Council Candidate Files Complaint Against Stratford Mayor

Editor’s note: In case you missed it from earlier this week. This story was originally posted July 23.

Update, July 23, 3:45 p.m.

Stratford Mayor John A. Harkins responded to the complaint filed by Mark Dumas with the following statement:

“We understand the law, and the documents referred to in the complaint were informational in nature and available to inform Stratford residents.”

Original story

Mark Dumas, a candidate for Stratford Town Council, filed a complaint with the State Election Enforcement Commission on Wednesday against Stratford Mayor John Harkins.

The complaint alleges that Harkins violated a state law that prohibits the use of tax dollars to support or oppose a referendum.

On Nov. 3, Stratford voters will vote on a referendum that will decide if the town will sell its sewer plant to a New Haven-based regional authority. Dumas, who like Harkins is a Republican, opposes the sale. Harkins supports the sale.

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“The Mayor has every right to his opinion, but he does not have a right to use our tax dollars to express it,” Dumas said in a press release. “The law is clear on this and when John Harkins was a state representative he voted in favor of the very law he has broken.”

Read more from the press release below:

Dumas, an attorney, says that the law allows a public official to hold press conferences or issue statements to the media opposing a referendum, but that any expenditure to oppose a referendum must be made using personal funds or private contributions to a political committee.

The Harkins administration recently posted “fact sheets” and “Mayor’s Minutes” throughout Town Hall supporting the sale. According to Dumas, the number of flyers posted in Town Hall is what spurred him to file the complaint.

“I was paying my taxes on Monday and the Mayor’s flyers were literally posted every three feet along the hall where taxpayers had to wait in line to pay their bills,” said Dumas. “It was pretty clear that the Mayor was trying to suggest that the referendum was why our tax bills went up, but the truth is that taxes have gone up in five of the six years he has been mayor. I think taxpayers are smart enough to see what the real problem is.”

Dumas was also critical of the nearly $500,000.00 that the town has reportedly spent trying to stop the referendum in court. When Town Attorney Tim Bishop claimed that state law did not allow for a referendum, Dumas was one of the first to say that Bishop was wrong. Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruled against Bishop on June 4th.

“My daughter had her Spanish class cut for budgetary reasons,” said Dumas, “if the town did not waste all that money on lawyers arguing a clearly frivolous position then the town might not have had to make that cut. We should be spending our money on schools, parks, or lower taxes, not lawyers and politics.”

If Harkins is found to have violated the law, Connecticut General Statutes § 9-369b states that he could be required to repay the town for any improper expenditures, including the expenditures for legal bills opposing the referendum.

Dumas says that what he really wants is for Harkins to simply stop misusing taxpayer funds and that he emailed the Mayor to let him know that he would ask that the complaint be withdrawn if the Mayor simply agreed to stop using taxpayer dollars to fight the referendum.

Harkins, who is currently in San Diego for an American Legislative Exchange Council conference, did not respond to the email.