Falling behind

Friday, July 10, 2009
Time: 9:34 PM

In case you haven't noticed, the number of posts on this site has dropped a bit this week. That's because I'm doing some long-overdue updates to this site.

In short, I feel that it's rather hard searching for information on this site and seeing that HatCityBLOG is approaching it's 4th anniversary, I decided to give this site a make-over.

Trust me, you're gonna like the new site...

LOCAL ACCESS: Spotlight On July 7 2009 broadcast


Time: 9:18 PM

TOPIC: Danbury Westerners


LOCAL ACCESS: Ideas at Work and Beyond July 9 2009 broadcast


Time: 11:45 AM

TOPIC: The Black Church
GUEST: Rev. Ivan Pitts, New Hope Baptist Church


LOCAL ACCESS: Bethel Today July 7 2009 broadcast


Time: 11:43 AM

Guest: Congressman Chris Murphy


...for example


Time: 9:12 AM

One of the questions posed to my during my interview on the local access show "Progressive Soup" had to do with the reliability of blogs.

Specifically, I was asked how do question the reliability of blog writers, to which my response was that you should always question the source of the material from ALL media outlets. For instance, although this is a site that takes a look at Danbury politics from a progressive point of view, I always try my best when it comes to providing as much information as possible so the reader can form their own opinion.

Taking that into consideration, I used the content that comes from FAUXNews, a extreme right-winged news network, as an example of a media outlet that thrives on providing misleading information and DISTORTS reality in order to justify their slanted opinion.

From Media Matters, here's a clip from FAUXNews that backs up my statement.


2009 Election: McMahon not seeking re-election?

Thursday, July 09, 2009
Time: 4:51 PM

McMahon.jpg

Oh, the municipal election "inside baseball" rumors are already flooding my email inbox...

Various sources are reporting that 1st ward Republican Common Councilwoman Louise McMahon will not seek re-election. Although I don't have a confirmation on this as of yet (thus, the reason why there's a question mark in the title of this post), McMahon stepping down wouldn't be a huge surprise.

"People over Politics" or "Special interest over the People"


Time: 4:07 PM

In response to a post I wrote yesterday regarding Mayor Boughton's half-hearted response to the firing of over 60 employees at the Danbury Corporate Center by the Matrix Corporation (a.k.a. the SAME corporation that's sponsoring the 2009 Mayor's Cup, I received this release from Democratic mayoral candidate Gary Goncalves.
"I regard this scenario as disheartening and I feel for the employees that lost their jobs. While the Mayor may be a nice guy, this is another example that he has abandoned his original campaign theme of "People Over Politics" in favor of special interests. Given this harsh economic time, our municipal leaders should be very concerned about not only attracting new quality jobs to Danbury but also retaining jobs already in place. In my mind, a Mayor needs to be the "champion" to lead the fight for his constituents."

The municipal election handbook


Time: 12:17 PM

With two weeks to go until the official start to the municipal election season, for those new to the game, here's the guidelines that the Democratic and Republican town committees have to follow:
  • Local caucuses of the two major parties must meet between July 21 and July 28 to nominate candidates for vacancies on boards of selectman, town councils and mayor's offices, as well as elected town boards such as education and planning.

  • The completed rosters for both parties must be filed with the local registrars of voters Town Clerk by July 29.

  • Minor parties have until Sept. 2 to file a list of endorsed candidates with their local town clerks.

  • Members of the Republican and Democratic parties who are not nominated by their local caucuses, however, still have a chance to run. They can obtain primary petition forms from their local registrars of voters and collect signatures from members of their party. To qualify for a primary run, these candidates must collect signatures that equal 5 percent of the registered party members in their town or district. These completed petitions must be returned to the local registrars by Aug. 12.

  • Depending on how many candidates qualify, the towns then hold primary elections for all offices on Sept. 15.

  • Candidates for office have still one more route they can follow to qualify for the general election ballot on Nov. 3. That is the nominating petitions process in which, after obtaining forms from the secretary of the state's office in Hartford, a candidate for mayor or first selectman collects signatures that equal 1 percent of the number of people who voted in the last election for that office. If the position is an at-large position on a board, the number of signatures must equal 1 percent of all registered voters in the municipality.

  • Nominating petitions must be returned to the secretary of the state's office by Aug. 5.

Let the silly season begin!

LOCAL ACCESS: Progressive Soup July 8 2009 broadcast


Time: 11:13 AM

Welcome those who found their way to this site from watching last night's edition of the local access show "Progressive Soup."

Here's last night's show in it's entirety.





TOPIC: Citizen Journalism


Watch my appearance on local access TONIGHT

Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Time: 5:28 PM

Picture 11
It's rare when I'm the person being interviewed as opposed to me asking the questions...


Tonight at 9:30 PM, I'll be a guest on the newly formed local access show Progressive Soup where I'll be discussing the evolution of citizen journalism.

Here's a sneak peak of tonight's show...



From the decline of hard news reporting on the area, following events at City Hall, and exposing racism and bigotry, to the embrace of citizen journalism by the mainstream media, host (and former State Rep candidate) David Stevenson and yours truly put everything on the table so be sure to watch tonight on Comcast cable channel 23.

Is media consolidation a good thing?


Time: 1:54 PM

The Fairfield Weekly published an in-depth piece on the consolidation of area newspapers in Fairfield County.

For those who didn't know, the News-Times, Connecticut Post, Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time are all owned by the Hearst Corporation and recently, the company has moved the printing operations for their area papers to Bridgeport (yes, the News-Times you read is no longer printed in Danbury.

The article goes into great detail highlighting the good and bad of consolidating local papers and it's a must read for those who are concerned about the quality of reporting in the area.
Simon says despite the dailies being "shockingly thinner — he "picked up a paper the other day and thought they'd left out a section" — they're keeping up the quality.

"It's a pleasant surprise," he says, "They seem to be doing it with smoke and mirrors."

At the dailies, Hearst has consolidated entertainment, weekend and business sections, increased shared regional content and added more bells and whistles online.

"We've launched new blogging platforms, more database polls, videos," says Tom Baden, editor of the Connecticut Post. They certainly have. Beneath and between flashing ads, blogs, slideshows, videos and interactive polls, the eye can hardly land upon the links to news stories.

But increased regional news stories are not pleasing some readers. Dale Salm, managing editor of Connecticut Magazine and a reader of many local and regional papers, says, "[Readers] have written letters to the editor to the effect that if they wanted to subscribe to the Connecticut Post, they would. They do not appreciate 'shared editorial' and feel cheated."

The June 10 Stamford Advocate, for instance, ran seven news stories about Stamford, and 14 regional (Fairfield County), two state and seven national/international stories.

The June 9 issue of the Connecticut Post ran three stories about Bridgeport, two about Milford, one about Stratford and one about Fairfield — towns the paper covers. It also ran one story each from Greenwich, Ridgefield and Danbury, picked up from sister Hearst papers.

Critics, such as Salm and former and current journalists from local papers who asked that their names not be used, doubt readers of the Connecticut Post care about Greenwich, Ridgefield or Danbury.

McCumber says the papers share content only where they see "there's some interest across the market. We play it differently."

The loss of veteran reporters concerns industry watchers. Salm notes most of the "skilled editors and writers ... have been handed their walking papers after years of devoted service. Almost all the people writing for the [Advocate] today were not there a year ago, and frankly have neither the history with the publication and its audience nor the skill to do justice to what was the area's top daily."

The Stamford Advocate now has only one experienced city reporter. Seven new, young reporters have been hired in the last year and a half. Many do not live in Fairfield County.


As someone who remembers the days when Valerie Roth articles on Jim Dyer were required reading, the decline of reporting at the News-Times is something that's on the minds of everyone.

As noted in the Weekly's write-up, on any given day, you can pick up a copy of the Connecicut Post and News-Times and read the same article. With no weekly paper in sight in Danubry (yet), people are correct to be concerned that further consolidating of material in the News-Times and Connecticut Post could result in loss of our local paper...and that would be a sad day indeed.

The article is worth the read.

(*full disclosure, I'm a blogger on the News-Times/Hearst Corporation)

HatCityBLOG FLASHBACK: City Clerk VIOLATES state law AGAIN (part 2)


Time: 12:06 PM

In case you're wondering what our City Clerk does when she's not in her office...


The hits keep on coming for the WORSE City Clerk in the history of Danbury.

It's bad enough that potty mouthed, xenophobic, incompetent, moonlighting City Clerk Jean Natale wasted taxpayers dollars with an unnecessary 5,000 dollar two full page legal notice. What's even worse is the timing of the notice in this Sunday's paper, which in turn places the ENTIRE charter revision process in jeopardy.

Again, lets take a look at the Connecticut State Statue (Sec. 7-191) that covers municipal charters..take note of the portion in bold.
(a) Charters, charter amendments and home rule ordinance amendments: Hearings; draft and final report; public notice; referendum; effective date; filing of copies with Secretary of the State; file maintained by State Library. (a) The commission shall hold at least two public hearings on the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments; one prior to the beginning of any substantive work on such charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, and one after the draft report to the appointing authority has been completed, but not submitted, after which hearings the commission may amend such report. The commission may hold such other public hearings as it deems necessary.

(b) The commission shall submit its draft report, including the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, to the clerk of the municipality, who shall transmit such report to the appointing authority. The appointing authority shall hold at least one public hearing on the draft report and shall hold its last hearing not later than forty-five days after the submission of the draft report to such clerk. Not later than fifteen days after its last hearing, the appointing authority shall make recommendations to the commission for such changes in the draft report as it deems desirable.

(c) If the appointing authority makes no recommendations for changes in the draft report to the commission within such fifteen days, the report of the commission shall be final and the appointing authority shall act on such report. If the appointing authority makes recommendations for changes in the draft report to the commission, the commission shall confer with the appointing authority concerning any such recommendations and may amend any provisions of the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, in accordance with such recommendations, or the commission may reject such recommendations. In either case the commission shall make its final report to the appointing authority not later than thirty days after receiving such recommendations.

(d) Not later than fifteen days after receiving the final report, the appointing authority, by a majority vote of its entire membership, shall either approve the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments or reject the same or separate provisions thereof. Not later than forty-five days after a vote of the appointing authority to reject such matter, a petition for a referendum thereon, signed by not less than ten per cent of the electors of such municipality, as determined by the last-completed registry list thereof, and filed and certified in accordance with the provisions of section 7-188, may be presented to the appointing authority. Not later than thirty days after approval by the appointing authority or the certification of such a petition (1) the proposed charter shall be published in full at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality, or (2) the portion of the charter or home rule ordinance being amended shall be published at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality with a notice that a complete copy of the charter or home rule ordinance and amendment is available in the town clerk's office and that a copy shall be mailed to any person who requests a copy. The town clerk shall mail or otherwise provide such copy to any person who requests a copy.

Okay, I'll explain the law in layman's terms...

After the Common Council voted on the changes to the charter, THE CITY CLERK HAD 30 days to publish the AMENDED changes to the charter in the News-Times (the newspaper in the area that has the largest circulation in proportion to the number of residents in Danbury).

Now, I already outlined how Jean Natale screwed the taxpayers to the tune of thousands of dollars by publishing the ENTIRE charter as opposed to just the amended proposed changes...now comes to ugly legal part of her screw-up.

Here's a copy of the Common Council agenda when they voted on the charter...take note of the date of the meeting:
Title
Common Council Special Meeting
Start Time 7:00 PM
Location
Common Council Chambers
Occurs
3/10/2009
Extra Details for entire event

SPECIAL COMMON COUNCIL MEETING –
March 10, 2009

The meeting will be called to order at 7:00 P.M.

PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE & PRAYER

ROLL CALL

McMahon, Nagarsheth, Halas, Trombetta, Calandrino, Perkins, Visconti, Chianese, Esposito, Saadi, Cavo, Rotello, Diggs, Teicholz, Arconti, Curran, Knapp, Levy, Riley, Seabury, Stanley

________________PRESENT _______________ABSENT

NOTICE OF THE SPECIAL MEETING – There will be a Special Meeting of the Common Council on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 7:00 P.M. in the Common Council Chambers in City Hall to act on the item below.

________________________________________________________________

PUBLIC SPEAKING

________________________________________________________________
1 – REPORT - Board of Education, Teachers Contract
________________________________________________________________
2 – REPORT - Charter Revision Commission – Final Report
________________________________________________________________
There being no further business to come before the Common Council a motion was made at _________P.M. by __________for the meeting to be adjourned.


Now, since the Common Council voted in favor of the changes to the charter, the CITY CLERK had 30 days (or on or before April 9 2009) to HAVE THE PROPOSED AMENDED CHANGES TO THE CHARTER PUBLISHED IN THE NEWS-TIMES.

With that being said, take a look at the date when the charter appeared in the paper:

Charter_closeup

Surprise, surprise...Jean Natale SCREWED UP AGAIN and due to her gross incompetence, it's quite possible that the city clerk has placed the city of Danbury into a position where a violation of state law has occurred.

Don't think this is serious...think again. Throughout the entire charter revision process, legal counsel Eric Gottschalk has taken painstaking measures to make sure that the ENTIRE charter revision process was in accordance to the very state statue which I have documented in this post (you can view video answering questions regarding the state statue during the 3/10/09 meeting by clicking here.

While guest hosting the local access show Ideas at Work and Beyond, I brought this topic up.



In short, the City Clerk's latest in a long list of screw-ups is just another example of disservice to the city.

To recap, when it comes to Jean Natale our lovely City Clerk is


In short, Natale is INCOMPETENT and has no regard for the office of City Clerk...PERIOD. If the position of City Clerk was an actual civil servant job, Natale would have received her pink slip years ago.

Remember, come November, think before you vote!

HatCityBLOG FLASHBACK: City Clerk VIOLATES state law AGAIN (part 1)


Time: 11:56 AM

In honor of the Common Council passing the language to the charter revision changes, which will be voted upon this November, I thought it would be informative to take a look at the latest round of gross incompetence and disregard for state law by the WORSE City Clerk in the history of Danbury...the lovely Jean Natale.

Originally posted May 6 2009


Oh man, this possible MAJOR screw-up from City Hall is so wide spread, that I don't know where to begin; therefore, I'll have to break this up scandal into multiple posts:

In order to understand this latest round of incompetence, I'll have to present you a little research on the LAW in regards to the revisions to the city charter:

From the Connecticut State Statue Sec. 7-191..take note of the section in bold...

(a) Charters, charter amendments and home rule ordinance amendments: Hearings; draft and final report; public notice; referendum; effective date; filing of copies with Secretary of the State; file maintained by State Library. (a) The commission shall hold at least two public hearings on the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments; one prior to the beginning of any substantive work on such charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, and one after the draft report to the appointing authority has been completed, but not submitted, after which hearings the commission may amend such report. The commission may hold such other public hearings as it deems necessary.

(b) The commission shall submit its draft report, including the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, to the clerk of the municipality, who shall transmit such report to the appointing authority. The appointing authority shall hold at least one public hearing on the draft report and shall hold its last hearing not later than forty-five days after the submission of the draft report to such clerk. Not later than fifteen days after its last hearing, the appointing authority shall make recommendations to the commission for such changes in the draft report as it deems desirable.

(c) If the appointing authority makes no recommendations for changes in the draft report to the commission within such fifteen days, the report of the commission shall be final and the appointing authority shall act on such report. If the appointing authority makes recommendations for changes in the draft report to the commission, the commission shall confer with the appointing authority concerning any such recommendations and may amend any provisions of the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, in accordance with such recommendations, or the commission may reject such recommendations. In either case the commission shall make its final report to the appointing authority not later than thirty days after receiving such recommendations.

(d) Not later than fifteen days after receiving the final report, the appointing authority, by a majority vote of its entire membership, shall either approve the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments or reject the same or separate provisions thereof. Not later than forty-five days after a vote of the appointing authority to reject such matter, a petition for a referendum thereon, signed by not less than ten per cent of the electors of such municipality, as determined by the last-completed registry list thereof, and filed and certified in accordance with the provisions of section 7-188, may be presented to the appointing authority. Not later than thirty days after approval by the appointing authority or the certification of such a petition (1) the proposed charter shall be published in full at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality, or (2) the portion of the charter or home rule ordinance being amended shall be published at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality with a notice that a complete copy of the charter or home rule ordinance and amendment is available in the town clerk's office and that a copy shall be mailed to any person who requests a copy. The town clerk shall mail or otherwise provide such copy to any person who requests a copy.

(e) The appointing authority shall, by a majority vote of its entire membership, determine whether the proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments shall be submitted to the electors for approval or rejection at a regular election or at a special election warned and held for that purpose, which shall be held not later than fifteen months after either the approval by the appointing authority or the certification of a petition for a referendum.

(f) The proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments shall be prepared for the ballot by the appointing authority and may be submitted in the form of one or several questions; and, if approved by a majority of the electors of the municipality voting thereon at a regular election or if approved by a majority which number equals at least fifteen per cent of the electors of the municipality as determined by the last-completed active registry list of such municipality at a special election, such proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments shall become effective thirty days after such approval unless an effective date or dates are specified therein, in which event the date or dates specified shall prevail.

(g) Not later than thirty days after the approval by the electors of any proposed charter, charter amendments or home rule ordinance amendments, the town or city clerk shall file, with the Secretary of the State, (1) three certified copies thereof, with the effective date or dates indicated thereon, and (2) in the case of the approval of charter or home rule ordinance amendments, three certified copies of the complete charter or ordinance incorporating such amendments. The Secretary of the State shall distribute two copies, whether tangible or intangible in form, to the State Library, where a file of such charters, charter amendments and home rule ordinance amendments shall be kept for public inspection.
Did you read the portion in BOLD? Good, lets move along.

Okay, here's a photograph of the charter which was published in this Sunday's News-Times (May 3 2009).

Charter_050309

Notice something strange? Here, lets go back to THE STATE LAW:
...the portion of the charter or home rule ordinance being amended shall be published at least once in a newspaper having a general circulation in the municipality...

In order words, THE ONLY PORTION OF THE CHARTER THAT NEEDED TO BE PUBLISHED ARE THE PORTIONS THAT ARE BEING AMENDED. If you only take the portion of the charter that's up for changes, the size of the legal notice would be considerably smaller than the two page ad that was published Sunday.

And who's in charge of making sure this gets published? You guessed it....



Wait, wait...it gets better.

The cost of the unnecessary two ad page legal notice is said to be a WHOPPING 5,000 dollars...TAXPAYERS dollars!

Way to go Jeanie!

And which department has to foot the bill for Jean Natale's latest screw-up? If I were a betting man, I would say this comes out of the Common Council budget but we'll have to see...in any regards, in the end, WE THE TAXPAYERS are footing this bill!

And people, look, I'm just scratching the surface on this screw-up. There is MUCH MUCH more to come. Trust me, the rabbit hole goes REAL DEEP on this one.

Remember, come November, think before you vote!

HatCityBLOG FLASHBACK: Boughton=anti-union


Time: 10:44 AM

As a follow-up to my post from yesterday, when it comes to the Boughton administration's attacks on local unions (paging Karl Murphy), I think this video clip from January 2007 tells the story.



More food for thought...

Ironic don't ya think?

Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Time: 12:11 PM



Remember when last month when union workers at the Matrix Danbury Corporate Center found themselves on the street and held a protest?
About 60 employees -- center's cleaning and maintenance staffs -- lost their jobs Wednesday, according to those on the picket lines.

"It's called union busting," said Brookfield's Ed Burke, the former chief engineer for the building's maintenance crews, who worked at the center for more than 20 years. "They didn't give us anything. They just walked us out of the building."

Burke, who has a wife and two children, said he doesn't know what he's going to do. His wife is a stay-at-home mom.

"There just aren't any jobs out there anymore," he said, adding that he also lost his and his family's health benefits.

The former employees said they were walked off the job by security guards Wednesday afternoon, less than an hour after the sale of the building to Matrix Group Realty of New York.

"This is disgusting," said Courtney Hibert, an employee of one of the building's tenants. "It's not right. Now all these people are out of a job. Nobody will be able to take care of the building like they did."

[...]

Former employees said there were rumors months ago that their jobs were on the line as a result of the sale. Their positions were posted on Monster.com -- a popular job posting Web site -- this spring.

Several of the employees who lost their jobs said they had sent their resumes to the new owner by registered mail but received no response.

[...]

An official with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 30, which represents the 10 maintenance workers who lost their jobs, said they plan to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board alleging unfair labor practices.

"This is union busting and it's against the law," said Tony Calandrino, the union's business representative for the state. "They didn't even give these people a chance to interview for their own positions."

When it comes to attempting to jobs for local residents, here's what the last honest man in Danbury said about the outrageous action by Matrix...
Mayor Mark Boughton said he toured the facility with the new owner a couple of months ago and expressed his concern that the employees be accommodated.
"Ultimately they have their business model and will manage the property the best way they know how," Boughton said Thursday.

Talk about leadership right?

Well, maybe Boughton's comment has something to do with the organization sponsoring the 2009 Mayor's Cup.

Matrix001

Food for thought...

© 2024 Hat City Blog | READ, WATCH, AND LEARN.
No part of the content or the blog may be reproduced without prior written permission.
PEOPLE-POWERED MEDIA.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

INDEPENDENT PARTY OF DANBNRY
DATABASE COMING SOON


“Facebook”“Twitter”“Email”

trans_button
CITY OF DANBURY VIDEO ARCHIVE (Dec 2012-present)

The Mercurial (RIP)
Danbury News Times
Danbury Patch
Danbury Hamlet Hub
Danbury Daily Voice
Tribuna Newspaper
CT News Junkie
CT Capitol Report

10.03.18 (PDF):
"Approval of Danbury Prospect Charter School"

10.30.20 (HatCityBLOG VID): Charter School discussion during 2020 interview with Julie Kushner

2018 (RADIO): WLAD
"State Board of Ed signs off on Danbury charter school proposal"

08.20 (VID): CT-LEAD
"Stand up for Education Justice" Rally

08.20.20 (OP-ED): KUSHNER: "Charter schools are not ‘magic bullet’ to improving Danbury schools"

09.13.20 (OP-ED): CHAPMAN
Candidate for state Senate supports charter school for Danbury

01.15.21 (VID): CT-LEAD
Danbury Prospect Charter School press conference

03.19.21 (OP-ED): CT MIRROR
"Danbury leaders do not want a charter school"

04.01.21 (OP-ED): CT-LEAD:
"Why did Sen. Kushner vote against us?"

05.06.21 (VID): Danbury rally to fully fund public schools

10.07.21 (VID): Danbury City-Wide PTO "Meet the Candidates" education forum

10.07.21 NEWSTIMES
Danbury candidates quarrel over charter school, education funding

01.10.22 NEWSTIMES
"New operator named for Danbury charter school: ‘I’m a huge advocate for parent choice’"

01.10.22 NEWSTIMES
"Some Danbury Democrats ‘open minded’ about charter school after new, CT operator named"

01.21.22 (OP-ED): CT MIRROR
"Lessons from Danbury: Ending the dual process for charter school approval"

02.09.22 NEWSTIMES
"Proposed Danbury charter school won’t open in 2022, governor leaves funding out of budget"

02.18.22 NEWSTIMES:
Danbury residents plead for charter school funds in 9-hour state budget hearing: ‘Just exhausted’

03.05.22 (LTE):
Time has come for Danbury charter school

03.12.22 (OP-ED): TAYLOR
"Why I am excited about the Danbury Charter School"

03.16.22 (LTE):
"Why a Danbury Charter School?"

04.02.22 CT EXAMINER:
"Crowding and a Lack of Options for Danbury Students, But No Agreement on Solutions"

04.04.22 (OP-ED): DCS
"Danbury Charter School plans debut"

04.07.22 (PODCAST): (CEA)
"SENATOR KUSHNER DISCUSSES POINTS OF OPTIMISM FOR DANBURY PUBLIC SCHOOLS"

04.18.22 (VID): CT-LEAD
Protest press conference

04.25.22 (RADIO): WSHU
Latino group call on Connecticut lawmakers to open a Danbury charter school

06.03.22 (OP-ED): KUSHNER:
"Career Academy ‘a great deal for Danbury"

trans_button
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.

CLICK HERE TO READ/DOWNLOAD MAYOR BOUGHTON'S DEPOSITION

CLICK HERE TO READ/DOWNLOAD MIKE McLACHLAN (then MAYOR CHIEF OF STAFF) DEPOSITION

Danbury Area Coalition for the Rights of Immigrants v.
U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security
3:06-cv-01992-RNC ( D. Conn. )

(02.25.08) Court docket

(10.24.07) Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant's Emergency Motion for Protective Order

(09.26.07) Press Release

(12.14.06) Complaint


Barrera v. Boughton, No. 07-01436
(D. Conn. filed Sept. 26, 2007)

(02.25.08) Court Docket

Amended complaint

Defendants' Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction

Defendants' Motion to Dismiss State Law Claims

Plaintiffs' Opposition to Motion to Dismiss

Order on Motion to Dismiss

Defendants' Answer to Amended Complaint

NEW HAVEN REGISTER: Immigrant's 2006 arrest was flawed Danbury mayor testifies

(10.05.07 (VIDEO) Boughton mislead the public about Danbury's involvement in raid

(09.18.07) Yale Law Students expose Danbury involvement in raid

(12.14.06) VIDEO: Interview with Yale Law Students at FOI presser

(12.14.06) VIDEO: Danbury 11 FOI complaint media roundup

City Clerk Jean Natale standing next to skinhead sparks outrage

(10.03.06) VIDEO: Danbury 11 rally

(09.29.06) VIDEO: Danbury 11 case deepens

Word of raid spread across the country

(09/29/06) VIDEO: Danbury 11 protest news conference

(09/29/06) Immigrant newspaper "El Canillita" gives best account of ICE day labor raid at Kennedy Park


trans_button Santos Family Story
VIDEO: Tereza Pereira's ordeal with ICE agents

VIDEO: Danbury Peace Coalition Immigration Forum (April 2006)
featuring Mayor Boughton and Immigration attorney Philip Berns

VIDEO: 2007 Stop the Raids immigration forum at WCSU

2007: Community protest anti-immigration forum

A tribute to Hispanic Center Director and immigrant activist Maria Cinta Lowe

trans_button


trans_button
2023 MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS

Results:
11.15.23 Recanvass return
(Head Moderator Return Format)

11.07.23: Election night returns
(Head Moderator Return Format)

11.07.23: Initial returns


ESPOSITO FINANCE REPORTS:
Oct 10 2022
Jan 10 2023
Apr 10 2023
Jul 10 2023
Oct 10 2023

ALVES FINANCE REPORTS:
Apr 10 2023
Jul 10 2023
Oct 10 2023

CAMPAIGN SLATE DATABASE
Dem/GOP slate/ballot position

VIDEO: DRTC convention
VIDEO: DDTC conveniton


2021 (ALVES/ESPOSITO)

TOWN COMMITTEES
(VID) DDTC nomination convention
(PDF) DDTC campaign slate flyer

(VID) DRTC nomination convention
(PDF) DRTC campaign slate flyer

FORUMS/DEBATES
(VID) 2021 Danbury City-Wide PTO educational forum

CAMPAIGN FINANCE
First quarter
Alves Apr 10th SEEC filing

Second quarter
Alves Jul 10th SEEC filing
Esposito Jul 10th SEEC filing

Third quarter
Alves Oct 12th SEEC report
Esposito Oct 12th SEEC report

CAMPAIGN MAILERS
Alves "Jan 6th" attack mailer 10.21.21
Esposito "you can't trust Alves" attack mailer 10.20.21
Alves mailer 10.20.21
Alves mailer 09.30.21
Esposito mailer 09.28.21
Alves mailer 09.27.21
Esposito mailer 09.27.21


PAST CAMPAIGN COVERAGE

2005 (BOUGHTON/ESPOSITO)
Danbury 2005 election results
Newstimes Dean Esposito profile (10.25.05)

2007 (BOUGHTON/ABRANTES)
Danbury 2007 election results
(VID) Helana Abrantes TV ad
(VID) BRT tax deferral presser
(VID) Helena Abrantes "Community Forum" interview

2009 (BOUGHTON/GONCALVES)
Danbury 2009 election results
(VID) 2009 Danbury City-Wide PTO educational forum
(VID) 2009 Danbury Chamber of Commerce mayoral debate
(VID) 2009 DDTC nomination convention

2011 (BOUGHTON/TABORSAK)
Danbury 2011 election results
(VID) Saadi/Nero campaign kickoff

2013 (BOUGHTON/NO DTC ENDORSED CANDIDATE/MCALLISTER)
Danbury 2013 election results
(VID) 2013 DDTC nominaiton convention

2015 (BOUGHTON UNCHALLENGED)
Danbury 2015 election results

2017 (BOUGHTON/ALMEIDA)
Danbury 2017 election results
(VID) Al Almeida concession speech
(VID) 2017 Danbury City-Wide PTO educational forum
(VID) Al Almeida nomination acceptance speech

2019 (BOUGHTON/SETARO)
Danbury 2019 election results
(VID) 2019 NewsTimes Editorial Board interview with Mark Boughton and Chris Setaro
(VID) 2019 Danbury City-Wide PTO educational forum
(VID) 2019 Danbury Chamber of Commerce mayoral debate
(VID) 2019 convention endorsement speeches from Mark Boughton and Chris Setaro