Former Mayor Richard Dziekan (left) and current Mayor Joseph DiMartino.
DERBY — Mayor Joseph DiMartino is questioning whether his predecessor was entitled to the full amount of a check he cashed last year.
“The mayor has a $5,000 expense account in the line item in the budget. Before Mayor (Richard) Dziekan left he went to the finance office and had them write a check for the remaining balance and wiped it to zero,” Mayor DiMartino told the public during the Jan. 11 meeting of the Derby Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen.
Former Mayor Dziekan told The Valley Indy he was legally entitled to the money and that the former corporation counsel was OK with it.
“It was a vehicle expense account. They don’t provide a vehicle for the mayor, so I was using my personal vehicle for city business and travelling all over,” Dziekan said. “I had problems with my truck and I needed to get it fixed.”
Those problems included issues with his vehicle’s transmission, Dziekan said.
Dziekan said the check was made out to him in July, was vetted internally, and that DiMartino was trying to assassinate his character by raising it as an issue.
Mayor DiMartino said the Derby budget includes a $5,000 expense account for the mayor that is paid out over 12 months, or roughly $400 per month. Derby’s fiscal year runs from July 1 until June 30.
The current mayor said the former mayor was entitled to money from July 1, 2023 until the end of November 2023, when he left office.
However, DiMartino said the check cut for Dziekan included money that covered December 2023 until the end of the fiscal year in June 2024. That money was supposed to go toward the newly-elected mayor’s expense account, DiMartino said.
“As of right now, the mayor does not have an expense account, and (it) won’t be replenished again until July. But I wanted to let everyone know that, before he left, he had finance write him a check and he took it all,” DiMartino said.
According to DiMartino’s description of the expense account, Dziekan allegedly took $3,000 he wasn’t entitled to.
New Derby Corporation Counsel Richard Buturla said he’s looking into the issue. He noted the rules around the mayor’s expense account are not crystal clear.
“We did some digging to see the origin of how this account was set up, and the account was set up some time ago,” Buturla said at the Jan. 11 public meeting. “There was a loosely-worded resolution. So the origins and the constraints, if you will, despite what the understanding came to be over a period of time, is kind of loose.”
After the meeting, The Valley Indy asked for documentation regarding the parameters of the mayor’s expense account.
Derby City/Town Clerk Marc Garofalo provides two sets of documents Buturla said he was referring to: Derby Aldermanic meeting minutes from March 2021 and April 2005.
The 2005 meeting minutes contain a discussion and then a vote to raise the salary for the position of mayor.
The 2021 meeting minutes contain a discussion of the mayor’s compensation package, and include a question asked by former Alderwoman Barbara DeGennaro, who noted the mayor “currently gets a $5,000 expense” and whether it would be included going forward.
Former Alderman Charles Sampson answered, according to the minutes, by saying his research showed the “$5,000 expense was usually spent on flowers, Christmas parties, and food for the employees.”
The Valley Indy also reached out to former corporation counsels Vin Marino and John Marini for comment last Friday but did not hear back.
At last week’s meeting, the Alders asked that more research be done and that the issue be revisited in February.
Former Mayor Dziekan said the money was used properly and that he would be willing to give half back should the current administration deem it necessary.
