There’s a lot to criticize in Connecticut’s political media, but when something is worthy of praise…
This week’s Fairfield County Weekly seems to have stepped up the pace on the political reporting front, with a handful of stories that are refreshingly informative and detailed.
First, Cut and Run by Andy Bromage:
Like most Gulf War vets, the federal Veterans Administration refuses to test Sterry for exposure to depleted uranium or other chemical toxins she was exposed to in the Middle East.
So Sterry turned to the state government, and in 2005 helped Connecticut become the first state in the nation to craft a law to test returning combat troops for exposure to battlefield health hazards, including depleted uranium. The law would also establish a veterans health registry to catalog mysterious symptoms crippling war vets, similar to the Connecticut Tumor Registry, which tracks cancer patterns in the state. The data could be used as leverage to pressure the federal government to accept disabilities as service-related, and therefore treat them.
But the state has turned its back on Sterry and the more than 30,000 Connecticut troops who have deployed to combat zones in the Middle East and the Balkans since 1990. The Weekly has learned that Gov. Jodi Rell, through her budget office, quietly killed funding for the veterans health registry without telling the lawmakers who sponsored the program, nor the veterans whom it would serve. [...]
Linda Schwartz, commissioner of Veterans Affairs for the state, broke the news last week to the legislature’s Select Committee on Veterans Affairs during a special meeting at the Connecticut veterans’ home in Rocky Hill. Her budget was being cut, she said, and $165,000 of it would come from the sick-soldiers registry.
What she didn’t mention, and what some lawmakers were not aware of until very recently, was that the funding was eliminated last June during Gov. Rell’s first round of state budget cuts.
In fact, after four years of hearings, debates and lobbying, the program was just days away from receiving the money it needed to hire staff and begin testing. Funding was set for release on July 1, 2008. The governor’s office announced the cut on June 24.
Decoding Rob Simmons by Andy Bromage:
“In reading through the recent speech given to the new legislature, did you see any specific recommendations for dealing with this problem?” Simmons asks me in a recent interview. “Since then, have you heard any specific recommendations for dealing with this problem, other than taking a free day?”
Well, there was the governor’s cost-cutting plan recently approved by the legislature, I say.
“In this environment — in an environment of permanent fiscal crisis — these ideas have to be out there,” Simmons says. “It’s not good enough to surprise everybody in February.”[...]
It’s rare to hear Democrats go after Rell these days for fear of retaliation, let alone a Republican. Let alone a Republican who worked for Rell just a few weeks ago.
Simmons left that job early last month after Rell and the legislature essentially dissolved the Office of the Business Advocate as a cost-saving measure.
Now Simmons is in the market again but he wouldn’t tell me whether he’s interested in running for governor in 2010, or for Chris Dodd’s U.S. Senate seat, as has also been rumored.
Fact and Factions by Nick Keppler, an article about Bridgeport NAACP President (and former Shays GOTV worker) Craig Kelly:
One dispute has been about money. A letter from Dorothy Smith — to Kelly, the Executive Committee and state and national NAACP officials, dated Nov. 10, 2007 — complains that, unbeknownst to her, Kelly arranged to have money raised at the 2007 Freedom Fund Banquet, the branch’s largest yearly fund-raiser, deposited in a new account to which she did not have access. National officials told Kelly to close the account and put its funds in the general account. (Kelly confirms this series of events.)
[...]
Last November, Kelly was challenged for the presidency by Wayne Winston. It was not pretty.
On Nov. 13, 114 people who claimed to be members of the Greater Bridgeport NAACP voted at Messiah Baptist Church. Only 82 of the ballots were counted, and Kelly won 42-40.
Among the 32 people whose membership was challenged were such Bridgeport politicos as City Councilman Andre Baker, State Rep. Don Clemons and State Sen. Ed Gomes. Wayne Winston’s standing as a member was also challenged. All of them were denied by then-Secretary Carolyn Vermont, who was voted first vice president that evening under the slate headed by Kelly. She says those voters simply didn’t have their membership in order.[...]
Spearheaded by Winston and Cash — who lost the presidency and first vice presidency to Kelly and Vermont, respectively — 25 people signed a complaint to the national and state NAACP. Scot X. Esdaile, president of the Connecticut State Conference, and Rev. Gill Ford, regional director of the national NAACP, told the Connecticut Post the matter is resolved and Kelly is the victor. When the Weekly attempted to contact state and national officials about the issue, we were referred back to the Greater Bridgeport office.
Fabrizi Unleashed by Rob Sullivan:
Fabrizi also takes exception to Finch’s contention that one of the main reasons for the current budget mess is the former mayor’s excessive reliability on one-time revenue streams to balance the budget.
“When he came into office, there were two outstanding projects for which we were relying on revenue,” he says. “One was the $4.5 million payment from the Steel Point Developers and the other was $3 million from American Fabrics on Connecticut Avenue. Now, his administration wound up receiving $2 million for the American Fabrics location, which I never would have done. And for all his pointing and wagging his finger, he turned around and put the expected $4.5 million right back in the budget.”
That $4.5 million expected payment was included in the city’s budget, which was passed May 13. That payment was lost when Bridgeport and then–lead developer Midtown Properties of Manhattan missed a deadline for a land disposition agreement in late August. RCI Marine of Miami has since become the Steel Point project’s lead developer, and plans are underway for a smaller-scale version of the massive lead development project planned for the city’s East End.
In talking about Steel Point and other stalled development projects in the Park City, Fabrizi observes, “You have to be in constant contact with these developers. Obviously, that didn’t happen.”
I don’t know what led the Weekly to eat their Wheaties for this week’s edition, but these stories are a couple cuts above what we normally see on newsprint in the state. They get facts that can’t be found in any press releases, ask (and follow up on) detailed questions to people who are in a position to know the uncomfortable history of a situation, report on who wouldn’t answer which questions, and importantly, lay out compelling facts for people who are generally informed, and offer context for people who aren’t.
None of that should be remarkable, but all of it is. Let’s hope they keep it up.
