William Richardson East Haven Town Council 3rd District

Mr. Hoff,

Recently you attacked me on your Facebook page for missing Town Council meetings this year. When I answered your unfounded attacks with the truth, you chose to remove my comments from your Facebook page,  why are you hiding the truth? Why aren't you attacking any other Town Councilmen or women as they have not attended every meeting  including your fellow democrats? As a councilman who only has the best interests of the East Haven residents at heart, I find your political grandstanding offensive and I find your lies to be disgusting.   You claim to be a honest candidate, maybe you should start to act like one. Now you chose to spread the same lies here on the East Haven Patch. I encourage all Patch readers and East Haven Voters to look at the Town Council public records and see for themsleves how untruthful Mr Hoff truly is,

Since you are not professional or man enough to discuss any votes or issues you may have with me in person and chose to hid behind Facebook and Patch posts , I need to set you and the record straight.

 Firstly, As a Town Councilman, I consider it an honor to serve all of the citizens of East Haven and especially the residents of the Third District. I have lived in East Haven for almost Fifty years and I am well known and respected by members of the Democratic and Republican parties and during that time I have served with members of both parties on numerous Boards, Commissions and various civic organizations and charities. I believe that everyone I have served with will tell you that I am honest, hard working and a non-partisan champion of East Haven. I am proud to be able to work with the current Town Council and have stated on several occasions that I am pleased that the 10 republicans and 5 Democrats work together without any partisan bickering. That being said, all of my votes have been for the well being of the town and for fiscal responsibility. I have been willing and able to reach across party lines for the good of the town; all you do is spew partisan, self-serving hatred.

 One thing a Councilman needs to be able to do is to understand the facts before acting. Unfortunately you have time and time and again been unable to do that. Since you want to discuss attendance let’s talk facts. There have been a total of 16 regular and special Town Council meetings this year, not counting the numerous budget meetings in April. I have been able to attend 12 out of the 16 council meetings and all of the budget hearings. My attendance record is on par with the rest of the council. Unfortunately life takes us in many directions and people including council members are not able to make every meeting. That does not mean that a councilman is not committed to the council or East Haven. No current member of the Town Council has perfect attendance and there are council members with a same or worse record than mine. Most Council members have attended 11, 12 or 13 meetings. If you had made the effort to look at the meeting notes you will see that one of your fellow Democrats has made the same number of meetings I have and that one of your fellow Democrats has barely made 50% of the meetings. I respect both of these individuals so they will go nameless and I know that their attendance record does not reflect their commitment to the town. But, you fail to mention their attendance and only mine. Why?

 Also, if you were either truthful or had a command of the facts, you would know that I was present at the Oct 2nd Mayors Capital Budget meeting and I was an active participant in the discussion, as I am at every council meeting. Maybe you were just not paying attention. An apology is in order and if you are man enough it will quickly forthcoming. In any case your omissions of the facts and talking out of turn show what a poor Town Council Member you would make.

 Now that we have cleared the air about the false accusations you made about the Oct 2nd meeting, let’s discuss the April 26th Council meeting you mentioned. I did indeed miss this meeting. Unfortunately, this meeting was originally scheduled for a day or two earlier and was postponed to the April 26th date. This date fell on my son’s wedding rehearsal date and I had to miss this meeting. I informed the Council Chairperson of my conflict as well as my other council members and apologized for not being able to make it. I surely would have made this meeting if at all possible. If you know anything about the workings of the Town Council you would know that all of the budget work goes on at the numerous council budget meetings held throughout the month of April. I attended all of the budget meetings and those meetings are not reflected in the total mentioned above. Working alongside my fellow councilmen and women and with Paul Rizza the Finance Director we scrubbed the Mayors fiscally responsible budget recommendations and it was clear that the council would vote to approve the budget across party lines.  Although I regretted not being able to cast my vote of approval, I knew that my recommendations were included in the budget and that it would pass. Unfortunately we did have to raise the mill rate 4 mills but this was needed to offset the crippling re-evaluations we faced and the gross underfunding of the previous administrations budgets. We are still transferring money to fund accounts that were not funded adequately in last year’s budgets. If you are on top of everything as you imply, you will know this. This is in black and white if you bother to investigate.

 Also, I do not see any mention of the numerous Board of Finance meetings that I attend as a Town Councilman throughout the year representing my constituents. Why was that not part of your expose.  

  Finally, you are supposed to be the Chairman of the Americans with Disabilities Act Committee. An ADA committee meeting is scheduled for the 2nd Thursday of every month. You have only had two meetings all year. That’s 2 out of 10.  Your commission has had the fewest meetings of any board or commission in East Haven this year. How does this best serve our disabled citizens when the committee chairman does not hold meetings?

 I hope that the good folks on the Democratic Town Committee have the sense not to give you their party’s nomination for Town Council. And if by chance you do get their nomination I hope the voters in the 3rd district see you for what you are and reject your self-serving agenda.