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Eugene Driscoll | Mar 29, 2022 7:15 pm
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ANSONIA — A meeting of the city’s planning and zoning commission was postponed Monday because the agenda for the meeting was not posted online at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.
The meeting had been scheduled to be held online — which meant the agenda for the meeting had to be posted online at least 24 hours in advance.
Since the meeting was supposed to be held on Monday, the agenda should have been posted at some point Friday.
The agenda had been posted in Ansonia City Hall, but not on the city’s website due to a technical snafu.
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Eugene Driscoll | Mar 16, 2022 6:30 am
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Derby Finance Director Agata Herasimowicz was placed on administrative leave March 1, according to a document released by the city after a Freedom of Information request.
DERBY — Mayor Rich Dziekan’s office released a letter Friday showing the city’s finance director was put on paid administrative leave so the administration could investigate “possible violations of City policy and procedures.“
The letter was released March 11 in response to a Freedom of Information request from The Valley Indy submitted on March 3.
The letter, which was written by Walt Mayhew, Dziekan’s chief of staff, and addressed to Derby Finance Director Agata Herasimowicz, does not explain what policies or procedures may have been violated.
The reason Derby Finance Director Agata Herasimowicz was placed on leave has not been shared with the public. It’s also not clear how long she’ll be out. According to an email obtained by The Valley Indy, Herasimowicz does not know why she is on leave.
Last week The Valley Indy repeatedly asked Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration whether Herasimowicz was on administrative leave. Dziekan said it was a personnel matter and referred questions to the city’s corporation counsel.
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Eugene Driscoll | Mar 4, 2022 6:30 pm
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Wikimedia Commons
Derby City Hall.
DERBY – The creation of the annual city budget is underway but a key player in the process seems to be missing: the city’s finance director.
Agata Herasimowicz was not in Derby City Hall for most of the week. She is the finance director who started working for the city in July.
Her absence in and of itself isn’t unusual – but any questions about her are being referred to the city’s lawyers.
That’s unusual.
When reached at her house Friday evening, Herasimowicz said she did not want to nor was she allowed to talk to a reporter, and referred questions to the Derby mayor’s office. She indicated The Valley Indy had inaccurate info, but did not elaborate.
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Eugene Driscoll | Mar 2, 2022 6:30 pm
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A screen shot from Tuesday's Derby BOAT meeting.
DERBY — The city’s budget process got off to a rocky start Tuesday as Mayor Rich Dziekan presented his proposed spending plan to the city’s tax board.
Dziekan said his budget does not raise taxes but continues to move Derby forward.
However, the documents presented to the tax board had several numerical errors.
For example, the budget document from the mayor’s office stated the tax board approved a revenue line totaling about $43.3 million last May, when the actual dollar amount voted on and placed into the public record was $4 million higher.
The video from Tuesday’s meeting is embedded below. The article continues after the document.
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Jean Falbo-Sosnovich | Jan 24, 2022 9:47 am
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(Left to right) First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis, Gladys DeLisa and state Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria.
SEYMOUR — Celebrating a town centenarian, cutting a tax break to a burned-out business and potentially moving the Board of Education’s home base to the high school topped the talk at last week’s Board of Selectmen meeting.
The board held its virtual meeting via Zoom Tuesday (Jan. 18).
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Eugene Driscoll | Jan 20, 2022 5:00 pm
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GOOGLE MAPS
A Google map image showing the scrap yard on Factory Street in Derby.
DERBY — City officials have met twice in closed-door sessions recently to get updates from their lawyer about the long effort to remove a scrap yard from the downtown redevelopment zone on Factory Street.
At this point, the parties just can’t agree on the value of the property — which was the same stumbling block in January 2021. The city’s negotiations date back to at least 2020.
Mayor Rich Dziekan’s administration is willing to use eminent domain to take the property and pay fair-market value, but has yet to pull the legal trigger.
Meanwhile, Dominick Thomas, the attorney representing the property owner of 2 Factory St., said the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, from which the city is using funds for a purchase — or ‘take’ through eminent domain — is not willing to negotiate on the asking price. Thomas said two appraisals from the City of Derby severely underestimate the value of the property, a point with which the Dziekan administration does not agree.
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Eugene Driscoll | Nov 9, 2021 7:26 pm
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FILE PHOTO
State Rep. Kara Rochelle, a Democrat who represents Ansonia and Derby in the state legislature.
DERBY/ANSONIA — The Hartford Courant published a story Tuesday saying state Rep. Kara Rochelle was hired as a consultant on a firehouse project in West Haven by Michael DiMassa, a West Haven city hall and state lawmaker who was accused in October by federal officials of stealing more than $600,000 in COVID-19 relief money.
Rochelle said Tuesday she was shocked by DiMassa’s arrest, and had no knowledge or involvement with West Haven’s funding process.
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Eugene Driscoll | Oct 15, 2021 7:18 am
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Ansonia Republican candidates for office.
ANSONIA — Mayor David Cassetti’s re-election campaign raised $8,000 from individuals between July 1 and Sept. 30, according to a campaign finance disclosure statement filed in the Town Clerk’s Office Tuesday (Oct. 12).
“Cassetti for Mayor 2021” had $740 on hand at the start of the reporting period, bringing the complete total to $8,740 raised, if looking at column A of the disclosure form. The campaign spent $8,151.29, leaving it with $588.71 as of Sept. 30, the latest date for which information is available.
The Ansonia Republican Town Committee submitted paperwork showing it raised $3,950 in the same time period.
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Eugene Driscoll | Oct 15, 2021 7:17 am
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Ansonia Democratic candidates for office.
ANSONIA — The Ansonia Democratic Town Committee raised $3,740 from individuals and $3,600 from political committees between July 1 and Sept, 30, according to a campaign finance disclosure filed with the state.
The Democrats had $6,443.42 on hand at the start of the latest reporting period, bringing the total to $13,783.42, according to “column A” of its paperwork. The Democrats spent $2.073.37 in the time period covered.
