WOULD A "MAN OF FAITH" ACT THIS WAY ?

Over the last couple years I have spoke with many people across the city, and many ask me what is Eddie Perez thinking. Since the Mayor and I are no longer friends, I just have to answer that I am as dismayed as they are. Many of these people, most like myself who were at one time supportive of Perez, wonder if he is actually trying to kill the City of Hartford as we knew it pre-Perez.

I have taken a role, as well as others have, of doing everything I can to expose this administration for its incompetence, mismanagement and outright corrupt activities. Almost daily I receive phone calls with information regarding activities at City Hall and in the Mayor's office. Some you take seriously and are able to validate, and others you can see that they may have a hidden agenda behind them and disprove them.

These phone calls usually tend to invigorate me when I can substantiate them, especially when I can move information forward that the source is unable to for fear of retaliation or reprisal from a corrupt administration. It has not been an easy task, but more and more lately I have been receiving the phone calls, e-mails and even personal acknowledgements from people thanking me for getting information out.

I am not writing this to give myself a pat on the back, others have been right beside me in exposing Perez and his administration for his corruption. Some of us have lost jobs, homes, city contracts and I for one had several sleepless nights after I began receiving death threats that I was told by law enforcement to take seriously.

I've had many people relay their stories of things Perez has done to them, some of them in tears explaining the vindictiveness of the Mayor's actions. I spoke with Hyacinth Yennie one night last summer when she called me complaining that her requests to Perez for a ribbon cutting for the completed Maple Avenue Streetscape project were going unanswered. Hyacinth confronted Susan McMullen, Perez's Director of Gospel Services, and asked her what the deal was. McMullen responded "you didn't support the Mayor during the election and he's not supporting you now". I told Hyacinth we would organize our own ribbon cutting, which we did, and it was well attended. It was an election year, do you really think John Fonfara and Hector Robles would say no to one of the most organized and effective NRZ's in the City? And Hyacinth was the driving force behind the successful completion of the project, on a timely basis, on schedule with quality workmanship. Far different than the Park Street project which has been ripe with corruption, cronyism, shoddy work and still is tied up in litigation and not completed.

With that being said, none of these phone calls, information and documentation of Perez's corrupt activities and dirty deeds has affected me like the one I received on Friday. You kind of have to keep the mindset that this is all part of a larger game and approach it as such, if not I think it could very easily take a toll on your sanity. Eventually we will hopefully see the good people of Hartford win and Eddie Perez lose. From the previous post, you can see that I received information regarding Perez once again building his staff, even though there is supposedly a hiring freeze,with spending of almost $400,000 for only three staff positions. The source who gave me the information suggested I track down a laid off city employee, Jose Silva, and speak with him. On Sunday I met with Mr. Silva and his family and afterwards left their home dumbfounded as to how a person like Eddie Perez could claim at a prayer vigil earlier in the week that he was "a man of faith". I leave the judgement calls to the guy upstairs on that one, but tell me if you think a "man of faith" could look another human being in the eyes after you read this story.

Jose Silva, a hearing impaired father of four, had been employed by the City of Hartford for 14 years as a laborer in the Parks Department assigned to Elizabeth Park as a groundskeeper. Silva, from what sources in the Public Works Department tell me, was a stellar employee. No workers compensation claims, no abuse of sick time, always at work as scheduled, and just an all around good employee. Silva, with no disciplinary problems must have thought he was pretty secure in his job. Silva and his family even went so far as to purchase a home in a neighborhood in Frog Hollow, on Ward Street. A neighborhood, like many in Hartford that is on the brink of going one way or another, stability or decay, depending on the inhabitants and care the neighbors show. Silva had heard the Mayor talk about home ownership and figured the time was right to plant his roots in his first home of his own. After all, he was a long time City of Hartford employee, why not buy in Hartford. He chose to buck the trend of many fleeing from the city. Even though his back yard abuts some of the most crime ridden streets of Hartford,York Street, Zion Street, Park Street, you wouldn't know it by looking at Silva's home. For Silva, the American dream was coming true, his mortgage was approved, he had a stable job to qualify for the mortgage, and the home purchase moved forward. In February, Silva closed on the purchase of his home at 220 Ward Street in Hartford. He remembers quite vividly that day the joy he felt in becoming a homeowner, and proudly beginning the move into his family's new home. Later in the day he was surprised by a visit from his supervisor from DPW, but thought it was a nice gesture to stop at his new home. His dream of home ownership rapidly became a nightmare when the supervisor explained that he was there to tell Silva that he no longer had a job. Silva had become the latest victim of corruption and incompetence that we have come to know as the Perez Administration.Silva was laid off at the same time Perez was hiring his new "Energy Czar" at $105,000, roughly 3 times Silva's annual salary, and Charlie Crocini punching the Mayor's timclock for his part-time $85.00 an hour job. (Silva and 4 or 5of his laid off co-workers could still be employed if these two positions, filled by non-Hartford residents were cut)

When I spoke with Silva and his wife and son on Sunday, I was surprised at Silva's upbeat spirit and his constant smile. Silva and his wife are both hearing impaired and their son acted as our interpreter when needed, but essentially said he loved his job and wishes he could go back to work tomorrow. He has been searching for a job, but his hearing impairment limits the scope of the search, and the economic situation isn't helping either. In the mean time, Silva says they are without health insurance for him and his family, but for the time being they are getting by hoping that dream of home ownership continues to be a reality.

Maybe the next prayer vigil organized should be for people like Jose Silva and families like his across the city that they can keep their homes, not to keep a Mayor out of prison.