Thursday, October 7, 2010

Personnel Director "Fires Herself" Over Residency Guilty Conscience

COMMENTARY from Middletown Personnel Director Deborah Milardo


Mayor

I have to come clean.  After reading today’s Middletown Press and the requirement of the Majority Leader that all Directors must stay in Middletown 24/7 I have to admit …. I’ve left the boundaries.  I’ve eaten in out of town restaurants; I’ve shopped in out of town stores and …. I’ve worshipped in out of area churches.  (I’m sorry – my father was buried in Glastonbury and I received Communion in my home town church in Manchester on that day.  I also recently received communion again in Glastonbury just recently… sorry)  This summer – not only 2 weeks on vacation but 2 weeks out of state on vacation.  This weekend – sigh… I will be at Foxwoods for a wedding.  I’m not sure what possessed me – must have forgotten to drink the Kool-Aid on these given days.  Perhaps the mind control lights that must be rigged in our office stopped working long enough that reality set in that we could leave Middletown for a week, day or hour.

I am willing to be fired.  Unfortunately I think all other Directors in the City will also need to be fired so I will stay on as long as I can to fire all of these employees for violating the 24/7 rule and then I will fire myself.  I will however place myself on unpaid leave so I do not collect any money during this period.  Even though we did not realize when hired it meant servitude I think this is also would be characterized by the Majority Leader as willful misconduct – so, none of us can collect unemployment. 

Should I send the notices of termination out for all the exempt Directors today or wait until Friday?

Please share this as necessary.  Today’s article in the Middletown Press has to contain the stupidest comments I’ve seen made EVER in this City’s history. 

Debra

Debra A. Milardo
Director of Personnel
City of Middletown
245 DeKoven Drive
Middletown, CT  06457

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Someone please take her up on her offer.

Anonymous said...

Enough with the pissing contest. Clearly, they all have immaturity issues. Move on.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Peifer

Anonymous said...

Way to show your professionalism! I can't believe someone in such a high and respected position in our town government would stoop to very poor sarcasm, and only poor sarcasm to voice disagreement with the Common Counsil.

Many may not agree with the majority of the elected members of our city's counsil, but at least they are acting like adults.

I had no opinion on the Personnel Director until now. I hope the Mayor accepts your resignation.

Anonymous said...

First off - This would be easier to follow if the Middletown Press Article was linked.

Secondly - I've seen more thoughtful temper tantrums from second graders. Is Ms. Milardo also going to hold her breath until she gets her way? If she feel comments are inaccurate, then she should correct them. If she feels the rules are wrong, then she should address them. This I'm taking my ball and going home attitude is childish and inappropriate.

Anonymous said...

These childish games at Town Hall need to stop! It's embarrassing to the city residents that their leaders are behaving this way. Ms. Milardo may believe that, "Today’s article in the Middletown Press has to contain the stupidest comments I’ve seen made EVER in this City’s history." But I believe her childishness was even stupider. She could have commented in a professional way on why the 24/7 requirement (which I do not believe was meant literally) was not appropriate, but instead she chose to waste her time on this foolishness. I cannot wait to vote this administration OUT!

A Former Middletown Democrat said...

I disagree with all the anonymous posters. I think that Deb Milardo's letter makes a great point. I think that the comments made by council member Serra in the Middletown press were ridiculous. I think that if we are not outraged as citizens then we are not paying attention to what is happening in our city. I am curious if council member Serra even payed attention at the meeting. He claims that only North End residents spoke in favor of the acting Chiefs appointment, yet I see a list that is full of people from all over Middletown. He claims that the education community was not represented - yet it appears there was a teacher who spoke about the chief. I think that Ms. Milardo had every right to be outraged at the comments that were made - I think that instead of the heavy handed political speak and party line answers that we have seen Ms. Milardo used humor to prove her point. Kudos to you Ms. Milardo - this citizen is happy to see someone speak their mind and do it in a creative way. We should be ashamed of what is happening on this council and we should all be speaking against it.

Anonymous said...

She is an embarrassment and so is this mayor. That all she does is throw tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Her way isn't always the right way. There are rules that need to be followed Mrs milardo.....not just your interpretation of the rules. I'm disgusted in of the childidh BS that is occurring.

Good Humor Rocks said...

Three Cheers for Debra Milardo! She cleverly conveyed the mess created Monday night. For those who think her article was "childish", you miss the point of higher level thinking and describing the absurd through humor.She's got guts.I appreciated her article...Middletown 12---get it together or get out!

Anonymous said...

1. Did she compose this usless
letter on "City Time" while
getting paid by the City of Middletown?

2. Is she as foolish as her letter sounds?

Anonymous said...

I'm going to comment here, because I'm tired of hearing things. I'd truly love to sign my name, but I know Middletown all to well. The attacks will come, and my life will be made miserable. But I feel the need to say something on Ms. Milardo's letter.

Debra Milardo has been one the best Personnel Directors this City has had. She is fair, honest, and does her job to the letter of her job description. She is beholden to no politician, employee, or coworker. She treats each individual fairly and uses the letter of the law to make her decisions. She is a staunch supporter of the City policies, but also has compassion. She disciplines when she needs to, and offers the City's help when its warranted. She is fair, honest, open and speaks her mind. It's refreshing from the employee standpoint to know she will follow the rules as written, but will also lend a compassionate ear when its needed. The force of her enemies shows that she is not beholden to politics and equally does her job. The comments made by these councilmen where deragatory towards all City employees. We are members of this community, and pay taxes just like everyone else. I see her letter as one of amusement, to protect all City employees from the brash and thoughtless comments made by mindless politicians.

Many of the same politicians who now bash her, used her to get to the point they are in in their political lives. She could have easily used her position to comment here. You cannot hold her to a higher standard when you do not hold your elected officials to the same standard. The people of our City has allowed this political posturing to continue by electing the same game players for many years now. The politicians want to claim residency, however do nothing to hire Middletown's brightest to fill these positions. When we see games played by these politicians, who in their right minds want to work here? Middletown, It's all Here!

joseph getter said...

1. Perhaps the City needs to re-think our residency requirement. Is it needed, and enforceable? What are the benefits, or problems? If we let if go, we will likely pay more in mileage to cars for out-of-town division heads. But we have not determined if we will or will not get better people into those jobs if it is dropped.

2. The comments sections of the Press and the Eye are new forums that didn't exist until recently. Now that our "community" has these tools, how are we using them? Have we just created our own local version of a media echo chamber? In the past such ventings of opinion (and spite) would have taken place around a water cooler, in a church or bar. That is, at face to face meetings; thus perhaps tempered by the need to have dialog (and avoid getting punched).

It is unfortunate that we don't have a permanent Police Chief in Middletown. But surely such political machinations have taken place many times in the past in our fine town. What's different now is all the anonymous online ranting, which has increased the anger and sense of crisis here.

3. When McMahon was initially appointed in 2007, folks on the Council crossed party lines to approve him (according to archived articles I found at The Courant). What's different now?

I would rather see members of all political parties try to cooperate rather than take rigid partisan positions on everything. Let's save that for the Federal and State levels; we need cooperation in our local government. Just my $0.02.

rumor monger ; ) said...

the rumor mill says that the acting chief would not play ball with the corrupt middletown powers that be.. so and so to speak we can't have a do-gooder in charge in town, because business as usual might grind to a halt. i wonder what is true anymore, but it would be nice to have clean and transparent government in town and that has been sorely lacking for a long time in my humble opinion

Fred In Westfield said...

How quickly one forgets the gift she was given to obtain her job.She should do the tax payers a favor and leave.

Anonymous said...

yo ed r u just posting republicans view's. i have two post pro-democrat and you didnt post either. real un-biased reporting. it says blog owner to aprove comments ie; you !

Jen Alexander said...

Dear Anon @ 2:37,

Sorry if this wasn't clear, but comments that are anonymous, and include slander or slurs, are unlikely to be published. If you look through the comments, I'm sure you'll see that we have published opinions on both sides of this issue. If you want to ensure getting your comments approved, we encourage you to sign your name!

-Jen Alexander

Middletown Eye (Ed McKeon) said...

yo, anonymous, 2:37 pm. funny you know my name. what's yours? easy to make inaccurate accusations when you hide behind an anonymous post. the easiest response is to say you're wrong. because you are. did you miss the three posts the eye published that were authored by democratic common council members. guess you did. btw. The shift key allows you to use capital letters.