Mayor and Council Member Daley Called "Bullies" at No Quorum Council Meeting

A meeting without a quorum.

In a meeting laced with passion, emotion, anger and bafflement, Council members who attended Thursday's last-minute meeting to deal with the release of classified information, characterized their colleagues in pursuit of the information as bullies.

"I ask Councilman Daley, who didn't have the courage to attend tonight to listen to the plight employees have gone through," said Council member Phil Pessina in a charged statement.  "I've seen Councilman Daley berate Council member Bartolotta.  He, my fellow council member, has become a bully."

Pessina was not the only member to speak with emotion about the topic of the meeting - the continued pursuit by Daley and the mayor to access confidential information about those interviewed in an investigation of the mayor's and the city attorney's office.

Pessina, and the other Council members in attendance began the meeting in frustration when it became clear that they would not have a quorum, and would not be able to vote on two proposed resolutions that asked for confidential documents to be covered by attorney/client privilege, and thereby be kept confidential, and that the Council forbid the mayor from pursuing those documents from the Clerk of the Common Council.

In attendance, Council members Deb Kleckowsky (R), Seb Giuliano (R), Rob Blanchard(D), Mary Bartolotta (D), Phil Pessina (R), Linda Salafia (R).  Absent were Council members Gerry Daley (D), Carl Chissem (D), Grady Faulkner (D), Bob Santangelo (D), Gene Nocera (D), and Tom Serra (D) who has been out for months battling a long-term illness.  The Council needs seven members to have a quorum, call an official meeting, and take action on resolutions.

That Clerk, Linda Reed,  was at the center of much of the passion and fury.

The mayor issued a directive requiring the clerk, the town clerk, and the Director of IT to provide all documents to an outside attorney hired to review the documents to determine if they could be released under Freedom of Information laws.  The deadline to provide the documents is Friday October 19.  Council members made two things clear; that Reed has performed will in her position and that she was a competent and efficient clerk, and that if she failed to provide the confidential information to the outside attorney, the mayor would consider her to be insubordinate, and that she risked being fired.

In a memo Bartolotta from IT Director Bryan Skowera that read into the record, Bartolotta revealed that Skowera had already collected, compiled and turned over Bartolotta's emails over to the outside attorney hired by the mayor to review documents.

Reed kept minutes at the meeting, but at moments was clearly emotional when listening to her situation described by Council members.

"It's a very real threat to her job, to her income," said an emotion Geen Thazhampallath, city parking director, and president of the union which represents Reed.  "What have we become that an employee is scared to go to the HR (human resources) office, scared to ask for legal advice from the city attorney.  Is this the kind of place that any of us would want to work?"

Thazhampallath was among a handful of residents who spoke, in unison, against the actions being taken by the mayor and Council member Daley.  Another twenty-five community members were in attendance.

Jen Maher, a Westfield resident complained that "the circus I can see way out in Wesfield is ridiculous.  It's embarassing."  She explained that even if there was not a problem at city hall, the perception should be enough for a good manager to act and correct.

"There is a problem, period," Maher said.  "And it no longer really matters what the problem is.  I and many others perceive that city hall is a toxic place to work."

"I believe there was a window when the city could have stepped behind this report and said, ''look at the gift we've been given," Jenny Lecce said.  "That window is now slammed shut.  Women vote.  We won't forget, and we're ashamed of what's happening here right now."

Council member Seb Giuliano, who was on the Council committee that managed the investigation criticized the mayor's actions.

"He's directed the clerk to do something that this Council has made clear, in two votes, that it doesn't want done," Giuliano said.

On a practical basis, Giuliano made suggestions to solve the problem, including creating a job description and structure to make it explicitly clear that the clerk works for the council and not the mayor.  He also suggested, along with two other council members that a charter revision was in order that would remove the mayor as the presiding officer at Common Council meetings, and create language that would "brighten the blurry line between the executive and legislative branches."

Pessina was perhaps the most strident, in making clear his displeasure with the current situation, and the need to return to regular business.

"I've have gotten calls from the public.  I've heard it from people on the street, and they've had it up to here," Pessina said, placing his hand on his forehead.

Rob Blanchard, who postponed a Democratic Town Committee meeting to attend the last minute Council session also showed his frustration with the alleged pursuit of addition information about how money was spent in the investigation.

"We've spent money on sillier things," Blanchard said.  "The relentless pursuit only illustrates why they (the 22 people who volunteered complaints about he mayor), were afraid in the first place."

"If Daley wants to know how the money was spent the bills can be summarized," Giuliano suggested.  "If the answer to that is no, then somebody has a different agenda."

Bartolotta, who ran the meeting, saved her ire for last.

"This is disgusting.  It's a dictatorship," she said.  "And dictatorships run on fear.  I don't have the words to describe how utterly disgusting it is.  I would ask that this behavior stop.  This needs to go to FOIA (Freedom of Information Administration) and let FOIA make the decision."

Council members agreed to resurrect the resolutions from the evening at the next regular Council meeting.  Both Bartolotta and Giuliano said they would refuse to release any information in their possession.  Reed, torn by the need to keep her job, and her fear of breaking the law, called it a "moral dilemma" and said she had not made up her mind.

Bartolotta promised to work diligently to remove the burden from Reed's shoulder.

(Editor's note:  In a phone call following the meeting, Council member Gene Nocera explained that he was absent because he teaches a course at St. Joseph's College on Thursday evenings.  He said that he had informed Linda Reed and Mary Bartolotta.  He also indicated that he agreed with Seb Giuliano's suggestion that the billing questions about the investigation should and could be handled in a confidential executive session of the Common Council).