Letter To State Elections Enforcement Commission 10-31-06

The Cool Justice Report

Tues., 10-31-06


Atty. Joan Andrews
Joan.Andrews@ct.gov
Director of Legal Affairs and Enforcement Unit
State Elections Enforcement Commission
20 Trinity St., Suite 101
Hartford, CT 06106
Phone (566) 566-1776
Fax (860) 566-4402

by Fax and e-mail

Re: Enfield Federal Savings Party Time With State Rep. Kathy Tallarita

Dear Atty. Andrews:

May I bring to your attention - and that of the commission - a news item posted 10-26-06, "Enfield Federal Savings Party Time With State Rep. Kathy Tallarita."

Also please see, "ENFIELD FEDERAL SAVINGS Connection All The Bank You'll Ever Need 2006 / 3.
Of particular interest to the Elections Enforcement Commission is the reference to the upcoming election in the bank newsletter: "She will again be on the ballot for State Rep this November."
As I understand the process, the commission evaluates such matters brought to its attention to determine whether they merit investigation and action.

Thank you for reviewing this material.


Sincerely,


Andy Thibault

Clean Election Watchdog Group To Loserman: Who got $387K?

Public Campaign Action Fund
1320 19th St, NW Suite #M-1
Washington, DC 20036

October 30, 2006

The Hon. Joseph Lieberman
PO Box 231294
State House Square
Hartford, CT 06123


Dear Senator Lieberman,

Your voting record on matters of campaign finance reform, lobbying and ethics reform, and disclosure has been strong in your 18 years in the U.S. Senate. I applaud your recent signature on the Voters First Pledge to clean up Congress, which is a pledge supported by Public Campaign Action Fund and several other national reform organizations, to clean up Congress.

Unfortunately, this commitment to reform and to open government is now being called into question as a result of your campaign's lack of publicly acknowledging how it spent some $387,561 in petty cash in the primary election.

We understand that this letter comes at a time when you are running a competitive campaign against opponents who have criticized you on this issue. We also recognize that your campaign staff is working long hours communicating with the voters of Connecticut, and that the administrative task of assembling an account of the petty cash may not seem, at first blush, to be as important as other matters.

Yet we believe that this issue, if left unresolved, will not simply impact this election, but also elections to come. No other Senate campaign that we know of has ever left undisclosed to the public a sum as large as this. The Federal Elections Commission does not require that you provide a line-by-line accounting of this for public scrutiny. But in the interests of fairness and protecting the public trust, we urge you to make an accurate accounting of these expenses available for the public to view on its own. That way this matter can be put to rest.

Earlier this year, you were quoted in a newspaper article saying that "history shows that money in government has a way, like water, of finding points of vulnerability. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to strengthen the points of vulnerability so the water can't get through." Before you set a historically significant precedent of opening up a serious breach in the campaign finance disclosure laws, we urge you to account for your campaign's undisclosed spending.

Your admirable record on reform and disclosure - particularly your support for the Voters First Pledge - should be allowed to speak for itself, and not be called into question by the non-disclosure of a substantial amount of campaign spending.

With Election Day just eight days away, it is our hope you will release this information immediately.

Sincerely,
Pete MacDowell
Board Chair

Great Performances About York Women At Charter Oak

"Time-In" Multi-Media Presentation about Incarcerated Women
Nov. 2, 3 & 4
7:30 PM
Charter Oak Cultural Center
21 Charter Oak Avenue, Hartford

www.charteroakcenter.org

Based on a multi-arts residency at York Correctional Institution
for women in Niantic, Connecticut, "Time In" explores the complicated
landscape of these women's lives - mothers, daughters, wives,
many with battered histories of physical and sexual abuse, drugs,
street life, good women making bad choices who reflect on time
as experienced in prison.

The Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble joins
acappella gospel singing group Women of the Cross
in this blend of dance, storytelling, and song
that challenges our assumptions about incarceration and provokes,
evokes, and surprises.

Novelist Wally Lamb, who leads a writing group at the prison,
will introduce the opening night, and following each performance
there will be talkbacks with both the performers and former York inmates
- some contributors to Wally Lamb's
"Couldn't Keep it to Myself: Stories of Our Imprisoned Sisters."

$20 general admission, $10 seniors,
Charter Oak & Let's Go! Members, $5 students.

Blaming The Victim

News & Commentary

Families Should Be Able to Trust Teachers, Coaches

By RICHARD MEEHAN With ANDY THIBAULT
The Cool Justice Report
www.cooljustice.blogspot.com
Oct. 30, 2006

EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is available for reprint courtesy of The Cool Justice Report, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com

A 19-year old former high school basketball player has brought a lawsuit against the Milford Board of Education, the school social worker and the superintendent of schools, Gregory Firn.

When she was a 15-year-old student at the local high school, she played on the varsity basketball team.

As is customary with high school basketball, the school sanctions players participating in off-season leagues designed solely for the high school teams. Varsity coaches cannot coach their teams in these off-season leagues and volunteer coaches are sought and approved by the head coach.

In this case a former University of Connecticut basketball star -- a man in his mid-40's with a daughter also in the program -- was given the responsibility of coaching the youngsters in the off-season league. He responded by seducing this 15-year-old player and carrying on an affair for a number of years.

Soon, the school social worker learned of the affair. The child's parents were spoken to and they denied any knowledge of it. What 15- or 16-year-old sexually involved with such an older man would admit that to her parents?

The state Department of Children and Families (DCF) was called, but never informed that the older paramour was a volunteer coach -- only that the girl was now 16. In Connecticut, 16 is generally the age of consent for sex. However, if an adult serves as a teacher, coach or volunteer, the age of consent is raised to 18.

DCF -- not knowing the role the older man played with the basketball program -- took no action. Had they been informed he served as a volunteer coach, they would not only have pursued the matter, they would have been mandated to inform the local police.

The superintendent also learned of the affair. His daughter was a friend of the student and the superintendent was a friend of the older paramour. He had even accompanied the couple to a sporting event at Madison Square Garden.

When contacted by the local police after the affair eventually came to their knowledge, the superintendent declined to discuss it, hiding behind a claim of confidentiality of student information. Meanwhile, he then wrote a letter of recommendation for his buddy.

After the school board decided not to renew the superintendent's contract, he admitted using bad judgment. The superintendent also argued in a legal pleading that he had no obligation to report such misdeeds to DCF.

The court granted the young victim pseudonym status. It allowed her to be called Jane Doe in the lawsuit, which was filed by my firm. To compound the hurt occasioned on this young lady, an attorney hired by the town to defend the superintendent filed an application in court asking the judge to remove the pseudonym status, publicizing her name.

In that application, his office included a web page from MySpace.com with the young woman's name and photo. After a hearing in which the judge denied the application to revoke the pseudonym protection, he held the superintendent's lawyer in contempt and fined him $1,000, ordering him to remove the filing with her identity. In arguing against the fine this lawyer actually tried to cast blame on the young victim, claiming that after all, she decided to bring a lawsuit.

In an additional insult, the town has now tried to apportion blame in the case by citing the young woman's parents in the lawsuit, essentially saying it is their fault. The coach and former UConn star -- Robert Dulin -- has yet to be added to the lawsuit. The town has not seen fit to try to apportion blame to him. Through an attorney, Dulin has denied guilt. Charged with sexual assault, Dulin also has a case in criminal court.

The youngster initially denied the affair. Experts in child sexual abuse are well aware of this syndrome where young victims are reluctant to come forward for fear of being blamed somehow. No wonder, look what is happening in this case.

Recently the New Haven Register made a freedom of information demand to the town to learn what is being spent in legal fees. So far the numbers are staggering. The town of Milford has paid $27,000 in legal fees before even responding to the complaint. The discovery process has yet to begin.

The superintendent, Firn, continues to administer the Milford public schools. His old contract expires in June 2007.

Parents entrust their children to adults to educate and coach them. Beware, if your child is victimized, you could now be blamed.

There is something out of kilter when victims are blamed for the fault of others.

Attorney Richard Meehan Jr. was the lead defense counsel for former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph Ganim's corruption trial. Meehan is certified as a criminal trial specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Meehan has also obtained multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements in complex medical and dental malpractice and personal injury litigation. He is a past president of the Greater Bridgeport Bar Association and appears regularly on Court TV. Andy Thibault, author of Law & Justice In Everyday Life and a private investigator, is an adjunct lecturer of English and a mentor in the MFA writing program at Western Connecticut State University. Thibault also serves as a consulting editor for the literary journal Connecticut Review. Website, www.andythibault.com and Blog, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com

Meehan law firm

Find the Book:
Law & Justice In Everyday Life by Andy Thibault at Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Andy Thibault

Chris Powell Views The Front Lines

THE CHRIS POWELL COLUMN

Sunday, October 29, 2006

NOTES FROM AMERICA'S
FAR-FLUNG BATTLE LINE

By CHRIS POWELL

At a small U.S. military base in the scorching desert of northern Kuwait a few miles from the Iraq border, three helicopters disgorge some unusual cargo for the young Marines and Army Rangers to incorporate into their day's training -- 45 middle-aged civilians from home.

An Army general escorts the civilians into an air-conditioned hut to play a videotape showing a few seconds of activity at a military checkpoint in Iraq. Two cars stop at the checkpoint. A third car pulls up behind them. As a soldier approaches the third car, it explodes and the soldier disappears in flame, shrapnel, and smoke. The tape ends.

Today's exercise, the civilians are told, will be to convoy two dozen armored vehicles to another base 15 miles across the desert, past mock roadside explosives, snipers, suicide bombers, and the like. The civilians will put on flak vests and helmets, get some quick weapons training, and then be put to work as Humvee turret gunners and infantrymen riding shotgun.

What procedure, a civilian asks the general, would have defended against the suicide bomber in that videotape?

The general can't suggest one.

Then it's out into the desert for the convoy exercise.

The exercise lasts a couple of hours and is tense, dramatic, and disconcerting for the civilians. When they reach the other base they are led into a hut to join the Marines and Rangers for MREs, the military's self-heating boxed lunch. The civilians only pick at the food inside; they haven't yet been in the desert long enough to get that hungry. (Each MRE thoughtfully includes a wad of toilet paper.) But the soldiers don't poke fun at their visitors; to the contrary, the soldiers are solicitous of them and delighted by the interest from home. They make their visitors feel like humanitarians for stopping by.

In a few days the soldiers will be sent north into the maw of the Iraqi civil war. Some may be killed; others may return with horrible wounds. The visitors are terrified for them. But the soldiers are confident in their training, leadership, and camaraderie; they show no fear.

The visitors make their goodbyes and hike over to the helicopters that have come to retrieve them. Like Princess Diana and other such humanitarians, they are airlifted hundreds of miles away to a lovely dinner at a beautiful hotel.

* * *

Lord of our far-flung battle line --
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine --
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

Thus Kipling prayed for the preceding empire. Today's far-flung battle line is American, and this month the Defense Department offered those 45 civilians a week-long scrutiny of some of it. It was the department's 72nd Joint Civilian Orientation Conference, and this one was tied to the launch of the department's campaign to involve the country more with its soldiers, a campaign called "America Supports You" (www.americasupportsyou.mil).

Maybe something will come of this campaign; it is long overdue. For so far America's idea of supporting the troops has been mainly a matter of affixing magnetic yellow ribbons to cars, self-righteous displays of piety in which even the Defense Department may be complicit.

For the walls of the Pentagon itself carry posters showing Uncle Sam remarking sternly, "There's a war on. Are you doing all you can?" And of course only the soldiers themselves are doing all they can. The government has demanded no military draft, no war tax, no rationing -- none of the sacrifices demanded during World War II. No, today the country could not be more removed from the spirit of "one for all and all for one." Most of the country is not engaged with its military. If people don't like the war news, they can just change the channel.

Too bad. For it was hard for participants in JCOC 72 not to be awed and humbled by the work they saw being done cheerfully by those in uniform throughout what the military likes to call "southwest Asia," even if that sounds a little too much like the zone of the last big U.S. war, also misconceived, "southeast Asia." But JCOC 72's inspection of U.S. military operations in the area suggests that any failures will be more the result of political decisions than military ones.

Some observations from that inspection:

1) Terrible political strategy is obscuring a strong military position.

The decision to patrol and police Baghdad, to mediate the Iraqi civil war, and thereby take unlimited casualties without ever holding ground is a political decision, not a military one, and it is giving the misimpression that the U.S. military position in the area is weakening.

But most of the area is empty desert, and unlike the jungles of southeast Asia, the desert is easily held, for there is no place to hide. Indeed, the entire western shore of the Arabian Gulf -- they don't call it the Persian Gulf anymore, the Arab principalities being our allies and the Persians, the Iranians, being our foes -- is covered with U.S. air, naval, and army bases, while the gulf itself is covered with the U.S. 5th Fleet. Some of the bases are enormous, just out of sight of the gleaming new cities that are furiously being built on oil wealth.

The gulf principalities play host to these bases and even have paid for some of them because their independence and wealth are largely matters of American protection. The Westernizing, secularizing, and democratizing that come with the prosperity of the principalities are likely to rub off on the neighbors. Meanwhile, very little moves in the area without being monitored intimately from above by the Americans and their astounding technology. It isn't really the Arabian Gulf either; it is actually the American Gulf.

Iran could mess with the gulf with missiles but only at the cost of initiating a general war it would lose. So Iran and its religious fanaticism are being contained. And Iran and the whole colossus of religious fanaticism from Sudan to Afghanistan could be set at its own throat by the waging of a culture war, a war of publicity and ridicule against bigotry and oppression, a war more likely to prompt reform than a war of bombs and guns.

2) This is not the Foreign Legion.

The stereotype is that the military is for those who are running away from life or the law or can't find something better to do. That's not how it looks up close.

Of course there are some lost souls trying to find themselves after lonely upbringings or trouble in school, but most military personnel are sharp, trim, crisp, articulate, and expert in something and sometimes many things. Some had felt a calling. Some had fallen into a devotion. Others had been looking for particular training likely to be of use in civilian life later. Some enlisted out of patriotism after 9/11. All are serving something far bigger than themselves, and most exude competence. From the lowest to highest ranks the genders, races, and classes are working together as comrades. The generals and admirals are thoughtful and incisive, and not bombastic or even particularly bureaucratic, except for their almost comic obsession with the acronyms that designate their commands.

This competence is enough to raise the question of whether the military has replaced the public schools as the country's great integrating, educating, and elevating institution. At least the military demonstrates the [ITALICS] necessity [END ITALICS] of performing and mastering one's work, since one's life and the lives of one's comrades depend on it.

The logic of this competence would be to legislate a system of national service, even though the generals and admirals seem not to want it and the country's self-indulgence would probably never permit it politically. But can a country sustain itself with self-indulgence?

3) There is a necessary mission for the United States in southwest Asia quite apart from Iraq.

Of course it is about oil, and there's nothing wrong with that. For the whole world, not just the United States, relies on the tankers that steam through the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, and only the United States and its allies can ensure freedom of the seas there. Otherwise, at best there would be piracy, and at worst Iran or some other power would gain a chokehold on the world.

But in some areas it is also a matter of nurturing any normal government to take jurisdiction and responsibility and thereby prevent the anarchy in which tribal warfare and terrorism thrive, as has been the case in places like Afghanistan, Somalia, and Sudan.

So at the end of the far-flung American battle line is the primitive Camp Lemonier in tiny Djibouti in Africa, a former French Foreign Legion base guarding the entrance to the Red Sea. "It's not hell," the base's soldiers and sailors joke, "but you can see it from here."

Besides its sand and rocks, Djibouti has little more than its strategic position, which it leases for a few million dollars annually. It also gets some humanitarian concern from the Navy Seabees from Camp Lemonier.

A few days ago a few Seabees were living in huts a 15-minute helicopter ride from the base across the Gulf of Tadjourah in the tiny, dusty, dirt-poor village of the same name, where the Seabees were expanding a school and renovating a hospital that has a Cuban doctor and an Italian ambulance.

The last time the world noticed Tadjourah was two years ago, when it was identified as a center of female genital mutilation. But on this day some of the village's young women are dressed happily in colorful wraps, and their smiles are so warm and their beauty so stunning amid the desolation that some visitors are shaken into dark reflections on the accidents of birth.

The Seabees seem long past such reflections. They have been digging. Tadjourah's school now has a soccer field and soon it will have a lunch room and the hospital will have some sanitation -- maybe moving the village a little farther from hell.

-------------

Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn. He recently participated in the U.S. Defense Department's 72nd Joint Civilian Orientation Conference.

Connecticut Bob: Joe Lieberman Is A Liar

By Connecticut Bob
www.ctbob.blogspot.com
Saturday, October 28, 2006


EDITOR'S NOTE: Hey, Bob, thanks for the scoop. Who knew?

This past Thursday, I attended the Milford DTC meeting and afterwards I spoke to DTC member James Quish.

Jim was quoted in the October 19th issue of Milford Weekly about Joe Lieberman's phone call to him. From the article:

Jim Quish, of Milford, was also a delegate at the Connecticut Democratic convention and said that one of the main reasons why he is casting his support for Lamont is because Lieberman, who Quish says personally told him he wouldn't run as an independent if he lost the primary, went back on his word.

"Lieberman called me at my house because he wanted my vote at the convention," said Quish. "He said, 'No Jim, I will not run as an independent if I lose the primary.' He told me there was no way he would do that. I felt betrayed."

I asked Jim about the phone call.

"One of his staffers called me shortly before the convention and asked if Senator Lieberman could speak to me. I was sort of honored that the Senator wanted to talk to me, so I said 'Sure thing.'"

"Joe Lieberman then called and asked for my support at the convention. I told him that I was very much against the war in Iraq, and asked him if we, as a nation, had the choice of what to spend these billions of tax dollars on, what would it be? Maybe a cure for cancer, or ending world hunger? Nobody in their right mind would choose to perpetrate this war."

"Lieberman then said that Hussein was a terrible and ruthless leader who needed to be removed to ensure peace. He also said that we'd start withdrawing troops from Iraq shortly, and we'd be under 100,000 soldiers by Christmas."

"I said that I'd read in the paper that he would run as an independent if he lost the primary, and Joe said, 'No Jim, I will not run as an independent. That was something a Lamont supporter goaded me into saying.'"

Jim said that Lieberman called a second time before the convention trying to get his support. Needless to say, Jim Quish is a thinking Democrat, and he voted for the man he thought would work to stop the insanity in our Federal Government. Ned Lamont.

"No Jim, I will not run as an independent. That was something a Lamont supporter goaded me into saying."

Even BEFORE the Convention, everything was Ned Lamont's fault.

Joe Lieberman is a Liar. How can anyone in Connecticut vote for this man?

Connecticut Local Politics Blog Cites Tallarita Party Time

Friday Night Open Forum

www.connecticutlocalpolitics.blogspot.com
Friday, October 27, 2006

The Lt. Gov. debate is now available online Worth a listen.

DeStefano is accusing Rell of conspiring to force Aetna to do something evil. I think. Really, I have no idea what he's alleging. Whatever it is, there seems to be very little evidence for it.

A former mayor of Middletown is going to jail for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover gambling debts.

Chris Shays apparently forgot to record a trip to Qatar on a federal disclosure form.

Lastly, there may have been a violation of state election laws by Rep. Kathy Tallarita, according to Cool Justice. Hmm.

What else is happening?

Google War Begins in U.S. Senate Race

by Christine Stuart
www.ctnewsjunkie.com

In an attempt to influence Connecticut voters searching the Internet for information about the U.S. Senate race, Democratic candidate Ned Lamont’s campaign has set up a Web site that encourages people to do specific Google searches in an attempt to influence the rankings of a given page.

The site, set up by Lamont campaign webmaster Tim Tagaris, links to sites with flattering comments about Lamont and other sites with unflattering articles about incumbent U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, whose campaign was accused by Lamont’s campaign of starting the "Google bomb war."

At the top of Lamont’s Google Bomb CT Web site it reads, “Every day, hundreds of people 'Google' various terms looking for information about the race between Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont. With a concerted effort, we can make sure the first returns of those searches are the information we want them to see.” Here's the link: www.googlebombct.blogspot.com

A posting this past Wednesday on Lamont’s blog said that eight days before the August primary, 70,000 voters in the state Googled “Ned Lamont.” It’s unknown how many may have Googled “Joe Lieberman,” whose official campaign site failed the day he was defeated in the Democratic primary. Lieberman alleged the site was hacked, but no charges have been filed and no officials who were asked to investigate will comment on the record about what happened.

The Lamont campaign staffer who offered initially to help fix it alleged the Lieberman campaign used a crappy web host, whose server couldn’t handle the traffic.

Google bombs are nothing new for political pranksters.

More than a year ago, webmasters used the words “failure” and “miserable failure” to describe and link to President George W. Bush’s biographical page on the White House web site. The webmasters successfully pushed Bush’s official page to the top of the searches for the word “failure” and the phrase “miserable failure.”

In 2005 Google’s Director of Consumer Web Products, Marissa Mayer, defended the company’s decision not to alter the algorithm that allows Google bombs to occur.

“We don't condone the practice of googlebombing, or any other action that seeks to affect the integrity of our search results, but we're also reluctant to alter our results by hand in order to prevent such items from showing up,” she said. “Pranks like this may be distracting to some, but they don't affect the overall quality of our search service, whose objectivity, as always, remains the core of our mission.”

Bush Proposes Making Illegal Immigrants 'Guest Voters'

Would Be One-Day Citizens on November 7

By ANDY BOROWITZ
Borowitzreport.com

In his boldest stroke to date to break the logjam over illegal immigration, President George W. Bush today proposed a "guest voter" program for illegal immigrants that would make them eligible to vote in the midterm elections on November 7.

Speaking at a press conference at the White House this morning, Mr. Bush said that his "guest voter" proposal would allow illegal immigrants to attain full citizenship status for one day only.

"Illegal immigrants are important to this country, because they do many of the things that other Americans are unwilling to do," the president said. "Like voting."

According to the president's plan, undocumented immigrants would be bused to special "naturalization/voting booths" on November 7 where they could become citizens for the day simply by pulling a lever.

"Then, when their work is done, we'll make sure they're back on the other side of the border by November 8," Mr. Bush said. "Everyone wins."

But Mr. Bush's guest voter program received mix reviews from congressional Democrats, many of whom believe that glitches in the so-called naturalization/voting booths could lead to invalid election results.

In particular, critics have complained that in an early prototype of the booth, the translation of the phrase "I want to be a U.S. citizen" appeared as "Vote for all Republican candidates with this lever."

Unfazed by the critics, Mr. Bush said he would move forward with this and other immigration proposals, including building a 700-foot fence around Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York).

Elsewhere, the Department of Homeland Security warned of more attacks after supermodel Naomi Campbell was released on bail.

Andy Borowitz's New Book - $11.53 at Amazon.com

Duke Cunningham Successor Faces Legal Controversy, Too

By Thomas D. Williams
t r u t h o u t | Report
www.truthout.org

Wednesday 25 October 2006

San Diego Republican Congressman Brian Bilbray, now in the midst of a California elections campaign, is trapped in a spinning political and legal controversy over whether his prime residence is in California or Virginia.

The issue became a nagging question for Bilbray, 55, a surfer, most of whose roots are in California, as a result of a sworn statement he made in a Fairfax County, Virginia, 2005 deed of trust. It made 8930 Linton Lane, Alexandria, Virginia, his "prime residence."

After losing a California Congressional election to Susan Davis in 2000, Bilbray soon moved to Washington, DC, to become a lobbyist. He represented tribal issues, a border-sewage treatment project and an anti-illegal immigration group, the Associated Press reports.

Land records show he retains that Alexandria residence, while also using and listing family residences in Imperial Beach and Carlsbad, California, where the Bilbrays report they began living when he once again successfully ran for congress in a special election earlier this year. A call Tuesday to the Alexandria, Virginia, Real Estate Division confirmed he still owns the property there.

The battle of words over his residence has swirled off and on for almost six months, yet no public official responsible to the voters in California has ultimately decided legally, once and for all, where Bilbray's prime residence is. Nevertheless, it is essential that Bilbray be a legal resident of California to not only run for office, but to vote.

Some officials involved with the controversy agree it could be much simpler, less expensive and time consuming to resolve whether a contender is qualified to be a candidate before he is elected, rather than afterwards. Special elections in California have an estimated cost of over $30 million, and state reimbursement to a locality has reached as high as $43 million. Those are figures released by a 2006 report from the Institute of Governmental Studies for the University of California at Berkeley.

But, today, despite the doubt over Bilbray's actual prime and legal residence, no state official has decided what to do with the election looming November 7.

Only last April, Bilbray won his own special run-off election to fill the seat of Randall Harold "Duke" Cunningham, a 14-year Republican congressional veteran.

In March, Cunningham was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison and ordered to pay $1.8 million in restitution after pleading guilty to accepting at least $2.4 million in bribes and underreporting his income for 2004. Bilbray had himself been a Republican member of Congress from another California district from 1995 to 2001 before he lost an election.

Bilbray served for a decade on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors from 1985 to 1994, before winning his first election to the US House of Representatives, representing a district that included Imperial Beach.

Just a month after Bilbray regained his place in Congress this year from San Diego, County Democratic Chairman Jess Durfee complained to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer that Bilbray had falsely sworn under oath to the state about California being his prime residence. The following month, Lockyer's office turned the complaint over to San Diego District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis.

Paul Levikow, director of communications for Dumanis, would not comment on that investigation, or whether the question of Bilbray's legal residence can be resolved before the election through a complaint to another responsible state office.

The dispute over Bilbray's home grounds has resulted in news story after news story including rumors about the status of the investigation and whether a grand jury has been impaneled. No one interviewed could supply a copy of subpoenas reportedly issued to neighbors of Bilbray's to prove the grand jury's existence. No public record is available because of the secrecy required for grand juries so there is no way of knowing whether or not one is actually investigating the complaint, or has completed a probe.

A California state elections registration document, sworn to under oath by Bilbray on Feb. 23, 2006, says he is a resident of Carlsbad, California. On the other hand, a deed, dated July 24, 2002, says he resides in Imperial Beach, California. However, still another deed dated Aug. 5, 2005, in Fairfax County's Alexandria, Virginia, and sworn to by Bilbray, makes his "prime" residency there.

According to federal tax rules, a taxpayer must have lived two of the past five years in a "prime residence" to shelter up to $500,000 in real estate profits from taxation, if married, as Bilbray is. If the taxpayer doesn't follow the rule, the tax shelter gets eliminated.

Repeated attempts to contact Bilbray for his reaction to the controversy including three phone calls to his press spokesman, Kurt Bardella, and an e-mail supplying Bardella with Bilbray's crucial residency and voter registration documents, failed to inspire any response.

When he was confronted about the state investigation of his residency in a debate on NBC's 739 News in San Diego recently, Bilbray said: "I live in Carlsbad. If she (Busby) had the decency to ask my neighbors where I live, she wouldn't do this." He then claimed that his opponent makes serious charges without being able to back them up.

Despite the availability of these documents to Bilbray's opponents, Democratic Chairman Durfee and Democrat Francine Busby, his rival for the congressional seat, and potentially to all state officials responsible, nothing has been done to decide Bilbray's crucial residency qualification.

Nan Nguyen, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State's elections division, said ironing out a conflict over residency is the responsibility of the Registrar's Office, in this case, in San Diego. Through a spokeswoman, Monique Roberts, Registrar Department Head, Mikel Haas, said his office does not investigate residency requirement complaints. The person with the substantiating evidence needs to file the complaint, Roberts said, and the registrar's office has received no such information.

Nathan Barankin, a spokesman, for the attorney general's office, said the usual remedy for a dispute like this comes from a challenge by the complaining parties to the courts in the form of a writ. It is not the practice of the attorney general to file such a writ, he said.

However, Busby's spokeswoman, Linda Poniktera, said that for Busby to file such a complaint in court "would be considered sour grapes" by the voting public. She said Busby has already made every effort, including posting Bilbray's residency conflict on her Internet site, to ensure the voters know all about the available facts.

Busby said: "Don't take my word for it. The documents available in the public domain speak for themselves. There are discrepancies suggesting that Mr. Bilbray may be subject to charges of perjury and fraud, and voters have a right to know the facts before the election. Any ordinary citizen who behaved this way would be subjected to investigation. If elected officials have additional information, it should be provided to voters without regard for timing."

Democratic Chairman Durfee said: "Lawyers told us the best course of action would be to complain to the district attorney, and, as a backup course of action, to the attorney general. Prior opinions of the attorney general were not definitive enough to convince the party to file a writ."


Thomas "Dennie" Williams is a former state and federal court reporter, specializing in investigations, for the Hartford Courant. Since the 1970s, he has written extensively about irregularities in the Connecticut Superior Court and Probate Court systems for disciplining both judges and lawyers for misconduct. His stories about the corrupt activities inside the Hartford Probate Court helped encourage a federal grand jury probe leading to the conviction of the court's investigator for corrupt activities, the first attempted impeachment of a judge or any official in the state's history, and a legislative probe that resulted in major changes of the court's disciplinary system for state lawyers. Another of his investigative inquiries in the 1980s led to the forced resignation of a Superior Court judge who was hiring and appointing friends and relatives for lucrative court duties. His most recent freelance stories exposed failings of the Connecticut Judicial Review Council, investigating misconduct by Superior Court judges and the regular one and a half year delays in deciding State Appellate Court cases. He has received numerous awards for his investigative and in-depth reporting.
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Comments Re: Enfield Neighbors, Politics, Troiano Money, Kissel, Kathy T.

Neighbors my skinny little butt, I heard that Pat bought his house from Troiano. The family have been friends for years. Kathy get's donations every year from Troiano. The dem headquarters every year are in Troiano's minimall on Rte 5. It is there right now.

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 06:30:40 AM

Interesting posting above. I wonder if the rental of the space is declared on the Campaign's finance report, as it should. Otherwise wouldn't it be ilegal for a business to donate?

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 06:39:27 AM


Your article should be called "Incestuous in Enfield".

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 06:50:56 AM


If we want to break up the Tallarita monopoly on political power start with taking his sister out of office on Nov 7th. Then we can start eliminating them one by one. Lets elect honest people.

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 09:12:29 AM

Anon 912 -

Right On! In Enfield we need to vote Republican straight across just to save face. Remember the early 80's? Lets not do back there and kick these bums out.

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 10:53:55 AM

Ask Mr. Kissel (R-Enfield) about his Troiano fundraiser. Funny how it isn't just the Dems that the T's support. Any other profound words from this internet Mensa society? Get a life.
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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 02:54:25 PM


There are good and bad in each party. Only an uninformed voter or complete moron would vote the party line. Come on people.

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 03:06:55 PM


This is pure crap! If anyone of you really knew Kathy Tallarita, you wouldn't be spouting off about her. She is one of the real gems in this crappy political system. Every year more of your tax dollars come home to Enfield because she is there for all of us, even you dopes. Hell, many of our most respected Enfield Republicans support her. Say what you want about her brother, but leave this truly good and genuine person out of this.

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 03:16:42 PM


Politics are what they are and every politician, Rep and Dem, do the same thing. They time their activities to get votes. Rob Simmons and John Kissel are masters and no one plays it better than our own town chair, Ms. Maryann Turner. So stop throwing stones at the other guys just because they are in the majority and we're mad that we didn't think of it first. Smile more, it might change your outlook.

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Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/27/2006 03:29:50 PM

Letter To JI Editor From Savvy Reader

Curious timing
Oct. 26, 2006
Journal Inquirer

An Enfield state representative recently held a news conference about trying to secure state funding to help cover the additional $1.1 million needed for the Fermi High School field "fiasco" ("Legislators seek state funding for Fermi cleanup," Oct I8).

Call me a tad suspicious, but the timing of this news conference is two weeks away from the elections.

For months it's been publicized that other Connecticut communities (Andover, Meriden, Wallingford, and West Hartford) were successful in securing millions of dollars in state funding for their towns' athletic facilities. What took Enfield's state representatives so long to step up to the plate? Is the upcoming election prompting action? Or, is this an attempt to help bail out the town's mishandling of the Fermi field situation?

Enfield's state representatives are simply following the lead of some of their fellow representatives now -- but it's too little, too late. It's time to make a change. It's time to get new people into these important positions, people who will work full time for Enfield's best interest. Enfield residents simply can't afford to re-appoint state representatives who sat back and watched as other communities reaped the financial assistance available.

It's clear that Enfield's town officials grossly underestimated the scope and cost of the Fermi field remediation project. In the private sector, underestimating a project by $1.1 million might be grounds for termination (or at least warrant an apology and/or an explanation). However in Enfield, it's simply "business as usual.°

In light of what's transpired in Enfield over the past few months, perhaps town officials should take lessons from the savvy Felician Sisters. Sister Anastasia, Sister Francine, and Sister Carol Marie I proved to all that they know how to get things done, despite numerous obstacles. Perhaps Enfield residents could convince these empowered sisters to run for Town Council?

LINDA M. CROINICIO
Enfield

JUST NEIGHBORS

JUST NEIGHBORS - Enfield Mayor Patrick Tallarita, asked repeatedly by The Cool Justice Report to describe his relationship with Big Anthony Troiano (far left), said, "We're just neighbors." In the foreground is Connecticut House Speaker Jim Amann. The Troianos -- Big Anthony and Lillian -- celebratd their 44th anniversary with the help of Amann and Tallarita's parents, Kay and Pat Tallarita. At far right is Mayor Tallarita's sister, State Rep. Kathy Tallarita. [For a while it was hard for us to tell whose anniversary it was anyway ... then we hired a translator to read the caption.]
Troiano is a developer whose projects include Enfield Federal Savings. The politically powerful Troiano has been a vehement opponent of the Enfield Montessori School.

Cool Justice Report Exclusive: Enfield Federal Savings Party Time With State Rep. Kathy Tallarita

News & Commentary

How Might Campaign And Ethics Laws Apply?

By JIM BREWER and ANDY THIBAULT
The Cool Justice Report
www.cooljustice.blogspot.com
Oct. 26, 2006


EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is available for reprint courtesy of The Cool Justice Report, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com

Kathy Tallarita is a state representative for Enfield's 58th District. She has held that position since 1999, and is a member of the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. She is also a newly hired Business Development Representative for Enfield Federal Savings and Loan LLC.

Tallarita is the sister of Enfield's mayor, Patrick Tallarita, a fellow Democrat.

In her bio at the Connecticut General Assembly website she is listed as assistant majority leader and a member of the Select Committee on Aging and the Internship Committee. There is no mention of any financial training or experience other than her work on the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. A member of the Enfield Democratic Town Committee since 1996, she served on the town council from 1997-98. From 1992 to 1998 she worked as a legislative assistant at the Connecticut House of Representatives.

Tallarita is in the midst of a re-election campaign against Republican challenger Susan Lavalli-Hozempa, who has an accounting background and works for Kaman Corporation in Bloomfield as a Credit analyst.

An edition of Enfield Federal's newsletter, "The Connection," hit the streets in September. "All the Bank You'll Ever Need" announced the July hiring of State Rep. Kathleen "Kathy" Tallarita.

The item is the lead story for the customer newsletter, at the top of the front page. It features a photograph of Tallarita and the headline: "The Bank Welcomes Kathy Tallarita as Business Development Representative." The newsletter is mailed to all EFSB customers according to EFSB Vice President Scott Nogles.

In addition to the article, the bank sponsored what Nogles called a "Private Wine Tasting" on Tuesday Oct. 17, 2006 - less than a month before the upcoming elections.

This event was by invitation only, Nogles said. He called it "a business development event."

"This was our way of showing our pleasure with the community," Nogles said.

Only business or commercial customers were invited, Nogles said.

Tallarita was introduced to the group. Nogles said she was there as an employee of the bank and not as a state representative candidate.


Photo by Jim Brewer

"This was not a Tallarita event," he said.

Could the timing of the distribution of the newsletter and the wine tasting violate state election laws? Is the newsletter a campaign document? Was the wine tasting a campaign event or a testimonial? Should the distribution of the newsletter and the hosting of the party have been reported to state election officials?

Title 9 of the Connecticut General Statutes and in particular Chapter 150 cover elections and election campaign financing.

CGSA Section 9-333a(7) defines "Business entity" as: Whether organized in or outside of this state: Stock corporations, banks, insurance companies, business associations, bankers associations. . .

Section 9-333b(a) defines Contribution as: Any gift, subscription, loan, advance or deposit of money or anything of value, made for the purpose of influencing the nomination for election, or election, of any person or for the purpose of aiding or promoting the success or defeat of any referendum question or on behalf of any political party…

Subsection (b) defines what IS NOT a contribution: A loan of money made in the ordinary course of business by a national or state bank; Any communication made by a corporation, organization or association to its members, owners, stock holders, executives or administrative personnel, or their families…

Section 9-333k defines Party committees; designation as campaign treasurer. Limitation on multiple committees. Fundraising events and testimonial affairs.

Subsection (b) states: As used in this subsection, testimonial affair means an affair held in honor of an individual who holds, or who is or was a candidate for nomination or election to, an office subject to this chapter. No testimonial affair shall be held without the consent of such person. No testimonial affair shall be held for a candidate, or for an individual who holds any such office during the term of such office, except to raise funds on his behalf for purposes authorized in this chapter … Any fund-raising affair for any candidate or individual who holds any such office for any purposes other than those authorized in this chapter shall be prohibited. Any person who organizes such a fund-raising affair shall be in violation of this section.

Section 9-333o Business entities. Contributions or expenditures for candidate or party prohibited. No business entity shall make any contributions or expenditures to, or for the benefit of, any candidate's campaign for election to any public office or position subject to this chapter or for nomination at a primary for any such office or position, or to promote the defeat of any candidate for any such office or position, or to promote the success or defeat of a political party. . .

The bank newsletter prominently cites Tallarita, the new business development representative as a state representative for eight years and as an assistant house majority leader for two years.

The article states, "She will again be on the ballot for State Rep. this November."

Tallarita is not cited for any finance or business acumen, but rather is quoted saying, "I bring to Enfield Federal Savings Bank a wealth of knowledge of the community and its people, which serves well for the position of business development."

The article includes a paragraph about Tallarita's family involvement in politics including work as an envelope licker and phone dialer. The article also mentions her brother Patrick Tallarita's "political calling" as a two term Enfield mayor.

Enfield Federal Savings is a "business entity" as set forth in CGSA Section 9-333a (7) which lists "bank."

The newsletter, "The Connection" is mailed to all bank customers. The entire article centers on Tallarita's "sixteen years of working in the political arena," that she is a state representative and "she will again be on the ballot for State Rep. this November."

Would a reasonable-minded citizen find any difference between this article and a campaign flyer?

One political flyer mailed for Tallarita has in quotes under her photograph, "Leadership with Integrity."

Tallarita did not respond to several phone messages over the past two days. A bank employee said Tallarita was not in the office today. Messages were also left at her home and state capitol office.

“It sounds suspicious to me,” said Lavalli-Hozempa, Tallarita's opponent in the legislative race. “The timing is supect, and it is questionable conduct."

A state election official, advised of the event held at Enfield Federal Savings, asked, "‘If it wasn’t a testimonial affair according to the statute, what was it?”

State law prohibits a business entity, including a bank from making any contributions or expenditures to, or for the benefit of, any candidate's campaign for election. Enfield Federal Savings -- by producing, writing, photographing and mailing this article to the public calls into question whether a violation of State Election laws has occurred.

The wine tasting, held by invitation only to business and commercial prospects of the Bank, appears to runs into the law controlling fund-raising events and testimonial affairs.

Bank vice president Nogle -- who was at the event -- said only bank chairman Peter Dow spoke to the group on Oct. 17. Nogles said Dow introduced Tallarita as the bank's business development representative. Nogles refused to say whether Tallarita was introduced as a state representative running for re-election.

A close examination of what was said at this affair could be presented as evidence to help determine whether it violated state election laws.

The event was held about three months after Tallarita began working at the bank, during the height of an election campaign. Was she the only employee singled out for mention by the chairman of the board of the bank?

Nogles could not cite any previous event like the wine tasting.

Jim Brewer, a former civil rights litigator, is a photojournalist and a contributing writer for The Justice Journal and Inquiring News. Brewer served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, commanding a military police unit at a nuclear weapons site in Germany, and as a prosecutor in New Jersey.
Andy Thibault, author of Law &Justice In Everyday Life and a private investigator, is an adjunct lecturer of English and a mentor in the MFA writing program at Western Connecticut State University. He also serves as a consulting editor for the literary journal Connecticut Review. Website, www.andythibault.com and Blog, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com
Both writers are members of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Find the Book:
Law & Justice In Everyday Life by Andy Thibault at Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Andy Thibault

Obama Imperils Democrats' Losing Tradition, Party Members Fear

Dean Reassures Dems:
'We Can Still Screw This Up'

By ANDY BOROWITZ
Borowitzreport.com

The sudden ascendancy of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has many Democratic Party regulars afraid that a White House win by the charismatic politician would destroy a losing tradition that has taken years to build, Democratic leaders confirmed today.

Across the country, polls showing Sen. Obama to have rising appeal across a broad spectrum of likely voters have rattled the nerves of longtime Democrats, who take pride in their party's record of futility in presidential elections.

"This is the party of Dukakis and Mondale, Kerry and McGovern," said longtime Democrat Carol Foyler, who still sports a "Kucinich in '04" bumper sticker on the back of her Saturn. "We have worked long and hard to build that losing record and we are not prepared to pour it down the drain."

Ms. Foyler said that if Sen. Obama were to win the White House in 2008, "such longtime Democratic traditions as concession speeches, finger-pointing, and clinical depression would be a thing of the past."

Perhaps in response to the concerns of party loyalists like Ms. Foyler, Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean gave a speech today to reassure Democrats that even if Sen. Obama is nominated, "We as Democrats can still find a way to screw this up."

"If it looks like we're going to win, I make you this promise," Mr. Dean said. "I will open my piehole and shoot our chances to hell."

Elsewhere, the Malawian man who let Madonna adopt his son said that he only did it in the hopes that rearing him would keep her too busy to pursue her acting career.

Andy Borowitz's New Book - $11.53 at Amazon.com

New Enfield Comments

It is easy to complain and make accusations and then do nothing about it. Get involved and make your case. Help someone else make their case. Contact the Ethics Commission, the Town Manager, the Attorney General or some of the good town council people (yes, there are several in both parties). But do something constructive. Blogging is a strangely fun way to blow off steam but it accomplishes little. Step up or shut up should be the mantra.

Posted by Anonymous to The Cool Justice Report at 10/25/2006 07:06:21 AM

WHY DOESNT SOME ONE LOOK INTO MR TALLARITA'S STATE JOB ISNT IT AWFUL FUNNY THAT HE WAS ON WORKSMEN COMP WHEN HIM AND HIS WIFE WAS IN THAT BOATING ACCIDENT AND THAT WAS SQUASHED FROM HIGHER UPS IN THE STATE


Posted by Anonymous | 5:50 PM


He sued a really good friend of his but I don't think that caused any hard feelings.


Posted by Anonymous | 6:47 PM


Comments via U.S. mail and carrier pigeon:

I would like the school teacher / bank exec. job. When will they be interviewing?

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Town of Enfield Mayor Patrick Tallarita is more than a neighbor of the Troianos. Tallarita works in the Department of Labor facilities and is responsible for choosing the leases of buildings for the Department of Labor.

Check out who has been getting the leases in ....

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From an applicant for the Pizza Delivery and Electrician Specialist position.

[see http://cooljustice.blogspot.com/2006/10/cool-justice-report-classified-ad.html]

I do need a new washer and dryer. I am only interested in the 'gift' -- you know, no need to report -- but the salary isn't too shabby.
Do they deliver appliances in the light of day or do the little elves bring them after dark?

Bush: I Will Stay The Course Of Not Using The Phrase 'Stay The Course'

But Will Not Cut And Run
From 'Cut And Run,' President Says

By ANDY BOROWITZ
Borowitzreport.com

Responding to criticism that he has dropped the phrase "stay the course" from his speeches about Iraq, President George W. Bush said today that he would stay the course of refusing to say the words "stay the course."

"There are terrorist folks out there who would like nothing better than to see me say the words 'stay the course' again," Mr. Bush said in a feisty White House press conference. "But I have decided to stay the course of not using the phrase 'stay the course.'"

Asked why he had decided to stay the course of refusing to use the phrase "stay the course," the president said, "If I didn't stay the course of refusing to use the phrase 'stay the course,' it would send a confusing message, and I am trying to do the opposite of that."

While reaffirming his decision to no longer use the phrase "stay the course," Mr. Bush had more positive things to say about the phrase "cut and run," which will continue to appear in his speeches on Iraq.

"I have no intention of cutting and running from the phrase 'cut and run,'" the president vowed.

Mr. Bush expressed impatience with the situation in Iraq, especially with the slow pace of Iraqi efforts to develop their own meaningless slogans.

"The time has come for the Iraqi government to concoct meaningless slogans of their own," Mr. Bush said.

Elsewhere, after a new study showed that heavy cell phone use kills male sperm, Britney Spears ordered husband Kevin Federline to talk on the phone during sex.

Andy Borowitz's New Book - $11.53 at Amazon.com

Thousands Apply For Enfield Jobs

News & Commentary

New Bonus Money Found In P&Z Budget

By ANDY THIBAULT and JIM BREWER
The Cool Justice Report
www.cooljustice.blogspot.com
Oct. 24, 2006


EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is available for reprint courtesy of The Cool Justice Report, http://cooljustice.blogspot.com

For background, see Cool Justice Report Classified Ad, Oct. 17, 2006, link: http://cooljustice.blogspot.com/2006/10/cool-justice-report-classified-ad.html


Response to The Cool Justice Report's new classified advertising section has been overwhelming. Our server shut down for 17 minutes last week because of heavy traffic.

Here are just a few of the comments from thousands of applicants for jobs at Enfield Town Hall:

Detroit, Michigan -

To the Director of the Classified Ads Section,

I saw a list of the job openings you posted and am applying for the Zoning Facilitator job. Within the last few years, I have had much experience with Planning and Zoning and feel I am qualified for this position. There may be a few areas in which I lack experience (e.g. -- going around and through), but, I assure you, I am a quick learner.

Hopefully the special incentives are still available, but I am interested in this job with or without the incentives.

Dear Detroit:

How about those Tigers? We know you are very busy these days.

Great news! We have found some extra money in the Planning & Zoning budget, "Other purchased services," to bolster our incentive packages. Starting today, applicants for certain jobs will be eligible to receive industrial size and quality appliances.

This is not for everyone!!! You have to be very special and important. Remember, entitlement is a good thing. And, it's only a gift -- you don't have to declare it or reimburse anyone or anything. Just show it off to your friends, neighbors and associates.

From A Disgruntled Paralegal, Bethany, Ct.

Think they can find me a job doing something? I used to be a cop and I'm going nuts in this law office. The guy who runs it is a refugee from Battlestar Galactica and I never know what he's talking about. I don't need the appliances, just another pension.

Dear Disgruntled:

You seem deranged and potentially violent. We are certain to find a place for you.

From Kissimmee Sue, Florida

I have a pretty good golf swing ... would I qualify for ROAD RAGE WARRIOR AND
POLICE LIAISON. Except, I would want a King size firm, plush mattress …

Dear Kissimmee Sue:

Obviously you are a narcissistic personality. You fit well into both our short- and long-range plans to blow up the matrix at Human Resources. You will be hearing from us soon.

From Vladimir The Indoctrinator, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NY:
Dear special positions director Town of Enfield,

I am not sure if I saw this ad in the posting, but I would like to apply for the position of "Chief Political Director and Indoctrination Coordinator."

I am from the former Soviet Union and during the, how you Americans say it: "cold war" I was the Political Officer on a nuclear submarine.

As you know that position is extremely important to the mission. I was awarded the Legion of Merit medal for disappearing the commander of the submarine for making anti-communist statements.

Da! It was the most important moment in my life.

Therefore, I believe that I have the experience, and more importantly, the personality and willpower, to be the next Chief Political Director and Indoctrination Coordinator for the Town of Enfield.

Also, I need a side-by-side refrigerator or I will not take the job! As you Americans say, Super-size it!!!

Vladmir

Dear Vlad:

You do come on very strong. We like that. Therefore, we will pair you with Kissimmee Sue. Survivor gets the job -- not the one you picked that doesn't exist, but, rather, the one we advertised for.

Yo, as you Americans say. Again, dear special positions director,

Have I got a P.S. for you. You cannot scare me. You cannot kill me. I am the ultimate survivor. If I wanted, Kissimmee Sue and her entire family -- including cousins -- would be gone now.

You need some Realpolitik. I can be very useful. I know you have enemies, especially those in small town America who want truth and justice. I can make police dossier on them, GPU style. Better than killing. Arrest enemies many times and lock them up. I truly belong on the Planning & Zoning Commission, but only if I write the job description myself and the Public Safety Director reports to me. If he is worth the extra salary of a police officer cut from the budget, then I am worth at least three.

Dear Vlad:

OK, enough already. We are setting up a special deal for you. See below.


COMING SOON:

Special / private parties and sales at selected retail outlets, utilities and financial institutions. Come to Enfield, where the party never stops!


Watch for more job opportunities at The Cool Justice Report.

Loserman's Lament: "You Goddamned Son of a Bitch"

From www.myleftnutmeg.com

by: BranfordBoy

Mon Oct 23, 2006 at 23:32:49 PM EDT


It could be the most important one liner of the debate.

"You goddamned son of a bitch, how dare you accuse me of voting for the Energy Bill because I got a contribution."

Those were the words allegedly spoken by Joe Lieberman to Ned Lamont immediately after tonight's debate at the Garde Arts Center in New London. And although Lieberman cupped his hand over his mic, looking for all the world like he was taking the Pledge of Allegiance, his bitter remark was picked up on the audio feed, according to the report I heard.

It didn't make the air (that had already been cut) but, if the report is accurate, WTNH should have the audio. We shall see.

Dennie Williams Speech To Hartford Times Alumni

EDITOR'S NOTE: Thomas D. "Dennie" Williams was the keynote speaker as 60 workers for the defunct Hartford Times met Sunday at The Gallery Restaurant in Glastonbury. The paper closed in 1976. Sunday's gathering was billed as the last annual reunion.
Williams covered courts and was an investigative reporter for The Hartford Courant, retiring recently after 38 years on the job.

As a former long time reporter for The Hartford Courant, I am honored to be here today at the 30th reunion of the demise of our aggressive competitor, The Hartford Times, formerly known as The Neosho Valley Times. You past Times’ staffers, not the publisher or the owners, were the lifeblood of that paper. And, but for the grace of God, any other paper, including The Courant, could have faced that very same demise. Especially with the trends and downturns and layoffs of today.

Even though it was three decades ago, and I am now a retired Courant staffer, and also a senior but active freelance writer, I still remember vividly the long-ago competitive daily news battles between Times and Courant editors and reporters.

Not an hour passed in The Courant’s old, noise-filled newsroom without silent thought or loud discussion about what The Times had reported, or was readying to report on its news pages. The Times not only kept the reporters on edge, but its hard hitting editorials often annoyed The Courant’s more conservative editorial writers, and probably angered the Courant’s Republican publishers during those eras. I say probably, because I didn’t spend a lot of time in The Courant’s publisher’s office -- thank goodness! I was not a newsroom politician, rather just another annoying and aggressive reporter.

The Times’ headlines were frequently more shocking than the milder Courant headlines. And, Times’ reporters and editors loved to beat Courant reporters and editors to a scoop, particularly a juicy or a substantial one. Courant editors were constantly warning reporters to get to the story first. I know Times’ reporters were getting those same daily, obvious and repetitious warnings. I sure can remember how painful it was to get scooped, or how enjoyable it was to scoop The Times.

With all that fiercely competitive news atmosphere in mind, I am 100 percent sure that the doomsday newsroom and outside the newsroom spokesmen and women were right when they predicted upon The Times’ death that The Courant would eventually never be the same; would never be as substantial news-wise. After all, The Times went head-to-head with The Courant from 1817 until 1976. For sure, it wasn’t ever the same for The Courant after 1976. The daily atmosphere wasn’t as exciting. The scoops were gone. Investigations started by The Courant took much longer to arrive in the paper. That investigative leeway was a bit of a blessing because often that meant the reporting was much more thorough and detailed. This was particularly so after the Los Angeles Times took over and for a time made The Courant what I consider the most aggressive investigative Connecticut newspaper ever with eight staffers on the I-Team. But that team was later eliminated.

And, after The Times died, Courant reporters were left in the lurch when an editor either took too long to edit an investigative piece or decided to spike or reject the controversial, risky article entirely. And, when the story did finally appear in the paper, the emotional thrill of scooping The Times and making its reporters play catch up news ball was gone. When the competition was there, I remember experiencing a Courant editor, who will remain nameless, kill a truly hot inquiry I just had completed. I became so angered, I phoned one of the crucial confidential sources to the story to emphatically tell him: “You know what to do! Check out the opposition!” In this case, the opposition was Manchester’s Journal Inquirer. He did. The story soon appeared in the JI, minus a lot of details I had dug up. I showed it to the editor the day it appeared, and my story, already written, was in the paper the next day! Amazing! Right?!

But, in the old days, there was more to life than competition. Courant reporters had great respect for their Times’ competitors; and in fact, of course, sometimes reporters, editors, and many other employees switched jobs from one paper to the other. That too kept Courant and Times managers more appreciative of the good reporters, editors, advertising salesmen, news circulation people, pressmen and other employees, and thus more eager to keep them on staff.

Some did leave to join the competition. Several Times’ staffers who joined The Courant I can never, ever forget. There were the three Bills: Bill Ryan, the brilliant Times’ columnist; Bill Keifer, the savvy veteran reporter; and Bill Williams, the Hartford City Hall reporter who managed to scoop us regularly. It was Ryan who asked me after the Courant had restructured their building and newsroom into a brand new insurance company atmosphere, who asked me: “Why is it so quiet in here? Has everyone had a lobotomy?” Kiefer was a great newsman who eventually retired to operate a bookstore in my hometown of Litchfield. What a town character he was! I learned more from these three guys about life, reporting and laughing than I could have gleaned from thousands of days in graduate school. And, once the three Bills joined The Courant, they brought us decades of journalistic experience that could never be duplicated.

There were rumors that Ed Valtman, The Times’ famous cartoonist, would join us, but to the consternation of many, he never arrived. Wichita State University still has a collection of Ed Valtman’s hilarious and biting cartoons. According to the university, Valtman was a draftsman, commercial artist and freelance cartoonist for a number of newspapers and magazines. He immigrated to the United States from Estonia in September 1949. He joined The Hartford Times as editorial cartoonist in 1951, and received a Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1962 and Gannett Newspapers' Frank Tripp Award in 1963.

I still remember the day The Times died. I was covering Hartford Superior Court along with my Times competitor, Charles Kochakian, now editorial head of the New Haven Register. I called my editor about a story that morning and he asked, “Did you hear? The Times is dead!” I wasn’t totally shocked since The Times had been gradually fading financially, and rumors were flying. But, I was so emotionally worked up I rushed into another area of court to tell Charles. It’s my recollection, but maybe not Charles’, that there were tears in his eyes.

Now, just for old times’ sake I will appropriately at this 30th Times’ reunion, walk down memory lane with a few tidbits on the paper’s headlines, editorials, news and history.

Here’s a 1800s era argument from Phineas Taylor “PT” Barnum, founder of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus and a temperance advocate and a Democrat later turned Republican, on a Hartford Times’ editorial about a restrictive Maine liquor law.

Barnum asks: Does any Democrat suppose that the good old Democratic Hartford Times, as it was conducted twenty-five years ago, would have put forth such principles as those above quoted, and declared them to be the principles of "Democracy?"

Men may change, but principles NEVER. But hear this rabid Times editor again in the same article, from which the following is copied:

"The Maine Law outrage began in folly and fanaticism, but its inevitable end is BLOODSHED and civil INSURRECTION; and when that comes, the PULPIT BUFFOONS and intemperate bigots will be found as eager to sneak to the rear as they now are to lead the van."

Sounds like that editor was old fashioned! He probably kept his booze bottles in the newsroom’s desk drawers!

And News for the year 1850:

"By 1850, political leaders in many cities were beginning to see that parks would mean more appealing municipalities, with higher property values, less pollution, better public health, places for sports and holiday festivities that could reduce the potential for social unrest. Nevertheless, Horace Bushnell's request for a hearing before the City Council caused a ripple of amusement when the 29 council members heard what he was going to propose. He was allowed to speak before an informal Council session on October 5, 1853.

Bringing a hand-drawn map, Bushnell spoke for over an hour. He said what was needed was "an opening in the heart of the city itself, to which citizens will naturally flow in their walks. A place where children will play and the invalid go to breathe the freshness of nature. A place for holiday scenes and celebrations; a green carpet of ground, where high and low, rich and poor will exchange looks; an outdoor parlor opened for the cultivation of good manners and a right social feeling. A place of life and motion that will make us more conscious of being one people."

Both the Hartford Courant and Hartford Times published editorials endorsing his idea, and the following month the City Council appropriated $105,000 from the city treasury to acquire the 40 acres that were to become the park. In January 1854, the voters of Hartford also endorsed the appropriation by a wide margin. Thus, Hartford became the first city in America to spend public funds to build a public park.

News from 1945 :

The incumbent Republican Hartford mayor, William A. Mortensen, convinced of the deficiencies inherent in Hartford’s government structure, gained approval from the Republican-dominated board of aldermen to appoint a Charter Review Commission. The resolution called for the commission to consider amending or altering the current system and organization of city government, submit suggested revisions to a voter referendum to be held concurrent with the 1946 elections, and present voter-approved changes to the Connecticut General Assembly for final approval.

The two major newspapers in the city, the Hartford Courant and the Hartford Times, praised the mayor's appointments and commented favorably on the importance of the task the committee was undertaking. In its initial comments the Hartford Times, seen as generally supportive of Democrats in the city, did not urge the adoption of any particular change in the form of city government. The Hartford Courant, more outspoken in support of Republican goals, enthusiastically backed the creation of the Charter Review Commission and editorially urged the adoption of council-city manager government even before members had been named.

Hartford’s government structure, gained approval from the Republican-dominated board of aldermen to appoint a Charter Review Commission. Looks like The Courant won that one! Ha!

A Times account of Willie Pep, the boxer in the era of 1940's-1960's:

Billy Speary, who will do battle tonight with Champion Willie Pep at the Hartford Auditorium, was a caller at The Hartford Times sports department Monday morning. Billy has never seen Willie fight and was asking about his opponent of this evening: "Pep doesn't hit too hard," one of the other Monday morning callers volunteered.

"No," said Billy, "but I do hear he hits plenty often."

Headline Hartford Times May 28, 1969:

Construction Laborers Union Leaders Linked to Gambling

By Ted Dempsey

Elements of organized crime have infiltrated the Hartford based Local 230, Construction and General Laborers Union. The Hartford Times has learned. Several of the union's officers have been convicted for bookmaking (accepting bets) and the union strongman has been linked in federal court testimony to La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia.

As an aside here, I have to tell you this anecdote. I was assigned to Hartford Superior Court one day to cover appearances of both a Times’ reporter and Courant reporter Kennie Hooker in court. They were possibly to be held in contempt of court for failing to reveal their news sources on a story about the arrest of a notorious Mafia hit man. The colorful defense lawyer, Peter Zaccanino, approached all of us gathered in a court corridor, and with a laugh, first introduced Hooker and myself to the heavy set Mafiosi. Zaccanino then turned and walked toward the Times’ reporter whose page one story had recently hit the streets. As he began the introduction to the Mafia man, The Times reporter fled! I’m not kidding! I can still see his back rushing from the scene!

Now another story on Hartford’s most beautiful building!

From The Courant October 21, 2005
By OSHRAT CARMIEL, Courant Staff Writer

Trustees of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art voted Thursday to hire a Cambridge, Mass., architectural firm to transform the former Hartford Times building into a modern annex of the nation's oldest public art museum.

The $17 million to $18 million expansion into the Times building will follow a strict timeline, which, starts now. Bruner/Cott has already invested hundreds of hours on a design for the Times building. The project is expected to seek necessary permits by May, with completion targeted for the end of 2007.

Now Here’s a Hartford History Trivia Question Q: What four presidents spoke to crowds from the portico of the Hartford Times Building on Prospect Street?

A: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Congrats to Bill Flood of Portland for knowing the answer.

Feature On Toughman Contender

Rollins, Rosa find friendship in the ring
Events Nov. 2 & 3 At Foxwoods

By Mike Sullivan
Portsmouth, N.H. Herald
10-23-2006

Friendships can blossom from the most unlikely of scenarios. Just ask Billy Rollins and Tom Rosa.

They may not have known it at the time, but when the pair faced off in the championship round of a Toughman Competition in Concord 11 years ago, a lifelong bond was formed.

Rollins, then 28 and an aspiring middleweight boxer, was in it for the $1,000 pay day. Rosa, then 26, was fighting because he loves a physical challenge.

It the was the first and only Toughman event for Rollins, who won the match and the money before embarking on a boxing career that saw him compile a 12-1-4 record that included seven fights broadcast by ESPN networks. Rosa, despite the loss, fought many more times en route to a 43-18 career mark with 15 knockouts, three championships and four runner-up finishes in Toughman Competitions.

On that night in 1995, Rosa was tough, hit hard and could also take a punch. Rollins was tough, too, and he was bigger and his power was superior in that match.

But they fought clean and they fought hard, and they developed the kind of mutual respect that only fighters can fully understand. It is that mutual respect that brought Rollins and Rosa back together 11 years later, only this time they aren't opponents.

They're a team.

Rollins, a Portsmouth native and Barrington resident, is 40 now and retired from boxing, although you'd never know it by looking at his physique. He is training Rosa, a Hampton Falls resident who is 38 years young and still hooked on Toughman. And like Rollins, Rosa has kept himself in solid shape.

The pair has been working out together for nearly two months in preparation for the Toughman Competition Thursday and Friday, Nov. 2-3, at Foxwoods in Connecticut.

For those unfamiliar with Toughman, it's a faster-paced form of boxing. Fighters battle for three one-minute rounds and you don't know who you're fighting until your name is called as you wait in the locker room. Competitors wear 16-ounce gloves, headgear and groin protectors.

Rollins watched video of 13 Rosa fights, including their 1995 matchup, before training began. He liked what he saw, and knew right away that he could help Rosa. After all, Rollins isn't in this to see Rosa lose.

"I told Tom on the second day of training that we're going down there to win," he said.

Rollins' biggest challenge in training Rosa has been getting him to corral his energy. Rosa is one of the kindest, most laid-back people you could ever meet, but when he talks about fighting, he gets excitable. When he puts the gloves on, a switch goes off. That's exactly what Rollins remembers about the young Rosa he met years ago.

"Nothing was different. Right from the get-go, Tom had that nervous energy," Rollins said with a laugh. "So he's learning to calm that energy and focus. Even though it's Toughman, I'm making Tom smart about being aggressive."

Rollins also wanted to work on Rosa's brawling technique. Let's just say Rosa isn't afraid to take a punch -- or five -- and isn't always worried about dodging them.

"He always tells me, 'I know you can take punches, but I don't want you to,'" Rosa said. "Now I land three, land four, then step and not get hit with four."

Rollins was a brawler, and ultimately that's what ended his career.

"I stood there and fought, but now that I'm a trainer, I don't want my fighter to do that," he said.

Rosa said he feels more prepared than ever since he's been working with Rollins.

"Working out with Billy is unbelievable because he's always two or three steps ahead of you," Rosa said. "I mean, here's a guy who made it to be a middleweight contender. I feel a lot more prepared having a pro fighter who made it to the highest level working with me."

While Rosa admits to feeling the unavoidable fatigue and occasional soreness that come with age -- let's be honest, 38 is old for a fighter -- he doesn't show it. Rosa was punching so hard in one recent training session the walls and floor in the basement of Great Bay Services in Newington, where they've been working out, were actually shaking on his double-hook combos to Rollins' hand pads.

"I think I'm hitting harder than I ever did in my life," Rosa said.

Rollins agreed.

"I don't remember him ever hitting that hard," he said.

And so next week Rosa, with the guidance of Rollins, is hoping to keep punching hard and earn another Toughman championship.

After one recent sparring session, Rollins shook his head with a smile and said, "I'm glad I'm not fighting him. I'm just training him."

Rosa laughed and said, "That's not true, he'd take my head off."

There's that mutual respect, 11 years in the making.

The truth is Rollins and Rosa will never know who would win in a rematch, and it really doesn't matter. What matters is they have a friendship, and that counts far more than wins and losses.

Recent Enfield Comments

When is this Tallarita mystery going to become "full blown" public? He is using his position as Mayor to misuse town rules. Our previous mayors, Vayda and Strome were respectable and decent.

What is with the free oil from Triano's?

How about the Enfield Federal political announcement about the sister? Talk about a deal! I thought she went to school to be a teacher, now she is a bank business manager at $100,000/year. Could this have anything to do with the abatement the bank got and the changes in zoning?

Something doesn't feel right!
Posted by Anonymous | 9:21 AM

Call me stupid but if you don't have a buildable lot until more frontage is obtained then how do you go to a board and ask for something that is even less and then get not one but two lots? you need more but ask for a waiver to have 50 feet less and you get it? How does all this work?
Posted by Anonymous | 10:40 AM


The mayor cares now that the heat is on him, otherwise he can't do anything it's interesting how someone whom can't do anything is now try to facilitate a land use issue to mediation. Is this ethicical? How does the council get involved in some issues but not others?
Posted by Anonymous | 8:45 AM

Why call them Big Anthony and Big Frank? They are both under 5'5" tall!!
Posted by Anonymous | 5:47 PM

Why doesn't Big Anthony stay at his home in Rhode Island or his home in Vero Beach, Florida, and leave the nuns alone.
Why did he want to buy their property? To develop it? Then a road or condos or houses wouldn't bother him. He is such a hypocrite.
Pat Tallerita seems to be doing well. He has made a lot of expensive improvements to his property. He plans to install double hung storm windows to his house. That is an expensive project!! Did he get a raise at his state job??
Posted by Anonymous | 6:39 PM

can't be stated enough - his wife is on the commission.
Posted by Anonymous | 7:00 AM

Enfield Federal--The BANK thats another story.
Posted by Anonymous | 8:27 PM

This stuff is riveting. It's like a soap opera but the sad thing is the truth behind it, details that we didn't even know but things that we know are not yet here. Were watching/waiting. We recently found this blog but we keep looking at it. We are afraid that the comments can get traced by the Enfield PD so if we want to get you things how do we do that?
Posted by Anonymous | 8:56 PM

Hey how do I get one of those jobs? Where are they advertised in the JI? Oh thats right they aren't on top of this.
Posted by Anonymous | 8:35 PM

It is amazing how the bank got the
tax abatement even though they don't own the building and then Kathy Tallarita got a $100k job there even though her degree is in education. Equally amazing is that she has worked there since July 2006 but in October,21 days to election day she got a free advertisement in the Enfield Federal Savings newsletter. ( But Kathy is so nice) There is no way she is using her position as a State legislator to help facilitate some of the alleged corruption in town.( of course not)
I hope people wake up in Enfield.
Posted by Anonymous | 8:40 AM

People, People do you see what is happening here? You don't have to read between the lines things are not even between the lines. I smell a rat wonder what his name is?
Posted by Anonymous | 9:40 AM

I heard that everyone that is an Enfield Federal account holder got the announcement on Kathy's new job. I also feel the timing was interesting. I also heard the bank recently had a private party. Anyone know what that was about?
Posted by Anonymous | 1:27 PM

So what is the dollar amount of this tax savings a few hundred thousand more or less enough to pay her salary?
Posted by Anonymous | 4:09 PM

The Pentagon Papers And Me

Beacon Press published the Pentagon Papers a decade
before I was born, but Beacon's courage still sets an example

By ALLISON TZROP
Beacon Press
10.23.06

I am 24 years old and am watching a Colbert Report interview with Daniel Ellsberg, now 75. More than a decade before I was born, Ellsberg, a Pentagon insider, photocopied and leaked thousands of pages of a Top Secret study on U.S. decision-making about the war in Vietnam. The New York Times and the Washington Post broke the story of what became popularly known as the “Pentagon Papers” in June 1971. Four months later, Beacon Press published the first full collection of the documents as The Senator Gravel Edition of the Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decision making on Vietnam . For longer than I’ve been alive, Ellsberg has been agitating for government transparency; the famous whistleblower has been arrested about 70 times. This week marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the Beacon edition, on October 22, 1971.

But why do I find Ellsberg’s words so relevant? I’ve never been arrested. I missed the Vietnam War by a wide margin. I may be the only person my age who owns the complete, four-volume set of Beacon’s Senator Gravel Edition, but when I take them down off my bookshelf I handle them gingerly, aware that their yellowed dust jackets tear easily and cannot be replaced. As documents, I find the Pentagon Papers dated and dense. As symbols, though, I find much in them as important as the day they were printed.

A year ago, I had only a passing familiarity with the Pentagon Papers: way back in the day, these documents had threatened the establishment, or something like that. Then, entering my second year of a Master’s program in publishing and writing at Emerson College, I read A Brief History of Beacon Press by Susan Wilson, which commemorates the publisher’s 150th anniversary. It mentioned the Pentagon Papers several times, hinting at a much deeper history.

As a student of the publishing industry, I was transfixed by a moment of professional courage; as a researcher, I needed to know more. I spent the last year learning everything I could about Beacon Press and the Unitarian Universalist Association’s role in publishing these important documents. My Master’s thesis, a history entitled “Beacon Press and the Pentagon Papers,” is being made available on Beacon’s website.

For many people, the story of the Pentagon Papers begins with Ellsberg and ends with “The Day the Presses Stopped,” in June 1971, when the New York Times and the Washington Post were enjoined from further publication of the papers in a case that was resolved by the Supreme Court. For me, that’s where the story begins.

When Daniel Ellsberg handed the Pentagon Papers over to the Washington Post, he did it upon the condition that journalist Ben Bagdikian would deliver another set to Senator Maurice “Mike” Gravel, Democrat from Alaska. Gravel intended to read from the papers during a filibuster of a bill that would extend the draft. Blocked from filibustering, Gravel instead read from the Pentagon Papers during a late night meeting of a subcommittee he chaired—officially entering the papers in the public realm. Believing that “immediate disclosure of the contents of these papers will change the policy that supports the war,” Gravel wanted to make the papers widely accessible to the public and sought a private publisher to distribute them.

Dozens of commercial and university publishing houses rejected Gravel’s proposal, citing near-guaranteed political persecution and a bleak bottom line. Gravel, one of just two Unitarian Universalists in the Senate, then tried Beacon Press, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Beacon’s antiwar list in those days included Howard Zinn’s Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, Jean-Paul Sartre’s On Genocide, and Arlo Tatum and Joseph S. Tuchinsky’s Guide to the Draft . Ideologically, the press felt compelled to publish and agreed to take on the Pentagon Papers, despite great financial and political risks. As a result of publishing the papers, President Richard Nixon personally attacked Beacon Press, the director of the press was subpoenaed to appear at Daniel Ellsberg’s trial, and J. Edgar Hoover approved an FBI subpoena of the entire denomination’s bank records.

Like the government’s case against the Times and the Post , the case against Beacon was resolved in the Supreme Court. Unlike the newspapers, Beacon Press lost: The Court ruled that Gravel’s immunity as a senator did not extend to his publisher, leaving the press vulnerable to prosecution. While he was not in the majority, Justice William Douglas concluded:

The story of the Pentagon Papers is a chronicle of suppression of vital decisions to protect the reputations and political hides of men who worked an amazingly successful scheme of deception on the American people. They were successful not because they were astute but because the press had become a frightened, regimented, submissive instrument, fattening on favors from those in power and forgetting the great tradition of reporting.

In June 1972, the Watergate break-in drew the FBI’s attention, effectively ending the government’s campaign of intimidation against Beacon Press. Then-director of Beacon Press Gobin Stair called the Pentagon Papers epic, “A watershed event in the denomination’s history and a high point in Beacon’s fulfilling its role as a public pulpit for proclaiming Unitarian Universalist principles.”

Blasts From The Past

JI On Enfield Tax Breaks

Enfield bank officials seek property
tax break for new headquarters

By Mike Cummings
Journal Inquirer
09/28/05

ENFIELD -- Enfield Federal Savings and Loan is seeking a property tax break on assessments for its new headquarters under construction at the corner of Elm and Enfield streets.

A proposed resolution circulated among Town Council members would authorize Town Manager Scott Shanley to sign an agreement providing a seven-year tax abatement on the property.

According to the proposed resolution, property taxes would be paid on 30 percent of the $3.2 million building's assessed value during the first year of the agreement.

The percentage increases steadily over the next six years until taxes are paid on 100 percent of the property's assessed value.

Towns occasionally use tax abatements to entice economic development and job growth.

Enfield Federal Savings and Loan, which is operated by New England Bancshares, Inc., employs 58 people full time at its current location at 660 Enfield St.

According to the resolution, it plans to add 39 jobs to its staff over the course of the proposed tax abatement.

Construction of the bank is considered important to the redevelopment of the intersection of Enfield and Elm streets.

The building was designed to compliment Town Hall, which occupies an opposite corner of the intersection.

The council is expected to discuss the proposed tax incentive Monday in executive session.

Councilman Scott Kaupin, Republican minority leader, said the discussion will occur behind closed doors because the proposal involves real estate negotiations.

Kaupin said property tax abatements are an effective tool for promoting economic growth when used responsibly.

"The council has been judicious in not handing out tax abatements left and right," he said Tuesday. "They are linked to job growth and new construction."

Since 1979, the town has authorized 19 tax abatements. They have ranged in length from three to seven years.

The following five companies currently have tax abatements in Enfield: The Martin-Brower Co., The Connecticut Wood Group, Sterling Machine Co., Camerota Truck Parts, and Bernie's appliance chain.

Other entities to receive tax abatements include Hallmark and Lego Systems Inc.

Deputy Mayor Lewis Fiore, a Democrat, said each of the current abatements was tied to job growth.

"We're very, very stringent and careful about tax abatements," he said Tuesday. "Nobody is giving the farm away."

Fiore and Kaupin said the town has rescinded tax abatements because job growth projections were not realized.

Kaupin said the proposed tax abatement is slightly unusual because Enfield Federal Savings and Loan does not own the property.

It will lease the 19,051-square-foot building from Troiano Professional Center, LLC.

"One of my questions is can we as a council or town provide an abatement to a business that is leasing a building," he said.

Fiore said the tax abatement would figure into the bank's lease with the property owner.


Property tax break approved
for bank headquarters

By Mike Cummings
Journal Inquirer
12/06/05


ENFIELD -- Enfield Federal Savings and Loan will receive a property tax break on assessments for its new headquarters under construction at the corner of Elm and Enfield streets.

The Town Council unanimously approved the seven-year tax abatement Monday. Many council members said the bank's history of community involvement and its decision to expand in Enfield makes it worthy of the tax breaks.

Economic Development Director Raymond Warren said the $3.2 million building project "is the largest private investment on this side of I-91 that I can remember."

According to the agreement, property taxes would be paid on 30 percent of the building's assessed value during the first year of the agreement.

The percentage increases steadily over the next six years until taxes are paid on 100 percent of the property's assessed value.

Towns occasionally use tax abatements to entice economic development and job growth.

District 3 Councilman Scott R. Kaupin, the Republican minority leader, said the bank qualifies for a tax abatement because it is expanding its operations in Enfield.

Enfield Federal Savings and Loan, which is operated by New England Bancshares Inc., employs 58 people full time at its current location at 660 Enfield St.

According to the resolution, the bank plans to add 39 jobs to its staff over the course of the tax abatement.

Warren said the job projections must be fulfilled for the bank to maintain the tax abatement.

"If they don't adhere to the agreement, they will lose the abatement," he said.

Construction of the bank is considered important to the redevelopment of the intersection of Enfield and Elm streets.

The building was designed to complement Town Hall, which occupies an opposite corner of the intersection.

Mayor Patrick L. Tallarita said the town is careful in deciding when to grant tax abatements for development.

"We don't hand them out freely," he said.

Since 1979, the town has authorized 19 tax abatements. They have ranged in length from three to seven years.

The following companies have received tax abatements in Enfield: The Martin-Brower Co., The Connecticut Wood Group, Sterling Machine Co., Camerota Truck Parts, Bernie's appliance chain, Hallmark, and Lego Systems Inc.

Warren noted the bank's record of community involvement, pointing out it recently donated $5,000 to local flood relief efforts.

He said the bank is working with the town to obtain grant money that would be used to fund a first-time homebuyers program targeted for the Thompsonville neighborhood.

Interim Town Manager Christopher Bromson said the bank has established a program to help police officers buy homes in Enfield to improve the Police Department's ties to the community.