A "Video loss" message should have appeared on the video monitors for the pool systems, bust was anyone paying attention?
When we were naive children, many of us believed in Santa Claus.; Then we grew up and started looking at things and eventually realized that Santa Claus was a facade. I think the same might be true of our beliefs in Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin. In the beginning I think many of us wanted to believe that Luke was the real deal and was going to make a difference in Hartford. Then, quicker for some of us than others, we realized Luke was a facade, much like the Santa Claus myth.
Luke has a very hard time deviating from his well rehearsed politician script, and I think many people have realized what you hear from Luke is well scripted and not honest conversation. And I may be overly critical of Bronin, but my "BS" meter is pinning the needle anytime I hear him speak.
I wish that wasn't the case, because we need to trust the people we choose to lead us, or who at least hopefully looking out for our best interests.
It is almost like it is time to rewrite the old lawyer joke. "How can you tell when a lawyer is lying?|" and the punchline is "when their lips are moving"
Since Luke is also a lawyer, I guess we could kill two birds with one stone with a little rewriting.
How can you tell when Luke is lying? His lips are moving.
Just as an example, take the recent press conference he held on July 4th after the tragic drowning of a child in the Keney Park Pool/
Bronin made it clear that the camera failure at the pool was caused by a modem failing during the recent high heat. I think on July 4th we were on the third or fourth day of the heat wave. Ok, so a modem failed. Tragic, but that happens with electronics. ( I wonder if the vendor that accepted the check for the installation ever advised the City that climate control was necessary for the room the euipment was installed in?)
It also seems odd that no one would have noticed a "video loss " message on the monitors as soon as the video went down, similar to the indication above when I disconnected a camera from my video system. And it is even more unconscionable , some might say the height of incompetence that no one noticed the failure before the pool was ever opened.
This sounds reminiscent of the generator failure at HPD a year or so ago when no was was astute enough to test the systems before they failed? After a child drowns is probably not the best time to test the systems to prevent such drownings.
It is called management, and that is sadly lacking in the Bronin Administration. Maybe it is time we demand that Bronin stop diluting the skills of already over stressed Department Heads. Is it going to take a tragedy for Bronin to fill the DPW Department head spot after he has had the Fire Chief splitting his efforts between two of Hartford's most demanding department challenges.
Maybe the Director of Youth . Families ,Children and Recreation, Kim Oliver, should be focused on running her Department and not be dividing her efforts as a Bronin appointee to the Board of Education. Maybe, just maybe if Oliver was focused on her tasks as the person in charge of Recreation (and Children) she would have implemented a basic checklist to make sure that the pools were actually up and running, all systems working and ready to safely be filled and opened.
I think that is called basic management skills. The time to start worrying about correcting inefficiencies is not after a child dies, especially if a little vision and foresight may have quite possibly prevented a child\s death.
Sadly, the strongest skills at City Hall are the ability to react. Bronin quickly called for a committee to0 review policies and maintenance on systems. Isn't that something that would be better accomplished before a child is found floating dead in a pool.
And just to go off track a little bit here, would it be so wrong , and budget busting to establish a policy that when the air temperature at 5 or 6 pm is over 90 degrees, Hartford's pools will be kept open for extended hours, maybe 11:00 PM?
Then a few sentences later Bronin says that the pool alarms had been down for a few weeks.
Ok, Luke , which was it? A modem failure caused by the heat or some other issue that went unnoticed for several weeks?
Stick to the script Luke, You don't do well when you deviate from the script.
And then even more questions. If you actually go out to the Keney Park Pool and look for the camera, right above the dome camera you will see a antenna mount with what appears to be an antenna transmitter for a wireless video link. That link would negate the need for any modem or "hardwired" transmission means.
Did Luke just think we would blindly follow and believe what he tells us because he is our modern day Santa Claus? The truth does eventually come out , and I'm sure it will once smart lawyers start building their case.
And as the old saying goes, the cover up is usually worse than the crime. Time will tell.
Dome camera mounted on the Keney Park Pool with what appears to be a radio video-link antenna above it
Internal blame at the police department of house mouse type issues such as locks and computer upgrades rests on the shoulders of one person. How is there no master key or chit to access the dispatch center for police in case of emergency? The tales of detectives being locked inside their offices at 50 jennings rd also raises an eyebrow or two. All are fact and rest on the poor decision making of one person. Where are the keys to all the ert trucks in case a brother or sister officer needs evac from a life threatening situation ? Exactly. One person thinks he is the gate keeper of operations. Frankly, a piss poor job thus far. Remember those fancy med kits sitting in a room? Or the NASA level answers and explanations on oxygen tank freezing point.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAll of the above is the responsibility of Dustin Rendock. He was the one who
did nothing about Pork Chop Christine Mertes sexual comments in
the Htfd ct Police Academy ,she also slams Chief Rosado behind his back and A/C Medina .
Rendock should be fired he is the one who constantly messes up.
What do you call ten thousand lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?
ReplyDeleteA good start.
Have a nice day!
As sad as a tragedy, where were the parents and common sense of the individual of he knew he couldn't swim and knew he was breaking the law when he and his friends jumped the fence?
ReplyDeletePerhaps had the City not invested so much in motion sensor cameras at Dunkin Donuts park, then the motion sensor cameras at Keney Park would have worked. Am I the only jackass who noted that we saved an iPad at corruption ballpark but lost a life at Keney's swimming pool? Same cameras, different results.
ReplyDeleteYeah, some friends! Sue them for not giving a damn. I hope nightmares of their dead ‘friend’ haunts them with incurable insomnia the remainder of their pathetic lives. I would risked the trespassing charge knowing my buddy was going to be ok. What is the kind of logic that reasons a security camera is a lifeguard? As though it’s going to dive into a pool and rescue anyone from drowning...smh!
ReplyDeleteBad choice-R.I.P.
Should never have let larry retire. Anyone in the hpd family knows larry the computer guy always went above and beyond. I for one never waited more then 10 minutes for a return call from larry. His replacement cant even change the ink toner in a copy machine. With the dozen or so computer systems including dispatch is a lot to handle. Yet one person isolates himself as the key master. Why not train new personnel on the chit system and computer systems of the pd ? Logical and direct leadership is a quality that dustin has lacked his entire career. Maybe the power will go down again at the pd. Doors all lock. Etc.
ReplyDeleteSeriously? That is one dumb comparison. How about people,like yourself, take PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY for their own stupid life altering actions? What are you a child pointing fingers? His friends knew he was at the bottom of the pool. How else do you think the police knew where to go hours later? Again, blame everyone else but the victim here for climbing over 2 fences ...smdh from the ignorant thinking here.
ReplyDeleteHow does anyone find the city or HPD responsible for the drowning of a teenager, yes teenager, not child, there is a huge difference. Some one his age would soon be able to legally operate a motor vehicle on public roads and as such be expected to make logical decisions.
ReplyDeleteThe fence they scaled is both a safety and a security device and it did it's job. No one accidentally wandered into a dangerous area, they made a conscious decision to enter the area breaking the law at the same time. No o e limes to see a life lost needlessly but this is not the cities fault at all.