48 Hours

The twice-postponed Council meeting, in which we were supposed to get answers as to why the City took $1.2 million out of the Police Pension Fund took place last night...and most of it was little more than political ballet.

First at bat for the "West Haven Administrators" was Assistant Corporation Counsel Henry Szadkowski. Henry juked and jived his way around the questions as only a lawyer can. In fact, I haven't yet found one answer he gave last night that directly answered a question posed. But he did make a few eye-opening statements:

• At the time of the raid on the Police Pension, West Haven was "48 hours away from bankruptcy...and the possibility of [another] State takeover.";

• The City was late in paying Federal withholding taxes at least twice in December...subjecting us to IRS penalties;

• It's his opinion that, even though the Police Pension agreement (which he helped to write) refers only to one Fund Manager (which is appointed by the City Council), there really are a number of fund managers...and the Mayor can unilaterally decide who to designate as Fund Manager as he deems fit.

Hitting cleanup was our Director of Finance (Yes, he really did show up - unlike the Mayor). Der Barron led us through the circumstances which caused this little midnight raid...but had no explanation as to why the Council wasn't notified of this problem when it was first noticed at the end of October. (His best shot was that he was "too busy trying to avert a catastrophe").

Barron's contribution to our little hit parade was the revelation that, in the nearly three years since he became Finance Director, West Haven has nearly run out of operating funds in almost "every month." Um, you don't see this as a problem? You don't think this is something that the City Council should know?

All this is, um, just a bit at odds with the increasingly rosy picture put out by the administration just a few months ago. Of course, he was running for reelection back then.

I wonder what the good people at MFAC think of this performance? Maybe we should ask.....