Thomas MacMillan Photo
Smart (second from left) chairs a hearing into tax assessor abuses.
Mayoral challenger Jeffrey Kerekes has received his first endorsement from an elected official, Wooster Square Alderman Michael Smart.
Smart made the endorsement in a release issued Saturday by the Kerekes campaign. There was no public event scheduled, and Smart could not be reached for comment.
Smart cited two main events of the past year in explaining his endorsement in the release. One: The ongoing abuses and incompetence in the city tax assessor’s office, which Smart himself brought to light with a series of packed aldermanic hearings. The DeStefano administration acknowledged some of the problems and announced policy changes it claimed would rectify them. (Read about some of that here, here, and here.)
“Taxpayer after taxpayer shared stories of abuse, disrespect and sheer mean-spirited behavior on the part of [Assessor Bill] O’Brien and his staff. Please note, much of this behavior continues to this day. In the end, accounts of incompetence and utter mismanagement within the tax assessor’s office led some members of the Board of Aldermen to call for O’Brien’s resignation. Of course in spite of this call and the public outcry the mayor stubbornly decided to keep O’Brien and his callous operation in place,” Smart stated in the release.
Smart also cited last week’s controversy over the departure of Police Chief Frank Limon: “When stories leaked that Chief Limon had packed his bags and was headed back to Chicago to assume a top level position with the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) the mayor simply lied and stated that the chief was on an extended leave. He was then forced to come clean. Shortly thereafter he named a new chief to finish out Limon’s term. Frankly, it appears the mayor has a problem being honest with the citizens of New Haven.”
DeStefano campaign manager Danny Kedem offered this response:
“Like the birther movement, nothing the mayor can say will satisfy Mr. Kerekes. These personal attacks are just base distractions from the fact that he has no experience and no positive solutions to offer New Haven.”