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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

ANOTHER WHEEL COMES OFF THE BUS

Hartford's political "machine", if there actually is such a thing, suffered another body blow tonight. The Hartford Charter Revision Commission had its second meeting tonight and the major item of business was the election of a permanent chairperson. The appointment and selection of the chair is important as that person, in theory, guides the direction of the Commission for its duration.

The permanent Chair is able to decide what moves forward as far as any changes to Hartford's Charter, what eventually is referred to the Council for change, and potentially to the voters of Hartford.

The choices tonight were political insider John Kennelly and former State Representative Ken Green. Kennelly was fresh from his pleading in Superior Court where he accepted probation and court imposed penalties for his recent drunk driving arrest. Ken Green was recently elected along with a "reform" slate, of which I am also a member, for the 7th Disrict Hartford Democratic Town Committee.

The votes of at least two Commission members appointed by Working Families Party
members put Green over the top in the vote count to become Chairperson as well as former Republican Councilperson Corey Brinson's vote for Green.

It was generally expected that those Commissioner's appointed by Mayor Segarra as well as Democratic Council members would have been enough to carry Kennelly, but that apparently didn't happen.

This should be an interesting 16 months under Ken Green's leadership and may result in substantive change to Hartford's Charter.

Maybe there is hope yet.

7 comments:

Rich Wareing said...

Kevin, this is a bit much.

Ken Green served in the General Assembly for about 15 years. While your 7th District slate was made up mostly people new to the process it was topped by a sitting state representative (Doug McCrory) and a former representative (Ken Green). That's hardly an "outsider" slate.

Ken Green may be a lot of things, and some of them good, but to suggest that he is somehow an "outsider" to the political process is incorrect, as is the idea that this was an insider/outsider battle.

Indeed, while Kennelly had the support of a former member of the Board of Ed (Patterson-Stallings), Ken had the support of a former councilman (Brinson) and long-time state and local politico, Bruce Rubenstein.

Ken won the battle not by some spontaneous grassroots revolution (a la an "Hartford Spring") motivated by a fealing that "it's time for a change" but rather the old fashioned "insider" way; i.e. by flipping the vote of one and possibly two people (depending on who you believe said what to home) who had committed to Kennelly.

This was a battle of insiders, nothing more.

peter brush said...

...a battle of insiders, nothing more...

Kennelly. Green. What's the substantive difference? Are there some folks who want no change? Some folks who disagree about what changes should be made? As a skeptic of democracy, especially where the demos is less than stellar, I'm wary of any "spontaneous grassroots revolution." Part of the appeal of the city manager form of government was that it was facially less democratic.

KEVIN BROOKMAN said...

Rich,

Andwhat happened to Ken's time in the legislature? Ken's battle to get on the HDTC along with a slate of people not beholding to the system was not an easy fight. He is far from a political insider and I think you know exactly what I meant.

To say that there are not a lot of disappointed political hacks at City Hall that are not disappointed by Kennelly's loss would be an understatement. And even after 15 years, or whatever the term was, in the Legislature, I am not aware of any political baggage attributed to Mr. Green

Anonymous said...

Kenny is still very angry after losing to Matt Ritter two year ago.
Kenny needs to move on and do the things he said he wanted to do to help the community.

Rich Wareing said...

Kevin, if Ken is not an "insider" because he is not an ally of the Mayor, then Abe Giles and Minnie and Ramon spent huge (and somewhat overlapping) parts of the Perez administration as "outsiders," because there were very long stretches where they were not exactly welcome inside 550 Main Street. Whatever else you might say, however, about Minnie, Ramon, and Abe, however, you can't say with a straight face that they were were "outsiders" during that time because they were part of the power structure, even though they were in the minority position and not part of the majority.

You used to be an outsider (some might say the consummate outsider), but when you got elected to office you became an insider. It doesn't mean you are friends and allies with all other insiders, or that you necessarily owe anyone anything, but it does mean you are part of the structure of government which, by definition, is "the inside."

Rich Wareing said...

Kevin, if Ken is not an "insider" because he is not an ally of the Mayor, then Abe Giles and Minnie and Ramon spent huge (and somewhat overlapping) parts of the Perez administration as "outsiders," because there were very long stretches where they were not exactly welcome inside 550 Main Street. Whatever else you might say, however, about Minnie, Ramon, and Abe, however, you can't say with a straight face that they were were "outsiders" during that time because they were part of the power structure, even though they were in the minority position and not part of the majority.

You used to be an outsider (some might say the consummate outsider), but when you got elected to office you became an insider. It doesn't mean you are friends and allies with all other insiders, or that you necessarily owe anyone anything, but it does mean you are part of the structure of government which, by definition, is "the inside."

Bruce Rubenstein said...

Gentlemen you are both right,so relax...being an insider isnt always bad and being an outsider isnt always good...

Whether one is an insider or an outsider depends upon the perspective of how you look at it.If you have a city hall perspective then John would be an insider and Ken would not.If you have a local and state politics perspective then both are insiders...