Well, it seems like many of the comments and phone calls on the previous Eric Jackson post had hoped that Mayor Segarra would take the high road and do what had to be done to protect City of Hartford employees during the sexual harrassment investigation.
Sorry to dash your hopes, but apparently the answer is no.
City Hall sources are confirming for me that Eric Jackson is on "extended" sick leave as of the time of this writing. Another travesty and a fraud being imposed on the people of Hartford, all at our expense.
There is no word yet as to whether Chief Roberts and the Hartford Police Department will step up and accept their responsibility to investigate alleged criminal behavior by Jackson.
Extended sick leave might actually be appropriate, his alleged victims might agree that he is ill.
Councilman Painter and Councilman Brinson, now's your opportunity to show us what you are made of. I don't think many of us have confidence in the existing Council to take action, or even speak out. Let's see if you two have anything to say when Hartford employees are allegedly victimized, or is it more business as usual.
30 comments:
You should find out how much he makes a day and post what this "sick leave" is costing the tax payers of Hartford.
Painter while on the Council for 3 previous terms never had the backbone to publically oppose Mayor Perez even once and Brinson the nephew of Veronica Airey-Wilson will say nothing.But then again, neither will the rest of the Council.None of them wants to put a damper on the Mayor's re-election by going after one of his department heads,especially one who is in charge of the computer emails and might have "dirt" on everyone or anyone.
The Mayor and the entire Council are very willing to sacrifice the female employees of MHIS to an alleged predator....and there are at last count 7 different complaints...
If I was a woman working in MHIS or closeby, I would be in fear...
Jackson is out on " extended sick leave" on the taxpayor's expense.I bet you lunch that Jackson will not be able to testify to any internal city hall investigator until he is better, which would be right after Segarra wins the primary, LOL..they must take us for fools.
If the investigation is transferred to the HPD as it should, the cops could take his statements, etc right away upon clearance from a doctor.
I dont think Chief Roberts wants anything to do with another "Sexual harassment" investigation. Look for the PD to stay far away from this one.
Anonymous 2:40PM
I agree that they might not want to investigate..especially if Pedro tells the Chief to have the HPD stay out of it...but what happens to the safety and welfare of these women ? And what may happen if this alleged predator escalates his abuse ?
Is Hartford now a open town for predators ?
What does that mean "extended sick leave"? how long? Does that mean he will go get counseling for something like "sex addiction" and then come back like a star from Hollywood?
Dont look for the erstwhile Hartford Courant city beat reporters and opinion writers...many of whom read this blog to investigate or comment negatively on Mayor Perez or this looming sexual abuse complaints by 7 city hall employees...the writers and reporters have been told by the city beat editor ( their boss) to go easy on Pedro and Hartford.
All eyes are on you Pedro now that the media has this. You already did nothing about your city lawyers who are being held in contempt of court. Let's see how you handle this one.
Thanks to Perez the people of Hartford will be watching you closely and expect moral ACTION, not lip service while the city corruption machine continues to operate. We expect change or you can forget winning an election.
Should the abused employees take sick leave too?
Before painting Mr. Jackson as a predator it may provide some balance to point put a few facts:
Mr. Jackson has a history of promoting women in positions where the general consensus was that there were more qualified male candidates.
His secretary and the receptionist (who was terminated) were able to conduct personal business including taking college courses and do homework during business hours.
His secretary is related to and worked for the current mayor.
When Mr. Jackson was hired he promoted a female manager to a director position that had been promised in writing to a male manager (who was later terminated)
This is not to say that Mr. Jackson is or is not a predator, but some potential victims took positions in MHIS or had special benefits in the department when common sense should have told them that it was not on the up and up. I am neither blaming the alleged victims nor finding guilt in the alleged perp, I'm just saying you don't get nothing for nothing.
I could take that last post as Mr Jackson wanted to be surrounded by women and or make them feel they owed him something for a promotion. It doesn't impress me.
"His secretary is related to and worked for the current mayor".
Get the information right Mr. Anonymous
Eric Jackson, executive assistant is NOT related to the mayor. She was simply the mayor's employee at his law firm.
Anonymous 3:55PM
Tell your spin puff piece story to the 7 complaintents, all who I have heard thru a source,have alleged against Jackson...among other things, that he was exposing himself at work...fondling and grabbing them,making sexual comments about their appearance and worse yet...showed up at their house after hours...demanding sex...
I find this an outrage that an employee's "alleged" activities are happening under our "Illustrious elected leaders" and there is no comment.That this (employee) has been allowed to take the sick leave route tells us there is a lot more than meets the eye. Hartford has a ZERO sexual Harrassment policy. Why is no one speaking out for these female employees? Where is the anger for these victims?
For everyone with pitchforks demanding justice.....you can't just toss Mr Jackson to the wolves. He's entitled to due process and has been separated from the complainants while the investigation takes place. Things like this take time.
My concern is the integrity of the investigation, or more accurately the lack of integrity.
Yes, the City does have a Zero Tolerance policy. But it is only enforced sometimes.
Does Mr. Jackson still have his security access to the city network while on extended sick leave? Does he still have access to everyone's personal information and email? If so, could he compromise someone out of retaliation? If I were in the legal department, I'd think twice about allowing that. They're going to have more lawsuits on their hands...
Let's get some things straight...
1. Don't blame victims for getting promoted and acting as if they "should know" that their promotion comes with a price. That is just an ignorant statement. Whether you feel these individuals "deserved" to be harassed because of the way they look or if they are open and friendly, it is still wrong for someone to take advantage of them for their own sexual/mental sickness. He has many victims, and many of them had nothing to "gain" by his victimization. Nor is there any evidence that the ones that were promoted have an inability to do perform their current job duties.
2. Eric never got disciplined for his car accident and should have been "let go" when the new Mayor came in. So the fact that he was still able to victimize people is ridiculous. He already showed a dishonest and unethical character when he was driving a company vehicle on a weekend to a party. Let alone the leaving the scene and the other things stated in the report.
3. Paid sick leave is like Paid Vacation. This is not only ridiculous for taxpayers sake, but a slap in the face to victims who still keep coming to work and literally FEEL "sick" from having to be in the same office as him for a couple weeks now during his complete awareness of the charges and investigation. It's amazing that he was still "allowed" to monitor emails of everyone and come into the office during all of this investigation and questioning of staff.
4. Higher authorities and organizations need to be contacted and involved at this point, because it is very obvious that this is not being handled in the best interest of the victims. Who would ever want to "report" real valid sexual harassment if this is what's going to happen? So employees in Hartford are basically being given a green light to continue or even start using sexual misconduct because the worst thing that can happen is a PAID VACATION!
ERIC JACKSON NEEDS TO BE FIRED PERIOD!
1. Don't blame victims for getting promoted and acting as if they "should know" that their promotion comes with a price. That is just an ignorant statement.
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You missed the point. Maybe Mr Jackson felt they owed him something if he promoted them. That statement has nothing to do with blaming the victims nor does it say they were not capable of the job.
We live in America he get's due process. If people were prosecuted and fired on opinions things would be more of a mess then they already are. Give it time.
Also what bothers me is the fact that so much detail has leaked before the investigation is final and it is putting employees at risk for retaliation. This is very unethical as well. I don't know who's "doing" that is, but it's wrong. People should not have access to complaint reports etc, except the persons investigating, so either there's a leak there, or the victims are trusting the wrong people. Either way, I believe there's a reason for everything, and if this going public will uncover what's really going on, so be it.
Anonymous 6:30pm:
I don't think it is so much a matter of information being "leaked". The facts and the truth won't change whether we hear them today, tomorrow or next year.
I think the people that contacted me and provided me with information did so because they have no confidence in the Mayor or City Hall to do the right thing with this matter. Jackson's activities and "indiscretions" have been known for a long time and nothing has been done and he has been allowed to run wild without anyone reigning him in.
The fact that the complaints began being filed 1/11/11 and Jackson was still allowed to remain in his position most likely bothered the alleged victims.
Now that this is out there in the public, it has to be addressed and isn't just a little secret behind closed doors. Look at the attention it has brought just here on the blog in the last 24 hours, almost 2,000 people have read the Jackson postings
In many organizations Mr. Jackson would be suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation. Unfortunately, unless there are witnesses, email or text messages to substantiate the women's claims it literally becomes a he said- she said situation.
In any case his access to the office and any electronic communications or files should be terminated. The reality is the Eric has done an especially poor job meeting the needs of the school computer users and has focused instead on infrastructure and city business.
In hard times dept head decides who gets layed off. This gives a lot of power to these dept heads. Abusers take advantage of their power. It is up to the Mayor to keep the order. Pedro has made himself into an accomplice after the fact. How can people be treated this way? If people felt safe and were able to report abuse, this would have never happened. Is this what people have to do now to keep their jobs?
Apparently Pedro thinks so. Otherwise he would have condemned it.Pedro is responsible. He is a huge enabler.
Just think , what is next?
Pedro is a disgrace and a joke. He should resign.
People:
1-He is probably very close to getting vested in his pension.My money is on the "illness" lasting till he is vested and not a minute before.
2-City Hall will not do a thing other than letting him take sick time till he is vested and then probably leave. City of Hartford will then pay him for ever after allegedly forcing himself on women in the City Hall.
"but some potential victims took positions in MHIS or had special benefits in the department when common sense should have told them that it was not on the up and up"
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Talk about blaming the victims! He hired them, therefore they should put up with alleged sexual coercion? You would think saying no ten times should be enough.No?
""but some potential victims took positions in MHIS or had special benefits in the department when common sense should have told them that it was not on the up and up"
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Talk about blaming the victims! He hired them, therefore they should put up with alleged sexual coercion? You would think saying no ten times should be enough.No?"
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When you are a director that your staff has nicknamed "hooker boots" that should be indicative of a problem. Everyone in the department sees it happening, yet the benefits, and power that some of the favored people received created a power imbalance in the department. Hopefully the new acting CIO can restore sanity to a department that has been destroyed by mismanagement in the last few years. At the same time MHIS has virtually ignored their responsibility to the end users in schools to the point that schools have hired their own IT staff. Best of luck.
Bye bye Mr Jackson. Just because you got away with having an affair with a married employee you thought you could go after others. Your 4 year vacation is over.
I received word today that Mr. Jackson passed this morning.
I received word today that Mr. Jackson passed this morning 2/21/11.
Two "anonymous" comments were posted earlier regarding Eric Jackson.
To the poster: The comments are being held for verification. If you have more information or specifics, please e-mail me or call me .
Thanks
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