Wednesday, November 30, 2011
NEWSTIMES ALWAYS THE LAST TO KNOW ... BUT THE REAL STORY HAS YET TO BE EXPOSED!
CITIZEN OPINION
"... most of New Fairfield knew more about this in October than is reported here!"
John Pirro, Staff Writer ... he wrote this?
Updated 10:49 p.m., Tuesday, November 29, 2011
NEW FAIRFIELD [THE BEST GOVERNMENT MONEY CAN BUY]] -- First Selectman John Hodge said Tuesday he suspended buildings and grounds director Steven Merullo in October, three months after asking State Police to investigate the "possible" disappearance of money from an undisclosed town department. [NOW DID MR. MERULLO DO "IT" OR DID MR. MERULLO GET CAUGHT DOING SOMETHING ELSE ... A HINT IS IN THE FOLLOWING TWO SENTENCES.]
But he refused to directly link the decision to place Merullo on paid suspension to the missing funds.
Merullo, 49, was placed on administrative leave effective Oct. 27, but Hodge declined to say why he had been suspended, calling it "a personnel matter."
In a letter dated Nov. 10, obtained by The News-Times, Hodge told Merullo the town "would be conducting its own investigation of your activities, which may result in charges of serious misconduct." [nothing like real investigated letter opening]
Hodge also directed Merullo to cooperate with the investigation and said failure to do so "could lead to disciplinary action up to an including termination of your employment."
Telephone calls to Merullo's home weren't returned Tuesday evening. [OF COURSE HE HAS CALLER ID!]
Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance confirmed that the department's Major Crime Squad had been asked to investigate the possible theft of money from the town. [HERE'S MY QUESTION WHERE WAS THE MAJOR CRIME UNIT WHEN COELHO HIT THE JACK POT? ... CT STATE POLICE ARE TURNING OVER THE STONES HOPING SOMETHING WILL CRAWL OUT ... BUT ARE THEY THE RIGHT STONES ... OR PERHAPS AN ILLUSION OR MISS DIRECTION? TIME WILL TELL!]
Hodge said he asked for the inquiry in July [IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ELECTION CYCLE], but Vance was unable to say Tuesday night whether a criminal investigation had been started.
Hodge wouldn't say whether Merullo was a target of the State Police investigation, but he said no money was missing from either Buildings and Grounds accounts or the Parks and Recreation Department, which Merullo headed before he was transferred to the Buildings and Grounds job last year. [appreciation richly deserved?]He wouldn't say from which department money was reported missing. [WHAT IS THIS REFERRING TO? NEW FAIRFIELD'S CASINO GOVERNMENT!]
While Merullo was in his former post, the Parks and Recreation Department's then-assistant director, Barbara Coelho, was forced to resign after it was discovered she had been embezzling money for years.
Coelho and the Board of Selectmen agreed to a settlement last year under which she would not be prosecuted criminally but had to pay $50,000 restitution to the town, a decision that resulted in extensive criticism of Hodge. [WHO WAS THE JUDGE AND JURY FOR THIS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE?]
Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/New-Fairfield-official-suspended-investigated-2309511.php#ixzz1fCEB5lzW
http://www.newstimes.com/policereports/article/Ex-Redding-official-charged-with-stealing-from-2286918.php#ixzz1fCThulce
http://www.newstimes.com/policereports/article/Ex-Redding-official-charged-with-stealing-from-2286918.php#ixzz1ejXsEcrq
Former New Fairfield town employee won't be charged
The investigation of former recreation department assistant director Barbara Coelho has been closed, said First Selectman John Hodge, who was informed of the decision in a letter from the Office of the Chief State's Attorney. The Board of... more »
John Pirro, Staff Writer 10 months ago
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
UP IS DOWN AND DOWN IS UP ...
As Home Prices Sink, Home Ownership Heads to New Lows ... AND YOUR TAXES ARE GOING TO RISE ... IF... !!!
Published: Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011 | 11:13 AM ET
By: Diana Olick
CNBC Real Estate Reporter
CNBC Real Estate Reporter
 |
"Consumer attitudes have gotten a lot more negative about long-term commitment," said Standard and Poors' David Blitzer, after reporting home prices through September had fallen a deeper-than-expected 3.9 percent compared to the third quarter of 2010. "They dropped to new lows. This takes them below the point we saw in 2009, where briefly we all thought this thing was about to turn around."
And that's the problem.
Every time we think things are turning around in the housing market, we get hit with some new problem, like last year's so-called "robo-signing" foreclosure paperwork scandal, which managed to stall the cleansing of distress in the market for over a year. Now that foreclosures are ramping up again, prices are coming down again.
All this could push home ownership down to levels not seen at least since before the Census began tracking this data in 1963. Home ownership soared to 70 percent in 2005, but it could fall to 62 percent by 2015, according to the number crunchers at John Burns Real Estate Consulting. They suggest that the effect of foreclosures drops home ownership 5.6 percent, and cyclical trends, like poor consumer confidence, tightening mortgage credit and the weak economy drop it 3 percent. Positive demographic trends would only offset that by 0.7 percent.
"People's memories take a while to fade," says John Burns. "It [also] takes a while to rebuild your balance sheet after a recession, and that's what many people need to do before they buy homes again. Homeowners need to build back up to have a down payment for their next house, and renters will need to save more than before to become homeowners."
Burns believes home ownership will return by 2025 to around 67 percent, as previously foreclosed borrowers return to the housing market, cyclical trends improve and positive demographics start to carry more weight.
One thing Burns doesn't mention, though, is negative equity, or borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
"It's not just negative equity that we often focus on, but it's also insufficient equity. All the people who have those primary loans that are somewhere between 80 and 100 percent LTV (loan-to-value) also basically don't have don't have access to the credit markets," notes Mark Flemming of CoreLogic, which today reported negative equity at 22.1 percent of all homes with a mortgage at the end of the third quarter.
As home prices refuse to stabilize, and in fact continue to fall, negative equity will only increase. The vast majority of the ten plus million people who are underwater are still paying their mortgages, but they are deeply underwater, 30 percent and higher. That will take a long time to correct, and will stagnate much of the market for years to come, as these owners are unable to sell.
Which leaves us to ask, is a 62 percent home ownership rate so bad? It's still far higher than in most European countries. Why is home ownership so intrinsic to the "American Dream?" I'll leave that to you faithful readers to discuss.
Friday, November 25, 2011
AMATEUR HOUR IN REDDING
A measly $5,000, this guy is an amateur. He should have lived and worked in New Fairfield, would have been given an award by our 1st Selectman.
Ex-Redding official charged with stealing from town
John Pirro, Staff Writer
Updated 09:55 p.m., Thursday, November 24, 2011
The 59-year-old Sanford surrendered to Brookfield police, who conducted the investigation, after being informed they had obtained a Superior Court warrant charging him with first-degree larceny.
According to information previously made public, Sanford, who resigned abruptly from his Redding town post in July, was being investigated for allegedly ordering highway department employees to work on an antique truck that he was restoring and for using town funds to maintain a lawn tractor he owned.
He was released on a written promise to appear in state Superior Court in Danbury on Dec. 8.
"As the town of Redding was the victim, we asked another police department to conduct the investigation," said Redding Police Chief Douglas Fuchs, explaining Brookfield's involvement in the case. "The Redding Police Department did assist Brookfield with certain portions of the investigation."
Sanford, who also serves as chief of the Redding Ridge Volunteer Fire Department, has already been charged with two counts of larceny and one count of attempted larceny of a person over 60, accusations that were brought by Redding police in September as a result of information they said came to light during the embezzlement inquiry.
In that case, police said Sanford billed 83-year-old June Kay of New York City about $4,300 for tree-cutting and other maintenance work that was never performed at her summer home on Lee Lane in Redding over the past several years.
Sanford has pleaded not guilty to those charges, and his attorney, Michael Corsello of Norwalk, has accused police of omitting information from the arrest warrant application that would have cast doubt on those allegations.
Sanford is scheduled for a court appearance Monday in that case, and Corsello previously said he will be asking the judge to hold an evidentiary hearing that could lead to dismissal of the charges.
Corsello could not be contacted Wednesday evening.
A search warrant application unsealed by court officials in September alleges that Sanford not only directed highway department subordinates to work on his 1977 Mack truck, he also used town funds to purchase parts for the vehicle's restoration and for maintenance of his Club Cadet lawn tractor.
A partial inventory of purchases included in that document showed at least $5,000 had been spent on the truck, but investigators said at the time it was written that a final total hadn't yet been determined.
Under state law, first-degree larceny involves the theft of $10,000 or more.
Contact John Pirro at jpirro@newstimes.com or 203-731-3342.
Read more: http://www.newstimes.com/policereports/article/Ex-Redding-official-charged-with-stealing-from-2286918.php#ixzz1ejXsEcrq
Thursday, October 27, 2011
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