For years, people have complained about the incompetency of City Clerk Jean Natale.
From not being available for the public or not being in her office, running her department in a highly partisan manner, and not assisting Common Council members with requests, to being cited for not giving proper notice to meetings and/or accusations of not notifying certain members of the Common Council on meetings, Jean Natale has, without question, earned the title of the worse City Clerk in the history of the City of Danbury.
These criticisms pale in comparison to what Jean is actually doing when she's at City Hall...
As well as being the elected City Clerk, Jean Natale has another title in the City...Justice of the Peace (JP). For those who don't know, one of the things a Justice of the Peace can do is perform weddings and when it comes to getting married, Jean Natale is the hardest working Justice of the Peace in the Danbury Area.
...and here lies the problem.
Unlike other JPs who work at City Hall, in what appears to be a means to solicit herself, Jean Natale goes OUR OF HER way to advertise her JP abilities ON THE DOOR OF CITY CLERK. It's astonishing that an any elected official can get away with something like this. Natale was elected to the position of City Clerk (to the tune of almost 50,000 tax payers dollars per year) and what she's doing in advertising herself as a JP on the door of the City Clerk amounts to what's called moonlighting.But wait, it gets worse...
Over a series of months, I've been bombarded with comments from people who are outraged that Natale uses the office of City Clerk to solicit herself as a JP. Apparently, Natale performs weddings during the hours when she should be working as City Clerk (going as far as performing weddings AT City Hall DURING City Hall business hours). In an attempt to get an idea of how much work person elected as City Clerk is doing as JP, I filed a Freedom of Information request to look at Natale's activity and the results were appalling.
From April 2007 to July 31 2008, Jean Natale was ranked as one of the top three wedding performing JPs in Danbury. In fact, there are several months where Natale beats out all other JPs hands down in term of marriages performed.
What's more troubling is WHEN the person ELECTED to be City Clerk performs these weddings AS A JP...
From that same time period, Natale performed:
* 98 total weddings,
* 9 of which were done on the weekend,
* A whopping 89 performed during MONDAY through FRIDAY, (most likely during normal City Hall business hours) and,
* A mind blowing 7 days in which Natale performed MORE THAN one wedding during Monday through Friday.
You have to ask yourself this question. How can someone who makes 50,000 tax payers dollars per year AND has been criticized heavily by many as someone who's not available in her office and as well as someone who does an AWFUL job as City Clerk FIND THE TIME to perform more weddings than a majority of the JPs in the greater Danbury area?
It's also important to note that, in my conversations with other JPs, that it's common for a JP to charge people for weddings. With JPs charging anywhere between 50-100 dollars per event, there is a real possibility that Natale is making 4,900 to 9,800 dollars moonlighting on top of the aprox. 50,000 tax payers dollars she makes as City Clerk (and remember, Natale performed 89 weddings on Monday thru Friday). Now JPs can also do weddings for free but when is the last time an elected official has done something based only on the kindness on his or her own heart (and lets just say that the words "kindness" and "Jean Natale" don't go hand in hand that well).
How can Natale get away with this you ask? Well, because she's an elected official she can basically do whatever she wants as she's not accountable to anyone...THUS THE PROBLEM WITH THE POSITION OF CITY CLERK.
Understand, the City Clerk's office has NOTHING to do with weddings. When one gets married, the marriage certificate is filed in the TOWN CLERK'S department which is on the second floor of City Hal. The City Clerk's office is on the THIRD FLOOR, far away from where people file their wedding certificates. Also, a quick look at the JP listing on the City's website shows that Natale's name is FAR, FAR down on the list. That being the case, how is that Natale is one of the top ranked wedding performing JPs in the area?
Based on these factors, a case can be made that Natale is actively soliciting work
as Justice of the Peace during City Hall business hours when she should be doing her job the PEOPLE elected her to do!
Time and time again, Natale has exposed the very problem with the office of City Clerk that has been talked about for at least the last 20 years. In performing more weddings than almost any other JP in the area (I'm in the process of posting a outline that where Natale ranks among JPs in the area), she has abused the position to a point where the public should be outraged enough that they demand Natale to give an explanation for her abusive and arrogant actions. If you or I ever did anything like this at work, we'd BE FIRED.
For more cases of Natale's bad habits, please look at my special report on the case for eliminating the position of City Clerk and public censuring of Jean Natale.
DEVELOPING...
(* NOTE: This is part one of a multi-part series on the incompetence of City Clerk Jean Natale).
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
