ANSONIA – The Cassetti administration has a severe accountability issue, and unfortunately for the residents of Ansonia, it seems to be only getting worse.
The Cassetti administration wants you to believe, even though they’ve known about this issue since June 2021, that the budget could not have been amended to account for this error.
The Cassetti administration wants you to believe that it is not the city’s fault, but the state’s fault, for their own budgetary error.
However, all of this couldn’t be further from the truth. But don’t take it from us, take it from Ansonia CFO Kurt Miller directly.
In an article published by the Valley Indy on February 8th, Mr. Miller admits that he became aware of the budget shortfall in June, when the state set their budget. Mr. Miller said it was too late too late to make changes to the budget, however Ansonia’s history says otherwise.
Precedent was set In January of 2018, when the Ansonia Board of Aldermen, led by President Josh Shuart, voted to amend the budget and revoke $600,000 from Ansonia’s Public Schools operating budget. As we all know, not only was the city in the wrong for this amendment, but was forced to pay penalties because of the illegal reduction of the budget.
The fact that Mr. Miller noticed this issue in June and swept it under the rug until now brings up even more questions. Was the issue not raised because it was going to interfere with the Ansonia Republican’s campaign? Is it being brought up now in a political attempt to make our current state legislation look bad in the wake of their re-elections? Why wasn’t this issue raised by the Board of Aldermen, as it was raised by Derby’s Aldermen?
Furthermore, Mayor Cassetti adamantly claimed at the February 8th Board of Aldermen meeting that these funds were “promised.” However, neither Mr. Miller nor Mayor Cassetti are able to provide any correspondence that shows that these funds were “promised.”
There are 30 distressed municipalities on the original list to receive funding. Yet only three municipalities in Connecticut budgeted these funds, two of those being Ansonia and Derby. What did those 27 municipalities know that the City didn’t? Rather than look at official state numbers, or reach out to our legislators, the City relied on unofficial figures published by a nonprofit, and then refused to meet with our state legislators month after month who could have advised the City correctly.
At the end of the day, Ansonia actually ended up with more funding than they would have gotten through the distressed municipalities grant. Instead of a single payment, the final budget that was passed includes a formula that will actually bring more than the proposed grant funds to Ansonia, year after year.
So why are we in this mess? Instead of owning up to their obvious mistakes, the Cassetti administration is doing what they always do — gaslighting the public and blaming someone else for their errors. It is time that they take accountability for their own failures.
John Feddern is a member of the Ansonia Democratic Town Committee. Brian Perkins is interim chairman of the Ansonia Democratic Town Committee.
Note: the opinions expressed in letters to the editor belong to the letter writers, and should not be interpreted as the opinion of The Valley Independent Sentinel. Letters cannot exceed 550 words.
