A Question of Nepotism?

Commentary by Common Council member Hope Kasper

“Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”

I kept hearing that cliché in my head as Mayor Sebastian Giuliano made accusations against me in a politically-motivated press conference on Tuesday.

I watched him angrily and indignantly gesture toward me with his finger and accuse me (without any facts) of getting my son-in-law a temp job as a Board of Education payroll clerk.

He never acknowledged that he’s hired his own daughter and one of his sons to work for the City of Middletown in the Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments. Being an elected official shouldn’t disqualify your relatives from employment, but hiring your own children is questionable – especially when you criticize others whose relatives are appointed to their jobs on merit alone.

I hope this blog will ask tough questions about how much it has cost the city for the mayor to hire his own children while the cost of living is spiraling out of control for everyone else.

For the record, I stand by my son-in-law. Despite claims by the mayor that he finished last in testing, he actually placed in the top three. He has nearly a decade of relevant experience. I attended the mayor’s press conference on Monday precisely because I have nothing to hide and because I resent my family being scapegoated by a mayor who has brought multiple lawsuits against other departments of the city and made countless accusations of criminality against many people – only to have the allegations proven wrong.

Hiring his own children to work for the city at taxpayer expense is only one of Giuliano’s questionable personnel moves as mayor. Patronage is the gasoline that makes this administration go. Just a few of many examples:

He created a position for a former Board of Education employee and personal friend as a Park and Recreation budget analyst and gave that person a $15,000/year raise. He never advertised it to members of the 466 union as required by the contract so they would have an equal chance to apply.

He created a job for a friend as records supervisor at the police department. He never advertised that one to the union either. Where was the outrage then?

Here is what the mayor didn’t say in his press conference: the person he is trying to appoint to the payroll job checked off on her job application that she had a criminal record. According to reports in this newspaper, checking that box was an accident. But the city’s personnel director can’t say whether a real background check was ever conducted.

I asked the personnel director if the city would run a real background check to be sure it wasn’t a problem and I was told “no.”

Mayor Giuliano’s real concern here is not what the City Charter says about who gets to hire a temporary payroll clerk. It’s a question of control, power, and ultimately, money. It’s about who gets to hand out jobs and favors to friends.

This mayor has spent his entire third term starting fights he loses in court and which have cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars on attorneys. This term, the mayor has sued the Board of Education multiple times and has also sued the Planning and Zoning Commission.

How many times is Mayor Giuliano going to make us sue ourselves?

This mayor is so desperate for a political win that he will condemn others for doing the things he himself has done and continues to do.

So how about it, Seb? Maybe you should take a look at cleaning your own house before you falsely accuse others of the very impropriety that you’re guilty of.