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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

TAKE THE POLL

In the top of the right column is a blogpoll related to Hartford's search for a permanent Police Chief. It is far from scientific, but I would like to know what you think. You can not post a comment on the poll, but feel free to post your thoughts here
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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kevin,

your 4th choice hits the nail on the head. Segarra is not functioning as the Mayor, instead he is the Ribbon-cutter-in-Chief and has ceded his authority and power to Panagore. I would challenge anyone to point to one of Panagore's successes. Pedro has proven to be a huge disappointment as he continues to show himself as spineless when it comes to making the decisions he knows he needs to make.

May 1, 2012 at 8:24 PM
Rich Wareing said...

Chief Rovella is the best thing that's happened to the HPD in quite a while and his work both before and since becoming chief is at the root of our much reduced homicide rate.

If you talk to memembers of the shooting task force you will quickly see that they are motivated because they are under good leadership doing meaningful work that has a real chance to make the city better, highly professional in their approach, proactive, and exactly the sort of officers HPD needs to cultivate througout the entire department.

In fact, the shooting task force and hiring Rovella as interim Chief are the top accomplishments of this administration.

Assuming Rovella is interested Pedro should do everything within his power to make him the permanent chief regardless of how David or anyone else at 550 feels about it.

As a leader you sometimes defer to your senior staff, but on the big issues - and public safety is the biggest issue at 550 -- the boss has to make that decision himself and while he should listen to his senior staff, the decision has to be his and if he believes it is the right way to go, he has to go that way even if his entire inner circle objects. That's leadership.

May 2, 2012 at 10:07 AM
Suzanne said...

There should be a 5th choice, which is: the Mayor has engaged an outside search firm and has engaged the community in an orderly process to select the best police chief. He should be allowed to complete an open, inclusive, and transparent process. I too am a fan of Chief Rovella's but I also know what happens when he starts making the hard decisions if the while community hasnt participated in the process. Frankly, Kevin, you would be the first to complain.

May 2, 2012 at 6:31 PM
Ted Bundy said...

Please consider Angel Morales for Police Chief,he knows a thing or two about crime and works closely,very closely with young boys.

May 2, 2012 at 11:09 PM
Rich Wareing said...

First of all, there's nothing inherently better, or even good, about hiring an outside search firm to conduct an "open, inclusive, and transparent process." That's how we ended up with Bruce Marquis as police chief. The Council conducted a "National Search" and brought candidates in, none of whom struck anyone as outstanding. All sorts of people came to the interviews and there was a lot of input, but at the end of the day, the Council appeased several North End powerbrokers (Abe and Ella Cromwell among them) who wanted a black chief, since the outgoing chief, Joe Crowell, was white - hardly the best way to make a decision and I don't think anyone would say his tenure as chief was outstanding.

Could it have turned out differently? Sure, but my point is that these "National Searches" are not, in and of themselves, superior to other methods of hiring.

Second, given that we are in a deep financial crisis, hiring an outside search firm doesn't make a lot of sense because they typically charge 20-33% of the 1st year's salary as a fee (I know b/c that's how my wife makes her living). Pay the new chief $120,000 and you are talking about a $24k-$36k fee for the headhunter, plus out-of-pocket expenses, like the cost of flying your "National" candidates to Hartford. Do we really have say $35k-$40k to spend on "process" especially when we have a very good candidate as acting chief already?

Third, HPD needs solid, stable, leadership today, not six months from now. Frankly, the uncertainty caused by our "National Search" undermines Rovella's ability to do his job right now, especially to make hard decisions about personnel and leadership.

Fourth, hiring an outside firm can be a good strategy, but it's also perfectly legitimate to hire from within. That's especially true when you have someone already doing the job on an interim basis who most people seem to think is doing well, by reference to both the positive things that are said about him and the lack of complaints voiced at Council and elsewhere.

Finally, the Charter gives the Mayor the power to make this appointment and it doesn't condition that power on any sort of process. Does he have the discretion to engage in a process? Of course, but he also has the discretion make what we call an "executive decision" when he thinks the circumstances warrant one. In my view, we have exactly the right circumstances for such a decision.

May 3, 2012 at 7:10 AM
Mayor James Curley said...

I think Mayor Segarra should hire as Police Chief someone who is open to Mayor Segarra's influence and will unquestionably do his bidding.Mayor Segarra should have final say about who is hired as cops,who is promoted ( depending on how much support they have given the Mayor and his friends) and who is left off charges filed by the cops or who is not charged by the police.Anyone in politics,or/and the rich and powerful should be given a "bye" by the police,by virtue of their higher station in life and for what they have done or will do for Mayor Segarra.Mayor Segarra is merely executing that time honored tradition.

May 3, 2012 at 10:38 AM
Bruce Rubenstein said...

I agree with Rich on most everything he said.

I had worked with Rovella when he was a major crime's investigator and he was top notch.

I believe he would be tremendous as the Chief and I am hoping that Pedro appoints him,despite as rumor has it, that Mr Panagore doesn't want him.

May 3, 2012 at 12:05 PM
The Rock said...

The mayor, and I know you read this, needs to make Rovella Cheif. Stop listening to that bow tie wearing flunkie. I bet if the feds ever showed up at city hall, he would throw you under the bus just to save his own teeth. YOU are mayor, start acting like it.....

May 3, 2012 at 2:39 PM
magic eight ball said...

Why is the Police Academy Commander harassing officers that are exiting in service training... I hope we dont have another steve meile racist incident involving command staff with fifty witnesses present.......more to come.

May 3, 2012 at 2:42 PM
Anonymous said...

I know for a fact that a complaint package reagarding this last comment is on Rovellas desk. I hope that this incident is fixed before a black eye is caused......

May 3, 2012 at 2:43 PM
Anonymous said...

Kevon,
None of these answers are viable. The shooting team spent 160,000 on OT in six months. That far exceeds the other unit budgets for a full year. I would fully expect that if in theory we throw huge amounts of people and money at a problem there had better be success.
Now lets look at the rest of the departments numbers.Do we really think drug dealing is down the 30% as the charts depiction? Or have those officers been redirected to drink the cool aid put out for the shooting team.


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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I go to my south end meetings and I see that there are more bodies dedicated to the problem and significant money thrown at it. But the south end citizens care about the drugs and prostitution in their communities not the shootings in the north end, So if you redirect my resources to Travelers or Aetna and violent crimes than as the report says there may not be resources to deal with what I think is important,. Rovella never was a supervisor in HPD but he was a good investigator, Lets remember that the two are not mutually conducive to each outher

May 8, 2012 at 8:46 PM

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