Monday, November 23, 2009

LEW: DON'T YOU GET DIZZY SPINNING SO MUCH ?

Apparently the truth bothers many people in the Mayor's Office and in the Council Chamber's.

I got a couple of phone calls Sunday that I was a topic of conversation on the "Abe Gile's Show" on WKND radio. But the interesting part was that Lew Brown, the assistant mayoral mouthpiece, was calling in questioning why the Courant would report on Rosezina Winch's trip to Texas (see courant.com/cityline , Traveling Winch).

Brown, who once exhibited journalistic integrity before joining the staff of one of the most corrupt administrations in Hartford history, questioned why the Courant would use a "campaign manager for a mayoral candidate" as a source. Apparently Rosezina (courant.com/cityline, traveling winch) also called to chime in and once again justify her trip.

For those who don't recall, Winch lied at least twice to the Courant about the cost for her trip. Once I posted the requisitions she submitted for her trip on this blog and after Council President Cal Torres informed the Courant that "Brookman was right, Winch is wrong", Winch finally came clean and said the trip was more than she had admitted.

But back to Lew "spin it" Brown, the truth is the truth no matter where it comes from. In the words from a famous movie quote, maybe "You can't handle the truth", but it still is the truth.

And a little bit more background, the people who call me with this information are people who know the difference between right and wrong. All too often lately it seems that everyone paints City Hall with the same wide brush. Luckily there are many people at City Hall and throughout city government that still have the integrity that I once thought Lew Brown had. Lew may have sacrificed his, but a lot of people still want to do the right thing.

Keep the calls coming. If they have to spend time discussing me on a radio program, we are definitely doing something right.Unfortunately, if they only put as much time into doing the right things as they do covering their tracks, we'd be in a much better spot.We are making a difference .

DAN NOLAN LABOR BOARD HEARING UPDATE

Hartford Fire Department Deputy Chief Dan Nolan was scheduled to begin his mediation hearings today before the State Labor Board. Although opening statements were made by both side, that is about as far as it got before being recessed until December 11, 2009.

In an ironic twist, the City of Hartford's star witness was not available to testify at the hearing. Assistant Chief Parker was injured at home over the weekend and was unable to attend. The veteran firefighter apparently fell off a step ladder at his West Hartford home.

I know we keep hearing our Mayor say that "justice delayed is justice denied" as he faces his criminal charges. Does the same thinking apply to Nolan's charges?

TIME FOR MORE TRAINING SUSAN

According to City Hall sources, Hartford's computer system has contracted a virus. This has rendered many of Hartford's in-house computers useless since Friday. One city hall source told me this afternoon "we haven't been able to do anything since Friday because of the virus".

Many city departments were at the payroll office today manually inputting employee payroll records since most that had been entered into the system were not able to be accessed in time to cut checks for this weeks deadline.

According to Hartford's Chief Information Officer Eric Jackson, a "worm" began infecting City computers last Wednesday and spread steadily last week and over the weekend. The "worm" apparently is resistant to anti-virus software and is what Jackson called "self replicating". The worm apparently also blocks paths to anti-virus websites to keep the updates required to remove or block the worm from being accessed.

Jackson said removing the worm is a "very manual intensive process". Efforts to remove the worm are ongoing. Jackson further said that no one using the city's website, hartford.gov, is in danger of contracting the "worm".