Immaturo

East Haven's mayor is playing hooky.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
By Betsy Yagla

Would you take nine weeks’ vacation at your job? What about five? You could if you were East Haven Mayor Joe Maturo. Maturo has been East Haven’s mayor for 10 years, and the Town Hall rumor mill has it he’s out of town quite often.

East Haven Democrats decided to check up on that rumor and filed a Freedom of Information request seeking Maturo’s schedule for the past fiscal year. The mayor’s office uses Microsoft Outlook for scheduling purposes, but it told Gene Ruocco, Democratic Party chairman, they had to hire specialists at $75 an hour to retrieve and print the schedule. Maturo’s calendar from July 2005 to April 2007 cost Ruocco $265.

According to dates a Town Hall mole gave to Democrats, Maturo was on vacation in Florida from Feb. 23 to March 29, 2007—five weeks. Paper copies of Maturo’s Microsoft Outlook schedule show both of those dates labeled with “Fla.” (Matruo has a vacation home in Florida.) During those dates, items were redacted with black marker on Feb. 7, 13, 14, 17, 20 and 21. In total, 40 items were redacted from Maturo’s calendar.

In 2006, Maturo was gone from March 4 to March 24.

“We need a full-time mayor,” says Democratic mayoral candidate April Capone Almon. “This is not a part-time job. If you didn’t show up, how would it affect your job?”

Reached by phone and asked if he was free to answer some questions, Maturo said “Noooop.” He declined to discuss it, but called me right back. Vacations are not calculated by the fiscal calendar, argues Maturo, they’re done by the calendar year. “I took four weeks’ vacation one year, and four weeks’ another.” He adds that when he’s gone, he’s constantly in contact with the office either by phone or email. Plus, he doesn’t vacation during summer because he goes to East Haven’s concerts on the Green. And anyway, who wants to go to Florida in the summer?

What about those blacked out dates on his calendar? Those are doctor’s appointments, the mayor says, for his swollen prostate gland. Private things like doctor’s appointments may be excluded from FOI requests, if there’s an explanation accompanying them. Ruocco complained about the redactions and the calendar’s high costs to the state’s FOI commission and a hearing date will be set for early fall.

The East Haven town charter does not specify the amount of vacation time a mayor is allotted. However, it does say the town will pay the Town Council chairman up to two weeks to serve as acting mayor. A full day as East Haven mayor pays $288.46, according to expense records.

“The problem is he’s an absentee mayor,” says Ruocco.

“I’m glad they’re talking about my vacation time,” quips Maturo. “That just means they don’t have anything else to talk about.”

In addition to Maturo’s regular duties as mayor, East Haven mayors also serve as chairman of the Board of Finance. In Maturo’s 10-year tenure, there have been 131 Board of Finance meetings, and he’s missed 122 of those, according to Capone Almon.

Maturo doesn’t go to those meetings, he says, because “it puts political pressure” on the board. “They don’t need me there. The only time I go is at budget time and if I think there’s something really crucial.”

“He’s the chair, so he’d be leading the [finance] meeting,” says Capone Almon. “He should know what’s going on. How plugged in can he be if he doesn’t attend the meetings?”