A CLASSIC CASE OF "DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO"

This is a posting that needs to be filed under "you can't make this stuff up!".

I picked up the Hartford Courant this morning and after reading one of the columns, I had to go back to the video I recorded at the Legislative Office Building recently. That meeting was called by Representative Kirkley-Bey regarding the bonuses handed out by Hartford's Board of Education.

During that meeting, 3rd District Representative Guillermina "Minnie" Gonzalez made some sharply worded comments toward the Board of Education that were critical of their hiring process and spending money "like it is Christmas". The clip of Gonzalez's remarks can be seen below.The interesting part really comes at about 0:40 seconds into the clip.

Gonzalez questions the appointments to the Board and members of the Board "are they putting family members to work at the Board of Education? We have to be very careful of that". She went on to say that if they are doing that "they are not for the kids, they are for themselves".

Video is a wonderful thing when it comes to preserving peoples comments. Second only to the Freedom of Information Act which provides the paper trail to many of our elected officials less than stellar actions.

Although it is pretty common knowledge of Representative Gonzalez's employment efforts on behalf of her family members, Courant columnist Kevin Rennie did the legwork and dug into the hiring of Gonzalez's son, Ivan Maldonado, at both the Legislature and at the MDC. Rennie also points out the blatant lies and omissions on Maldonado's employment application.

One glaring omission was Maldonado's arrest on charges of sexually assaulting a twelve, yes you are reading that correctly, a twelve year old girl. Those charges are currently pending. You can view those charges on the Judicial website by clicking here

You can read Kevin Rennie's column by clicking here

In the meantime, if we were to follow the reasoning behind Gonzalez's remarks directed at the Board, elected officials who get jobs for family members may need to be questioned as to whether they are there for the people who elected them, or are they there for themselves. Especially when those family members are hired under very questionable circumstances.

And if this is the way the MDC typically hires, you might want to think twice before you let an MDC worker into your home, ask them if they have ever been accused of a felony, like sexually assaulting and threatening a 12 year old girl. Somehow I think this might be an isolated incident resulting from a political favor.