DiMartino names long-time public servant as chief of staff in Derby

DERBY - Mayor Joseph L. DiMartino announced Saturday he has chosen long-time public servant Linda Fusco as Chief of Staff for the City of Derby.

Fusco has served the City of Derby for multiple terms as an Alderwoman and most recently as Chair of the Derby Housing Authority. 

She also served for several terms as Chair of the Derby Democratic Town Committee. She served as Campaign Manager for Mayor DiMartino for both his 2021 and 2023 campaigns.

“I have every confidence that Linda Fusco will be a tremendous asset to the City of Derby in this role because she approaches leadership in a collaborative style, and this is what the City needs to fix the mountain of unfinished business that we walked into a month ago,” said DiMartino.

Fusco retired from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families Services as a supervisor for social workers. “She has management experience and understands the issues facing the City of Derby and how to improve the quality of life here in Derby.” he continued. She also was highly active in Derby Pop Warner as the Cheer coordinator for many years.

“I share Mayor DiMartino’s vision for an inclusive and transparent management approach to governing. We ran with a platform for fixing the financial and other issues plaguing the City of Derby and we will do our best to do what we said we would do,” said Fusco, wife of the late former long-time City Sheriff Sal Fusco.

DiMartino said, “Linda and I share a vision with our entire team to show up every day and work hard together to make Derby the best that it can be. I have complete confidence in her ability to bring people together.”

Fusco began her work Jan. 2, 2024. The position is full time, and her salary will be $75,000 per year, the same as the starting salary for former Chief of Staff Andrew Baklik when he began his service in 2017.

This is a press release from Derby Town/City Clerk Marc Garofalo.

Derby mails absentee ballots to registered voters

Sharing message today from Derby Town/City Clerk Marc Garofalo:

Applications for Absentee Ballots for the November 2, 2021 General Election were mailed to every registered voter in the City of Derby.  

The State of CT has extended COVID-19 as a legal reason for voting by Absentee Ballot in the November 2, 2021 Election.  

Each voter still has the choice to vote in person or by absentee ballot.  

The applications will be arriving in the coming days and ballots for those who already requested them were mailed out on Friday October 1, 2021.  Applications received by November 1, 2021 will be processed and issued within 48 hours of the request being received in this office.

If a voter wants to vote by Absentee Ballot they should return the completed Application to this Office as soon as possible.  If they want to vote in person at the polls between 6:00 am and 8:00 pm on Tuesday November 2, 2021 then they can just dispose of the application and vote in person.

If you know of anyone who would like to register to vote, they may use the following link - https://voterregistration.ct.gov/OLVR/welcome.do

Any new voters interested in voting by Absentee Ballot can find the application here by using this link -   https://portal.ct.gov/SOTS/Election-Services/Voter-Information/Absentee-Voting

If you know of anyone who would like to check their Voter Registration Status, they may use the following link - https://portaldir.ct.gov/sots/LookUp.aspx

Additionally, you may view the sample ballots for the November 2, 2021 Election in Derby by using this link - https://www.derbyct.gov/media/Election%20-%202021%20-%20Sample%20Ballots.pdf

"I wish you a great and safe weekend.  And as this is the beginning of October, please remember to schedule your annual mammogram or encourage some one to do the same during this month of Breast Cancer Awareness."