Connecticut Post scribe Brian Lockhart digs deeper into the suspension of City Councilman Rich Paoletto from his paid city job.
The city, at the request of Richard Paoletto and his union, is refusing to release details of a 2010 sexual harassment case against the councilman and Bridgeport employee that led to his suspension for several weeks without pay.
Paoletto, deputy director of housing and commercial code enforcement, was recently placed on administrative leave pending a probe into a separate sexual harassment complaint made by a college intern.“I don’t want to be bringing up old skeletons,” Dwayne Harrison, president of the National Association of Government Employees, said Friday. “2010 was 2010. We’re in 2014 so we’ll handle 2014.”
Read more here.
“I don’t want to be bringing up old skeletons,” Dwayne Harrison, president of the National Association of Government Employees, said Friday. “2010 was 2010. We’re in 2014 so we’ll handle 2014.” This is pure union bullshit. What happened in 2010 does matter in 2014 as it is a repeat of 2010.
This cannot help Richie’s case. Now the taxpayers who pay his salary will demand the release of this information. This puts Mayor Finch in a very vulnerable position, especially from women during reelection. It is a shame.
What about the woman’s right to privacy?
They do not have to identify the woman. Just the details.
Let’s keep focused on the issue, sexual harassment in the workplace, is that subject. The situation from 2010 should be able to be reported in a factual format, keeping the victim’s name unknown to the public if her wish is to have privacy.
The real subject in this situation and so many others dealing with sexual harassment and worse is the power abuse that creates the opportunity for the victimization to occur. How much abuse of power occurred in 2010? What safeguards of a supervisory nature were placed in operation so the findings of 2010 would not happen again? Can this type of information be shared with the taxpayer? Time will tell.
“Paoletto was accused of harassing the woman and was ultimately punished with an unpaid suspension spread over time to avoid a financial hardship to his family.”
To avoid a financial hardship to his family??? What about the hardship to the victim?
Richie’s family, if you are going to call them a victim, are a victim of their own making.
No wonder why he felt emboldened to do it again. If punished the city will spread it out over time to avoid any financial hardships.
I believe Richie is paid with Block Grant funds. If he or his victim is paid with federal money maybe the feds should get involved. Especially with the college intern.
In case people in the City of Bridgeport hadn’t noticed, the Obama administration is not taking lightly sexual assault and harassment of college students.
Of course, the bigger question is why his family (specifically his wife) is still standing by this (alleged) perv.
Finch and his cronies are trying their best to cover this up. Unfortunately, the more they try, the worse it’s going to get. Still waiting for Anastasi to come up with new laws to protect this pervert. Finch STILL doesn’t get it, as leader of this city, he should be demanding full disclosure for the taxpayers, not helping to cover it up.
Some observations in no particular order:
Those “old skeletons” remain in Rich’s personnel file and they can be used against him. If you are suspended for a serious violation of a City policy and you do the same thing again, even if it’s four years later, the next step is termination.
When Rich was given the Deputy Director position, he should have been moved to another supervisory union. As a member of Nage, he should not be supervising other Nage members. Looks like another exception was made for Councilman Paoletto.
Any employee on administrative leave is not allowed back in city hall unless attending a labor relations meeting OR unless they have permission to retrieve something from their office and they still have to be accompanied by a member of labor relations or a supervisor. If Councilman Paoletto is attending city council meetings in city hall, then another exception has been made.
Brian Lockhart is getting his information from other city employees who are sick and tired of Rich’s inappropriate behavior in the workplace.
The feeling in city hall, even by other anonymous union officials, is nothing will happen to Rich. Employees know the rules are applied to some but not to others and labor relations can swing their investigation towards or against someone. It happens all the time.
Does anyone care about the young woman? A college intern who was simply trying to fulfill a graduation requirement who is now in the middle of this mess? She doesn’t have union representation. Who advises and advocates for her? Did she tell her professor what happened? Will that school hesitate before placing interns in Bridgeport again? Did the young woman tell her family? If I were her father, I’d track Rich down and sexually harass him!
How long will Rich stay out on paid leave until labor relations gets around to making a decision? Will he break Dennis Scinto’s record of a two-year paid vacation? Time will tell.
Paoletto’s behavior is inexcusable–then and now. Classic response from the Animal House culture in the Mayor’s office and from the rest of the go-along-to-get-along crowdthat includes the toadies on City Council and most especially, our esteemed President of the City Council and Deputy Director of Labor Relations. Paoletto is someone who never misses an opportunity to belittle the public speakers who come to Council hearings and has a highly inflated opinion of his own power and struts it wherever he can. Protecting a serial harasser tells you all you need to know about the mentality of the Finch administration.
The longer this goes on, the worse it will get for the mayor and his followers. Just for once, I’d like this mayor to take a stand, even if it’s against one of his “yes” men. This is not going to go away, take a stand Bill, for once for God’s sake.
Just more information to share with voters in Thomas Hooker and JFK next year. My problem isn’t that I don’t have enough information to share with voters in my neighborhood next year. My issue is how do I edit it down? There is so much to work with.
I was seated at our neighborhood diner a couple of days ago and I overheard an elderly couple saying how they would never vote for Paoletto again. I couldn’t help chime in that Marella was his uncle and Paoletto took $1,000 of taxpayer funds last year and donated it to PAL which is run by Marella. Boy did they get hot.
$1,000 of taxpayer funds was donated by Richie the Repeater Paoletto to the PAL Program run by Shelton Mike Marella, Paoletto’s uncle!
So did the elderly neighborhood couple think the money when into somebody’s pocket???
Some loudmouth people in the 138th go mute when things like this happen. It’s called the Sergent Schultz syndrome!
Thanks for the update. MP.
Jim, you know what it’s really called and you are the prime example, it’s called not knowing what the hell you are talking about. I know your comments are referring to me, so be it, taking criticism from a jerk like you is easy to take because it comes from a person who has never done anything for Bridgeport.
Now I suggest you look at the comments I made about these dollar gifts the council gave each other and to other charities. JML and I have the paperwork to prove what we said. What have you done? Zip point nothing. You don’t even pay taxes here.
I pay over $10,400 in taxes each year to help Bridgeport, I also have donated my time, money and labor and my employees’ time and labor to help Salvation Army back in the early days of the ’80s while you were hosing down grass fires at Beeches Woods.
From ’79 to the mid ’80s I donated my time, money and labor to Habitat for Humanity of Bridgeport along with Gary Koos and Ann Stoddard and others before it was cool.
I remember working those cold nights and weekends at Remington Arms prefabricating a two-family home for Deforest Ave. and building homes for people I didn’t know, all the while living in Fairfield.
Working on Brooks St with bullets shooting over my head was not my way of giving back to Bridgeport, but I did it! Or going to my truck while building homes near Washington Park and finding half my tools missing and a broken truck window, we finished those home even under fire.
I was born in Bridgeport and lived on Butler Ave and when I was old enough I worked for John’s Pharmacy and you’re right Andy, as a soda jerk.
My father John Fox and Harvey Paulin who recognized the need for a place where boys can play organized baseball, started the first Little League Baseball team in Bridgeport’s Black Rock section behind Madison Motors.
Right again Andy, my parents never instilled in me to be a volunteer or to help Bridgeport even when I lived in Fairfield, but I did.
My name is on a plaque for helping to build the gazebo in Fairfield.
Not to mention the years of being a volunteer on the Affordable Housing Committee in Fairfield so people didn’t have to move to Bridgeport or TPZ, Conservation Commission just to name a few.
People like you can sit in your ivory towers with your FAT City Pensions and your oxygen tanks I’m paying for, driving my taxes through the fucking roof each year, then looking down on jerks like me because you didn’t read my name on the tax rolls or some blog or newspaper as a volunteer. Fuck you!
Now you know how it feels, you asshole. You drop your little innuendos on the blog and think it’s funny. Jim, it’s funny there is no property in Bridgeport listed in your name. You bet your skinny little ass you are paying for it, I guess I should say thanks. Just so you know asshole, the O2 tanks are gone. Jim, you made my day. I finally paid you back for all the crap you posted about me. BTW dipshit, don’t waste your Viagra. How’s that, little man?
I can understand the money going to charity and some being upset. Let’s be honest, PAL does good work and Mike Marella has done an amazing job with the PAL program and should be commended. Going after Richie for this is just silly. I hope Richie is found innocent. I think he is a very nice upstanding guy. If he is guilty, then I want the City to do the right thing and terminate him. It is wrong to start finding every fault of Richie Paoletto and building a case to demonize him. Sexual harassment in most cases is a terminable offense. Two times would be hard to swallow. It becomes a huge distraction for Finch and his administration. The Mayor’s office will ultimately be held accountable.
Steve,
The subject of 15 Council persons requesting City taxpayer funds from the Legislative Department OTHER SERVICES Line Item late in June, 2013 has been posted on OIB and explained to the City Council on three occasions since the final June 2013 monthly financial report was released AFTER THE EXTERNAL AUDIT to the City Council in January 2014.
If it is news to you at this time, that is a real shame. However, at the time of the “donations” many on the Council were facing District primaries as well as election four months later. They were instructed in the methodology by City Council President Thomas McCarthy. Five people did not participate, either by luck, absence from a meeting or solid ethical judgement. For the 15, they can show NO Committee meeting, NO agenda item supporting the action, NO minutes of the decision. More importantly, neither the City nor the Council reps received any OTHER SERVICES that are the only items that should be appropriated from that Line Item. From the start I have questioned the legality of that behavior. I have asked where there is a “Sheriff” who will act on the complaint. Recently the matter has been forwarded to the IRS. Perhaps they will have one or more issues with this charitable funding.
We have never said there was anything wrong about the charitable recipients themselves. It might be interesting to know if they thanked anyone with a letter. Did they thank the Council person as if it were a charitable donation, or as a conduit for City funds? Did the City provide a 1099 to each of the donors for this special request so they could turn around and take a charitable deduction from their personal return? Are there more questions?
Steve, you indicate “The Mayor’s office will ultimately be held accountable (presumably for the employment harassment issue), but isn’t his administration also responsible for the payment of these funds through other than normal channels? Will he be held accountable, or will no one be accused of misappropriation of public funds? Time will tell.
STEVE, THOSE DONATIONS WERE ILLEGAL.
Steve, those donations were illegal to say the least. We have a total of $30,000 that was given to charities or to organizations like that senior citizen drum and bugle corps Marella and Paniccia belong to. In addition to the $30K we have council people buying their groceries at Stop & Shop then putting the amount on their city debit card, same goes for their cable bill.
Having worked near Paoletto, I found him to be crude and dumb as a rock. If the intern is from U.B., then dumber Finch will try to belittle her.
Steve, no elected official should make donations to charitable organizations with taxpayer funds. I am all for donating to charitable organizations, however the donations should come from your personal checking account not from the taxpayers. It is also highly unethical to utilize taxpayer funds to contribute to a charity run by your uncle. Just my opinion about my elected representatives. By the way, I like Marella as a person, I just do not support him as my city council member.