He had 25 grandkids. Obit here.]]>
He had 25 grandkids. Obit here.]]>
This time, the road to Tony's towing lot had a happy ending.]]>
Taking pity on a woman whose car was towed for no reason due a screwup at the city tax office, Tony Juliano, the owner of Tony's Long Wharf towing company, handed Anna Festa a $95 check.
"So there's one nice person in all of this," said Festa, before meeting Juliano at his office Friday morning. (Juliano is pictured above at left, with Festa and son Giuseppe at right).
When Festa hitched a ride with a neighbor to Tony's a few months ago, the journey capped a tearful two days for the young mother. Festa was home alone, trying to get two sick kids to the doctor, on Jan. 24 when she found her SUV had been seized. She paid over $800 to get her car back, then over three months later, she discovered that she had been towed for no reason, all due to a city screw-up.
Click here to read an Independent story recounting Festa's woeful tale.
The city has admitted it double-billed Festa in the amount of $724. It has not offered to cover the $95 towing fee that Festa had to pay, in cash, to Tony's Long Wharf.
The city has apparently left Juliano hung out to dry in this situation: The tax collector told him it was up to him as to whether he wanted to pay her back.
Juliano, a gentle man in a Tony's baseball cap, volunteered to reach into his company's pockets to pay her back.
"I do this out of the goodness of my heart," said the towing operator, extending the offer upon hearing her plight. The good news reached her home Wednesday.
Return Trip
So Festa packed her two youngest boys in the car on Friday morning and made another trip down Sargent Drive.
"Where are we going?" asked her almost-3-year-old, Matteo.
"We're going to see Tony," replied Mom.
"Is he our friend?" Matteo asked.
The answer turned out to be "yes": Juliano brought the trio upstairs and wrote Festa a check.
"I know it's not your fault," Festa told him.
"Our hands were tied," said Juliano. When the city Plate Hunter program orders a car towed, his company's not allowed to release it until the tax bill is paid. The two had a pleasant chat in Tony's upstairs office.
"They should really give you your money back," said Juliano of the city. "Go down there."
Festa opted to take the kids home to East Rock, saving that battle for another day. The city told her she would have to wait "six to eight weeks -- maybe" to get her money back. They gave her a form to apply for a refund; she hasn't sent it in yet.
Festa balked at the possible two-month wait. When she coughed up the $724 to get her car back, she said, the tax collector's office demanded a cashier check: "They wanted my money right then and there. Now I want my money, right then and there."
The worst part of the whole ordeal, she said, was that the city tax collector told her "It's your fault."
"I hope the city takes an example from Tony," Festa said on the way back home. "Not because he gave me my money back, but he's a genuinely nice guy."
Previous coverage of New Haven's towing industry:
Mayor's Favorite Marshal Rakes In $196K
DMV To Towing Companies: No Sealed Bids
Kimber Gets Off The (Towing) Hook
"We're Not Double-Dipping"
Ranea al-Tikriti reports.]]>
Firefighters responded to a report of a residential fire at 174 Fillmore St. at 1:09 a.m. When they got there, the third floor was on fire. The second and third-floor residents were unable to return to their apartments. No injuries were reported, but a third-floor resident was taken to Yale New Haven Hospital to get checked out.
"The New Haven Fire Arson Unit responded and determined that the fire was not suspicious," read a police report. "The families that were displaced will be seeking shelter with family members."
And cops made a drug bust at 420 Huntington Street, 2nd Floor, on Thursday. They made one arrest for possession of marijuana.
]]>Both showed up to a City Hall press conference about major new proposed New Haven budget cuts, including 102 layoffs and the torpedoing of an acclaimed early-childhood reading readiness program. (Click here to read about that.) City officials and legislators like Staples blasted Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and allied out-of-town state lawmakers for ignoring the plight of the cities.
Fasano crashed the press conference to check out the blame game. Before it started, he and Staples exchanged differing views of whether the Democrats or Republicans had offered better budget plans to help New Haven out -- and whom to fault for neither budget being passed, or debated, in the end. Click on the play arrow to watch the exchange. Comment below.
]]>
Melinda Tuhus reports.]]>
LWT challenge. Release.]]>
"I'm the best," boasted Peter Criscuolo, the marshal at the center of an ongoing towing scandal, as he filed his latest eye-popping income statement. ]]>
Criscuolo took in $146,000 in city-related business in 2007, according to the latest income reports filed last week at the Office of State Ethics. That figure includes revenue from serving tax warrants and payments from law firms that contract with the city to do foreclosure work.
That puts Criscuolo, a fund-raiser for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano and chairman of the North Haven Democratic Town Committee, at the top of marshals receiving city government work, even as he racks up complaints of favoritism and bullying. Mayor DeStefano praised Criscuolo as the "most aggressive" marshal in town.
Marshal Susie Voigt, the Democratic Town chairwoman, reported receiving $132,419 in city-related foreclosure work in 2007.
Click here and here to read some of the filings, which were due May 1.
Six state marshals raked in a total of over $455,000 in city business in 2007. They get paid in three ways: From law firms hired to file foreclosures for the city, for collection of delinquent taxes, and for riding on the city's Plate Hunter car-snatching beat. New Haven County has 56 marshals. (Only 62 are allowed by state law.) Criscuolo is again cleaning up among the select few who do New Haven city work. (Read an Advocate story here on how he fared in 2006.)
"I'm the best," explained Criscuolo, who's been working for the city for 25 years. Mayor DeStefano defended the arrangement, citing Criscuolo's skill at getting the job done. "He's one of the reasons we have a 98 percent collection rate," DeStefano said.
"Strictly A Businessman"
Criscuolo reported a gross income of $196,087 in 2007. He earned over $146,000 from law firms retained by the city to file foreclosure suits: $73,612 from Jacobs & Rozich, which filed 86 foreclosures suits for the city in 2007, and $51,358 from Dolan & Lunzi, which filed 31 that year. Criscuolo also earned $21,240 directly from the city for tax collection work, including through the Plate Hunter program.
"I worked hard to get that money," said Criscuolo in an interview Thursday. The marshal gave a defense of how and why he keeps the lucrative job with the city.
"I'm strictly a businessman trying to make a living," Criscuolo said.
Much of the whopping income figure -- $96,823 -- goes towards work-related expenses, Criscuolo claimed on the report. He said he works 10 to 14 hours per day, six days a week, serving papers and riding on the city tow truck as part of the marshal job. Whereas others take on the marshal job as a side gig on weekends, Criscuolo relies on it as a sole source of income to support himself and his wife. He said has no pension and pays $12,000 per year for the couple's health care plan.
"Cities and municipalities do not pay us," Criscuolo noted. "We are paid by scofflaws." Foreclosure fees are paid by the defendant, whenever the home is foreclosed. Fees for serving tax warrants are paid by the tax scofflaws. That means marshals usually have to wait 90 days to six months to get paid.
When you factor out all the expenses, "I get paid less than a construction worker, or a Teamster," the marshal reckoned.
His net income was about $99,000.
A Political Job
Criscuolo was a constant fixture on DeStefano's gubernatorial campaign trail; he was an active fund-raiser and personally donated $3,250 to the mayor's quest. Does Criscuolo's position as the top bread-winner have anything to do with this political support?
"What I do politically has nothing to do with my workability," Criscuolo maintained. "My workability has never been challenged."
"I'm the best," Criscuolo continued. "In 25 years I have been doing work with the city of New Haven, I have never lost one penny. I have never missed a date on serving a paper. I am strictly hired to do a job." He noted that in 26 years, he has only had six complaints before the State Marshal Commission, and all were dismissed "I think that's a pretty good record," he said. (He didn't mention the time he was reprimanded and removed from the towing rotation after a verbal confrontation with a woman.)
The marshal noted that his political support has not been limited to the current mayor. "I worked on Dick Lee's campaign. I worked on Bart Guida's campaign. I worked on Frank Logue's" -- and John Daniels' and Ben DeLieto's, he said -- all former mayors. He served as former Gov. Ella Grasso's treasurer, too.
"I've given up my time to work for the Democratic Party my whole life," Criscuolo said. "I'm a diehard Democrat. I've worked for a lot of different Democrats in a lot of different towns that I never got a penny of work from."
"What I do politically has nothing to do with my workability," he maintained.
DeStefano's Defense
Back at City Hall, DeStefano defended the arrangement.
"Did Peter get [the work] because he's politically connected?" the mayor said, echoing a reporter's question to him. "All sheriffs are politically connected." (Marshals used to be called "sheriffs" until a corruption scandal led to state "reforms" that renamed them.)
"It's not that we chose the five or six politically connected marshals," DeStefano explained. "Every sheriff is politically connected."
Marshals received a total of about $355,000 from law firms that do foreclosure work with the city in 2007. The city puts out an RFQ (request for qualifications) for law firms, retaining them on contract. Each law firm then decides, out of the 56 marshals in the state, whom to take on as an independent contractor to serve papers. Most have established relationships with select few marshals.
DeStefano said he isn't as concerned with which specific marshals get the work as with "whether the program is run fairly." Marshal fees are decided by state statute, he noted.
Did Criscuolo's role as DeStefano's political fund-raiser and ally have anything to do with him retaining so much lucrative marshal work from the city? DeStefano replied that there were "hundreds" of Democratic town chairs across the state who raised money for his gubernatorial bid.
"Peter gets himself in trouble sometimes, but he's an aggressive collector," interjected DeStefano's chief of staff, Sean Matteson, explaining why the marshal keeps his job. "He hustles."
"That's part of the reason [City Tax Collector] C.J. [Cuticello] uses him," DeStefano said. "We've had issues" with Criscuolo's performance, but his aggressiveness is "one of the reasons we have a 98 percent collection rate."
The Second-"Best" Crew
The rest of the city's marshal team is a crew of politically connected Democrats, most holding local office of some kind.
Voigt, the New Haven Democratic Town Chairwoman, took in the second-highest income of the group of marshals who do city work. Voigt earned $132,419 from law firms retained by the city to file foreclosure suits: $39,078 from Mongillo & Isler, which filed 60 suits for the city in 2007; $60,310 from Palumbo & DeLaura (which filed 52 cases); $33,031 from Susman, Duffy and Segaloff (45 cases filed in 2007). Most of that work is filing foreclosure suits, Voigt said.
Voigt's gross income was $154,358. She wrote off almost $30,000 in work-related expenses, including $116.35 for "entertainment."
Jerry Juliano, who chairs the Democratic Town Committee in North Branford, took in over $84,000 in city-related business. He made $50,990 from the law offices of Alfred Onorato (which filed 44 city foreclosure suits); $9,495 from Susman, Duffy and Segaloff; and $24,000 prowling with the Plate Hunter. Juliano has since left the towing beat: He did not take the recertification course to work with the city towing program, according to the city. His gross income was $137,000, with about $81,000 in expenses.
Dominic Balletto, Jr., who chaired the New Haven Democratic Town Committee before Voigt, made $37,202 for city work with the Jacobs & Rozich firm. He. He now lives in Guilford. His gross income was $86,000, with $33,000 in expenses.
Andrew Esposito III, a Democratic Council Member of North Branford, made $30,400 manning the Plate Hunter. His gross income was $85,000, including $29,000 in expenses.
Mark DeAngelis made $25,000 from the city Plate Hunting beat. His gross income was $76,000, with $23,000 in expenses.
Criscuolo appears to be the only marshal who does tax collection work aside from the Plate Hunter program. He made about $4,000 from serving tax warrants on personal property. "They need an aggressive marshal for that," Criscuolo explained.
A Woman's View
Voigt, who became a marshal in 1998, takes on the work on nights and weekends in addition to her full-time job at Yale's Peabody Museum.
Shortly after becoming a marshal, in 1999, she approached DeStefano. "I said I was interested in being able to do some work for the city," she said in a phone interview this week. There was no bidding process, but she found work and has stayed on ever since. She said her ability to speak Spanish and her reliability make her a good fit.
She didn't take issue with the highly political nature of the people who do marshal work for the city: "Historically, if you went back further the sheriff system," which was overhauled in 2000, "historically it was even more political that it is today."
Voigt offered her own take on how the marshal system could be reformed: Out of 56 marshals in the New Haven County, she's the only woman. And the number of minorities, she said, could be counted on one hand.
"I think we need to have a marshal system that's more representative of the city," Voigt said. "There's a long way to go in reforming the system."
Previous coverage of New Haven's towing industry:
DMV To Towing Companies: No Sealed Bids
Kimber Gets Off The (Towing) Hook
"We're Not Double-Dipping"