A few minutes ago, AFT Connecticut released this disturbing press release claiming that the administration for Danbury Hospital, undermined voting registration efforts at the facility.
At the August 21, Labor Management meeting, the Danbury Nurses Union Unit 47 expressed interest in holding a voter registration drive at the hospital. Hospital Vice President of Human Resources, Phyllis Zappala, said no.
“We couldn’t understand why the largest employer in Danbury wasn’t interested in helping to register its employees to vote,” said Mary Consoli, president of the Danbury Nurses Union. “With this being the biggest election in our nation’s history, it doesn’t make sense.”
When the union found out in September that they could petition the registrar of voters to conduct the voter registration drive, they immediately began collecting signatures and submitted the petition to the Danbury Registrar of Voters on September 22, requesting the drive be held on October 8. Registrar of voters Marge Gallo explained that if they were unable to conduct the voter registration drive, they would either have the League of Women Voters conduct the drive, or that Consoli could be deputized to conduct the drive.
On September 26, Hospital Director of Public and Government Relations Andrea Rynn, faxed the Danbury Registrar of Voters to inform them that they had received an exemption from the Secretary of the State’s office from holding the voter registration drive.
AFT Connecticut contacted the Secretary of the State’s office and discovered that no such exemption had been given to Danbury Hospital. Secretary of the State Staff Attorney Ted Bromley contacted Rynn on October 16 and explained that the hospital had to “make a suitable location available on site to conduct such registration session and shall publish notice of the date and time of such session.”
On October 20, the Registrars of Voters sent a letter to Frank Kelly, CEO of Danbury Hospital informing him that they would be conducting the voter registration drive, Tuesday October 21, 2008 in the cafeteria from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM for employees only and that prominent notices would need to be posted on the bulletin board and other places where general notices to employees are customarily posted.
That afternoon, hospital administrators changed the location from the cafeteria to the facilities conference room located in the basement of the hospital and changed the time from 1PM to 4PM. An email was sent to employees through the email system however, postings of the drive were not seen on bulletin boards.
“This is not right,” said Consoli. “Registering to vote should be the easiest thing to do, instead the hospital has made it virtually impossible. We followed the law by petitioning for the drive and it should have gone forward unobstructed.”
“Today is the last day to register to vote before the election,” said Consoli. “The administration’s efforts to keep this drive from happening beg the question, why?”
I'll try to get more info on this story as it develops but seeing that today is the lat day for registration, if the allegations are true, then this is a very serious situation and the hospital has some explaining to do.
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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.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.
A few minutes ago, AFT Connecticut released this disturbing press release claiming that the administration for Danbury Hospital, undermined voting registration efforts at the facility.
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.
