To the Editor:
The 2010-2014 ambulance contract between the Middlebury Ambulance Fund and the Middlebury government reads like a pilot episode of “The Sopranos meet The Simpsons.” To begin with, the Middlebury government signed a contract with the fire department whereby the town paid certain bills and the fire department kept the ambulance proceeds. Under this agreement, which few in Middlebury government can seem to recall, the fire chief would allegedly be mandated to provide quarterly reports, tax returns and audits concerning the Ambulance Fund.
Evidently the town failed to put itself on the list of those receiving these reports as, over a four-year period, the Middlebury government claims it got none of the 16 quarterly reports, just two audits and no tax returns. Keep in mind the ambulance fund was taking in about $150- to $200,000 per year at this time.
Then-First Selectman Tom Gormley said of the agreement, according to the Board of Selectmen minutes, “There are no finances involved. It is strictly a legal agreement.” What’s that, you say, “no finances” involved? Then why ask for tax returns, audits and quarterly reports on a non-financial contract?
Well, that was our Tom. What about the other members of the Middlebury town government? McCormack and the Finance Board kept right on allocating hundreds of thousands of dollars in spite of the lack of fire department reporting; the Board of Selectmen did the same. Nobody in town government seems to have seen anything amiss, heard anything amiss, suspected anything amiss, and the whole circus went on and on.
The town attorney, Mr. Savarese, saw little merit in my attempts to FOI financial information from the fire department during these years. It was a catastrophic failure of government on every level, and the local townsfolk sat back, watched it and did nothing.
Although a hackneyed cliche, it’s true: People generally get the government they deserve. And they did.
Pat de Angelis
Middlebury
Jan. 14, 2015
