At first the Waterbury Republican-American ran a story about possible conflicts of interest between Randy Petrorniro’s duties as a Town Councilor and his lawsuits against the town pertaining to his Wolcott Rd. propane business. The article focused on a single sentence of the Town’s ethics code stating that elected officials cannot represent private interests before the town. On the surface, this makes sense, except the article overstated that clause. While we don’t want town officials to cover up, cloud, or profit at the expense of the taxpayers who elected them, the questions raised by the article overstate the general right of the same public official to preserve and maintain their property without the intent to profit from it. As for the merits of the lawsuits mentioned in the article, that’s a different matter.
Then we read news reports of a probe by the FBI, IRS, and State Police of a Hartford area sports gambling ring. At first, it seemd like an interesting but fairly typical day in Connecticut law enforcement. Sports gambling appears to be fairly common in Connecticut with football pools openly displayed in bars and workplaces throughout the state. In fact, gambling of all kinds exist for adults and and tempt children. Bingo, lotto and trips to Foxwoods are just the tip of the iceberg where you can try dropping a dime to make a dollar. Many newspapers even publish an odds column
The Wolcott Whisper 