New Haven Independent

Mike Milici, former chair of the Branford Democratic Party, likes to think of himself as a concerned citizen, too. It is under this description that he emerges from time to time as the old fashioned town crier, the bearer of “news” he feels compelled to disclose, to one and to all, news that may reflect upon one’s reputation.

Perhaps he might have enlightened us as to how he came to this role; we tried to have a conversation but he said no.

A relative newcomer to Branford (he lived in West Haven and Guilford before moving to Branford in late October, 2002) Milici had a meteoric rise in Democratic town politics, becoming chair of the party only two years later, in March 2004.

He replaced Bruce Morris, who served for six years. Milici appeared to be Morris’s hand-picked successor. The night he was elected to the DTC, Daniel Baughman and Jill Marcus were elected vice-chairs. Jill is married to Ed Marcus, a former State Democratic Chair and currently the town attorney. Bruce Morris is a former State Senator and a friend and business partner of Ed Marcus.

Two years later Milici resigned as party chair to become the chair of a newly formed Democratic finance committee. Raising funds for the party was an activity he liked and did well, he told the local press. Baughman took over as chair. Before he left as DTC chair, Milici said he viewed the election of First Selectwoman Cheryl Morris, Bruce’s wife, as his greatest achievement. But within months of the election of Nov. 2005, and to the embarrassment and antagonism of the incumbents, a new leadership took over the Democratic Party.

But Milici has not disappeared from the political scene. In the last year he has played the concerned citizen role, either out front in the political arena or working behind-the-scenes.

As folks in Branford know, it was Milici’s enthusiasm to do the right thing that helped to bring Granite-gate about. He asked a friend to take photos of granite stored at the masonry business of Former Democratic First Selectman, Anthony “Unk” DaRos. As First Selectwoman Cheryl Morris put it in her report “he wanted to be helpful in proving that large quantities of stone were being removed from the (Stony Creek) quarry and it appeared that Unk DaRos was acquiring stone from the quarry.”

Then Milici delivered the photographs to Ed Marcus, who met with Detective Duncan Ayr in Morris’s First Selectman’s office. Marcus later said he believed their conversation was private and fell under attorney-client privilege. (Click here to read the police report.) Ayr then visited Unk to find out if the former First Selectman had engaged in “theft of town services,” Unk recalled, mad as hell one night at what came to be dubbed the Granite-gate hearings. When Police Chief Robert Gill realized this was much ado about nothing, Gill ended what he has termed “a query.”

Had he not, the Chief has said he would have questioned Milici and others, including the still publicly unnamed photographer, about their understanding of these events. In that way, Gill might have shed some light on how Milici came to be the town’s self-appointed evidence gatherer. Ed Marcus eventually told the public he would have done things differently.

But unlike Marcus, Milici has not commented publicly on his role. When the Granite-gate committee held hearings, Milici refused to attend. He would not answer questions either in person or in writing. Instead his East Haven attorney sent a letter that he was “researching” purported libel actions but he did not say against whom or for what. The DTC voted to oust Marcus from office, but Mrs. Morris refused. As the first Granite-gate anniversary approaches, the town is still awaiting a long overdue report from an ad-hoc RTM committee that studied the case.

All that took place last spring, summer and fall. As winter settled in, Milici emerged again, this time with Dan Baughman as co-writer of a letter taking aim at their own. Acting as fact-finders, judge and jury, they drew conclusions about four RTM members and then had them aired at a January RTM meeting.

Milici and Baughman had been partners in the past. In a bitterly contested Short Beach primary for the Democratic Town Committee in March, 2006, Milici served as treasurer for a group that helped to finance a scurrilous letter writing campaign against Warren Gould, who served as a campaign manager and helped to lead the “Save Branford” slate to a commanding victory. Among the letter writers attacking Gould were Baughman and RTM members Lisa Avitable and Ralph Coppola, Jr.

During the Short Beach DTC primary, the losing Morris slate, including John Smith, the current RTM majority leader, sent out a notice saying “This literature was not authorized by us….Some “over-zealous Democrats, having access to this information, took it upon themselves to do mailings neither requested nor sanctioned by us….” But holding those “over-zealous Democrats,” who did not rush forward to identify themselves, accountable is another matter.

In this latest round of letter writing, Milici and Baughman wrote to the RTM about four members. But their prime target was Lonnie Reed, a highly-respected member of the RTM and an outspoken critic of the Morris-Marcus administration. The letter was written quickly, on the same day that the local weekly, “The Sound,” quoted Reed as saying that “seasoned professionals,” should be censured for their role in Granite-gate because “a bogus granite theft was concocted in an attempt to tarnish a political rival’s sterling reputation.”

The letter, dated Jan 10, was delivered to RTM moderator James Bruno just before the RTM meeting began, from whom he has not said. He read it aloud and the room erupted. No motion was made regarding the letter, but Bruno somewhat off-handedly said he would send the letter to the state elections board.

What no one seemed to fully understand was that “sending it to the state” was just the beginning of Milici and Bruno’s roles. To follow through as Concerned Citizen # 1, Milici would need to sign an actual complaint to be sent to the State Election Enforcement Commission. (Baughman apparently bowed out at this juncture.)

Milici had to write up a complaint that would be sworn to before a notary public, a person who takes sworn statements and then affixes a seal to show the party has sworn to the truth.

Now Mike Milici is someone who has uncommon access to notary publics.

He lives with one—-Trista Clyne, chief assistant to First Selectwoman Morris. They live in North Branford. He works with one— Elizabeth C. Leary, the town clerk of East Haven, where Milici is town assessor. He knows several in Branford where he once served as a member of the Branford Board of Assessment Appeals, starting in October 1, 2002. And while he no longer serves on this Board, he has for the last five years worked as a part-time assessor, measuring the square footage of houses and determining a house’s category, say colonial or custom, both functions that determine property taxes of some of Branford’s homeowners.

So given how many notaries Milici has at hand, why, when he needed to find a notary for his complaint against Reed, did he seek out one in New Haven?

(Part II on Tuesday )

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