If there were ever a week that should convince New London voters that they need to do some political housecleaning, it was last week.

Many of the headlines about New London centered on the City Council's initial decision to remain mum about its behind-closed-doors talk with the police chief regarding her employment status.

Through much of the week, the councilors stayed huddled behind the law director and his lame excuses on why communications and documents regarding the chief's employment, which are obviously public records, should remain secret.

Really, why couldn't any of the councilors, especially the ones whining that they don't like the secrecy, just say what's going on. Release the documents without further delay.

City officials comply with routine requests for public documents all over the state every single day, and they don't call a special meeting or ask for anyone's permission.

By week's end, some councilors were finally preparing to go public, but not without a lot more hand-wringing.

But the sensation created by the closed-door meeting with the police chief and the clammed-up councilors was really only a sideshow to the enormous and disastrous decision they made Monday, with nary a peep about what they did.

The council, by unanimous vote, approved a potpourri of items on a consent agenda, including a sweetheart proposal to grant tax abatements to the developers of a proposed apartment complex in Fort Trumbull.

Like sheep, the seven councilors did the bidding of the New London Development Corp., the folks that brought the city national shame by taking people's homes, tearing them down and letting the land sit empty.

One would think the reign of destruction by the NLDC would be over, now that the agency has just about finished spending all its millions in handouts from the state. Its only employee works part time and lives in Virginia.

But no, the tentacles of the NLDC still reach far into the city's political infrastructure. Witness Monday's 7-0 vote to support giving tax breaks to build apartments the city doesn't need on land the developer is being given, land that should rightfully belong to city taxpayers.

One of those voting for the Subsidy on the Thames project was Michael Buscetto, the mayoral candidate endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee.

One of the stalwart town committee members on hand the night Buscetto was endorsed was Jay Levin, the lobbyist who was a wizard behind the curtain when former Connecticut College President Claire Gaudiani came down from the hill, took the helm of the new NLDC and obliterated a city neighborhood.

Buscetto, who appears to be closely toeing the party line in approving the abatements for the Subsidy on the Thames, has accepted many hundreds of dollars in campaign contributions from Levin and his clients over the years.

So far, Levin has donated a total of $750 in three separate contributions to Buscetto's mayoral campaign.

Councilor Rob Pero, too, has ties to the NLDC. The finance chairman of his own mayoral campaign is John Johnson of Old Lyme, a downtown New London gallery owner and board member of the ghosting NLDC.

Pero has so far accepted $1,250 from Johnson and his wife in mayoral campaign contributions.

Of course, Pero is also the only city councilor who voted to give the NLDC the right to take people's homes by eminent domain who remains in public life.

I point out these political associations of the two major parties to the NLDC because the abatements make no sense on their own merit.

The apartments are supposed to be built so that they could some day be sold as condominiums. But there are no promises from the developer that they would not remain leased apartments forever, a drain on city schools and services. They could also be sold right away as apartments to another developer, abatements included.

So the developer essentially promises nothing in return for free developable land next to the river and a state park and 95 percent tax breaks.

I am not a big fan of abatements in a city in which property owners already pay an onerous tax rate, but at least the abatements approved for the Harbour Tower condominiums on Bank Street go to new downtown city homeowners, not opportunistic developers from Fairfield County.

Of course it's no wonder the NLDC signed on for this deal.

Instead of paying for the land, the developer agreed to pay the nearly defunct agency a $150,000 fee. If not for that, the NLDC might finally wither away and die.

It's no wonder the City Council passed this giveaway without discussing it. The only discussion occurred at the committee level.

At least it's a big election year.

Voters ought to support candidates who conduct business openly.

In choosing a mayor they ought to look for someone who will take back the deeds to Fort Trumbull from the NLDC and assume a leadership role in developing this important region of the city, an integral part of its history and perhaps even a cornerstone of its destiny.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com