Mayor Anthony Staffieri has kicked Robert Hughes off the city’s Police Commission, where the mayor’s former political ally served for nearly five years as chairman.
The commission is scheduled to meet Monday. Hughes said he found out he was off the commission after sending e‑mails to his fellow commissioner’s about Monday’s meeting.
“I was trying to set up an agenda for my Monday meeting and my e‑mails were going unanswered. One of the other commissioners called me and told me that the mayor stated that Ted Estwan and Leo DiSorbo are still on the commission — but there’s a vacancy. I looked at an agenda and saw my name is no longer on it — and one of the items is that they’re going to elect a new chairman.”
Theodore J. Estwan, Jr. is the commissioner who broke the news Friday, Hughes said.
Hughes said the move is in retaliation for the ownership dispute that erupted in March over Connie’s Restaurant, which was owned by Hughes’ son, Jeffrey, and Staffieri’s sons, Anthony and Paul.
Jeffrey Hughes is suing the mayor and his sons, claiming they illegally kicked him out of the business. The popular restaurant closed abruptly last month.
The mayor said he has nothing to do with the business dispute and that the media is covering it only because he’s a public official.
Last week, Jeffrey Hughes appeared at a Derby Board of Aldermen meeting, where he publicly chastised the mayor and accused Derby corporation counsel Joseph Coppola of lying.
He produced e‑mails which he said show Coppola was representing the Staffieri sons in their dealings with Hughes. Hughes said a newspaper quoted Coppola as saying he did not represent the Staffieri sons.
“Our tax dollars should not be used for the mayor’s sons and their legal problems,” Hughes said at the meeting.
The elder Hughes said his son’s lawsuit against the Staffieri family triggered his removal from the police commission.
“Obviously this nonsense going on with my younger son has ruffled somebody’s feathers, so they just decided to replace me, I guess,” Hughes said.
Staffieri would not talk specifically about why he removed Hughes.
“Appointees to the police commission serve at the discretion of the mayor. It’s in our charter,” Staffieri said. “It’s time to move on.”
When asked whether Hughes was removed because of his son Jeffrey’s comments to the Board of Aldermen, Staffieri said:
“I have nothing to say about it. I make professional judgments, I don’t try to get anybody. I have never done that and I will never do that.”
The mayor’s move has clearly opened a riff between he and Ken Hughes, the president of the Derby Board of Aldermen. Ken Hughes ran the mayor’s most recent re-election campaign.
He is the son of Robert Hughes and older brother of Jeffrey Hughes — and he was angry Friday after learning what happened.
If the mayor wants to appoint a new chairman to the police commission, he should come to the Board of Aldermen, Hughes said.
He also wants to know specific reasons as to why his father was replaced.
“It’s common knowledge my father was the hardest working member of that commission,” Hughes said. “If he wasn’t making meetings, or he did something wrong, fine — then the mayor should say it. ‘It was time for a change’ is not enough. If it’s time for a change, then he should be replacing all three police commissioners,” Hughes said.
The mayor declined to say who he is recommending to replace Robert Hughes.
