New Haven Independent

Banning or reducing pensions to convicted public officials who violate public trust was spurred in New Haven by the arrests of corrupt cops Billy White and Justen Kasperzyk, who subsequently applied for and received their pension of $91,000 and $41,000 respectively. Click here and here to read previous stories.

As a template for a prospective New Haven bill, Perez and Annex Alderman Al Paolillo assembled language and documents provided by State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz subsequent to their appearance before the BOA in September. (Click here for that story.)

Perez and Paolillo said they wanted to do their due diligence and take the time necessary so that issues such as the needs of innocent spouses, for example, be taken into consideration.

“If some corrupt official,” said Finance Chair Yusuf Shah, “steals $5,000 and buys furniture, and the wife sits on the furniture and gets some benefit from it, how is that separated out in the bill?”

Despite some testy exchanges between Shah and Perez on the absence of “actual language” in the material Perez and Paolillo provided, as well as the time that has elapsed, the vote was unanimous for a resolution to move to the next step, which is an actual ordinance crafted by committee and reviewed in public hearing.

Board of Aldermen President Carl Goldfield said he would immediately assign the matter to the Legislative Committee headed by East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar. “We are definitely going to move on this.”

During the proceedings, aldermen expressed hope that the state would pass a similar bill. But it died at the Capitol Wednesday.

“There’s no reason,” Paolillo said, “we can’t have a good bill by mid-summer.”

Mayor Not Quite Ready to Discuss Salary

In other Finance Committee news, or non-news, two amendments to the city code pertaining to how to determine the salary of the mayor and the city clerk were withdrawn from the agenda.

“We met with Labor Relations,” said Shah, “and they said they weren’t ready.”