I have received many comments and calls regarding my posting about Jose Silva, the 14year city employee, laid off from his job the day he closed on his first home. Every single comment has been about the same as I felt last Sunday when I left the Silva home after meeting and discussing the layoff. One e-mail pretty much said what all of us are feeling after hearing his story;
The story actually teared me up because for folks like us who are foolish enough to believe life is supposed to be fair and bad things are not supposed to happen to good people, this is just offensive. It also just frustrates me because it just makes you feel so helpless to stop what's going on. And the more stories I hear like this, the more I wonder if things will ever change.
It aggravates me even more when I hear Sarah Barr trying to justify some of the hiring going on in the middle of a hiring freeze and layoffs. On one hand you have people like Jose Silva, making around $34,000, who just wants to do his job. On the other hand you have people like former state Rep Evelyn Mantilla, pictured above at the Perez prayer vigil last week, during city working hours. Mantilla stepped aside from her seat in the Legislature to make way for Perez puppet Kelvin Roldan to run. During that time Mantilla was paid tens of thousands of dollars by the Perez campaign as a "consultant". This is all documented in campaign filings of the Perez campaign required under state law. Subsequently, Mantilla was put on the City payroll in the Mayor's office as a "consultant" for approximately $60,000 for a temporary contract. Once that contract came time to expire, Mantilla has now been hired, according to Barr, to implement new software in the Health Department for $69,000 a year, plus benefits. Just a side note, Jose Silva bought his home in Hartford, Evelyn Mantilla moved out of Hartford when she left the legislature. No need to remain in Hartford if she could still feed from the Perez trough without actually having to live here. Also in the picture above (top center, with the coffee cup in his hand, his wife next to him, she runs Family Life Education, a non profit in the city)) at the prayer vigil during city business hours, is Genaro Sepulveda. Sepulveda is the City of Hartford Public Works supervisor who created a stir last year when he lost his license due to a DUI. Sepulveda's job requires him to travel about the city inspecting various facilities. it would seem to most observers that this would require a drivers license. Yet, since Sepulveda is a close ally of Perez, it was revealed to the public that his job didn't require he have a valid license. Although he apparently didn't need a license or use of a city vehicle to perform his duties for a year. Yet now that his license has been re-instated, he has been rewarded with his take-home city car again. Hopefully safeguards have been put in place to avoid the possibilty of a third DUI arrest , especially while driving a city vehicle. We have had enough Crown Vic's wrecked in the last year,I'd hate to see us lose one of the new hybrids, so much for zero tolerance for alcohol in city vehicles. The other person in the pic on the left is Francis Davila, another Perez ally and a State of Connecticut DCF employee, at the vigil, also during working hours, but we have enough problems in Hartford to focus on, the State can deal with its problems.
When you see people like Jose Silva getting laid off but the perpetual feeders at the trough keep their positions, whatever those positions are besides propping up Perez, it makes you wonder. I am not typically a big union supporter, but in this case I hope the city employee unions use a line out of the Jim Calhoun playbook when asked for concessions... "not a dime" with the caveat that once Perez sets the example and scales back his staff and spending, the union membership will gladly follow and do their part, as they always have. And one final thought; Eddie do you really think you will be around next year to give back that raise? I'm not a betting person, but I would take the odds in favor of probably not
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