Letter: Time to Elect New Leaders to Council

To the Editor:

I recently took a mini-vacation to downeast coastal Maine where there are several small towns that have marvelous views, artist shops and small cafes. However, the main streets in these towns don’t compare to our Main Street.

The wide variety of restaurants and available parking that we have puts them to shame (got to be able to parallel park if you even find a space). We even can compete in the “view’ category with our river. When we join the Mattabassett District, we will gain more in that category.

However, I returned to politics as usual: the Board of Education again has decided to act independently and totally ignore decisions from the mayor’s office and compliance with the union contracts regarding the hiring and paying of employees. The details of their actions I’m sure are becoming tiring to those not directly affected but the fact that they are still occurring is very important.

The charter for the city of Middletown clearly states that the mayor is the hiring authority for all classified employees for the whole city; every department. When grievances cannot be settled between the parties, they are heard by the State Labor Board who then rules; the union has just received another unanimous ruling in their favor from the Board awarding back wages to the employees who were harmed.

I am predicting that the Board administration will again not abide by the ruling and the union will have to file again with the state. The disturbing issue to me is that we’ve a democratic majority on the Board of Education that is suspiciously silent through all this.

As the body that the Board of Education administration answers to and reports to; they could easily instruct the administration to follow the charter and adhere to the union contracts but for some reason, they have chosen not to.

Dan Drew is running on a platform proposing cooperation between the City and the Board of Education; however, cooperation could exist NOW if only the Board of Education members instructed the administration to adhere to the rules as they exist. 

I am running for a place on the Common Council and I urge you to vote for the re-election of Seb Giuliano as Mayor. I also urge you to vote for ROW B on Nov. 8; it’s time to break the logjam; time to change the composition of the Board and Council; it’s time stop what’s going on now since those members of the majority party currently sitting on the boards are not requiring the BOE administration to comply with the rules.

Linda Salafia, Middletown

Linda Salafia is a Republican candidate for the Middletown Common Council.