West Haven Mayor Nancy Rossi missed a City Council meeting this week as residents are calling for her resignation over misuse of city funds.
The mayor’s constituents were hoping to speak with Rossi at the meeting about the recent financial issues the city is facing. The issues include a recent audit showing that hundreds of thousands of dollars of pandemic relief funding had been mismanaged by the city.
Rossi defended her absence, stating that she was scheduled to be at an out-of-state conference and had alerted the City Council in advance. The mayor said she was in communication with her office and continues to carry out her duties remotely.
“I am away. I am at a conference. This was booked several months ago. I did make the council aware of it long before I left that I was not going to be able to be there,” Rossi told the New Haven Register.
Residents at the meeting testified for over two hours. Five former mayoral candidates testified, expressing their discontent with Rossi.
Barry Lee Cohen, the former Republican candidate who lost to Rossi by 32 votes, said he was not surprised by Rossi’s absence. He said whenever Rossi is under scrutiny, she is “missing in action.”
“I was so disappointed that she did not have the courage and the dignity to stand before her fellow residents to hear and understand their frustration, their embarrassment and their total dismay of what she and her administration have done to this city,” Cohen said.
At the end of the meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to express no confidence in the mayor, a vote called for by multiple residents at the meeting.
The council also voted to conduct its own investigation into the audit report.
