The headline in the Hartford Courant likely will not be reassuring to Hartford residents: “Longtime CT city commissioner ousted. Another leaves too; backlash immediate and sharply worded.”
Dismissed, according to the Courant, was “Bruce Rubenstein,
an attorney and member of the Internal Audit Commission since 2013… not
reappointed when city Treasurer Carmen Sierra” thought it proper to appoint
attorney Catherine Torres to the Internal Audit Commission in Rubenstein’s
place.
Asked why he thought he was not reappointed to the audit
commission, Rubenstein said, “I believe that she (Sierra) knew we were talking
about an audit and investigation of the pension fund; she would have known we
were interested in an audit… The pension is billions of dollars … if a
treasurer opposes an audit, something is wrong. I don’t look the other way with
allegations.”
Sierra complimented Rubenstein as she showed him the door.
She said, according to the Courant, “she had an opportunity to work with
Rubenstein ‘for many years’ and he is ‘a wonderful person, very smart.’…
However, she said, Rubenstein has served and was reappointed by a previous
treasurer and she has made it clear it was time to ‘open doors for young professionals
and that we need to diversify these commissions.’”
“Rubenstein told the Courant, “… he voted recently in favor
of an investigation and audit of the city’s pension fund and expenses,
inclusive of the period from January 2024 to the present. He said the decision
to audit the pension fund came after information was submitted to the audit
commission that ‘alleged possible problems with the income and expenses for
that time period and advised us to take a look.’”
Those who know Rubenstein well regard him as a blushingly
honest appraiser of things political in Connecticut.
The Courant notes: “The change in the Internal Audit
Commission also comes as Sierra also appointed a new member to the Hartford
Pension Commission, ending the membership and chairmanship of Joshua Gottfried,
who then penned a critical letter to Mayor Arunan Arulampalam and the City
Council, citing concerns that he alleges impact the commission “effectively
carrying out its fiduciary duties.”
Gottfried has not gone gentle into that good night,
according to the Courant. Gottfried has
penned a letter detailing his concerns in “three primary areas: investments,
personnel, and governance.” He is sharing the letter because, according to the
paper, a “1% additional rate of return would save the city $109,190,000 over
the next 15 years.”
Gottfried writes in his letter that “many of the issues” he
details “stem from a lack of adequate policies and procedures as well as how de facto authority and communication
have been structured by the Treasurer who also serves as Secretary of the
[Pension] Commission.”
Sierra has vowed to respond “legally” to Gottfried’s letter.
As a practical matter, this barely concealed threat means, “We cannot comment
on a pending legal matter” that will take God knows how long to resolve as it
bounces through the courts.
Tossing into overburdened courts complex political
matters, some have observed, may be the last refuge of political scoundrels.
A denial of public information concerning audits necessary
for good governance may be accomplished in various ways: the results of the
audit itself may be sequestered in some dark corner; the auditors may be
politically replaced with others more obliging; or those pointing out
governmental deficiencies may be first dismissed and later discredited by
shark-toothed lawyers. These are the impediments that prevent state employed whistleblowers from blowing their
whistles.
The danger in audits is that honest auditors may lay before
the public evidence of political malfeasance – always on the occasionally
debatable assumption that sunlight disinfects corruption -- a danger resolved
most effectively by the stratagems mentioned above.
The real problem in most large urban areas of Connecticut
such as Hartford is that in a one-party municipal system one hand may never
know what the other hand is doing because
-- there is only one hand.
The last Republican mayor of Hartford was Ann Uccello, the first female Mayor of Hartford and the first female Mayor of
any city in Connecticut. “In a 1970 poll,” according to her obit, “81 percent
of the greater Hartford public approved of her job performance.” In 2008 the
city of Hartford covered itself in glory by renaming Ann Street Ann Uccello
Street. Ann was elected mayor in 1967 and left office in 1971.
Indeed, Connecticut suffers from the same one-handed
political structure as many of its major cities, and largely because of this
the majority incumbent party can well afford to wink at political corruption.
Regione caecorum rex
est luscus, Desiderius Erasmus tells us: "In the land of the blind,
the one-eyed man is king"
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