Statement of Mayor James L. Richetelli, Jr.

at
Eisenhower Park, Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Good Afternoon, and thank you all for joining me here today.

I asked you to join me at Eisenhower Park because this site is indicative

of how the local Democrat Party - under the leadership of their party

boss Richard Smith – plays politics in Milford.

In 2007, with the help of Senator Joseph Lieberman, I secured grant

funding to improve this park. The Democratic aldermen – under Mr.

Smith’s leadership – strongly objected to this. They objected because it

was Jim Richetelli and Joe Lieberman who made it happen.

I also have for you today a list of Milford projects submitted for 2009

ARRA “Stimulus Act” funding. Despite what Mr. Smith alleged recently,

my administration continues to work hard to fund important projects in

Milford. As you will see from the list (attached), Milford has requested

more than $62 million in “Stimulus” funding.

As Mayor, there are better ways to spend the people’s time than by

holding press conferences. But sometimes, something so troubling and

false occurs that it forces one to put aside the people’s business, if for no
other reason than the fact that falsehoods sorely affect the people’s

business.

Today, a local newspaper carries a front page story in which the

Democrat Party boss Richard Smith and his sidekick Michael Brown

make my past issue with an anti-anxiety prescription medication a

campaign issue.

You know Mr. Smith. He is very smart, and very adept at saying “X” in

order to imply the opposite of “X”. I don’t have enough fingers to count

the times Mr. Smith has said – either to the press, or on his party’s

website, or through the comment sections on newspaper websites – that

he and his Democrat colleagues wish me well and would not make an

issue of this past matter, about which I have been and will continue to

be very open.

No matter how hard Mr. Smith and his cronies try to portray me as

“addicted”, the fact is that I work hard every day to ensure that issue

stays behind me. Mr. Smith fools no one when he falsely states that he

supports me. While I remain committed to maintaining a healthy and

productive present, Mr. Smith is hypocritically locked in his dark past.

Today’s paper finds Mr. Smith once again employing his artful craft to

publicly raise this never-to-be-raised issue: Now, he alleges, I may have

been “off my game” as regards my efforts to get Milford federal stimulus

funds for so-called shovel-ready projects. His implication is: I was too

crocked to apply. This is not true! And I strongly resent his

insinuations.

My friends, what Mr. Smith says matters - even when he says something

so false and ill intentioned. When Mr. Smith as party chairman dictates

to Milford Democrat Aldermen that they will reduce the size of our police

force, those Aldermen follow his orders and cut police staffing. When Mr.

Smith dictates to Milford Democrat Aldermen that they will cut funding

for the early warning system our coastal community so sorely needs,

those Democrat Aldermen follow his orders and cut this critical safety

program.

When he sets the tone of the election, you can be sure his partisan

colleagues will follow. Let them!

I hope, however, his words and his intentions will bring about a different

reaction from the good people of Milford.

I am confident they will see his reckless and impugning language for

what it is. Here’s another old saying: “if it quacks like a duck, and

waddles like a duck, and lays eggs like a duck, it’s a duck.” Mr. Smith

quacks. And he’s laid a big egg here. He can imply all he wants that he is

being magnanimous about my personal matters, but if he were I wouldn’t

be here today. Despite his rhetoric, he very much wants to make, and

has made, my personal matters a central issue of the Democrat Party’s

election campaign. If this is the kind of political behavior and the people

of Milford want from their leaders, then they should elect the Democrat

ticket this November.

However, if they want honesty, if they want someone who means what he

says and says what he means, someone with a record of accomplishment,

someone who has made the hallmark of his tenure the ability to unite

people, to protect Milford, to make a great city even greater - then I hope

the people of Milford will re-elect me, and that they will explicitly reject

Democrat Party boss Richard Smith’s disingenuous tactics.

I am not afraid to discuss any issue, including personal matters. I am

not ashamed to be open. But I am ashamed of Richard Smith and his

underhanded tactics to say one thing while deliberately meaning the

other. It would be very refreshing if for once he would just be honest and

admit what he’s doing, and what everyone else knows he is doing.
About the stimulus projects. The people of Milford should know that this

is an ongoing process. I had applied for so-called shovel-ready projects

through the means by which Connecticut mayors were directed, that

being COG and other identified agencies of the state and federal

governments.

People should know that the federal legislation justifying these stimulus

expenditures was not made federal law until after my healthy return to

Milford in February. Before then, after then, I and my administration had

and have applied for these funds, and for any funding – whether through

federal or state governments, through private industry programs,

through foundations – that will improve our city and take some burden

off our local taxpayers.

Following this statement, you will find a list of the things for which my

administration has applied under ARRA guidelines. Again, I thank you

for your kind attention today.

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