DERBY — At one point during the public portion of Wednesday night’s tax board meeting, former mayor, Marc Garofalo, asked how many of the 100 people in the aldermanic chambers received a phone call about coming to the meeting. A majority of those attending raised their hands.
“I didn’t get one,” he said, holding up what appeared to be a device he had recorded one of the calls on. He played it but few could hear what it said. Garofalo said the call came from the number 203-736-1450, which he said, is the Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s office phone number.
He said the “robo” calls were made “on the city line” asking residents “to come to this meeting tonight,” he said, most likely to stack the deck during the final budget session. “He (the mayor) has totally disrespected this board and all the work of this board, ” Garofalo said. “He’s trying to turn people against this board.”
Garofalo also said Staffieri held off on revaluation for a year, so it wouldn’t come up during election year.
“It’s the same thing you did,” Staffieri countered.
The school district also used robo calls to parents to get them to the meeting.
