For anyone who follows my postings, I have not been a huge fan of some of Clarence Corbin's management decisions. None the less, I think he was doing a somewhat decent job running the Public Works Department in spite of layoffs and budget cuts and, from all appearances and indications, staying clear of involvement in the corrupt activities of our dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez.
All of that ended Thursday when Corbin was fired by Perez for not following the city's procurement procedures. I am fairly certain there were other reasons that will eventually come out. Although a press release from Perez's office mentioned an "acting Deputy Director of Public Works" who was also placed on adminstrative suspension, the person was not named. Sources have advised me that the "acting Deputy Director of Public Works" was John McGrane. Sources also stated that McGrane accompanied the "lobbyist" to Washington D.C. along with another DPW employee, Marilyn Cruz-Aponte. According to sources, McGrane will serve a 30 day suspension for his actions and afterwards will return as the City Engineer, rather than as a Deputy Director.
Questions still arise as to how much involvement Corbin actually had in this lobbyist plan, and from what my sources tell me , McGrane apparently was the signer on change orders and payment approvals for the "lobbyist". It will probably take some work, but I will try to get these documents from the City and post them here.
I think to many though, the big question is how does Perez keep his job, while Corbin is dismissed. Although Corbin may have violated procurement procedures, Perez has been arrested and charged with fleeceing the city in a scheme to have work done on his home at the City's expense. In the arrest warrant affidavit it alleges that Perez planned to have the cost for some of the repairs hidden in billing to the City through an account for repairs to the Church Street Garage. At least no claims have been made that Corbin attempted to benefit personally from his actions, unlike Perez who's corrupt scheme did benefit him personally in at least $40,000 dollars worth of repairs to his home.
A question for our dishonorable Mayor, Eddie how can you look anyone in the eyes and do what you do? And you might want to be careful about the Ethics violations that you want examined. To quote Councilperson Veronica Airey-Wilson, peole who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
There are more underlying reasons for Corbin's termination other than what was presented in the press release from the information I have received. One of these allegations involves a meeting about stimulus money for the Pope Commons streetscape project and Corbin potentially not "playing ball" with Perez. More on that as we work to verify the facts.
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2 comments:
Fast Eddie and his puppet Rose have no clue how to apply discipline to city employees. You stooges might want to read the story about the school teacher who was arrested for making a student eat out of the trash. The town is holding off on discipline until her court case is finalized. This is one way to prevent law suits. Oh' that's right the tax payers pay for your incompetence anyway.
The reasons for firing the Director are trumped up charges made to best fit the Chief of Staff's temper tantrum. If they were serious about "procurement violations of the muncipal code", Mark Turcotte would have been fired many months ago for utilizing a 3rd party online bidding service that charges the winners of the contracts $10,000 to use the service (This was known as RFPDepot)however could not actual deliver the service to the bidders because of limited capacity for drawings.As such, bidders would have to obtain the drawings from Merritt Graphics. (Note: easily verified) The $10,000 fee was to be paid whether you used the serviced or not, and The "procurement manager" has threatened contractors who did not use the service, to pay that fee regardless, with disbarment from future bidding. No comes the "nice" part: 50% of that fee was returned to the City without stateing so on the contract documents. One would question the "kick back" issues on the $5000 returned to the City since Mr. Turcotte funded his training and "excursions" using the monies recieved as opposed to general fund deposits. If this was not enough, ask him to produce a written contract between RFP Depot and The City of Hsrtford for those services at that time..guess what?.. There isn't one.
So where is the concern here Mayor and Mr. Hennessey?
Now as with most Mayor Eddie things there is a part of the story that isn't in the Sarah Barr press releases: The mayors office knew that Dick Moffit had been hired, Moffit was the one to hire a subcontract with the Ferguson group, not the City. There is no contractual obligation to have the City dictate who a contractor hires as a subcontractor, (note: that would be known as contract steering, something that the grand jury will explain more to the Mayor's office later this month), and as such, Mr. Hennessy is upset becuase his lobbist was not hired by the contractor Mr.Moffitt. Now, please Mayor and Mr. Hennessey, how much money have you and your lobbist obtained for the City flood control system from the stimulus money? Answer: Zero. How many photo ops have you two had with the congressional delegation have you had since your "troubles": Answer; None. The fact of the matter is that your administration is "persona non- grata" at the present time. You two should realize this, not that anyone really expects that the two of you are man enough to do the right thing and step down, because they know your personality defects too well. In the end, The Director and Assistant Director serve at the pleasure of the Mayor, so for right or wrong, the Mayor has the final say, no matter how poor the decision is. The most anyone could ask for is an equal application of ethics (that is the law? right?), but it is unlikely to happen.
One can only hope that the Grand Jury can flush this administration and it's incompentent political appointees down the drain quickly.
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