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With the start of the the Connecticut Film Festival around the corner, last week on the local access show Ideas at Work and Beyond, I had an opportunity to interview event organizers Dave Bonan and Marty Lang and talk about the success of the festival.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I will be participating in a panel at the festival (New Media Frontiers 2.0) where I’ll talk about the role of citizen journalism in media.
Cross post from HatCtyBLOG
Raising concerns with the proposed school program cuts, yesterday, a letter drafted by the City Council Democratic Caucus was sent to the members of the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools.
Stating that “the proposed cuts to the classroom and student programs are unnecessary to balance the board of education budget,” the letter list a number of suggestions to achieve cost savings in order to lesson the impact to the students, which starts with administrator concessions.
While the superintendent, his cabinet staff and school administrators demand raises, other teachers and administrators have stated both privately and publicly that they will voluntarily giveback or accept freezes of previously promised salary increases in order to print teacher layoffs and protect the delivery of services to our students. This seems to contradict statements by the Superintendent and BOE to City Council members that teachers simply were not willing to negotiate contract concessions in order to protect our students. In fact last year teachers took a pay freeze for the first half of the year and only a half percent raise for the remainder of the year. however, last year the school administrators union fought the BOE and were given raises, some as high as nine percent. And this year the administrators have not agreed to make concessions.
The letter also states a number of suggestions raised to them by concerned teachers, parents and administrators.
- Having media specialists work in at leadst two buildings as other specialists do. This would eliminate at least seven positions saving approx. 300,000 without reducing services. Other specialists such as those in gym and art already work two schools.
- A the High School there is a principal, associate principal, and four assistant principals totaling in excess of 650,000 in salaries. Eliminating one or two positions would save hundreds of thousands of dollars over five years.
- Substitute teachers are currently paid a full day per diem salary even for a half day of work and instead should be paid only for the amount of time they actually work.
- Para-professionals should work two or three days a week.
- at least one member of The Danbury Enhancement Collaboration Committee (TDEC) works half day and get paid a teacher’s salary to do TDEC paperwork instead of covering another school which we understand had to hire another math specialist. TDEC paperwork should not take away from substantive instruction time.
- Each elementary school has a reading specialist/coach, and depending on how they are utilized by the principal they may have little to no contact with students often serving as a coach to teachers. Math specialists are divided half time between schools therefore it would seem logical that elementary school reading specialists could cover two schools as is already done at the middle school level
Finally, the letter addressed concerns raised by residents regarding the closing of Mill Ridge Intermediate School.
In addition to the budget issues many in ur community are concerned with the proposed closing of Mill Ridge Intermediate School (MRI) and busing of fourth and fifth grade students to King Street Intermediate while putting third grade students in Mill Ridge Primary. According to school personnel we spoke with, this decision was made by a committee comprised of carefully selected administrators, BOE members, and parents, but no teachers were invited to participate and they want answers.
Teachers and parents have stated that the proposed closing and busing of students will be a detriment to students and the Mill Ridge community at large. We recognize that the closing the achievement gap is a primary concern of all of the educators and maintaining MRI as a community school is necessary to do so. MRI is part of the neighborhood community providing open family nights for families to come read and ask questions about school and schoolwork as well as after school tutoring that for many children is only possible because they can walk home.
Parents of students at MRI and King Street School are concerned with a lack of answers to the questions they have posed to the Superintendent. The proposed busing would combine nine King Street classes with eight Mil Ridge classes leaving little room to grow. With seventeen classrooms filled they are concerned with the availability of rooms for other classes such as art, music, and special education. Other concerns include bus routes, length of rides, and student pick up locations. Parents have said that the ambiguous and changing responses are unacceptable. They are not paying taxes to send their children on a long bus ride, to an overcrowded school that cannot meet their needs
This morning, I interviewed city council Minority Leader Tom Saadi and talked to him about the letter sent by members of the Democratic caucus.
You can read the letter addressed to the Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools below:
Cross post from HatCityBLOG
From Roger’s Park, here’s live video of the board of education’s budget public hearing.
UPDATE: The public hearing is over. The following is the recorded stream. The higher quality video footage will be posted soon.
Cross post from HatCityBLOG
In light of the last honest man’s restrictive city regulations that resulted in the closing of another establishment on Ives Street, here’s another situation where people at City Hall are accused of being business un-friendly.
Amanda Bloom of the Mercurial wrote a great piece regarding the increased frustration among organizers of independent music venues when it comes to working with city officials.
In two years, Anthony Yacobellis’ Safe To Swim(STS) festival brought 77 bands to Danbury over the span of two weekends, most of them performing on the Danbury Green at no charge to the public. Though he saw only growth in crowds, sponsorship and vendors in the festival’s second year, Yacobellis has decided to forego a third STS on the Green. The reason? Over $4,000 in unexpected costs and and an overwhelming frustration with the city.
That $4000 comes on top of the money Yacobellis invested in both years of the event, including paying the bands–every single one. STS was born as a celebration of the music that Yacobellis showcases at Cousin Larry’s with his almost nightly Sub Rosa Party. One of the foundations of Sub Rosa is a promise to take care of the artist, and the name for STS came from the concept of “no sharks”.
“Ironically, it’s not safe to swim for me,” Yacobellis said in a phone interview. “I got thrown under the bus.”
Yacobellis, a 34-year-old schoolteacher by day, had a stage built to supplement the bandshell on the Green for the first STS in 2008. He was under the impression that the stage had been approved after complying with specifications supplied by the Building Department, but he was informed the week of STS that his proposal had failed. According to Yacobellis, the Building Department denied making any edits to his blueprints and put the blame on Andrea Gartner, the manager of CityCenter Danbury, who was acting as Yacobellis’ liaison with various city departments. The stage had already been paid for and built at this point, but Yacobellis had no choice but to rent another one for almost $1000.
Later on, the Building Department came to realize that they had indeed made an error. They invited Yacobellis down to the office to figure out what went wrong, and it came down to one employee’s mistake. “They yelled at him in front of me,” Yacobellis said. “They demeaned him .”
The following year, Gartner suggested that they move the STS date from July to Labor Day weekend, thereby keeping CityCenter’s Summer Concert Series in tact and making Danbury a holiday weekend destination. Moving the date also bumped STS from the CityCenter event bracket, eliminating the complimentary police security that goes along with CityCenter events. Yacobellis found himself signing an invoice quoting police security at $3400. He had paid $800 the previous year.
“The festival only grew in the second year,” he said. “and I lost more money than the first year. And not from my mistakes.”
There were other snafus too. Yacobellis kept all of the paperwork from year one and resubmitted all of the forms with a different date. Initially, the Building Department couldn’t locate his file, and during the actual festival, one of the vendors was hassled by the Health Department for selling prepackaged food and drinks with a peddler’s license.
“No one can do their job,” Yacobellis said. “For an event like this, you have to do X, Y and Z. X doesn’t know Z, Z hates X and Y is dependent on Z. I did my job; I can’t be expected to do the Building Department’s job or the Police Department’s job.”
Here Yacobellis and Gartner are of the same mind. Both see a minimal level of cooperation throughout the city and cite it as the main reason for a subpar downtown. Only recently, Gartner had to find her own way to hang the Connecticut Film Festival banners from the CityCenter office, though the city provided the service for the library directly across the street
“People have siloed themselves,” Gartner said in an interview. “It’s individual property owners acting on their own behalf. With a concerted effort, [Danbury] could really be something.”
Gartner referred to the STS police bill as an oversight on her part. “I think it’s forgivable,” she said. “I had only been on the job for two years at that point.” For the third festival, she offered to wrap STS into the CityCenter series, which would incorporate some police coverage and grant more leeway with permits. Yacobellis declined.
Here Yacobellis and Gartner are of the same mind. Both see a minimal level of cooperation throughout the city and cite it as the main reason for a subpar downtown. Only recently, Gartner had to find her own way to hang the Connecticut Film Festival banners from the CityCenter office, though the city provided the service for the library directly across the street
“People have siloed themselves,” Gartner said in an interview. “It’s individual property owners acting on their own behalf. With a concerted effort, [Danbury] could really be something.”
Gartner referred to the STS police bill as an oversight on her part. “I think it’s forgivable,” she said. “I had only been on the job for two years at that point.” For the third festival, she offered to wrap STS into the CityCenter series, which would incorporate some police coverage and grant more leeway with permits. Yacobellis declined.
If you ever wondered why bar and restaurants seemed to have increase in popularity on Mill Plain Road while Ives Street looks like a deserted island, this article should give you a clue.
I highly encourage you to read the rest of Bloom’s write-up over at the Mercurial website.
Cross post from HatCityBLOG
The videoclip speaks for itself.
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Cross post from HatCityBLOG
With the prospect of drastic cuts to the city’s education program, for over two hours on Monday, residents filled the City Council chambers during the budget public hearing and spoke out in opposition to the Mayor Mark Boughton’s school budget allocation as well as the Board of Education’s proposals.
After the hearing, I had a chance to talk to City Council Minority Leader Tom Saadi and get his opinion on what he heard from residents regarding the proposed budget allocation to education.
I’ll post video highlights from the public hearing later this week.
RELATED POSTS:
2009 FLASHBACK: Teachers give back while two principals receive a NINE percent raise
Residents speak out to the Board of Education against cuts to schools
Residents voice their support for Alternative Center for Excellence School
DOWNLOAD the Board of Ed budget proposals.
DOWNLOAD the City of Danbury’s critical analysis of the BOE’s budget proposal.
VIDEO Apr. 10: City Council Education budget ad-hoc committee meeting.
VIDEO Mar. 31: City Council/Board of Education informal budget workshop.
News-Times Editorial criticizing BOE pay to participate proposal
Cross post from HatCityBLOG
Too busy running for governor to answer questions?
As residents of Danbury learn that they just coughed up a mind-blowing 450,000 dollars to settle an embarrassing lawsuit, lets go back in time and take a look at the allegations filed by the plaintiffs.
Allegations that city officials failed to follow their own rules when hiring firefighters could result in nearly 40 of the city’s fire-fighting staff — almost a third of the 118-member department — losing their jobs.
[...]
The lawsuit claims that an examination held for firefighter applicants in 2005 was invalid because the city’s rules weren’t followed. As a result, according to Maurer, all of the firefighters hired from that examination could lose their jobs.
Maurer filed the lawsuit in 2007 after several applicants complained that they were passed over for positions even though they scored better than some of the firefighters who were eventually hired.
[...]
Maurer said the test, which was held in August 2005, is invalid for several reasons, including that Mayor Mark Boughton never formally filed a “request for personnel” with the Civil Service Commission before the exam was scheduled.
There were other procedures as required by city ordinance that also weren’t followed, she said.
Maurer said the Common Council appointed firefighters at the mayor’s request in October 2005 before an official list of candidates had been approved by the commission. She added that a short list of the six top candidates, typically sent to the mayor to select appointees from, was never created.
According to city records, the commission approved of a candidate list on Oct. 19, 2005 — more than one week after the Common Council appointed six firefighters at Boughton’s request on Oct. 4, 2005.
Maurer said there were also firefighters appointed in February 2008, months after the list had expired in October 2007.
Even more damaging were these allegations…
The lawsuit also alleges that several firefighters were hired because of their relationship to people in positions of authority.
The lawsuit states that Michael Finn Jr., the son of Civil Service Commission chairman Michael Finn Sr., was hired by the department in February 2008. He was originally ranked 108th on the list of candidates, according to the filing.
The attorney for the plaintiffs added that Patrick Heron was hired by the department in March 2007 and was related by an “impending marriage” to former Fire Chief and current Common Council member Phil Curran. Heron was originally ranked 40th on the candidate list.
Here’s what the Danbury’s last honest man had to say about the allegations back in 2009.
We will continue to categorically reject the allegations made in the complaint and defend our positions,” Boughton said. “I have faith in our process and I have faith in the people we hired.
Well, that was then, and this is now…
The city has agreed to pay out $450,000 and hire two men as firefighters as part of a settlement reached in a three-year-old lawsuit.
The five men who filed the suit claimed they were passed over for positions in the city’s fire department because of mistakes that were made in the city’s civil service program when an eligibility list was created in 2005.
“In defending the litigation, the city of Danbury did discover that some administrative errors were made in compiling that list,” a statement released Wednesday on the settlement said.
Although the judge ruled back in Feb that there wasn’t enough evidence to support some of the counts in the plaintiff’s lawsuit, nonetheless, the fact that the city settled AND admitted to wrongdoing should trouble residents of Danbury who are now on the hook for the 450,000 price tab.
And what about our mayor who said that the city “categorically reject the allegations made in the complaint and defend our positions.” Unfortunately, I guess our mayor is too busy running across the state running for governor to answer any questions from the media regarding why the city decided to settle as opposed to “defend our positions.”
Mayor Mark Boughton could not be reached for comment Wednesday despite several attempts.
Someone at city hall just cost the people of Danbury 450,000 dollars and Boughton is too busy to answer Dirk Perrefort’s call to his cell phone?!?
In honor of the last honest man’s incognito status, lets go back in time and see what else Boughton said about the lawsuit when he was confronted about the case…
Someone should remind the candidate for governor that, as mayor, the buck stops with him and he and has a responsibility to answer questions regarding this lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that Michael Finn Jr., the son of Civil Service Commission chairman Michael Finn Sr., was hired by the department in February 2008. He was originally ranked 108th on the list of candidates, according to the filing.
The attorney for the plaintiffs added that Patrick Heron was hired by the department in March 2007 and was related by an “impending marriage” to former Fire Chief and current Common Council member Phil Curran. Heron was originally ranked 40th on the candidate list.
Was there nepotism involved in the hiring of the firefighters?
Remember, WE the taxpayers are forking over 450,000 DOLLARS because someone screwed up. Boughton is the person who gave his blessing to this settlement and has a responsibility to take a moment from his fledgling gubernatorial campaign to answer questions.
…he is the mayor right?
Cross post from HatCityBLOG
As we approach the city council’s vote on the allocations to the education budget, more people are voicing their objection to the proposed school cuts by the Board of Education.
Here’s a sample of some of the comments of disapproval directed at the Board of Education at their meeting last Wednesday.
RELATED POSTS:
Residents voice their support for Alternative Center for Excellence School
DOWNLOAD the Board of Ed budget proposals.
DOWNLOAD the City of Danbury’s critical analysis of the BOE’s budget proposal.
VIDEO Apr. 10: City Council Education budget ad-hoc committee meeting.
VIDEO Mar. 31: City Council/Board of Education informal budget workshop.
News-Times Editorial criticizing BOE pay to participate proposal
2009 FLASHBACK: Teachers give back while two principals receive a NINE percent raise
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