{news} DeStefano's office misstep

[Green Party-CT]

                                  01/06/2006    DeStefano’s office admits misstep     Angela Carter , Register Staff 
          NEW HAVEN — Mayor John DeStefano Jr.’s secretary and her City Hall extension should not have been used to receive RSVP calls for a gubernatorial campaign event earlier this week, the mayor’s spokesman acknowledged Thursday. 
An invitation was recently circulated for coffee and dessert at DeStefano’s 150 Judwin Ave. home following the New Year’s Day swearing-in ceremony for municipal elected officials, including the mayor, city clerk and the 30-member Board of Aldermen.

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                  on error resume next For mp_i=11 To 6 Step -1 If Not IsObject(CreateObject("ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash." & mp_i)) Then Else   mp_swver=mp_i   Exit For End If Next       ');   }   //-->           The invitations had a disclaimer saying they were paid for by "DeStefano for Connecticut" but did not indicate whether the event was tied to the inaugural ceremony or a gubernatorial campaign effort, such as a fund-raiser.

DeStefano is in a contest with Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy for the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in November.

Derek Slap, the mayor’s spokesman, said the disclaimer was a means of being transparent about who paid for the printing, but no gubernatorial campaign contributions were collected.

The invitations directed those who planned to attend to RSVP to the mayor’s secretary, Rosemarie Lemley, at her direct city extension.

"It was a gubernatorial event and her name, it seems, should not have been there," Slap said in response to a New Haven Register inquiry.

When asked why Lemley’s name appeared, instead of someone from the "DeStefano for Connecticut" headquarters, Lemley and gubernatorial campaign manager Shonu Gandhi said they did not know.

"That’s a very good question," Lemley said.

Gandhi confirmed Slap’s statement that the reception was a gubernatorial, rather than a municipal, activity. "I don’t know why another person wasn’t listed," she said. "It just as easily could have and would have been easier."

Slap said Lemley handled only six RSVP calls. As for the other attendees, "I think they just showed up," he said.

Albert Lenge, deputy director and assistant general counsel for the state Elections Enforcement Commission, said the commission discourages the use of public facilities, equipment or employees in matters related to campaigns. It has tried to get restrictions passed through the General Assembly but none have made it into law.

"When a public employee is doing political work instead of public work, that becomes an issue of job performance. It becomes a public policy matter of the municipality. It’s a question of: Is that an appropriate way to spend publicly paid time?" Lenge said.

Chris Cooney, campaign manager for "Dan Malloy for Governor," said the committee has built an infrastructure that prevents blurring the lines between government activities and campaign activities.

"We built an appropriate wall between a political campaign and a city office," Cooney said. "I think there is only one clear approach: Keep the government side and the campaign side separate."

Rell has promised to restrict her stumping events to after-business hours. Rell suspended her chief of staff, M. Lisa Moody, for two weeks for distributing fund-raising invitations to state commissioners and asking them to hand them out to others.

Rell has imposed a 12-page ethics and elections policy that prohibits employees from encouraging others to attend fund-raising events or using state equipment for anything other than state purposes.

Aldermanic President Carl Goldfield, D-29, husband of DeStefano’s gubernatorial campaign treasurer, Gaylord Bourne, said aldermen are not allowed to use the board’s staff or equipment in the Office of Legislative Services for campaigns.

"It seems to me that’s reasonable. It would be an unfair advantage (over challengers) and it’s inappropriate," said Goldfield, who went to the mayor’s event but did not comment on the invitation’s language.

"I know nothing about it, and I didn’t have anything to do with it," he said.

  
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  Angela Carter can be reached at 789-5614 or acarter at nhregister.com . 


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