Volunteers Should Pay The Town To Work

“Who’s going to pay for Perrotti’s violation?

When Perrotti took work away from Public Works employees the town had to pay those individuals who didn’t do the work. It was only fair, since the work was taken away from them by a guy who should have known, in fact Perrotti was warned not to do other people's work and deprive them of an income. Gormley had to pay the men for the work 

Perrotti did. Where did that money come from?

It should have come out of the money the town pays Perrotti. It would have if Gormley had any guts.

Perrotti will probably say he was "saving" money. Really? How much money did the town "save" when the legal bills for the fire dept ( Perrotti ) were paid?”

What violation?  Chief Perrotti has been maintaining the grounds at Fire HQ for years, spreading mulch around the various plantings before the annual Open House during Fire Prevention Week. Who gave him permission to do so this year?  Danny Norton, Tom Gormley, and Bob Desmarais.

Actually, most of the work was done by a person who was serving community service.  Wouldn’t working around Fire HQ constitute community service, and how would that be a violation?  Is the community service program threatening PW workers?

The entire “depriving PW workers of income” argument is asinine.

This has been the normal practice for years under Mr. St. John’s administration.  No problems.  Mr. Gormley is elected.  Now there is a problem.  Mr. St. John is trying to attack Mr. Gormley in every way possible. It does not take much thought to understand the source of this silly complaint.

Because of the Town’s financial problems, part-timers were not hired this year.  This left an enormous amount of work for the PW. The dump had to be closed on one day, so that the operators could mow grass. It sounds like the PW has more than enough work to keep all their workers busy.

Mr. DeAngelis sings an endless song how the Town is ripping us all off on our taxes, but when Chief Perrotti does work for FREE, to help keep costs down, Mr. DeAngelis has a problem with that.  Why?  Because Mr. St. John has a problem with it. This is so hypocritical.

The notion that Chief Perrotti should pay the Town for work that he actually performed escapes all forms of logic.

If Chief Perrotti is taking work away from PW workers, what about the Greenway Committee, and the Beautification Committee? Are they not also taking work away from PW workers as well? Should we abolish both of those committees?

Maybe all volunteer programs in Town should be abolished, and replaced with paid union workers. What would that do to your taxes?

This is so incredibly petty, its not worth spending anymore time on.

As far as legal bills?  Is Mr. DeAngelis talking about the legal bills the Town had to pay when Mr. DeAngelis subpoenaed Mr. Belden, and the Town attorney accompanied him to Hartford, for Mr. DeAngelis’s frivolous FOI hearing?  How much did that cost the taxpayers, and what earth-shaking information came from the entire hearing?

Maybe he is talking about the legal bills that were not paid by taxpayer money, but actually paid from non-taxpayer MVFD funds.  They would include -

1) Legal advice when Mr. St. John’s office questioned whether or not the MVFD ambulance and it’s EMTs were insured, when he knew all along that they were.

2) The legal bills that mounted up when Mr. St. John and his army of taxpayer-paid lawyers, tried to cease and take over the ambulance billing system that saves Middlebury taxpayers thousands of dollars a year. The contract was flatly rejected by the MVFD membership, and the Gormley administration threw the contract out the door when they were elected.

3) The MVFD funds that are spent so that Connecticut FOI law is followed. Mr. DeAngelis with his never-ending FOIs is attempting to acquire the records of the private club side of the MVFD, which is not funded from taxpayer money. He is not entitled to this information.

The money that has been spent to defend the MVFD from the divisive attacks of  Mr. St. John and Mr. DeAngelis could have been used to fund so many of the wonderful charitable organizations that the MVFD supports each year.  What a waste of money.