Garofalo Affidavit

8/8/2019 Garofalo Affidavit

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DOC KET N O: AAN-CV-08-500 4821 -SCITY OF DERBYV.MARC GAROFALO

: SUPERIOR COURT: J.D. OF MILFORD: AT MILFORD: SEPTEMBER ,2009

AFFIDAVIT OF MARC GAROFALOMARC GAROFALO, having been duly sworn, does depose and state:L l am over eighteen years of age and understand and believe in

the obligation of an oath.2. I am the defendant in this action and the facts set forth in this

affidavit are within my personal knowledge.3. I was the Mayor of the city of Derby for two terms, beginning in

1997, for eight years. I was defeated for reelection in November, 2005 andvacated the Mayor's office on December 3, 2005.

4. The last weeks of my administration were very hectic, as theelection campaign ended and I immediately had to engage my energies onvacating my office and cleaning out my desk and personal belongings, whichhad accumulated over eight years of very busy public service. My staff and l,already exhausted from a long and vigorous campaign, had to clear out ouroffices by the end of the first week in December, as the new mayor would besworn in then and take over.

5. lt was obvious that we would not be able to review all thedocuments on our personal computers during that brief period, in order to


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only delete those we were absolutely sure were of no value. Theaccumulation of e-mails, trivia, and other daily flotsam over the years wasimmense. I decided therefore that my aides (Dina Weissman, Rick Lutz, AnnDelVecchio and Ralph Marcucio) and I would have the hard drives on ourpersonal office computers "scrubbed." This would allow us to dispose of allthe accumulated e-mails and other transient communications of the pastseveral years without an arduous and impossible process of reviewing eachone.

6. During my administration, since the computers were installed, wehad been functioning under the following policy: any document that wasarguably needed in hard copy was to be printed out as soon as it was read,and filed in a paper file in the appropriate office. Therefore, it was my beliefthat the files on our office computers did not contain any documents that wereneeded elsewhere, or required to be kept by the Freedom of lnformation Act.

7 . When I assumed the office of Mayor in 1997, the computersystem we now enjoy did not exist. lnstead there was single desktopcomputer available for the use of the Mayor; I inherited it from outgoing MayorAlan Schlesinger. When I began using the machine it had been purged of itsdocuments, just as I elected to do in 2005 with the computers used by meand my two top assistants.

B. There was no written policy on such matters in effect at thattime and I used my discretion to decide this was a reasonable way to prepare


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the computers for use by the incoming staff. There is no question that theinnumerable e-mails and useless documents would have had to be deleted bythe successor users, since they were and are of no value to the currentadministration except as a political football.

9. Philip Robertson stated at his deposition that he rummagedthrough the documents that were recovered under orders from Mayor Staffieriand located notes on negotiations with a contractor which, in his opinion,would have been helpful when the administration first took over. I find this tobe absurd and pretextual. The fact is that during the several weeks betweenthe election and the swearing-in of Mayor Staffieri, neither he nor anyonefrom his team contacted me in order to seek any briefing regarding ongoingnegotiations or any other matters related to transition. Therefore there wasno reason for me to believe that the new administration had any interestwhatsoever in my work as Mayor or my advice or input regarding any ongoingissues.

10. The cleanout of our City Hall offices was lengthy, laborious andtedious process, done under deadline in a state of near-exhaustion.Decisions had to be made and I made all of them as intelligently andjudiciously as I could. The backup tapes for the subject computers ended upin a box of my personal effects because someone (not me) threw them therewithout my knowledge. I believed then, and believe now, that the decision topurge those files was within my authority as Mayor and have never been


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presented with any statute, ordinance, official policy or enactment that

contradicts my position. '" *W*"8'fr^'"flf.IMDuly signed and sworn to in my presence thisel'n d"y or.&i"ffi{n/009,

Commissioner of the Superior Court:ANDICE CALDWELLNATARY PITBLIC!,4y coMMtsstoN aHfiEs FEB.28,Zlt4

Notary Public /

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Garofalo Affidavit