IT IS OFFICIAL....PRESIDENT WOODEN ELECTED BY COLLEAGUES

Just a quick update from last nights posting, the Hartford City Council was sworn in tonight and their first act of business was to elect Councilman Shawn Wooden as Council President. The five votes for wooden were himself, fellow Democrat Kyle Anderson and working Families Party Councilpeople Deutsch, Jennings and Cotto.

Now hopefully the political differences can be set aside as the real work needs to begin under the leadership of President Wooden.

DON'T CHANGE THE STATIONERY YET

All indications are that the term of "Interim" Hartford Police Chief Brian Heavren may be one of the shortest in HPD history, according to City Hall and HPD sources. Heavren was named the interim Chief last week , prior to the retirement of Chief Daryl K. Roberts.

Former Hartford Police detective and current Office of the Chief State's Attorney Chief Inspector James Rovella has apparently been the choice of Mayor Segarra to lead the department for several weeks.

The Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council (POST) raised issues regarding Rovella's certification as a police officer recently. The issue appears to be more one of semantics since several Hartford Chiefs in recent history were appointed without POST certification, including Patrick Harnett, Bruce Marquis and former Assistant Chief Rosensweig.

Those three were not certified by POST and were not active as Law Enforcement officers in Connecticut at the time of their hiring. Rovella is currently , as an Inspector for the State's Attorney's Office, a sworn Law Enforcement Officer with statewide powers of arrest and also authourized to carry a firearm. The glitch apparently arises in the fact that Inspectors do not come under the legislation that governs "police officers".

It also seems it might come down to a matter of "turf" ,as other Police Chiefs are rising up to protect their job opportunities as well. The fact of the matter is that anyone could be appointed Chief as long as they receive their POST certification and become a certified police officer within one year after their appointment. The City Charter only requires that the Department be led by a police officer with full police powers and powers of arrest.

POST has apparently required that Rovella attend less than 60 hours of Academy classroom time to be POST certified, and according to sources he has already begun that time and should complete the required hours in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime, word is that Mayor Segarra, Chief Heavren and Chief Rovella will be addressing early and late rollcalls tomorrow morning at HPD.

WILL IT BE WOODEN?

Tomorrow, January 3rd will be the official swearing in of Hartford's new City Council and Mayor Segarra at 7:00PM. A special Council meeting will follow at which time the Council leadership is expected to be selected.

All indications are that newly elected Council member Shawn Wooden has sewn up the votes needed to secure the Council President's position. This is a turn of events over what was expected shortly after the November electiuon when the sure bet was on Ken Kennedy to secure the votes.

If Wooden is selected as Council President he may bring some fresh ideas to the Council as someone who is not an incumbent. Wooden has also shown his close ties to Governor Malloy and a friendship that dates back almost a decade to the time when Governor Malloy served as Mayor of Stamford.