Mayor Segarra has just released his veto resolution , striking down the Council's resolution restricting all overtime without Council Approval. the memo is below. It is unclear if the Council has the votes at this time to override the veto.
MAYOR
SEGARRA STATEMENT ON VETO OF
OVERTIME
AND HIRING FREEZES
--- NEWS AND
COMMUNITY STATEMENT---
(April 2, 2013) – Mayor Pedro E. Segarra released the
following statement regarding his veto of the Court of Common Council’s
resolution to impose overtime and hiring freezes:
“I was elected to this office with a clear public mandate; to
make the City of Hartford safer and improve the overall quality of life.
Council’s actions make it impossible for the Departments of Public Works (DPW),
Police and Fire to keep people safe, respond to emergencies and keep streets
clean.
“It’s absurd to suggest that either a Chief or a Department Head
needs to call a Council member to get approval before responding to an
emergency. We’ve had three homicides recently. We need more police officers not
less. The more officers we have, the safer our streets and the less overtime
that's necessary.
“Council receives financial reports every month and sees the
same numbers I do; we’ve spent 60% of our adopted budget, which is exactly where
we should be with 5 months left before the close of the fiscal
year.
“Over the past 10 years, before becoming Mayor, DPW lost more
than 100 employees. Since 2010 we’ve added approximately 35 back — the majority
Hartford residents — and we need to do more to continue improving the delivery
of basic and essential city services: clean parks, installation of speed tables
in advance of warm weather and pothole filling. It is one thing to do more with
less, but quite another to actually do less because we've foolishly tied one
hand behind our backs. What Council has proposed is impractical and inconsistent
with our charge as leaders.
“Although they, just like me, will need to answer to residents
as to why our City has regressed if these freezes are imposed; I have no
intention of risking the safety of our City and the progress we’ve made. Our
residents, businesses and children deserve better. “
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3 comments:
I commend the 7 on Council who recognize that the City has a financial problem, not to say crisis.
Pedro is apparently a blind ideologue
willing to run the City into the ground rather than cut spending. Over-ride the veto.
Central Falls, Rhode Island.
Stockton, California.
The problem is the council can't think outside the box, especially Kennedy. Every year it's the same thing from him in regards to the budget, cut overtime, but in order to do such a thing they would have to be able to hire individuals to fill vacancies to accomplish such a thing, but if Kennedy gets his way that won't happen either.
So, in essence, if he gets his way the PD will have to abandon it community policing plan, trash will pile up and parks won't get mowed, streets already don't get plowed, city vehicles will stay broken down, crime will increase, the viability of the city will be less, investors will back out and the city will become a ward of the state.
All because of Mr.Kennedy's years of experience an lack of knowledge on the Council. I know they have all the information in front of them but they can't connect the dots. Even when they are told the truth they still don't accept it or speak it.
He has to accept some responsibility for the state of the city since he's been on the council the longest and been part of the budget process for those years where he could of proposed resolutions that made common and economic sense.
On this one I agree with the Mayor. He is the Chief Executive of the City and it is not the job of the City Council (our legislative branch) to run the day to day operations of the city. With the legal minds on council it is hard to understand why this would even go to his desk. I hope that this was political posturing on the part of council, other wise I have some very serious doubts as to who is leading the council. It would be wonderful if the City Council did the job they where elected to do. The council has considerable powers of oversight and they still have yet to use them.
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