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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

THE PEREZ INVESTIGATION, HOW IT BEGAN FOR ME



It has been a long path from my initial feelings that "something" was wrong in the Perez Administration to the final guilty verdict last week.

I guess my original suspicions were raised after I began receiving threats made directly to me or directed at me by Perez staffers. The first was from the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Matthew Hennessy, and was apparently made to Marilyn Rossetti,the Executive Director of HART (Hartford Areas Rally Together)according to what Rossetti had relayed to me.

At the time, I had made a decision to stay in Hartford and become vocal about issues I saw facing the City. To do that I had decided to become involved with HART, who at the time I felt was a strong grassroots neighborhood organization advocating for Hartford's residents. After getting involved with HART I quickly found that wasn't the case, but that's a story for another day.

At the time I became involved with HART, Eddie Perez was being tested by a severe crime problem and he was preparing to make what many thought would be his first major challenge as strong Mayor. The selection of a new Police Chief was in the works and I began to advocate for Assistant Police Chief Mark Pawlina. Myself and others saw Pawlina as the perfect fit due to his reputation in the community and his years of service to the Hartford Police Department and the people of Hartford.

Mark Pawlina was always accessible and was comfortable in every neighborhood across the city. Mark was "colorblind" when it came to serving the people of Hartford and every person and every neighborhood received Pawlina's full attention.

Unfortunately my efforts were not appreciated by those in the Mayor's Office as a selection for Chief had apparently already been made and did not include Mark Pawlina. An outsider had been selected apparently due to his ties with the Hennessey family and Matt Hennessey's father. Patrick Harnett was brought in from outside as Perez's choice for Police Chief.

During all of this, I received a call one day from Marilyn Rossetti and she asked me to stop by her office at HART to meet with her and John Kennelley who at the time was HART's attorney. I agreed and met with them and Rossetti informed me that I would have to stop speaking out and making my comments to the media.

Rossetti stated that she had received a call from the Mayor's Chief of Staff Matt Hennessey who advised her that if I kept speaking out against Perez that HART's funding from the City would be cut. As I said before, I wasn't impressed with HART's "scripted" operations, so rather than become silent as Rossetti requested, I stepped away from HART.

It bothered me that City Hall could wield funding as a weapon to silence residents, but we now know that is how the Perez criminal operation succeeded. It also bothered me that Rossetti and HART would succumb to such threats, but I guess to some a paycheck is a paycheck.

The next threat came directly to me from Perez sycophant Lew Brown. I had been asked to attend a press conference that the African American Alliance was holding on the steps of Hartford City Hall. I had never really met Lew Brown, but I knew who he was from his days as a Television reporter.

I had parked at the curb directly in front of City Hall and was leaning against my truck waiting for the event to begin. As I was standing there, Lew Brown came out of the front entrance of City Hall and made a path directly for me. He stood directly in front of me and began poking me in the chest saying "I know who you are". I was a little taken aback my his demeanor and actions, but he continued poking me saying that I needed to stop "making the Mayor look bad" by saying what I was saying.

As if the poking in the chest was obnoxious enough, he then went on to state that he knew I had "a close friend on the Police Department" who was in line for a promotion to Captain and if I didn't stop saying what I was saying "my Friend" would never get the promotion.

What were they hiding that they were so concerned about one person raising issues? I was concerned about the threats and as to how this administration seemed to stop at nothing to conceal their activities.

For some reason, at about the same time, people began passing information on to me about questionable activities relating to City Hall and specifically Mayor Perez.
Some of the information made sense and could be easily verified, other information took work to dig out and I quickly realized that something was wrong and the Perez Administration was in a bunker mentality.

Although a lot of allegations were being made, the name Carlos Costa soon became a repeating theme. Costa's name originally began surfacing after he was given a "no-bid" emergency contract for the Church Street parking garage. Although that bid appeared to be a legitimate "emergency" contract, most of Costa's bids for the Parking Authority suddenly became emergency work. The source that provided that information to me was concerned that Costa was receiving special treatment to avoid any competitive bidding process.

At the trial of Perez there was a quick reference to work on the Mayor's home being "charged out" to the Church Street Garage during Costa's testimony. That testimony was never followed up as to whether the Parking Authority actually was billed and paid for work on Perez's home or whether it was just an accounting procedure by Costa.

TO BE CONTINUED......................

9 comments:

Richard said...

Apparently King Eddie is not a believer in First Amendment Rights. He should take a history class in prison.

Giovanni said...

Duh, maybe I'm too simplistic. There is NO way Costa ate any of the cost on Perez's house. He must have charged it to any given city project he was working on at the time. Can you say "change order"???

Bruce Rubenstein said...

Giovannia is right...there were either "change orders" done on the Park Street project or Costa did likewise on the city parking garage.

John B. Kennelly said...

Kevin:

Though I can not comment on the accuracy of other elements of your blog, there was no meeting with me where you were told by Marilyn that you were endangering HART funding. I believe that this platform provides an important fourth estate function for Hartford. However, please be more careful in describing past events especially when the other two participants in the alleged instance have no memory of it ever occuring.

John B. Kennelly
Marilyn Rossetti

Anonymous said...

The fact of the matter is that HART and Marilyn have been quiet as churchmice about Perez and city issues for many years.HART is city funded in part and surely acted for years as a wholly owned subsidiary of Mayor Perez.Kennelly of course was an ineffective Councilman who was successfuuly driven from poltics by Perez.Kennelly is another one who,while he has political aspirations never once reproached Perez or his cronies for all the corruption coming from city hall.John, You were MIA during this whole affair.

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

John,

I stand by what I said. If it helps refresh your memory, Marilyn had called me and when I arrived both her and yourself were in her 2nd floor office.

She stated the information from the Mayor's Chief of Staff regarding the threats to their funding. I took Marilyn on her word that what she was saying was truthful. In case you don't recall, you had made a comment to the effect of HART relied on that funding and couldn't jeopardize it.

Since you don't recall the original conversation, you might want to refresh your memory on the subsequent conversation on the patio at your house one night where you tried to justify Rossetti's comments again.

Again, I stand by what I posted.

Anonymous said...

Marilyn and John both drink heavilly, and forget things.

Anonymous said...

The loss to Hartford of Asst. Cheif Pawlina was great. Of course when he was overlooked he left the city for a place that would reward his dedication and integrity. Where would Hartford PD be now if he were chief. He was well respected by the line, because he earned it.

I'm sure in your continuation you will have much to say about Perez overtaking the Board of Education. Power hungry idiot!!

Anonymous said...

When will this be continued?!!!!