THE PROBLEMS CONTINUE AT HFD , DONALD BROWN ARRESTED

On April 24th, 2015 at approximately 4:58pm, the Hartford Police Department received a 911 reporting that a person was shot in the driveway of 131 Hebron Street. On arrival, the victim was identified as Lascelles Reid, 31, of Simsbury, CT. Reid was found lying on the ground, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the torso. Reid, alert and conscious, was transported to Saint Francis Hospital via AMR ambulance. Responding HPD Patrol Officers also met with Donald Brown, 54 of Hartford, CT. Brown was on scene and cooperative when police arrived. Brown said he shot Reid with his 9mm firearm one time because he was in fear of Reid. The 9mm firearm used in this incident was secured by officers as well as a single 9mm shell casing. Detectives from the Hartford Police Department Major Crimes Division responded and assumed the investigation. The scene was processed by the HPD Crime Scene Division. 

As of this date, Reid has not fully recovered and continues to require medical attention. 

On May 14, 2015 Hartford Police Major Crimes Division Detectives applied for and obtained an arrest warrant for Donald Brown, for the charge of Assault in the First Degree, 53a-59(a)(5). Judge set bail was $150,000. Donald Brown turned himself into HPD without incident. 

Donald Brown, formerly a 25 year veteran of the Hartford Fire Department, retired on May 1st and is no longer an employee of the City of Hartford.  (Brown was off duty at the time of this incident)

UNDER WHO'S AUTHORITY?

 

 

Several years ago a Hartford Police Lieutenant was shown the door after it was found that he had been printing up what looked like official parking passes, having them laminated and then selling them to anyone willing to pay the price for "Police "parking privileges.

 

Now it seems that someone in the Hartford Fire Department has come up with the same scheme. I have seen numerous illegally parked vehicles around the downtown area, proudly displaying the "get out of jail free" placard , claiming the authority of the Hartford Fire Chief. Many of them are in close proximity to the Hartford Fire Union office  near Linden Place and the claim for being on official business is probably not legit.

 

The Hartford Parking Authority claims no knowledge of the placards and clams the Fire Chief has no authority to offer free parking passes. I have requested comment from Chief Huerta's Office, no response yet. I venture to say it is more likely someone who has been creative with a color printer and a laminator to avoid feeding the meter. In which case parking controller's need to be advised to ignore and ticket these freeloaders.

THE FULL REPORT CAMPAIGN FILING, FOI KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

Not everything at Hartford City Hall is a mess. One area that deserves praise is the Office of the City Clerk, specifically Clerk John Bazzano and staff person Eric Lusa ( not to leave anyone out, the entire staff understands customer service and should be an example to everyone in that building, John and Eric are the two people I dealt with on this project)

Shortly after the Mayoral election filings were due, I went to City Hall to review the documents. I wasn't expecting what I was given. The reports were several hundred pages for two of the candidates. The cost of having them copied to then scan as PDF files to post here would have been very expensive , especially at the statutory set rate of fifty cents per page. I appreciate transparency, but not when it would cost me probably over a thousand dollars in copying fees.

The more I thought about it, the more I figured paying  50 cents a page for copies was an outdated way to obtain documents. I also knew almost all of the copiers at City Hall, in fact most copiers in use today, can scan a document to a PDF file as quick as it can copy it.

 

 

One of the things that is apparent with the FOI laws is that they  are constantly trying to catch up with technology. One of the things most people aren't aware of is that if a document is saved or available in electronic format , you can ask for it that way when requested. This alleviates the need to run to City Hall to pick up ,a paper document when it can just as easily be e-mailed. The intent of FOI was not to create a revenue stream for government agencies to be a copying service, it was meant for the easy distribution of documents, the public's right to know.

 Since most business is done by e-mail  or PDF files or Word documents, almost everything can be obtained electronically.

I went back to thinking about the campaign filings. If a staff person in the Clerk's Office was going to stand at the copier and photocopy all of the pages, couldn't they just as easily scan it to a PDF file and alleviate the cost for the copies. I spoke with a person at the FOI Commission who thought the idea was reasonable for the PDF scan rather than several hundred copies. The only problem was that there apparently hasn't been a test case decided by FOI on the PDF scan versus copies.

The FOI person though it was reasonable and said I would probably win the argument if I filed a complaint to set the precedent. The only problem is you have to have a complaint to file first.

I called the Hartford City Clerk, John Bazzano and asked about receiving the filings electronically and explained it seemed to make sense to me to get a scan and it would take the same amount of time to scan as it would to copy.  I was almost hoping for a denial from Bazzano in order to file an FOI complaint to establish the precedent. Within an hour I received the email from Eric Lusa in Bazzano's office with all the PDF files attached. Bazzano has always been someone who understands the meaning of transparency.

There was some difficulty in sending the files because of their size and earthlink's limitations on file size, but Bazzano and Lusa persisted, and the filings are public information here for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you John and Eric for your commitment to open and transparent government

THE FULL CAMPAIGN FILING BY CANDIDATE- JOEL CRUZ 1 OF 1

JOEL CRUZ 1 OF 1

THE FULL CAMPAIGN FILING BY CANDIDATE- JOHN GALE 1 OF 1

JOHN GALE 1 OF 1

THE FULL CAMPAIGN FILINGS BY CANDIDATE- LUKE BRONIN 3 OF 3

LUKE BRONIN- 1 OF 3

LUKE BRONIN 2 OF 3

LUKE BRONIN 3 OF 3

THE FULL CAMPAIGN FILING FOR ALL CANDIDATES- APRIL 10 2015- SEGARRA 3 OF 3

Previous postings may not have included all pages, here is the complete filing by candidate as on file with the Hartford Clerk's Office

SEGARRA FILING APRIL 10 1 OF 3 by kevinhfd

SEGARRA FILING 2 OF 3

SEGARRA FILING 3 OF 3

WE THE PEOPLE PROGRAM 5-11-15

WHO PAYS THE DEBT? ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE SEGARRA RECKLESS MANAGEMENT

That title might be misleading , I don't think anything the Segarra Administration does can be called management.

I would ask if any of my readers know of a bank or lending institution would allow anyone to sell their home and not pay off the mortgage but instead pocket the money. That is essentially what the City of Hartford did today.  The State Bond Commission today approved the ill conceived sale of the Church Street garage by the City of Hartford to the State of Connecticut.

The sale apparently is for $14 million dollars, but no mention of the $7 million dollars in remaining debt still outstanding on the bonds  originally sold for the garage.  Will the debt be paid off with the proceeds or will we continue to pay interest on the $7 million for years to come. The smart thing to do would be to pay off the debt, but when is Mayor Segarra known to do the smart thing as it comes to the finances of the City.

It is probably more important to be able to say that the budget is balanced   for Segarra in an election year than it is to saddle the taxpayers with $7 million dollars in non producing debt.    

I think Ronald Reagan used to call it voo-doo economics, it is all smoke and mirrors                                      

WHO IS BEHIND THE POLL?

Friday evening I received an e-mail from a resident who questioned a phone call they had received and the polling questions asked. The person was sharp enough to write down the questions word for word and then traced the callers number back to the polling company. Saturday I received more phones calls and spoke to more people who had received the call.

I think by the nature of the questions, it isn't too hard to figure out who commissioned the poll, but you never know, unless his campaign is willing to admit it, or when the next campaign financial filing is due and we see which campaign actually pays the bill.

Here are some of the poll questions:


If you knew John Gale had four kids and a wife and lived here for life would that be a positive or negative thing?

If you knew John’s family was from an immigrant background and his uncle was Johnny Duke, is that a  positive. or negative thing?

According to the e-mail as well as the other callers, there were two or three more of these positive statements, before they ask who  the e-mail author would be supporting for mayor.

There was a question about whether the e-mail author would rather support an attorney that worked for the public interest in Hartford or an attorney that worked for the federal government

They asked my opinion of  Governor Malloy.

THEN, the BOMBSHELL, according to the e-mail 

The pollster asked  “Would this statement make you feel more negative about a candidate?  If a candidate was an attorney who had his law license suspended due to failure to pay client fees " would that affect your decision

I did a reverse phone number look up and it appears they are using EMC Research. http://www.emcresearch.com/index.html

I am not sure what the motivation for the poll was, unless Gale's campaign is actually trying to gauge if there is support in the community for his campaign. I also wonder about that first question, was it to make people question a gay candidate who is married to a man and has no children without actually coming out and saying it? And who has even heard the name Johhny Duke or remembers who he was? And I am not sure which candidate had his law license suspended, I am pretty sure it is not Judge Killian or Luke Bronin, so the only other lawyer running is Pedro Segarra.

TOUCHING A NERVE

 

 

Last week I posted "Transparency". In that posting, I questioned the motives of some of our elected officials and why they actually run for office.  I didn't name one Councilperson by name, he was astute enough to figure out it was him. I had mentioned a Councilperson of 16 years and what he had done ( or more appropriately not done) on the Council during that time.

Councilman Ken Kennedy was at the Mayoral Forum Thursday night at the library. As soon as I entered the room, the esteemed Councilman approached me. Not even a hello, how you doing, nothing. Kennedy entered into his public tirade and stated " I have only been a Councilman for 14 years, not sixteen as you said on your blog." And then the kicker, he claimed" I have passed plenty of legislation on the Council, I am going to print it out and deliver it to your fat ass to show you"

That should be a very short print out.  But even more surprising was Kennedy's promise to "deliver it to your fat ass". Councilman, does your home have any mirrors or even a scale? I don't think you have met a cheeseburger you didn't like in the last few years. It also exhibits why we need a change on the Council. There is a total lack of respect between the Council and their Constituents. Kennedy's addressing me exhibits that. We also saw the Council President lack of dignity when he addressed anti-stadium residents, particularly Joanne Bauer, after the Councils rubber stamp vote to pass the stadium.

It is time for a change to Council people that actually respect and serve the community that puts them there.