Derby City Hall, in an image originally published on Wikimedia.
DERBY — As Election Day nears, city Democrats are questioning the amount of time Republican incumbent Richard Dziekan spends each day in the mayor’s office.
“The people of the City of Derby have a right to know how little time our Absentee Mayor Dziekan actually spends on his responsibility to the City of Derby,” Aniello Malerba III, the chairman of the Derby Democratic Town Committee, wrote in a press release sent Oct. 14 by him and Linda Fusco, the campaign manager for Joe DiMartino, a Democrat challenging Dziekan.
Dziekan is a retired Hamden police officer who, in addition to serving as Derby’s top elected official, works part-time in the Town of Bethany.
In Nov. 2020, voters in Derby approved a Charter change that made the mayor’s position full time. This is a sticking point for the Dems, who said Dziekan had promised to be a full-time mayor but isn’t spending full-time hours on the job.
To that end, Malerba said he’s been trying for weeks to get paperwork out of Bethany government regarding Dziekan, including time sheets, shifts worked, pay stubs, and an employment contract.
Malerba said Bethany hasn’t released the information, and said the situation is political, because Bethany and Derby both have the same corporation counsel, MZS Law, whose principal partner, Vin Marino, hosted a fundraiser at his house in Orange for Dziekan’s re-election campaign.
Malerba said he filed a complaint against Bethany with the state’s Freedom of Information Commission.
“I feel as though the Town of Bethany is purposely violating the Sunshine Laws of the State of CT to protect their political ally Richard Dziekan,” Malerba wrote in an email.
Democrats further allege that Dziekan has taken road jobs in Bethany during regular business hours. Road jobs are assignments where a police officer watches over road crews, utility work, tree-trimming, and things of that nature.
Dziekan and his campaign said the Derby Democrats are slinging mud because their campaign is running on fumes and they are about to lose on Election Day (Tuesday, Nov. 2).
Dziekan said working two jobs is what many people do to pay the bills.
“It’s no secret that I’m moonlighting, and I have never denied the fact that I’m still a part-time officer in Bethany,” Dziekan told the Valley Indy Monday. “I love being a police officer and the fact that I can still serve and protect the community. I put in 50 to 60 hours per week in Derby as mayor, and even if I’m not physically in the office at City Hall, I’m always on the job. I can do a midnight road job (in Bethany) and am always just a phone call away. My bills are going up just like everyone else’s and I understand the struggles of making ends meet, and people needing to get part-time jobs to help with that. Working as a part-time constable absolutely does not interfere with City Hall.”
Marino, the attorney working for administrations in Bethany and Derby, said Malerba’s documentation request is being processed in Bethany — though no one knows when it will be ready.
Malerba asked for four years of documentation that will have to come from the Connecticut Department of Public Safety because Bethany uses a Resident State Trooper system for law enforcement.
“The Town does not maintain the requested public records with its employee personnel records. The employee records related to constables are maintained by the Resident Trooper’s office. It is my understanding that the records are maintained in paper form only and that a large volume of documents needs to be sorted through. I know that the request is being worked on. However, due to staff limitations, I do not know when the search will be completed,” Marino said.
Personnel records are considered public documents under state law, even if an employee objects to the release.
Regarding the “full-time” issue in Derby, Marino noted there’s nothing on the books that prevents a mayor or other public officials from working two jobs.
“I can confirm that the Mayor disclosed that he works a second job four-years ago when he was first elected,” Marino said in an email. “To my knowledge, the Mayor’s second job has not interfered with his elected responsibilities and has not previously caused any concern. This is the first time in four years that someone has raised the Mayor’s second job as an issue. I can also confirm that the Town Clerk also works a second job. It is my understanding that the hours worked by both men in their second jobs varies from week to week. Based on the language of the Charter and City Code that was in place as of the date that the Mayor and Town Clerk were elected, there is no prohibition against either men holding a second job.”
This is not the first time the Derby Democrats have questioned Dziekan’s hours in Derby City Hall. They’ve been calling him the “absentee mayor” since at least July. It’s the top talking point on a flyer DiMartino handed out in the Second Ward Tuesday evening.
“The worst kept secret is that the Mayor is seldom on the job,” Fusco said via text message. “This is a major issue in this campaign and we started raising it early on because we felt it was important for people to understand what was happening in order to make an informed decision when they vote. The only way to get the documentation to support our stance and to maintain our credibility was through FOI.”
Dziekan’s campaign put out a statement attributed to the mayor saying Derby Democrats aren’t running a campaign of ideas.
“I find it very telling that when it comes to issues that our city faces, the Democrats want to talk about my second job yet have failed to put a single idea forward to secure a bright future for our city, while I have put forth extensive plans for cutting taxes for our seniors on fixed incomes and single family homeowners along with a a very detailed 7‑point plan for achieving sustained economic development, that would provide an increase in the grand list and tax revenue for decades to come, while addressing other issues in our city. “
