HOW MUCH MORE ARE WE WILLING TO TAKE?

Let me be the first to say what so many people are thinking. There is no leadership taking place in Hartford City Hall. Mayor Segarra may in fact be a nice guy as every one seems to preface their opinion of him. But he is a disaster as a Mayor.

For anyone that follows this blog, you have probably noted by now that most of his policy decisions are being driven by this blog. Kupiec, Panagore, Jaffe, Burnham, Molleda, City Vehicles,Keney Park, all topics that have been described here, many months ago.

It is time for leadership from Pedro Segarra , and that leadership shouldn't by reading a blog and testing the wind direction every morning.

I for one am becoming quite tired of being made a joke of when you mention the City of Hartford. The Courant's cartoonist Bob Englehart took his shot at the City tonight and he is exactly on point. Hartford is a mess that is mired in politics. You can read Englehart's commentary here at Courant.com

 

 

All of these missteps are totally avoidable though with a little more vision and a lot less "seat of the pants management". It seems as though nothing is done by this Administration until they are finally shamed into reacting

As an example, the current ruckus over take home City Cars. A policy could have been issued months ago by Segarra and the Council, that if properly enforced might have curtailed the City's liability after a recent DUI accident involving the Deputy DPW Director in her city car. The Mayor should issue a policy tomorrow that City Vehicles are for City business only, if you aren't working, the car stays put in the driveway. No shuttling the family around to soccer games or Saturday night at a restaurant.

No personal business in a City Car. Back and forth to work and that's it. End of story. Next should be a no alcohol policy, zero, absolutely none. If you have a City car and are headed to a function or need to stop for a drink on the way home, you aren't going to do it in a City car. Go home and swap out for your own personal vehicle Zero tolerance for alcohol in a City car, from the Mayor on down, zero means just that , zero.

Now there Mayor, that isn't tough to figure out is it? I bet you could have that e-mail distributed to everyone by 9:15 am tomorrow, and by the way, ask all recipients to acknowledge the receipt so that there are no questions when they may violate your policy.

It might also be a good idea to get your Chief of Staff to move into Hartford. We don't need a Meriden resident managing your office. We need someone that cares about and loves the City. The same love that our good residents show everyday they put up with this nonsense. A commute north on I-91 for the sake of a paycheck isn't good enough.

And stop with all of the consultants, we just can't afford recycled managers at $85.00 per hour. I have never heard of our Governor hiring consultants to fill Commissioner positions . He identifies capable people through his connections and brings them into his Office. I would expect the Mayor of the Capitol City would have similar connections to qualified people to fill vacancies.

And finally, jettison your acting COO as soon as possible. In case you haven't realized, all of the problem children on your staff answer directly to her. Clearly she is not capable of supervising or leading  this City forward. I was amazed the day she told the Internal Audit Commission that the P-card problem had been solved when all of the missing receipts were found in a shoe box on a shelf in the Finance Department . Her statement made it seem that this method was an accepted business practice in you Administration.

Her performance as Corporation Counsel has made former Corporation Counsel John Rose look good enough for a seat on the Supreme Court, and that is saying a lot. Her selection of her Deputy, a lawyer that wasn't even legally able to practice law in Connecticut when he was brought in, as well as his intemperance through e-mail and actions speaks volumes about her character  judgement .  I thought when he sent the e-mail claiming a Council person was mentally ill would have been the end, but nope.

Pedro, stop embarrassing us and do the job you were elected to do. A political science college student could do a better job than we are getting now. I would really like to see some vision and see where you expect us to be 5 years from now, and Detroit is not a suitable answer.