Ansonia Official Resigns After Social Media Posts Resurface

ANSONIA — A city Republican official with a history of incendiary social media posts resigned from the Board of Assessment Appeals Wednesday after three people shared her posts on the Valley Indy Facebook page.

The resignation of Patricia J. Fers comes after a letter from Mayor David Cassetti was shared on Valley Indy Facebook Tuesday night.

In the letter, Cassetti said the city is grieving over the senseless death of George Floyd and that he was organizing a unity rally with local clergy (now scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday in front of a bust of Dr. Martin Luther King next to Ansonia City Hall).

“In Ansonia all black lives matter and it should be that was in every community,” Cassetti’s letter concluded.

Three Cassetti administration critics — Brian Perkins, Matt McGowan and Bryan Sorek — used the comment section under the letter on Valley Indy Facebook to post a number of social media posts authored by Fers.

Perkins, an Ansonia High School graduate serving in the Marines who used to support the Cassetti administration, questioned in light of the mayor’s letter why Ansonia Republicans ​“never denounced” Fers after she made news in 2017 for calling immigrants who commit crimes ​“junk people.” Fers apologized for the comment. At the time she was a member of the Republican State Central Committee.

You can read the complete Facebook thread here.

In Tuesday’s Valley Indy thread, Sorek shared a screen shot of a Tweet from Fers from March 2019.

The Tweet appears to be a response to a Tweet from U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat and former presidential candidate who represents Massachusetts. Warren had Tweeted that ​“slavery is a stain on America” and that it was time to start a national conversation about reparations.

“There are already reparations. Known as welfare,” the Twitter account, (@PJfers), responded. The Twitter account has since been suspended by Twitter for violating the site’s rules.

In an interview Wednesday, Fers confirmed the Tweet as hers.

Fers said she used a poor choice of words, but said she was angry at the idea of people getting money for something that happened a long time ago. She noted her grandfather, a Ukranian immigrant, was ridiculed in Ansonia for not speaking English, but was able to buy a house on Rufus Street and live the American dream.

“I was angry because as I was watching Elizbeth Warren’s campaign, it was all about spending money. And spending money we don’t have. Maybe the idea is great, and I can see where it’s wanted by the African-American community, but I feel attacked in a way because they’re asking me, but my grandparents didn’t come to this country until 1915,” she said.

The Valley Indy asked whether she could understand why someone might say a Tweet comparing welfare to reparations is racist.

“I just said to you it was a bad choice of words. I was angry. I never should have said it,” Fers said. She said the “@ reply” to Warren was part of a larger thread in which people were arguing with each other.

Assessment Appeals

If a resident in Ansonia thinks his or her property or vehicle assessment is unfair or too high, a case can be made to the local board of assessments, who listen to your reasons and decide whether your assessment should be lowered or remain the same. Property assessments decide how much taxes a resident pays.

On Wednesday morning The Valley Indy emailed John Marini, Ansonia’s corporation counsel, to ask whether it was reasonable to assume Fers might not be an impartial judge given statements attributed to her on social media (including a statement on Facebook saying Democrats are worse than ​‘the virus’).

“I discussed your email with the Mayor this morning,” Marini said in an email. ​“He subsequently contacted Ms. Fers to ask whether she made the recent posts attributed to her. It is now my understanding that Ms. Fers will be resigning her seat on the tax appeals board as a result of that conversation.”

Cassetti said he spoke to Fer about her comments.

“I told her they were insensitive and entirely inappropriate. She offered to resign and I accepted. That’s all we discussed,” Cassetti said.

Sorek, a resident who often criticizes the Cassetti administration on Facebook, said Cassetti made the right decision.

“It should have happened a long time ago,” Sorek said.

Reaction

The Valley Indy reached out to the Ansonia Democratic Town Committee for comment.

“While we are relieved to see Patricia Fers resign, we are deeply saddened that it took a national crisis for her to feel pressured enough to do so,” according to a statement signed by Leslie Navarrate, Democratic Town Committee Chair, and Gary Farrar Jr, the vice-chair. ​“Ms. Fers is infamous for her well-documented prejudice and racism, with articles over the years in the CT Post and Courant, dating back to as early as August 2017.”

“Our question is simple — why now has the Mayor decided to address Ms. Fers’ very public discriminatory behavior, when Team Cassetti and the Ansonia GOP knew of it for years, and they never denounced her actions? Instead, she was elevated and kept as part of Team Cassetti and Ansonia GOP,” Navarrete and Farrar said.

The Valley Indy reached out to the Ansonia GOP to react to the sentence above.

The complete statement from the Ansonia Democratic Town Committee is embedded below.

Fers said she has a First Amendment right to share her thoughts on political issues. She said Democrats pounce on statements, then get the media to write stories lambasting people for expressing opinions.

“This is what Democrats do, and it’s not fair. I resigned from the Board of Assessments and after I did I was angry. This is what Democrats do all the time, and Republicans fall into line. ​‘Oh gosh, he called me a racist, so I have to go underground and disappear’,” she said.

Fers declined to comment on her conversation with Mayor Cassetti.

ADTC Statement on Patricia Fers by The Valley Indy on Scribd