New Haven Independent

posted by: Jeffrey Kerekes on July 16, 2010  6:32pm

Its no surprise that DeStefano shrugs this one off too.  He certainly wasn’t upset with what appears to be Peter Criscuolo shaking down citizens, manufacuring documents to suit his own pocket book.  The mayor surrounds himself with bullies—like Brian McGrath dragging a disabled person to the polls, and the BZA woman telling people to shut up.  There is a consistent pattern here that all points to Mayor DeStefano.  If you agree, please stop using euphemisms such as “city hall” and the “administration”.  That doesn’t help anyone.  We can be like a family in denial with an alcoholic and blame obscure things instead of alcohol.  If DeStefano is the connecting thread in all these problems, start naming him as the problem or we will all continue in the land of denial.  See [url=http://www.johndestefanojr.com]http://www.johndestefanojr.com[/url]for a compilation of his abuses and tolerance of abuses on the citizens of New Haven.  Not until we start naming the problem squarely, will we be able to address is clearly.

posted by: Doyens on July 16, 2010  11:28pm

Of course, there is not a reason to dump O’Brien. He treats the public with the same disdain the mayor does.  What we really need is a dialogue project so everybody can jawbone about it, vent and lose their anger. Right? Excuse me, mayor: What about the drive by assessments and the mythical industry standards? Don’t taxpayers have a right to know what standards they are being compared to if O’Brien is going to consider them lying cheats? Do you think the public should be given advanced and proper notice that mistakes were made and to expect higher assessments and tax bills? Oh, of course not. We’re just the dumb little taxpayers who should shut up and pay. Well, maybe we would if our taxes went up the same percentage as your celebrated education improvements. Unfortunately, our rate is much higher than yours.

posted by: robn on July 17, 2010  9:10am

Its true that firings cannot be political but a formal request from aldermen, representatives of the public and to whom many citizens have complained is not political. If the assessor sets arbitrary personal property valuations such has been described in the NHI, then that assessor is either incompetent, or willfully unfaithful to the duties of his office which require equitable assessments.

Code of Ordinances, New Haven CT
TITLE I CHARTER
ARTICLE V.  THE MAYOR
Sec. 11.  Powers.
(c)  The mayor may at any time whenever he may believe any person appointed to office by him or any of his predecessors to be incompetent, or unfaithful to the duties of his office, or that the requirements of the public service demand his removal, summon said officer before him at a place and time specified in said summons to show cause why he should not be removed from said office. With said summons he shall leave with said officer a written statement of the charges against him, and if, after a full hearing, he shall find that such officer is incompetent or unfaithful, or that the requirements of the public service demand his removal, he may remove such person from his office;

posted by: fedup taxpaer on July 19, 2010  9:20am

Unfortunately, I am all too familiar with this man’s antics.  And they are antics.  He claims he is doing his job by the books but the reality he is a bureaucrat.

I had a business in Bridgeport and he ran us into the ground with his excessive use of “the law” in determining our tax liability.  We were able to get out of the city before going out of business and settling our tax liability on our business but I think New Haven was foolish hiring this man.  Bridgeport was thrilled about his departure and as a resident of New Haven I am scared that he is in control of our assessments.  DeStefano would be wise to get rid of this guy.  He is no good.  I agree he needs to do things “by the books” but there has to be an ounce of humanity in all of us and he has none.
...

With his track record in Bridgeport he will only scare away businesses.

posted by: The Professor on July 20, 2010  3:18am

Without commenting on O’Brien himself, I just want to point out that the idea of some BoA members complaining about someone else being “hostile” and “arrogant” cracks me up.

posted by: streever on July 20, 2010  1:20pm

It’s funny that the mayor would say there is no basis: keep an eye on Betsy Yagla’s stories in the Advocate. She’s broken some very interesting material that certainly makes a compelling case for a firing—and for the mayor being aware of the problem before.

I’m surprised that so few aldermen signed on. I can only hope that they weren’t invited to sign on and that is why they are absent: or, that they just didn’t have enough data yet.

If it’s the latter, again, please read the last several stories in the Advocate. They paint a pretty clear & convincing picture.

posted by: roomforaview on July 21, 2010  8:34pm

It was a mystery why DeStefano took back O’Brien after the big troubles he had in Bridgeport. But the million dollar question now is why in the world is DeStefano hanging onto this guy? DeStefano is very smart, he can see the havoc and problems O’Brien is causing just like everyone else. So why is DeStefano being so evasive, giving him cover and balking at canning him? There’s got to be an interesting answer to that question.