“Derby’s budgetary performance is weak, in our opinion,” said New York Rating Agency Standard and Poor’s in its Ratings Direct publication dated August 5, 2019.
S&P made this statement in their official review of the Dziekan/McLiverty Administration’s mismanagement of the City’s finances.
After months of covering it up, they finally and reluctantly acknowledged that they knew about this crisis since December of 2017. Here are the facts regarding their scandalous cover-up:
At October 21st, 2019 meeting of the Board of Apportionment and Taxation, City Treasurer Keith McLiverty stated that, shortly before the Dziekan Administration took office, the financial problem “was discovered when Dr. Conway brought the problem to everyone’s attention.” Dr. Matthew Conway is the Superintendent of the Derby Public Schools.
This admission that a “problem” existed was not disclosed to the public until the end of May 2019, causing the 2019-2020 Derby Budget to be adopted nearly a month after the legal deadline.
Again, at the October 21, 2019, Tax Board meeting, Treasurer McLiverty pointed out that State Education funding “was double-booked on the revenue side” in Mayor Dziekan’s first budget. This created a false budget with artificially inflated revenue.
The Dziekan/McLiverty administration has tried to remain silent on this major blunder. However, Mayor Dziekan did address the Board of Apportionment and June 24th, 2019. The subject of that public hearing was the major tax increase caused by his team’s mismanagement that created the crisis. In explaining the crisis, he said, “A lot of things came down. But we found it.”
Mayor Dziekan then attempted to give guidance to the Board of Apportionment and Taxation, saying, “Do what you have to do. Our (Salary) line item is there, level, so do what you have to do.” He was referring to non-union salary increases. What he didn’t mention was that he included an increase for only himself in the current budget.
Republican Tax Board Chair Judy Szewczyk, Dziekan’s campaign treasurer, wrote a letter to the editor on October 24, 2109.
Szewczyk stated, “We did have to raise taxes by 2.5 mills, but this was due to the ever-growing cost of running the city and its school system.”
Her excuse is disingenuous since both budgets adopted by the Dziekan/McLiverty Administration included no increase to the Board of Education budget.
Standard and Poor’s pointed to “Weak budgetary performance, with operating deficits in the general fund.” The lack of action by the Dziekan/McLiverty Administration on the financial crisis means, “S&P Global Ratings lowered its rating on Derby, Conn.‘s general obligation (GO) debt to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’.”
As the 2019 Election closes, the Republican Dziekan/McLiverty Administration is trying to rewrite the sordid history of their cover-up and inaction that led to the financial crisis, a major tax increase for all taxpayers, and a significant bond rating downgrade.
The writer is the chairman of the Derby Town Democratic Committee.
Click here for the rules on letters to the editors.
The deadline to submit election letters expired Oct. 31.
