The Derby tax board couldn’t muster enough “yes” votes to pay Alan Schlesinger, who had spent the last few weeks filling in as finance director at tax board meetings.
Schlesinger is owed $3,139.60 for 10 days work, according to a statement attributed to Mayor Anthony Staffieri but read by tax board chairman Jim Butler during a meeting in City Hall Thursday. The number of hours worked was not specified.
The tax board voted 4 – 3 to move money within the city’s budget in order to pay Schlesinger.
However, seven votes were needed to make the money transfer happen, as per Derby Charter.
Schlesinger was not at the meeting.
It wasn’t that the tax board members didn’t think Schlesinger deserved the money — it’s just that there’s too much controversy swirling around the departure of Derby finance director Henry Domurad, Jr., for whom Schlesinger was filling in.
“Alan Schlesinger’s duties were not approved by the Board of Aldermen. It is against our city charter,” tax board member Anita Dugatto said. “I say we should not pay anyone for doing those duties. I’m not saying we never pay him. At this moment I don’t see an emergency,” she said.
The Thursday finance board meeting, although short in duration, was wrought with uncertainty.
The video below shows the reaction of tax board members after Butler, as chairman, broached the subject of transferring money, which was the sole item on Thursday’s tax board agenda. Story continues after the video. Additional videos are posted below.
Domurad v Staffieri
Domurad, the city’s finance director since 2008, resigned April 12, according to the Derby’s Mayor Office. The Mayor’s Office shared a resignation letter from Domurad with the Valley Indy April 13.
However, Domurad said the resignation letter released to the Valley Indy is fake and that Staffieri actually fired him April 12. Staffieri and city attorney Joseph Coppola deny Domurad’s claims.
Domurad wants his job back and filed a lawsuit against the mayor Wednesday (May 2).
Scorecard
Shortly after Domurad’s departure, Staffieri asked Schlesinger — a former Derby mayor and finance director — to fill-in.
Schlesinger agreed to help and started attending tax board budget meetings in April.
Then, on April 26, the Democratic majority on the Derby Board of Aldermen voted to not accept Domurad’s resignation letter because of the allegations surrounding it.
At the same meeting, the board was supposed to consider appointing Schlesinger as interim finance director. However, that discussion never happened because of the Domuard vote, which the mayor, a Republican, vetoed the next day.
At a tax board meeting May 1, Schlesinger asked that money be transferred in order to pay him for his services. The thought was that Schlesinger could be brought on as a consultant instead of interim finance director.
The tax board, after huddling in private, political caucuses, declined to take up the matter. Schlesinger walked out of the meeting.
And Then
On Thursday, the tax board was supposed to consider, again, transferring money so that Schlesinger could be hired as a consultant to the tax board.
However, once the meeting started, the purpose of the meeting had switched to paying Schlesinger for services already rendered. Schlesinger had apparently called City Hall earlier Thursday asking that the wheels be put into motion so that he could be paid the money he is owed.
Dugatto and fellow Democratic tax board member David Anroman weren’t comfortable with the topic.
Anroman pointed out he didn’t have a single piece of paper in front of him detailing Schlesinger’s bill to the city. Dugatto urged the tax board to go slow.
Butler, the tax board chairman, tried to convince his fellow Democrats to divorce the Domurad controversy from what they were being asked to do — to pay a bill for services rendered.
The video below shows a portion of the tax board discussion. Article continues after the video.
Dugatto, Anroman and Jason Cronk voted against the motion.
The video below shows the final vote:
Who Cares?
Why is any of this important to Derby?
Because the tax board is the 10-member elected body that decides how much money goes to schools and to the city. They’re the ones who decide how much money you’ll pay next year in local taxes.
Right now the tax board is considering a big mill rate increase of somewhere around 8 mills — but about 6 of those mills are because of the reval Derby properties went through this year, according to tax board member Judy Szewczyk.
The tax board is scheduled to adopt a preliminary budget at a meeting on Tuesday, May 8. A public hearing on that proposed budget is scheduled for Tuesday, May 15.
It’s crunch time for the tax board — but there’s no finance director at the tax board meetings to actually crunch the numbers and answer questions.
After Thursday’s tax board meeting ended, several frazzled tax board members pow-wowed with Derby City Treasurer Keith McLiverty, who essentially gave the elected officials a pep talk.
He told them the lion’s share of the budget work is done and that the tax board will get through the next two weeks or so, with or without someone in the finance director’s chair.
McLiverty’s Take
McLiverty spoke briefly with the Valley Indy Thursday night.
He said that with the finance director’s office empty in Derby City Hall, much of the position’s workload has fallen upon Joyce Sill, the assistant finance director (and wife of Derby Aldermanic President Ron Sill).
“Joyce Sill has stepped up tremendously. She’s taken over the day to day duties of the finance director and she’s doing it very well,” McLiverty said.
McLiverty is lending a hand, too.
“We’re keeping our internal controls in place. We’re paying bills and vendors and we’re following sound accounting practices. That’s what I’m helping with,” McLiverty said.