Exposing the incompetence of City Clerk Jean Natale continues.As a stated earlier, City Clerk Natale has VIOLATED STATE LAW (as well as WASTED 5,000 of taxpyaer's dollars) by placing a TWO PAGE ad in the May 3rd edition of the News-Times outlining the proposed changes to the city charter...an ad which, according to state statue, was published 30 DAYS LATE. Disregarding state law is nothing new to Natale...which has been well documented on this site in the past...the difference here is that in this case, Natale's incompetence has cost the taxpayers of Danbury thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately, to the anger of many, this latest screw-up from the city clerk has yet to be reported by the News-Times...and trust me, they are well aware of Natale's latest fiasco.
During last month's Democratic Town Committee meeting, Minority Leader Tom Saadi addressed this situation, the News-Times failure to report on the topic, and why the latest act of incompetence from the City Clerk further underscores the fact that the position should be eliminated.
To add to the mix, last Thursday, I addressed this topic on the local access show Ideas at Work and Beyond
NOTE: Here's a copy of the state statue I'm talking about in the video clip (note the portion in BOLD):
Connecticut State Statue Sec 7-191(D): Charters, charter amendments and home rule ordinance amendments: Hearings; draft and final report; public notice; referendum; effective date; filing of copies with Secretary of the State; file maintained by State Library.
Not later than fifteen days after receiving the final report, the appointing authority, by a majority vote of its entire membership, shall either approve the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments or reject the same or separate provisions thereof. Not later than forty-five days after a vote of the appointing authority to reject such matter, a petition for a referendum thereon, signed by not less than ten per cent of the electors of such municipality, as determined by the last-completed registry list thereof, and filed and certified in accordance with the provisions of section 7-188, may be presented to the appointing authority. Not later than thirty days after approval by the appointing authority or the certification of such a petition (1) the proposed charter shall be published in full at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality, or (2) the portion of the charter or home rule ordinance being amended shall be published at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality with a notice that a complete copy of the charter or home rule ordinance and amendment is available in the town clerk's office and that a copy shall be mailed to any person who requests a copy. The town clerk shall mail or otherwise provide such copy to any person who requests a copy.
In closing, the News-Times has a responsiblity to report on topics such as this. If everyone is so outraged over the school board's 3,000 dollar trip to Arizona, then people should be just as outraged over the city clerk's screw-up which cost taxpayer's of this city 5,000.
...oh, did I mention that Natale's screw-up violated state law?
The public has a right to know about this subject so TELL THE NEWS-TIMES to stop sitting on this story and INFORM THE PUBLIC.
- Art Cummings Editor (203) 731-3351 acummings@newstimes.com
- Jacqueline Smith Managing Editor (203) 731-3369 jsmith@newstimes.com
- Brian Koonz Columnist/Opinion Editor (203) 731-3379 bkoonz@newstimes.com
Dirk Perrefort Danbury Political/General (203) 731-3358 (860) 548-9888 dperrefort@newstimes.com
...and think before you vote this November.
No comments:
Post a Comment