Board of Aldermen 8-11-2020 Page 31
Where does he get his information from? He’s not the first one | have heard stories like that from. So
when the Mayor tells you that it’s a small community and they all talk and they don’t want to come down
here because Laurie Ortolano has just level charged — you know — and done things by going to the State
that make it undesirable for them to work here. | think some of them didn’t want to come here to work with
somebody as unqualified as the Mayor picked. It was his choice to do that.
| also felt Alderman Lu was not told the truth in that meeting when she raised some good questions. She
asked how long the situation with not having somebody qualified in the office had gone on. The
Administration or Ms. Kleiner and the Mayor explained the decertification of Greg Turgiss. That’s not the
case. This problem has existed for 15 months when the Mayor chose to put him as a Supervisor because
he was automatically in there supervising his brother’s work — Gary Turgiss. So Greg Turgiss was
supervising Gary Turgiss’s work because under the State Statutes, abatements cannot be brought to the
Board of Assessors unless a certified supervisor is reviewing the work and verifying the work done. His
brother Gary was bringing abatements forward last year in 2019 and again in 2020. So | have a huge issue
with that.
Also Mike Mandile who was not a certified supervisor until March of this year. He was a property assistant
not a certified property assessor. He was a property assistant in training. The State law says he is not
allowed to present abatements or opinions of value to a Board of Assessors. He’s not qualified. Greg
Turgiss assigned 65 abatements to him last year to present to the Board. Completely unqualified. That
should have never happened. It happened again in March before he even had his certification. The story
goes on.
In my opinion, the Mayor is very excited about taking this gentleman back when his supervisory certification
is restored. Ah you know, he has the right to do that and he hasn’t recognized any of the problems that
really have existed with the work of this individual and the work product. He can come back but rest
assured Mr. Mayor, we have the right as the public to watchdog the work product of this individual
especially given the history. | just stumbled on to something this weekend that is another eye opener on
paperwork with this gentleman that is going up to the State. Tired of finding it and it never seems to end.
| am so disappointed that our Mayor could not shoulder any of the responsibility for what went on here and
that he put it allon me. That! created this burden. His closing line was just beautiful, “Have the taxpayers
been forced to pay a lot of money because of what this woman has done? Yes they have.” You know |
expect more out of my leadership and not just from a Mayor but my Board of Aldermen as well. Too many
of you went lockstep with him. There are a few of you who didn’t. When you put that position in place,
when you decided Ms. Kleiner would take over in April of 2019, Ernie Jette was the only one who spoke
against it. Strongly concerned that we didn’t have somebody qualified. Ms. Kleiner made it clear that she
would let the Board know. She said, “I can promise you that if | feel if | ever feel that my effectiveness or
that I’m hurting the city or the value to our residents in any way, | will let you know. | will let the Mayor know
immediately.” That never happened.
President Wilshire
Ms. Ortolano you’re going to have to wrap u now please.
Laurie Ortolano
Okay. Well all I’m going to tell you is she never did that. She brought forth in the September 24, 2019
meeting a one liner saying, “we’re going to look at a Chief again” out of nowhere. No reason for it. Brought
it forth in the November 12, 2019 meeting of the Board of Aldermen and no discussion on why she felt we
needed it. Everyone just stamps the stamp and rubber stamps the money to get this position in without her
ever explaining what the deficits were of not having the position.
