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Friday, June 19, 2009

MORE CLEARANCE FOR CLARENCE...CORBIN THAT IS

The previous post here was about the City of Hartford's audit report that didn't seem to bolster the case of our dishonorable Mayor Eddie A Perez and his firing of Clarence Corbin as Hartford's Director of Public Works. Now on the heels of the disclosure of that report comes the decision by the State of Connecticut's Ethics Commission.

On April 3, 2009 Hartford Corporation Counsel John Rose filed a complaint with the State's Ethics Commission allegeing violations a section 1-91 of the Connecticut General Statutes by Richard Moffitt, the person Clarence Corbin hired to provided services to the City. Although Rose accused Moffitt of illegal activity and accused him of providing "political lobbying", the State Ethics Commission disagreed and on June 18, 2009 dismissed Rose's complaint.

READ ROSE'S DISMISSED COMPLAINT BELOW

Rose Moffitt Complaint


The irony of this situation and this complaint by Rose may prove to be quite interesting. Apparently, in filing this complaint and through Perez's comments to the media stating that it was being referred to the State Ethic's Commission, Perez apparently may have violated section 1-82a of the Connecticut General Statutes which requires confidentiality of any ethics complaint. Mr Moffitt waived confidentiality of the information contained in the complaint and the decision, which is the way that this information legally was made available to me by Mr. Moffitt and his attorney. According to sources at the State Ethics Commission, it would be illegal for Perez, Rose or anyone else to disclose information regarding the complaint prior to Mr. Moffitt waiving his confidentaility.

When this termination became public, I found it very odd that all of a sudden Perez was talking ethics. I guess this is a classic case of "do as I say, not as I do". Eddie Perez talking ethics, it would almost make me laugh if it didn't involve the seriousness of virtually ending Clarence Corbin's career. Although in the end I feel pretty confident Clarence will prevail.

Below is an e-mail from the State informing Moffitt of the dismissal of the compalint and Moffitt's attorney's letter to John Rose. It sure sounds to me like the lawsuits will be following closely behind this dismissal.

MOFFITT ETHICS DECISION

SECTION 1-82a of the Connecticut General Statutes:

Sec. 1-82a. Confidentiality of complaints, evaluations of possible violations and investigations. Publication of findings.
(a) Unless a judge trial referee makes a finding of probable cause, a complaint alleging a violation of this part or section 1-101nn shall be confidential except upon the request of the respondent. An evaluation of a possible violation of this part or section 1-101nn by the Office of State Ethics prior to the filing of a complaint shall be confidential except upon the request of the subject of the evaluation. If the evaluation is confidential, any information supplied to or received from the Office of State Ethics shall not be disclosed to any third party by a subject of the evaluation, a person contacted for the purpose of obtaining information or by the ethics enforcement officer or staff of the Office of State Ethics. No provision of this subsection shall prevent the Office of State Ethics from reporting the possible commission of a crime to the Chief State's Attorney or other prosecutorial authority.

(b) An investigation conducted prior to a probable cause finding shall be confidential except upon the request of the respondent. If the investigation is confidential, the allegations in the complaint and any information supplied to or received from the Office of State Ethics shall not be disclosed during the investigation to any third party by a complainant, respondent, witness, designated party, or board or staff member of the Office of State Ethics.

(c) Not later than three business days after the termination of the investigation, the Office of State Ethics shall inform the complainant and the respondent of its finding and provide them a summary of its reasons for making that finding. The Office of State Ethics shall publish its finding upon the respondent's request and may also publish a summary of its reasons for making such finding.

(d) If a judge trial referee makes a finding of no probable cause, the complaint and the record of the Office of State Ethics' investigation shall remain confidential, except upon the request of the respondent and except that some or all of the record may be used in subsequent proceedings. No complainant, respondent, witness, designated party, or board or staff member of the Office of State Ethics shall disclose to any third party any information learned from the investigation, including knowledge of the existence of a complaint, which the disclosing party would not otherwise have known. If such a disclosure is made, the judge trial referee may, after consultation with the respondent if the respondent is not the source of the disclosure, publish the judge trial referee's finding and a summary of the judge trial referee's reasons therefor.

(e) The judge trial referee shall make public a finding of probable cause not later than five business days after any such finding. At such time the entire record of the investigation shall become public, except that the Office of State Ethics may postpone examination or release of such public records for a period not to exceed fourteen days for the purpose of reaching a stipulation agreement pursuant to subsection (c) of section 4-177. Any such stipulation agreement or settlement shall be approved by a majority of those members present and voting.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

CAN KING EDDIE SAY "WRONGFUL TERMINATION" ? THE CLARENCE CORBIN FIRING AUDIT REPORT

As most of you may recall, Hartford's Department of Public Works Director was terminated by the dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez in late March after Perez accused Corbin of misusing city funds to hire a so-called "lobbyist". Typical of Perez and his mismanagement of the city, he shot first and asked questions later. The report of Hartford's City Auditor Patrick Campbell is attached below, and as you can see, the report was submitted to King Eddie on April 28, 2009, a month AFTER Corbin was terminated. Any normal, sane person would conduct the investigation first and then take action after the report was completed and laid out the facts. But, as you can see from the previous post regarding Hartford's COO Lee Erdmann, King Eddie's vindictive response is quick, and apparently not well thought out, when people cross him.

It might be time for Perez to work with the Council to increase that legal settlement account, I would say it is a safe bet that Mr. Corbin will potentially take a large chunk of it when he settles for his wrongful termination.

Corbin Report

ERDMANN TO BE BANISHED

On Wednesday June 10, 2009 I received a tip from a very reliable source that the dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez and Hartford COO Lee Erdmann had a "major falling out". Since we all know how King Eddie handles those who choose to disagree with him, it came as no surprise when the release came out late Friday that Erdmann was "retiring" from his postion. I am sure that over the next few days that the reasons behind this sudden "retirement" will come to light.

Maybe with the King's motion to dismiss being denied, Erdmann sees the seriousness of the situation and chooses to exit the building before the next "perp" walk begins. I'm sure it won't be pleasant when Boyle and Sullivan come visiting the next time. Hopefully Lee has steered clear of the criminal activity at City Hall, I'd hate to see that new house on the lake in Vermont going to waste.

FOLLOW THE DISHONORABLE MAYOR EDDIE A. PEREZ ON TWITTER



According to hartford.gov, we can now follow the daily activity of our dishonorable mayor on Twitter as he advises us of his actions. You can follow King Eddie as "Hartford Mayor" if you care to waste the time.

It seems ironic that now that the Grand Jury has completed and the list of people singing like birds has finished, Eddie now begins "tweeting" his own song on line. Surprisingly though, I haven't seen any "tweets" such as "sitting in the front row at 101 Lafayette as Judge Dewey denies my motion to dismiss" or "pulling into Hubie's driveway to discuss the hiring of Leonard Boyle to oversee corruption. Could be real trouble now".

WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE HPD WEBSITE?


Anyone looking to view the City of Hartford's latest crime statistics can't do it on the HPD website. It seems that the last date crime stats have been updated was April 18, 2009 (http://www.hartford.gov/police/Crime_Stats_Folder/2009%20Compstats/2009_04_18.pdf). I wonder if this is the result of staff cutting measures by the administration of the dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez or another effort at the "transparency" Perez keeps mentioning. Also, it seems rather odd that as violence continues to make the headlines every day, two lines that have been in the "Compstat Reports" for years have now been removed in the on-line versions posted on HPD's website. The two lines that showed the number of shooting incidents and shooting victims can no longer be viewed by the public in the on-line reports, as outdated as they are.

I can see why King Eddie wouldn't want those numbers available to the public, what with six people shot in a half hour period last weekend and another homicide last night, the citywide numbers can't be flattering to his administration.

Like everything else that is wrong in Hartford, I'm sure Perez can find a way to blame it on the State of Connecticut. Shootings? all the State's fault for not supervising released criminals. Failing schools? all the State's fault for not giving us more money than they already do for our dysfunctional school system. Out of Control spending and budget deficits? all the State's fault for not sending more money Eddie's way to mismanage than they already do (almost $100,000,000 more than our other large cities)