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Community Corner

Musto to Herbst: Retract Criticisms

The new members of the Trumbull Housing Authority voted to remove Musto as their attorney.

An open letter to First Selectman Timothy Herbst: 

It has now been several weeks since you publicly questioned the honesty and integrity of Trumbull Housing Authority Commission members and me.  Your comments were personal and public, and as I have said many times over the past weeks, factually incorrect.  I have repeatedly called upon you to retract them and make a full apology in the same public and forceful manner in which you made the comments.

The Trumbull Times reported last week that you were aware of my request but refused to retract any of your comments.  Rather, you tried to justify them by citing problems at the Authority.  But your disparaging comments were not directed to these problems, how they arose, or how to fix them.  Rather, you accused the commissioners and me of various deceitful and unscrupulous acts.  It seems to me that you consider this yet another squabble in town politics.  It is not.  It is an attack on the very character of people who have served this town for years both as volunteers and as elected officials.

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This matter has now gotten completely out of control.  Your newly-appointed commissioner to the Authority, who had no contact with the Authority prior to your comments, has written a letter to defend you and continue the attacks, and even her mother is now posting on local websites.  The Authority was never before politicized in this way.  In the 10 years I served there, the commissioners have always simply acted to help the residents – in fact, one of the commissioners you accused of ignoring the needs of those residents is herself a resident.  Your comments were inappropriate on several levels.

I do not wish to continually go back and forth on this, so this is my last request for a retraction.  Your comments were factually incorrect.  They were personal, not political, in nature.  They were public.  They did not solve any problems or even suggest solutions; rather, they served only to denigrate and insult the commissioners and me.  I ask that you issue a full, unqualified, unequivocal, and public retraction.

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Anthony Musto

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