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Community Corner

LETTER: Politics is Perception Here in East Haven

East Haven Democratic Town Chairman Gene Ruocco seek to "correct the impression" the Mayor's Office "found" a $420,000 trust fund that provides supplemental funding for educational purposes in town.

To the Editor:

The recent news of a press release from the on the now “Famous Found Money" has provoked me to write the following letter to the Democratic Members on the .

BOE Democratic Members,

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The embarrassing editorial in the New Haven Register is almost too much for me to bear. Every Mayor and certainly every BOE Chairman and member of the BOE should have knowledge of the John Woodward Thompson Trust Fund.

Certainly the facts that a statement goes to the town finance office every month from Webster Bank where the trust has been since 1987 and that it has been in , on page 6 of 6 for the past 24 years, must mean that this is "found money" only to the now Mayor Maturo, not the town of East Haven.

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Also two years ago the Arts Commission approached Mayor April with a request to use the money to fund a play they were planning and the Mayor informed them that the fund could not be spent for that reason. So the Arts Commission asks again, this time to Mayor Maturo and low and behold he is surprised to learn of this fund, therefore he releases a press release on the now famous "found money."

I feel it is the duty of the Democratic members on the BOE to correct this impression that Mayor Maturo has long last found money that no one knew about.

I am including all the material I could get for you to read on this matter, also feel free to call me anytime. I do expect all of you to discuss this at the next meeting; please don't let me and the people of East Haven down on this embarrassing matter.

Thank you for the time it takes to get this done.

Gene Ruocco

(Editor's Note: All links to other online posts were added by East Haven Patch. Additionally, both a PDF of the documents Mr. Ruocco refers to in his letter — as well as the press release from the East Haven Mayor's Office — have been posted in the gallery that accompanies this article.)

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