A former Connecticut State Auditor used to speak of using the "smell test" when deciding if use of public funds was acceptable. If it stinks, don't do it.
Hartford City Councilman John Gale's nasal passages must have been extremely congested not to recognize that this smell test stunk to high heavens.
In a nutshell, Gale came up with a scheme to show his appreciation for City employees during Covid. He wanted to have lapel pins made to show "Hartford Pride". Originally, according to sources, Gale had proposed paying for them out of pocket. Apparently, that never happened, at least not until I began questioning the expenditure from the City budget.
Gale moved his plan forward, according to COO Thea Montanez, sometime in June. Rather than use any competitive bidding process to provide the best value to City taxpayers. Gale ordered and purchased the pins from his daughter's business for a total of almost $4,000 dollars. Now here is where it really starts to smell and runs afoul of ethics laws and ordinances.
Gale 's printed material that accompanied the distribution of the pins specifically noted that they were courtesy of Councilman John Gale and ""the Hartford Party". The Hartford Party is the political party Gale formed to get re-elected after the Hartford Democratic Town Committee refused to give him their endorsement for his re-election campaign.
Gale should have known better. Instead of making it a thank you from the entire council, Gale's wording and mentioning himself and his personal political party, it essentially became campaign propaganda material for Gale, paid for by the taxpayers of Hartford. An improper use of taxpayer funds.
Even more troubling is that City Clerk Noel Macgregor, Council President Maly Rosado and Council Aide David Grant were all aware of and signed off on Gale's propaganda order and Gale's misuse of City funds ,and none of them raised any red flags over what was clearly improper.
It was apparently only after COO Thea Montanez was made aware of the purchase that she told Gale to self report himself to the City's Ethics Commission for his ethics violation. That action by Montanez was detailed in her e-mail to me today after I began questioning Gale's purchase and apparent misuse of City funds. That e-mail is below.
Since I raised the issue, Councilman Gale has reportedly reimbursed the City almost $4,000 for his propaganda purchase
COO Montanez's explanation e-mail to me today
Hello - Hello - On Tuesday, Dec.1st, Council President informed me that Councilman Gale used city funds to purchase pins as a thank you to city employees and the pins were purchased from a business owned by a member of his immediate family (Hartford Prints!). That same day, I contacted Councilman Gale to confirm whether this was accurate and he confirmed it was. I informed Councilman Gale that I was concerned that the purchase potentially violated the City’s Ethics Code. As a follow up to our discussion, Councilman Gale self reported the purchase to the Ethics Commission via Corporation Counsel’s Office. He informed the corporation counsel's office of his intent to reimburse the city for the expense and since then, he has submitted payment to the city. There were 1400 pins and pin backers that were ordered that totaled $3100. In addition, he ordered 1400 envelopes, which included digital printing services and that was an additional $400 for a total of $3500. The total amount invoiced was approximately $3700 because tax was charged. Each pin was placed in an envelope with a thank you note signed by “Councilman John Q. Gale, The Hartford Party.” The pins were ordered in March and invoiced and paid in June. The funds initially used were general fund dollars appropriated to the City Council in the FY21 city budget for the purposes of civic engagement, to be spent at Council's sole discretion. Thank you, Thea