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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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