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Derby City Hall at 1 Elizabeth St.
DERBY — A candidate for Derby City Treasurer and the tax board has filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) complaint against the city, saying city hall has refused to provide him with basic financial data.
Walt Mayhew, the Democrat who is challenging incumbent City Treasurer Keith McLiverty, said he asked for “green bar” financial reports showing the “income, budgeted expenses and actual expenses” for the past five fiscal years.
He received reports covering four of the five fiscal years requested — but nothing for 2018 – 2019, the most recent fiscal year. Mayhew made the request to the finance department. The Derby city attorney took on the role of fulfilling the request.
Mayhew said the city is holding onto the document because he’s a candidate for office attempting to verify information provided by the Republican administration. Mayhew said the city is stalling because it doesn’t want to release the info before Election Day.
However, Vin Marino, the city’s corporation counsel, said the specific document Mayhew asked for does not exist because it has not been finalized.
Mayhew said he wants to hear the state’s Freedom of Information Commission weigh-in on how Derby government handled his request. A hearing won’t be scheduled for several weeks.
The government doesn’t have to release “preliminary drafts or notes,” if the public agency determined that withholding the documents “clearly outweighs the public interest,” according to the FOI Act.
It doesn’t appear that Derby government is meeting that threshold, because Marino said that Mayhew could obtain the draft version of the document he requested — if he asks for the draft document.
“Now, I appreciate that there are what I’ll call ‘draft documents’ that would be available, but Mr. Mayhew did not request a copy of a draft. He requested a copy of the green bar, and so that is not yet available,” Marino said. “So if he actually asks for what exists, they will be turned over, but they will be turned over with the warning that the information contained in the document is only in draft, is subject to change, and should not be relied on for any purpose.”
“We are very cautious not to disseminate information related to the city’s finances that have not been confirmed to be valid by the auditor because of the most recent budget issues,” Marino said.
The corporation counsel said the FOI Act outlines a process where a document is requested and an answer is provided. The act doesn’t outline a back-and-forth in which the government tells the person making the request what to ask for.
Derby City Hall doesn’t consider the financial statements complete “until the year-end adjusting journal entries made by the auditor are complete.” That should happen by December, Marino said.
Marino said the officials are following the process as laid out in the FOI Act.
Mayhew said his experience shows the Dziekan administration is not transparent.
“The administration has a record of being less than transparent and open, having had other FOI complaints filed and found against them,” Mayhew said. “I am a candidate for Treasurer and Tax Board and very familiar with how to navigate through financial reports. I think intent becomes pretty clear.”
(The city’s police commission has lost two FOI-related cases in recent years, including one brought by The Valley Indy. The city also settled a Valley Indy FOI complaint involving the building inspector by agreeing to conduct a FOI training session for City Hall employees. However, that promised training session never took place, though the building official was required to undergo a session, according to the city attorney. The promised staff training could happen after the election, Marino said.)
Mayhew has been critical of the Republican administration, saying a 2.5 mill rate increase adopted by the Derby tax board in June was the result of “gross financial mismanagement.”
As proof of poor fiscal management, Mayhew points to the double counting of state grant money as revenue in several budget cycles, which helped to create a hole in Derby’s budget that was revealed to the public in May.
Derby Republicans have pointed out the double booking mistake started under the watch of a Democratic mayor, and that the Dziekan administration acknowledged the issue and came up with a plan to deal with it.
The mill rate increase was not the result of the double booking mistakes, the Dziekan administration has said. Taxes went up this year because the cost of running Derby government went up, and the decision to raise taxes was a bi-partisan decision of the tax board.
Click here for a podcast interview during which Mayor Rich Dziekan talks about taxes in Derby.
Click here for a podcast interview with Dziekan’s opponent, Democrat Brian Coppolo, and click here for an interview with Sal Coppola, Derby’s finance director, who speaks directly about the budget mistake.
Election Day is Nov. 5.
