably disposed to Drew.

Mason countered she had been approached by the employees and did not seek them out, adding she would have gladly spoken with supporters of Drew — had they come forward.

Daley also repeatedly drew attention to the fact the interviews did not require the employees to swear to the validity of their testimony or to sign statements that recorded their testimony.

However, Mason had anticipated that complaint, writing in the introduction to the report, “We note that our charge was to serve as investigators and fact-gatherers. Consistent with our charge, our questioning of the interviewees (both administration and non-administration) was nonadversarial; the statements made by the interviewees were not subject to cross examination in the way they might have been in a more formal legal setting, such as testimony at trial or in a deposition.”

In his memo to the council, Daley said, “I understand that some people are claiming that my main purpose in requesting the additional information related to the report and recommendations is to expose the identities of city employees who were interviewed. This is simply untrue.”

Rather, Daley said his concern was how much time — and money — was consumed by these interviews.

He is asking the council to add an item to its Sept. 4 agenda “demanding that the Clerk of the Council provide each member with copies of LeClair/Ryan’s complete billings/invoices with all supporting documentation that was included … and who instructed/authorizing withholding documentation from what was submitted to the Finance Department.”

The Press has reached out to Giuliano and Bartolotta for comment.

File photo Middletown Mayor Dan Drew speaks to reporters in his office after the Aug. 13 Common Council meeting.