Derby Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s campaign fabricated parts of a speech posted on the official “Staffieri42013” Facebook page earlier this month.
In a post Aug. 1 titled “Mayor’s Acceptance Speech,” the campaign claims to share the speech Staffieri made after city Republicans nominated him for a fifth term July 17.
“In case you missed it – these are the words that the Mayor shared with us on July 17 when he was nominated by the Republican Town Committee to seek a fifth term in office. Well said sir!” the post begins.
The problem? The speech, as presented, never happened.
The second half of the speech published on the campaign’s Facebook page — and released to at least one media outlet — has Staffieri talking about a housing task force, Sterling Opera House renovations, extending the city’s greenway, along with touting several road improvement projects.
In reality, Staffieri said none of it during his acceptance speech.
Why didn’t the campaign simply release the speech he actually made to Republicans during their nominating convention at Bar None on Elizabeth Street July 17?
Judy Szewczyk, Staffieri’s campaign manager, said in the days after Staffieri’s nomination, a reporter asked for a copy of the mayor’s remarks.
Usually, Szewczyk said, if the mayor gives remarks at an event or gathering, they are prepared in advance.
But on the night of the nominating convention, Szewczyk said, the mayor spoke “off the cuff.”
“That sort of caught us off-balance,” she said. “He didn’t plan on saying anything that night and just kind of got going.”
So Szewczyk said she and Sheila O’Malley, Staffieri’s chief administrative officer, tried to piece together a version of the remarks as best they could, from memory.
“I didn’t have a recorder or take any notes,” Szewczyk said.
O’Malley was not present during the mayor’s acceptance speech.
The Valley Indy recorded Staffieri’s speech live and embedded the audio within a story a few hours later.
The day after the convention, the Staffieri campaign posted the Valley Indy story on the campaign’s Facebook page.
Szewczyk said the campaign wasn’t trying to mislead anyone.
“We tried to kind of recreate what we remembered him saying so we could share it,” Szewczyk said.
Szewczyk said the campaign shouldn’t have indicated the mayor gave a speech that wasn’t actually given, but said she was just looking for content for the Facebook page.
“I shouldn’t have indicated or made it sound like that was exactly what he said, in direct quotes,” Szewczyk said. “We didn’t have any intention of fooling anybody … To the best of my knowledge we didn’t add anything or embellish it.”
‘Typical?’
When asked about the rewrite, Derby Democrats were not in a forgiving mood.
Linda Fusco, chairwoman of the Derby Democratic Town Committee, called foul on the campaign’s after-the-fact rewrite.
“If you can’t be honest with your party at the point you have the honor of being nominated, when are you going to be honest?” she said. “It is an issue of credibility, and lack of preparedness.”
Ron Sill, a Democrat on the Board of Aldermen running for re-election, said the incident was “just typical.”
“Everything (Staffieri) says either gets written for him to read off of or it gets changed by someone else after he’s already said it,” Sill said. “That’s been a pattern.”
The Valley Indy reached out to Staffieri’s Democratically-endorsed opponent, Anita Dugatto, on Monday (Aug. 5).
Dugatto said she’d look into it and perhaps comment, but as of Tuesday (Aug. 6) at 5 p.m. had not.
The Actual Speech, Transcribed
“Now when Joe was saying about breathing blood, you know sometimes it’s very true.
I want to thank everybody for the continued confidence and support that you have for me, and the faith that you have for me.
You know, we have done a lot. This has been such a progressive administration.
From Day One we were challenged eight years ago to help with the cancer center.
Pat Charmel came to us, Joe was there, he was an alderman then, and said ‘We want to build a state-of-the-art cancer center, but we don’t know how to do it because the property is so entangled with so many different issues, from paving roads to private property, residential property, business properties.
All we did is we rolled up our sleeves, got to work, the aldermen, what a great group we have and we still have, somewhat.
We got it accomplished. We got it accomplished in about three to four months, I believe it was, which Mr. Charmel and Griffin Hospital were ecstatic that a state-of-the-art cancer center was built in Derby. They ended up beating out New Haven getting one built.
That’s how its been. It’s been a constant challenge, and we didn’t shirk from it.
We’ve got a great bond rating. We have a great fund balance. Who ever thought we were going to get $1.6 million for the sale of East Derby Waterworks?
It’s digging into a pile of doo-doo and finding a rose in there, and we have. In many cases we did what we had to do and just by sticking together and doing what’s right for Derby.
Yes, we are Republicans, but yes, we always did what’s right for the City of Derby.
And that’s what has gotten us here for eight years now. Four terms, eight years, we have done a great job. Thank you very much.”
The Campaign’s Version
Here’s what Staffieri’s campaign says he said:
“I wish to thank everyone for their confidence and support in me.
In a sense, Joe Bomba is right. Sometimes I feel as though I bleed Derby.
We have a progressive Administration.
We have taken things head on from day one 8 years ago. We have tackled difficult issues and have achieved great things.
The Griffin Cancer Center is a perfect example of that. Pat Charmel looked to us for help in resolving all of the difficult hurdles associated with development. We rolled up our sleeves and dug in and the end result was a benefit to Derby and the State of Connecticut – a state of the art cancer center.
That is how we approach running the City of Derby.
We roll up our sleeves and find ways to resolve issues.
We have a great financial outlook in Derby with a fund balance to rival any city or town.
We find solutions. We are small and lack City owned land, but the land we own, we are turning into an industrial park.
We bought that land for a dollar, we received over $2 million in grants and constructed a road with all utilities and now we are going to sell off the available land for development.
I created a Housing Task Force that includes my Department Heads, Valley Health Department, Derby Housing Authority, Corporation Counsel and oftentimes Derby residents to help reduce crime, blight, density and absentee landlord issues.
This is one of the ways that we are tackling the issues that face Derby residents head on.
We have secured funding for our 3rd phase of the greenway and just recently received news about a new grant for the 4th phase of our greenway.
We have helped to revitalize the Sterling Opera House. We completely renovated the exterior with new doors, windows and a roof and now we are tackling the interior by securing tax credits and $150,000 with other grants to follow.
We have paved and reconstructed roads in Derby with several millions in grant funds and are looking to do more roads with additional grants, including Derby/Milford Road.
We are selling underutilized assets like East Derby Waterworks to be used for one time capital improvements.
We continue to work on behalf of the citizens of Derby to move the City forward in a positive fashion.
We have more work to do, but we stand ready and committed to improving the quality of life for all our residents.”
