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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

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.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kevin,

There is something sad that you are actually driving the Mayor's Office, but I for one have to say Thank You, imagine how bad things would be if you weren't forcing change.

It is interesting that you are almost the predictor of what will happen next at City Hall, doesn't he Mayor have access to the same information you do? Does he not call you and ask what is going to hit him next? Seems like a lot of his embarrasment could be avoided if he talked to you

Anonymous said...

Like one cop commented on the atv post "I will turn my head". Do not expect me to do my job when you do not support us. The officer said. I think this is becoming the case all the way down to civil service. People will do their jobs within means but they are not willing to put their neck on the line when they receive no support. If you are not in the inner circle it feels like you are gasping for air.

Anonymous said...

Did the audit commission vote at their meeting today to investigate Kupiec's severance?

Former Resident said...

This is what you get with a Strong Mayor form of government. I recently moved out of the city. Glad I did. I'm sure there are some decent professionals still working for the city, but in general, it's broken. SKB is a absolute joke. Fire her yesterday. Pedro, hire some qualified people that want to invest their talents in the city. Cut the waste at the middle management level... I could go on and on but I don't expect anything to change.

Anonymous said...

I am not one for harping on the mayor as much as he is where the buck stops. He has had numerous chances to make change but differed his power to wannabes who had no clue. He looked right in his managers eyes and they blew smoke up his ass. How could he not know what was going on. People like the out going DPW director now with a golf course named after him had no clue to what he was doing now and more down the line will show his ineptness. Strangely he did this magic show for four years and now where will he take this act. Look out here's Kevin

Nova SS said...

Fellow readers, Kevin,
A friend recently asked, why New haven seems so much better than Hartford even with the violent crime spikes in New Haven. My response was that New Haven has had one Mayor for 20 years. Hartford in roughly the same time frame has had two "strong" mayors, both of which have been embroiled in disastrous appointees, Grand Jury proceedings and indictments Numerous audit concerns. New Haven on the other hand has has one administration for 20 years, within the first 2 terms of office the mayor had his house in order and proceeded to improve the processes and the quality of life and broaden the cities offerings to it's residents. Hartford's mayor's have been consumed with putting out the myriad of fires they have set with incompetent department heads and knee jerk decision making and have not had the time needed to truly improve the quality of life in Hartford or deliver top notch services to the residents. As we have said all too often "Hartford Has .......-----, Hartford Has........ \, Well "IT" what ever "IT" is. From my perspective New Haven has already "GOT IT", were still working on figuring out what "IT" is.....

City hall highjinks said...

Where is Eddie Perez when we need him,Pedro is incompetent and clueless on how tone mayor.

Kevin,isn't time to take a poll on Pedro,s performance.

The Kevin Burnham Golfcourse said...

Kevin, a good place to start is to gauge the performance of the Mayor. Please consider taking a poll,with the understanding that you will furnish the results to the Mayor and Mirabelle for their comment on the results.

Anonymous said...

Kevin,

Please explain to me how Saundra Kee Borges can still possibly be employed by the City of Hartford? She is a complete imbecile who is nothing but a self-serving, greedy and politically corrupt scumbag. How can Pedro ever be taking seriously when he allows her incompetence to destroy this city? Pedro it is time you realized that you have no business what so ever to be Mayor of Hartford. You have been giving more than enough time to prove you have some common sense. You obviously don't, show some thread of decency and Fire that clueless disgrace SKB!

Anonymous said...

"Kevin,

Please explain to me how Saundra Kee Borges can still possibly be employed by the City of Hartford? She is a complete imbecile who is nothing but a self-serving, greedy and politically corrupt scumbag. How can Pedro ever be taking seriously when he allows her incompetence to destroy this city? Pedro it is time you realized that you have no business what so ever to be Mayor of Hartford. You have been giving more than enough time to prove you have some common sense. You obviously don't, show some thread of decency and Fire that clueless disgrace SKB!"

AMEN

Anonymous said...

Pedro Segarra, will be Re-elected Mayor in 2015. He has already begun his campaign to the members,of the Democratic Town Committee.The powers that be, want it this way, So that they can continue to control ,Consulting, Building, Leasing, Hiring ,Contracts etc.This period will go down in Hartford's history, as the biggest pilfering of Hartfords finances.This will lead us to become the next Detroit.The Nine Moronic, Silent, City Councilmen , should all be ashamed, but they are not. They have positioned themselves to the same Greedy, Imbosilic level! The Working Families Party, need's to run a Mayor and six Council Candidates, and hopefully end this insanity!

Anonymous said...

Kevin, you diminish your credibility when you don't post comments that question your editorial judgment. At newspapers, when writers make mistakes, they have editors who will publish corrections or letters that will take the piss out of them and knock them off their high horse. You are one of many people pushing against Segarra. Taking sole credit makes you look like a doof.

Anonymous said...

THE CAPITOL CITY MUST MOVE FORWARD. WITH THAT SAID, MAYOR AND ALLIES MUST GO.....NOW. THERE ARE SO MANY HARTFORD RESIDENTS THAT COULD DO THE JOB AND DO IT CORRECTLY. AFTER ALL YOU CAN WALK FROM ONE END OF TOWN TO THE OTHER IN 45 MINUTES. THIS TOUR INCLUDES PASSING THROUGH ALL HARTFORD'S NEIGHORHOODS. WHAT A NICE THOUGHT TO HAVE ALL INVOLVED IN THE MOVEMENT PROCESS....

Diagenis said...

Why did we ever expect a failed lawyer who filed for bankruptcy twice, to be able to run the city competently

Boricua!! said...


WOW! WOW!! & WOW!!!

I am speechless, and at the same time, disgusted with the Mayor Segarra Administration. What an embarrassment, you Pedrito are slowly going down. How can you've allowed this woman SKBorges to bring you down so low. You are definitely not a typical Puerto Rican man. Where is that strong characteristics that the Hispanic male have? SKBorges is the reason that you are failing. You are not married to her, so get rid of her as soon as possible, you still have time. You do not want to go down in the History books for not being successful as the First Hispanic Gay Mayor. You might be a great person but not a great leader. Please (Por Favor) safe the City of Hartford Ship from sinking and make us proud of you. We the people of Hartford, who voted for you want you back. Take back our City. Make us happy and prove that yes you can do it. Then you can said "Hartford Has IT"

Anonymous said...

This is Hartford folks, Pedro will get re-elected. As usual 10% of the population will be picked up by city vans and vote for the person that looks like them and that's all it takes. PEDRO 2016!!!!!