New Haven Independent

Posted by: Jim F. in New Haven | October 3, 2005 2:52 PM

Frank Alteri does what no one else in City Hall does - he SAVES the taxpayers loads of money by working hard to keep taxes down AND he is, seemingly, the only person in City Hall who isn't a "yes man" to the Mayor. Alteri speaks his mind and never - ever - tells the Mayor what he wants to hear. If Alteri doesn't agree with what the Mayor says, Alteri will tell him - with gusto. (Perhaps being a "contract" player allows him more wiggle room.)

If Alteri doesn't like or "get" what the so-called City Hall "progressives" (the progressives are the folks around 25 years of age, who don't own property in the City and don't pay taxes, aren't married and don't have children and have little life experience besides sitting around to think up policies that mostly affect people who own property, pays taxes, are married and have kids!) is saying, the budget director tells them so. Three cheers for Mr. Alteri!

Perhaps Alteri should fill out the disclosure form - but I'm sure if there was anything serious to disclose, we'd have heard about it a long time ago from some reporter.

Let Frank Alteri alone! He's saved this City MILLIONS! He's probably the only person in City Hall that will stand up and say no when folks - and the Mayor - need a "no" answer. That's something that would be missing from this City Hall if Alteri leaves - and I value that strength more than I value the need to see him fill out a (useless?) form.

Posted by: nfjanette | October 9, 2005 12:30 AM

"Mayor John DeStefano allows Altieri to do this so he can maintain the legal fiction that he's still retired from government service. That allows Altierei to double-dip from public coffers: He receives a pension as a retired school administrator. And he receives his salary -- er, fee -- as the city's top budget official."


Why choose to use a loaded term such as "double-dip"? Mr. Altieri earned his pension by working many years; the pension was a part of the compensation he was promised for completing that work; why shouldn't he get it? He also works a current position for the city and gets paid for it. So what? Should he work for pats on the head by reporters because he receives a pension for work already completed? The man is working for his money - something regrettably not always so clear for New Haven city officials.


There may be other legitimate issues regarding Mr. Altieri, but this doesn't seem to be one to me.

Posted by: Paul Bass | October 9, 2005 3:44 PM

I chose the term "double-dip" because the term means reaching into two pots of money at once, improperly. Of course people are entitled to their pension when they retire. Frank Altieri didn't retire from government service. He pretended to. No one deserves to receive both a pension and a salary at the same time through an openly dishonest arrangement like Altieri's, under which he has held a powerful full-time job for 12 years under the pretense of it being a temporary contract job. He and the mayor are ripping off taxpayers. Does the average citizen get to pretend to retire from a company, pull a full pension, and continue to receive a full-time salary as well? Does the average city official get to bypass rules governing city officials by pretending not to be a city official? This is a pattern of behavior that Altieri has practiced with the mayor's blessing for 12 years running. Corruption thrives in Connecticut because politicians feel they can get away with this kind of behavior. Voters let them get away with it, saying it's no big deal; then voters are surprised when the accumulation of "no big deal" unethical practices explodes in scandals. A "loaded term" here would have been "legal theft of taxpayer money." An accurate term, but I chose the more specific descriptive phrase.

Posted by: nfjanette | October 11, 2005 4:32 PM

The beauty of the online medium is becoming apparent - over how many weeks would it take to have this argument in a printed newspaper, if was was even allowed?

In fact, I've personally seen in non-government industry business what you propose does not occur. I was a consultant at SNET when management offered the first large early retirement deal - a deal more attractive than they realized - which resulted in many of the "old timers" taking the deal and retiring. That was a problem: those guys were needed to keep the telephone copper wire plant running for at least several more years. The result was that they were hired back as consultants - keeping the pension that they had *earned* - and also were paid double or more what they previously made hourly.

That is not, by far, an unknown dynamic in many industries; many retirees are hired back as consultants for the very firms from which they receive a pension. A pension they *earned* by performing many years of work according to a contract between them and the company. A pension is not a gift, it is earned compensation paid on a delayed basis.

Mr. Alteri works for "the city government" - an entity that incorporates a rather wide variety of separate "businesses". He put in his time as required to *earn* his pension. He is also being compensated - legally - as a paid consultant performing the duties of budget manager. You may have a point that it's a "clever" way around a potential issue with city employee contracts - I'm not privy to the details of those agreements. But, perhaps the real problem is that you are making an artificial distinction between the public and private sector with respect to employee compensation? Why should someone be penalized for working in government, when there would be no issue if they had a two-stage career that occurred in the private sector?

Mr. Alteri's actions in his position are reasonable to hold up to public scrutiny; calling him a thief for receiving, however, is not a reasonable part of that scrutiny.