Search This Blog

Monday, November 23, 2009

DAN NOLAN LABOR BOARD HEARING UPDATE

Hartford Fire Department Deputy Chief Dan Nolan was scheduled to begin his mediation hearings today before the State Labor Board. Although opening statements were made by both side, that is about as far as it got before being recessed until December 11, 2009.

In an ironic twist, the City of Hartford's star witness was not available to testify at the hearing. Assistant Chief Parker was injured at home over the weekend and was unable to attend. The veteran firefighter apparently fell off a step ladder at his West Hartford home.

I know we keep hearing our Mayor say that "justice delayed is justice denied" as he faces his criminal charges. Does the same thinking apply to Nolan's charges?

TIME FOR MORE TRAINING SUSAN

According to City Hall sources, Hartford's computer system has contracted a virus. This has rendered many of Hartford's in-house computers useless since Friday. One city hall source told me this afternoon "we haven't been able to do anything since Friday because of the virus".

Many city departments were at the payroll office today manually inputting employee payroll records since most that had been entered into the system were not able to be accessed in time to cut checks for this weeks deadline.

According to Hartford's Chief Information Officer Eric Jackson, a "worm" began infecting City computers last Wednesday and spread steadily last week and over the weekend. The "worm" apparently is resistant to anti-virus software and is what Jackson called "self replicating". The worm apparently also blocks paths to anti-virus websites to keep the updates required to remove or block the worm from being accessed.

Jackson said removing the worm is a "very manual intensive process". Efforts to remove the worm are ongoing. Jackson further said that no one using the city's website, hartford.gov, is in danger of contracting the "worm".

Friday, November 20, 2009

Thursday, November 19, 2009

CHIEF TEALE MAKES A CHOICE- ANNOUNCES HIS RETIREMENT


At the end of last Saturday's posting regarding Dan Nolan, I made a comment that Chief Teale can't have his integrity and his job while working under this administration. I said it was time for Chief Teale to make a choice as to which was more important.

Apparently Chief Teale has made a choice. In an abruptly called staff meeting at 4:00PM today at Fire Headquarters, Teale announced his retirement after 28 years with the Hartford Fire Department. Chief Teale's official last day with the Department will be April 4, 2010. No information is available at this time how much vacation or accrued time will be used before that date.

The following e-mail was sent to all department members:

-----Original Message-----
From: Chance, Ronald J.
Sent: Thu 11/19/2009 4:44 PM
To: Fire Dept
Subject: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CHIEF TEALE

All members and employees of the Hartford Fire Department please be advised that
I have decided to retire. My final working day is currently scheduled to be
April 9, 2010 leaving 4 months and 20 days for us all to prepare for a new chief
of this department. I would like to thank all of you for what will be at my time
of retirement 28 years in this department and 10 years as chief. Thus far it has
been the most defining time of my life and a truly rewarding experience.




Sincerely,


Chief Teale

Saturday, November 14, 2009

TWO GREAT WEBSITES AT CT.GOV


The State of Connecticut seems to be working to provide much information to web users in a user friendly manner. One of the sites that I have started using regularly and which has proven invaluable is the State of Connecticut Elections Enforcement Commission website, on there you can view candidates campaign filings outlining all of their income and expenditures, here is the address:
http://seec.ct.gov/eCris/DocumentSearch/DocumentSearchHome.aspx?seecNav=|

Have you ever wondered who had the best deal on rent for their campaign headquarters ? It looks like Hector Robles ($568.87). Have you ever wondered how much David Medina, Matthew Hennessey and Calixto Torres have donated to Kelvin Roldan's exploratory committee "Roldan for CT"? If you want to see who bounced checks to "Roldan for CT", that is there also. Interested in how much John Fonfara's campaign paid his campaign Treasurer, you can find the info here? (over $6,000).

Would you like to see how much former State Representative Evelyn Mantilla has been paid as a "consultant" for various campaigns. (I'll leave you in suspense on that one, but it is a big number, not including all that was paid to her by the Perez Campaigns). And don't forget to check out the Giles reports. How much did Abe Giles pay to himself for rent and use of phones as well as how much of his donations came from Georgia?

It's great reading, now if only the City of Hartford took the same step toward transparency.

Another site that was recently upgraded and is a great resource for parents is the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry. click here to go to the Department of Public Safety Registry site Before using the site though, be sure to read and agree to the terms and conditions. Keep in mind that it is illegal to use information from the website to "harass or commit a criminal act against anyone on the registry".

The new mapping portion of the website puts the location of registered sex offenders into perspective. As an example, put in the address 34 Sequassen Street, Hartford, CT 06106. This is the address for the River Street School. You will most likely be amazed and, somewhat nervous, as to the number of sex offenders within 3 or 4 blocks of several Hartford Schools. In case you are wondering, 43 registered sex offenders in close proximity to several hundred students.

When you enter an address the map shows you the location of any registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. Click on the names on the right hand side if you would like further details, including the offenders picture, name and other information.

Another great feature is to "register for e-mail alerts". If you would like to receive an e-mail alert if a registered sex offender moves into your neighborhood,sign up and you will receive an e-mail from the Connecticut State Police

I'M GLAD I'M NOT A PARENT IN HARTFORD



I'm sure you are asking yourself what that picture has to do with this post, I'll get to that eventually.

About a two years ago I sat at an MDC meeting as the Commissioners debated the re-appointment of MDC Chairman William diBella. DiBella had been under Federal investigation and had been found guilty of numerous civil charges and ordered to pay more than $791,000 in fines as the result of Federal charges of Fraud. At that hearing, MDC Commissioner Kevin Deneen made a very passionate presentation in opposition to DiBella's re-appointment.

Commissioner Deneen, a Windsor Attorney and someone I have known since childhood, asked how he would explain the MDC Commission's actions to his children. I'm paraphrasing here but Deneen asked how do you explain to a child that it is not ok to steal, when they ask essentially isn't that what Mr. Dibella did?

I was driving in downtown Hartford this past week and I came by the old YMCA and the Memorial Arch when I saw the sign shown in the above picture on the front of the building that houses Blackeyed Sally's and the Pig's Eye Pub. Now I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought the sign was totally in-appropriate for not only downtown Hartford, but for any public area.

What's next, will the Holiday Inn Express next door put up a sign "Bring Your Whore's Here- Special Discount Rates" ? In light of the City of Hartford apparently finding bumper stickers critical of President Obama unacceptable, what stand will they take on this?

The more I thought about it though, I wonder what messages we are sending to our young children. I think that most people would agree that raising a child anywhere these days is a difficult task, but in urban areas the task is even more challenging. Many children in Hartford do not have the benefit of a strong male, (called a father in most areas)to guide them. On top of that many have a single mother working 2 or three jobs to make ends meet.

Now add to that what some consider a failed education system that graduates 3 out of 10 students from the Hartford School system. Throw in the pressure of drugs, gangs, gun violence and crime. Not a great recipe for success.

Now throw in the example society sets. Kevin Deneen was right, how do you explain a William diBella to your kids? How do you explain a Mayor that has been arrested twice already to your kids? How do you explain to your kids the Police Chief and Superintendent of Schools standing by the Mayor after he's been arrested? How do you explain to your kids the reason to obey the law when a so called "community leader" drives her Yellow Hummer for almost a year unregistered?

And how do you explain to your kids what is socially acceptable as far as language to use? It must be difficult to explain to a kid why not to use a word when they point to a building and see the same word in three foot high letters. "Mommy, why is it OK for them to say it?"

And we wonder why we have the problems we do. Mr. Mayor, please do your job and let the owners of Pig's Eye Pub know this is not the example we want to set for our kids.

Am I over re-acting? Let me know. And by the way, that sign runs the entire length of the patio at Pig's Eye, it is probably 12 feet long by about four feet high