The following is a reconstruction of acting Waterbury Mayor Sam S.F. Caligiuri’s first week on the job, to the best of his recollection, after the precipitous departure of Mayor Philip A. Giordano.
Thursday, July 26
11 a.m. Sam Caligiuri, president of the Waterbury Board of Aldermen, enters Waterbury Hospital pre-op.
11:30 a.m. Walked into operating room for repair of left ACL. (Injury sprung up years ago when he wrestled a bigger guy in gym class at Holy Cross High School and tried to reverse him. Got worse as Caligiuri, 34, twisted his knee over the years and once trained for a marathon.) As Caligiuri’s about to go under, anesthesiologist asks him if he’s heard the news, that the mayor was arrested on federal child sex charges. Are you kidding? No, I just heard it, says the anesthesiologist.
“Do you know what that means?” Caligiuri asks his surgeon, Dr. Eric Olson, who has just entered the OR. “It means I might be the mayor. Please tell my wife to call City Hall and tell them what’s happening.”
Everything goes black. Olson performs surgery.
2:45 p.m. Awakens in post-op. Quizzes nurses to confirm news about Giordano. Figures they’re thinking, “That guy with the bad leg is the acting mayor of Waterbury.”
3:45 p.m. Brought to patient’s room. Listens to voicemails, mostly press calls. Calls corporation counsel; does he need to be sworn in as acting mayor? No, she says, it’s automatic. She transfers call to Frank Lombardo, Giordano’s chief of staff. Lombardo agrees to come by later to discuss stabilizing the office. Also speaks with Dean Pagani, governor’s press aide, to let him know everything is under control. Mike Cichetti of the Office of Policy and Management (Mark Ryan’s right hand on the state financial oversight board) calls to give briefing.
5 p.m. Waterbury Republican-American reporter Susan Bibisi interviews him in his hospital room.
5:30 p.m. Returns calls.
6:30 p.m. Meets with Lombardo, who offers to stay on as chief of staff. Accepts offer. Asks about pressing issues, decides to hold staff meeting next day to calm everyone down.
7 p.m. Takes rest of night off, with wife Lori and his parents visiting. Eats a little dinner — turkey, mashed potatoes; couldn’t eat the apple pie. Still suffering effects of anesthesia: “At a time when most people would be focusing on their recovery, I was focusing that there would be no crisis in leadership … no headline the next day saying ‘WHO’S IN CHARGE?’ The public would be rattled enough.” (His roommate is moved to another room because of disruptions.) Barely sleeps. Lots of pain.
Friday, July 27
7 a.m. Desperate to get discharged. Meets with surgeon, physical therapists who teach him how to walk on crutches. Nurse changes dressing. Tries to eat breakfast.
11:30 a.m. Discharged. Lori drives him home. Set up at home with leg elevated and iced to get rid of inflammation. Needs to position knee to avoid permanent bend common to such recoveries.
2 p.m. Phone conference with staff from state oversight board to talk about city issues and make sure everything under control.
2:45 p.m. More phone calls coming in and going out. Prep for first oversight board meeting.
4 p.m. Oversight board meeting (conference call). Vote unanimously to assign staff person to come to city full time to assist with financial approvals and keep the flow of business going.
4:30-8 p.m. Returns calls. “You wouldn’t believe how much phone work I’ve had. It was clear I needed to do a press conference on Monday.”
Saturday and Sunday
9 a.m. –5 p.m. Stays home but takes calls from well-wishers, press. Turns down on-camera interviews because of condition. “They were very understanding.”
Monday, July 30
9 a.m. Arrives at City Hall on crutches. Settles in at conference table adjacent to mayor’s desk, leg up on a chair with a cooling cuff on knee. “Moving around on crutches for some reason tires me a lot.” As does dealing with “slightly heightened stress associated with the city situation.” Prepares for press conference.
9:30 a.m. Walks across street to board of aldermen chambers. Makes brief remarks, takes questions.
10 a.m. Returns to stack of phone messages and documents for mayor’s consideration — contracts needing signatures, minutes needing review, etc. “There’s so much paperwork that comes in and out of this office … the stuff you never hear about. … I’m trying to meet all those time deadlines but I also don’t want to sign stuff willynilly. If it’s got my signatu
re, I want to understand what it’s all about.”
11:30 a.m. Meets privately with staff to talk about everybody’s feelings. “In general, they were confused and they were hurt and they were very shocked by the allegations and everything that had happened. We decided their ultimate loyalty was not to any one person — not to Phil, not to me — but to the city of Waterbury.”
Noon. Calls and media interviews. Paper work.
2 p.m. Meets with superintendent of police to make sure there are no issues.
2:30 p.m. Meets with fire chief, ditto.
3 p.m. Meets with superintendent of schools, the last of the three big department heads.
3:30 p.m. Returns calls, interviews and paperwork.
5:30 p.m. Swears in two new deputy fire chiefs and two new battalion chiefs at fire board meeting.
6-6:15 p.m. Briefs board of aldermen on decision to assign financial liaison from oversight board.
Tuesday, July 31
8:30 a.m. Meets with chief of staff on issues for day. More calls, paperwork.
9:30 a.m. Meets with chief of staff and department head who had announced weeks ago he was leaving to take a new job. Discuss transition.
10 a.m. Meets with all department heads in conference room to open lines of communication, avoid rumors, deal with questions, fears and concerns.
10:20 a.m. More calls, paper work.
Noon. Meets with Mike O’Connor, head of Naugatuck Valley Development Corporation, a quasi-public outfit working on downtown economic revitalization. “Some of the only good stuff is happening through them.”
12:30 p.m. Gives interviews, signs documents, takes calls. Takes staff’s pulse to see how they’re doing.
3 p.m. Meets with Richard Russo, city finance director, to go over cash flow. Decides to hold off a couple of weeks on short-term borrowing, try to tough it out.
3:30 p.m. Odds and ends.
4 p.m. Meets with staff attorneys on various issues with city unrelated to Giordano’s removal from office.
5:30 p.m. Goes home.
5:45-8 or 9 p.m. Returns more calls.
Wednesday, Aug. 1
9 a.m. -1:30 p.m. Goes to Hartford offices of Day, Berry & Howard, where he is a lawyer, to make sure workload is redistributed to others. How has all this turmoil affected his day job? “They knew this was not what I asked for.”
2 p.m. Back to City Hall to meet with staff. More phone time. Reviews, signs documents. Press interviews.
5:30 p.m. Leaves office.
6:30 p.m. Leg in pain; misses oversight board meeting. Spends evening on phone with leg up.
Thursday, Aug. 2
Late afternoon. Giordano calls collect from undisclosed jail. Caligiuri takes call himself to protect staff from falling under media scrutiny. (His relationship with Giordano has been “cordial but strained” before this. They have disagreed openly but have had a good working relationship. Caligiuri didn’t think Giordano should have run for the Senate.) Why did Giordano have to call back a second time before someone answered? “By the time I was able to get up, that call was disconnected and he reinitiated it.” In the call, Giordano says he’ll be back at his desk the following Wednesday, a pledge we now know cannot be kept. Caligiuri does not expect to hear from him again. He will start using the mayor’s desk this week, once Giordano’s accumulations from 5 1/2 years in office are packed up.
