East Haven Town Council Very Upset with School System Over Finances

Originally written by Jack Kramer, Correspondent

EAST HAVEN, CT – The Town Council, at its most recent meeting, considered asking for a criminal investigation into how the Board of Education spends its allotted monies if it couldn’t get a clear explanation of why the board consistently overspends its annual budget.

After much discussion, and advice from its attorney, Joe Zullo, the board decided against going ahead with the motion at its February 7th meeting.

Council members were frustrated that the school expenditures were tracking in excess of the $47.16 million allocated for the year, and were asking Finance Director Paul Rizza at the meeting if he had answers as to why that was the case.

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Rizza thanked the board for their questions, but said he did not have all the answers they were seeking, though he was probing the expenditures to get to the bottom of it.

At one point during the lengthy discussion on the school board’s finances, a motion was made to give Rizza 45 days to answer all the questions about the school board’s finances.

A motion was introduced, and seconded, “If in 45 days he (Rizza) does not have an answer that shows where the money is and what happened, at that point they ask for a formal investigation by the State Attorney’s Office or Attorney General’s Office to find out what happened.”

The motion was eventually withdrawn.

For a full report on the Town Council’s discussion on the matter, the minutes of the meeting can be read at this link here.

(Editor's Note: This story first ran previously but here it is again in case you missed it.)