At many times, Hartford City government appears to be the height of incompetence. City employees who are paid very large salaries to protect the interests of the taxpayer's of Hartford, seem to do just the opposite.
Time and time again we seem to hear about the dirty deals and everyone benefiting off City Hall, except the people that have made the commitment to live here. Whether it is properties being given away for $1.00 to outsiders under the guise of "economic development" or a stadium deal that appears to be very flawed from the start.
Here is just one more example of how flawed that deal was. In an agreement between the City of Hartford, Centerplan and DONO Hartford, LLC from February 4, 2015. To protect the City (and its taxpayers) a clause was negotiated in that agreement to require Centerplan and DONO Hartford LLC, to provide a letter of credit to the City to protect the City's interests in the event of a default, exactly like we are seeing right now.
The agreement was pretty specific, and the exact wording from the document is below.
Unfortunately, according to numerous City Hall sources, the letter of credit was never provided, and apparently does not exist , and no one ever followed up to require it. This incompetence now apparently spans at least two administrations, it was begun by the Segarra Administration and it would seem that no one in the Bronin Administration has followed up to make sure all of the required "t's" have been crossed and the "i's" dotted, since taking over.
This is, or should be basic construction management for anyone that understands the construction industry. I think it is clear by now between Dillon Stadium and the Yardgoats stadium, that no one on the City level understands what it means to "manage" a construction project.
Typically on a construction project someone is monitoring, and enforcing all relevant requirements. Is your licensing up to date and current? Do they have copies of you current license? Is your liability insurance up to date and current? Do they have copies of your current insurance certificates? Is any required letter of credit or bond up to date? Do they have current copies?
Normally, unless you are working for the City of Hartford, failure to comply with those requirements is a quick way to the exit door from the project until you are in compliance. That is done to protect the interests of the client and the integrity of the project. I guess no one is interested in protecting our interests as the client.
Does no one in Development Services or even on the Stadium Authority know how to prepare a checklist and put a simple check mark after the required documents when they are received? Letter of Credit from Centerplan.....check. Or if it is not received a year and a half later... maybe some follow up.
once again, right on the mark with your analysis. Maybe Mayor Bronin should have brought in some real managers instead of Sara Bronin's Uconn Law School buddies. As you mentioned, the checkoff list is basic management of a project, where is it on the City's part? It seems like the only thing they can manage is getting their payroll in on time to collect their six figure salaries. We deserve so much better. Luke Bronin is a huge disappointment. He needs to stop letting his wife run City Hall.
ReplyDeleteIt's shocking that no one is actually managing the Stadium but that certainly seems to be the case. No Letter of Credit on file? How many times do we have to go down this road? I. Charles Matthews and everyone on the Stadium Authority should be held personally responsible for not obtaining that letter of credit, and keeping it updated, and either resign or be terminated effective immediately.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that the last appointment to the Stadium Authority, even with everything going on with the DD Stadium and the Dillon Stadium debacle a few months ago, was someone with political connections instead of construction management experience. So the politicos get their payback for getting Luke into office, but the City residents don't get competent leadership in exchange for their votes.
I think we had all hoped we would see a new level of professionalism under Luke Bronin, so it's disheartening to see him hiring the same people that have been in government for years and putting them in positions where they're probably, at best, over their heads. What do they say? Insanity is when you keep doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results?
Same old, same old. And the taxpayers pay.
And btw: how can we run a City with SIGNIFICANT financial issues without a COO (we have an appointee, but she's still at her old job indefinitely) or permanent financial director? Is Luke actually intending to get this City on sound financial footing, or is he just biding his time until the Presidential election with the intent of hightailing it out of here if Clinton gets elected?
We deserve so much better.
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The taxpayers may deserve better, but the electorate certainly doesn't. We know our municipal government is essentially a ward of the State. We know the local pols are incompetent, sometimes corrupt, and have been for decades. They can't even perform the truncated duties delegated by the State; balancing the books, for example. We are not capable of even modified self-government. The electorate is irresponsible, and should be given an indefinite leave of absence while a receiver takes charge.
There seems to be one seat on the Stadium Authority that is intended to be held by someone who has political connections, no discernible aptitude, knowledge, or experience, is not expected to make regular appearances at the meetings, ask questions, or contribute anything, and who must be a Latino (nothing racial intended by saying this). The first person to hold that seat was Yolanda Rivera, who attended only one meeting in an entire year. The second is Adrian Texidor, who has attended two or possibly three meetings, and whose sole contribution has been to second a motion a couple of times.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned the irrevocable letter of credit in one of my first comments to this blog about 10 days ago. On nearly every significant project I've been involved with we would be required to provide a LoC to the owner in addition to a performance and payment bond. Sometimes we would negotiate the LoC down, but only if the owner had prior experience with our company. Sometimes the owner would be satisfied with the bond, other times both were required. Here it appears that the LoC was only $250k, not a huge amount but it's still considered cash from the developer. In the event of default, the owner could draw on the LoC when it wanted. At the very least, the City and again the Stadium Authority should have read their own contract and demanded the LoC, it would have protected them when DoNo was clearly in default after not delivering a substantially completed project last month. Shame. (I suspect DoNo provided a LoC to the bonding company of at least 10% of the face value of the bond. If not, then shame on Arch.)
ReplyDeletePeter has a good point.....
ReplyDeleteMemo to Peter....If the Republicans were in charge or the WFP, they both would be as incompetent and corrupt as the last 3 Democratic administrations. We would do a lot better if a receiver or Bankruptcy Trustee was in charge,then we are with Luke Bronin and his band of bunglers.
It's incompetance - and maybe corruption - all over again. We were able to dump Segarra but so many incompetent - and maybe corrupt - people from the Segarra days are still in the administration.
ReplyDeleteKevin,Can't you encourage Bestof to do daily investigative reporting on the stadium debacle? It would NOT be in the categoriy of overexposure . Someone in the media needs to dig deep and fast and bring all this corruption to the surface. There has got to be a way to find the hidden $ and who's pockets it went into. I'm disappointed in our "local" media,,,they spend too much time on Trump and Hillary AND the Kardashians instead of what affects us in our own backyard! Collectively they suck.
ReplyDeletePeter Brush's comment: The electorate is irresponsible.
ReplyDeleteSo true, because the Hartford electorate votes for whoever the Dems tell them to vote for. And many residents don't have the education to truly understand the issues or the candidates' qualifications, so don't, won't or can't make an independent judgment. And they don't have the education because "the local pols are incompetent, sometimes corrupt, and have been for decades", as you say. It seems to me it serves those pols well to underfund the schools and keep the electorate uneducated so the "leadership" can keep doing what they're doing.
And, regrettably, based on Mr. Bronin's recent budget, nothing is likely to change in the next 4 years. A receiver is sounding better and better.
Thank you, Kevin, for telling the truth. A skill in short supply in Hartford.
ReplyDelete10:47am
ReplyDeleteI think if you look back, Len Besthoff is one reporter that has been tireless when it comes to exposing the underbelly of Hartford, but you have to keep one key point in mind, Television is a business. There is not a lot of disposable income in Hartford for advertisers to tap into. The focus then becomes the suburbs where there is money and that is where advertisers focus on customers, so what happens in Hartford may not be quite as important as the little league parade or event going on in Avon, Simsbury or Hebron. All of the NBC Connecticut team has great interest in Hartford and I think Len, Jill Konopka and Max Reiss have shown they are more than capable of developing sources and reporting on Hartford, but typically the decisions are made over their heads as to what gets covered
Thank you Matt also for paying attention and your investment in Hartford.
ReplyDeleteKevin, Thanks for informing me on how the local media operates and what's important to them ($). I know now to call the stations and tell the program directors to get their heads outta their asses and send reporters on stories with substance instead of showing me clips of dancing dogs that's trending on the Internet .This is coming from a concerned CT taxpayer/resident from a suburb. Also ,Kevin what ever happened to the Feds being in town?
ReplyDelete12:21pm
ReplyDeleteTrust me , they are still here. One resident I am aware of had a conversation with them as recently as yesterday afternoon. Also, there is still a Federal Grand Jury looking into the Dillon Stadium deal and if you read the Civil lawsuit I posted earlier this week, it is hard to believe that a link to criminal charges hasn't been made, quite possibly involving some former Hartford politicians and others
Long live Muhammad Ali.
ReplyDeleteWE'RE NOT ASKING MUCH: WE WANT TO SEE PEDRO SEGARRA AND HIS GANG INDICTED.
ReplyDeletePedro Maria was out today. No, I don't mean "out" out. He was honored on Park Street.
ReplyDeleteCenterplan has been willing to be brazen in this whole thing because: 1. They have Ritter as their lobbyist and he pats Bronin on the head and tells him what to do. 2. They know at least one of the Stadium Authority members was on the payroll of the Yard Goats. 3. They know a cousin of Solomon was part of the design team paid by the city to make this the most expensive AA stadium in the world. Bronin's biggest mistake in this debacle was not ripping the deal up when he came in to office and forcing everyone back to to the table (or not). He didn't create this problem, but he now owns it.
ReplyDelete6:18 Pedro Maria ought to be dishonored. Who honored him on Park St? Honored for what exactly?
ReplyDeleteLatinos highly regard crooks at least some of them. Not all. Some.
ReplyDeleteCongrats Hartford:
ReplyDeleteCenterplan and DoNo were just fired.
We are celebrating this month the 2 year anniversary of the most idiotic announcement in the history of our city: The "DONE DEAL" stadiun.
ReplyDeleteSegarra, Deller, Wooden and Jennings, you are all stupid bastards.
10:09 call this "anniversary?" this got to be day of mourning instead, the day these people bankrupted hartford
ReplyDeleteBronin finally got the message and fired the inexperienced Centerplan and NoDo LLC.
ReplyDeleteNoDo could now change its name to NoGood LLC.
Centerplan Construction and NoDo:
ReplyDeleteNot only they had no experience constructing something like this ball park but they are also liars, big time liars.