Draft legislation has been formulated to institute an oversight board for the City of Hartford and its finances and related operations. This is also clear vindication for "We the People" a some in the mainstream media doubted my sources last week when I first broke the story of the possibility of a State takeover or oversight board for Hartford
Twitter feed from the Hartford Courant's Rick Green
According to sources, the bill is expected to be introduced by Senator John Fonfara, passage is not definite .
otentially b a tough sell to once again bail out Hartford.
Good job 20 year guys. Can you imagine Holton even trying to comprehend something like this never mind fight for us. Instead he's driving his crappy race car to crossfit. Maybe having someone smart with actual political experience like shevchikc doesn't look so bad anymore.
ReplyDeleteThis the most self-service piece of legal BS I have ever seen. If it passes our legislature must be far more ignorant of general business practice than we as citizens deserve. Firstly, what's the point of oversight when the overseers are city employees or members selected by the mayor? The committee, if selected, should include at most one person representing the city (mayor) and one person representing the unions. The remaining members should be from the state employee and regional legislators, large and small businesses, non-profits, and national labor organizations.
ReplyDeleteRepresentation for retirees, arguably the largest potentially impacted group, is virtually not discussed. They will be represented by a "coalition," but how is that coalition committee chosen? It would be a sham for the members to be selected by the oversight committee, therefore a selection process needs to take place. Because this also involves board of education retirees, the process can be very involved.
There cannot be any automatic actions. For example, if the council does not act on or disapprove committee decisions in 10 days they automatically take place. The council does not meet every 10 days, so that's a burden.
Line item approval of the board of education budget will take ages and defeats the purpose of superintendent and board of education.
As a whole oversight may be necessary, but as written it's the fox watching the hen house. The treasurer has proven the historic inability to maintain city finances. Pretending that this is not the case or letting the incompetence of the treasurer's office lead future plans is asking for more of the same. I encourage legislators, business leaders,residents and employees from all municipalities to oppose this plan until they can get it right.
So freaking tired of hearing about hpd and hfd related issues... We get it, everything is screwed up!
ReplyDeleteMr Brookman, can you please explain what is required to vote the union president out of office. A lot of folks are wondering if it can be done.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is ready to be introduced. Rick Green is an outstanding newsprint reporter. Thanks, Rick we miss you. The many years you wrote about the Hartford Board of Education will never be forgotten. Your years at the state capitol covering politics was defined perfectly. You are the best Rick!
ReplyDeleteI have no idea. What do your by-laws allow?
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ReplyDeleteHe had no idea, "not going to happen" but here we are. He was just pissed they got scooped by a little blogger. Well maybe not little but he is looking thinner (Sorry Kevin). Where was Jenna? Probably too busy bringing Pedro his coffee, still looking for a job
9:56
ReplyDeleteGo figure it out yourself. Are you really that dense, dumb or just plain stupid to not answer your own question? You should get fired for just being stupid. Right, you should have a "stupid" clause in your contract.
This whole plan is a lawyer thinking that everyone is to stupid to realize that he is trying to rig the game so there is no way for the employees to win. The people at the capital better realize that this will cost them their jobs. When this plan fails it will be the last stop in Bronins' political career.
ReplyDeletearen't most of our laws written by lawyers? This is not a done deal yet, it still requires Legislative approval and I am sure it will be tweaked and re-written along the way. I think Mayor Bronin is fully aware that this will not help his political future, but the future of Hartford can not be built with thoughts of a political future. It is going to require some difficult decisions that our politicians have been afraid to make in the past. I am pretty confident that history will look more favorably on the tenure of Mayor Bronin than it will on Pedro Segarra's. That I am already sure of.
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, hopefully history will look back in 10 or 15 years on Mayor Bronin and say that "he did what Hartford needed to turn things around at the time" and we are viable again because of those tough decisions.
8:09pm
ReplyDeleteThis has very little to do with 20 or 25 year employees. These are all benefits the City and the Unions negotiated in good faith at the time. The City, unfortunately,never looked forward to the sustainability of the benefits they were offering and now the price needs to be paid and the City is broke.
I notice Bronin isn't talking about taking away money from former council members or legislators that have served so few years and contributed so little into what they are getting. Only the people who have done the most time and contributed the most. Almost like being a sharecropper.
ReplyDeleteI agree Kevin, but the city needs to bargain in good faith and honor what was previously negotiated. The people provided the services they were paid to provide. You can't possibly think that it is fair to go after the pensions of people that made their pension contributions when the city failed to make theirs. If the mayor felt that he had a real case and real proof of how bad the citys' deficit really is he wouldn't be trying to set up his own board. We already have a proven and fair arbitration process in this state. Why not use what is already in place. He just doesn't want to negotiate with the unions because he is in over his head.
ReplyDeleteyou are exactly correct, he is in over his head, but the cause is the incompetence of previous administrations, not Bronin's. I don't think anyone is going after any retirees pension but we really look at calculations from this point moving forward if the pension fund is going to be solvent for younger employees still working here now. It is a tough position, but we can't continue on the unsustainable path we are on now, it just isn't possible. We can re-negotiate all we want, but there needs to be substantial changes, higher co-pays or medical payments will be a drop in the bucket to this deficit. There needs to be wholesale change with major cuts across the board, Council Staff , pensions and healthcare for Council people, minimum staffing requirements, everything needs to be on the table will be able to be looked at under the legislation
ReplyDeleteWhy do we need his oversight board for Mayor Bronin to oversight himself?
ReplyDeleteMainly because of the other aspects of the legislation and the tools it gives to the City. We will have to see how it is amended and what changes are needed to get it actually passed.
ReplyDeleteClearly this legislation was drafted awhile ago and has been the plan all along. Just as clear is that it is meant to be union busting. The oversight board has the final say in all contract negotiations thereby eliminating true collective bargaining. The unions will no longer have any power whatsoever. If this legislation is enacted every municipal union in Connecticut should be scared sh!tless because this could happen in their town. The oversight board will in effect be a dictatorship having full control over everything that happens in Hartford government. The new slogan for the city will be Hartford New England's Fascist Star.
ReplyDeleteI am a city employee who has been doing his job everyday for over a decade. I deeply resent Bronins suggestion that rank and file employees must bear the burden of balancing this budget. We have kept our side of the bargain. So what if a long string of political hacks have put us in a tight spot. If Bronin cant figure this issue out without demonizing HPD and HFD, then he should just resign. We don't need Bronin for anything, he doesent even know his way around the city. Bronin will be gone in two years and we will still be here.
ReplyDeleteThe only way this will work would be if the state takes over the city's finances in their entirety, like they did with Bridgeport and Waterbury. The foxes (city officials) shouldn't be in the hen house, and if they are serious about financial reform, they'll back off and stay out while real experts fix their mess.
ReplyDeleteI notice there is no sponsor on this proposed legislation. Let me guess...this was written by none other than Alan Taylor - he who spearheaded the strong mayor system that has gotten the city to where it is today. And speaking of Taylor, is his position really necessary? There's a cut for you.
ReplyDeleteAlan Taylor and Linda Bayer are irreplaceable. Saundra Kee Borges and Terry Waller were irreplaceable. Hartford taxpayers pay for costs that are waste full. Hartford must move on in a different manner. State of CT take Hartford and the Board of Education to a new direction.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a new form of " meet and confer" laws that were eventually replaced by collective bargaining. The Hartford Fire Union was established in the late 1940's. They would " meet and confer" with the city, but had to accept anything the city presented. In most cases they had to use the political process to obtain any benefits. This legislation is being used as a fear tactic. If you read it, you will realize that it won't make it out of any committee in it's present form. There are parts, including reducing the pension funding to 65 % and increased taxing authority for the city which may be the real agenda. I agree with the previous poster that this was drafted a while ago. The current pension fund was created with the input of the various insurance companies in the city. This is why it had such stringent funding requirements.Contrast MERF with the state employees and teachers fund. There is a reason why it has not been funded as required.
ReplyDeleteStarting at the top on down there are approx 3 plus million dollars in top executive salaries in the city of hartford who has a over 50% tax exempt property. Let start cutting there first.
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ReplyDeleteHistory will likely look more favorably on Luke than Pedro Maria since Maria preferred to receive instead of give. There is a difference here.