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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

HOW DO THEY HAVE THE NERVE TO EVEN TRY?


And now another one from the "only in Hartford" file.

Susan McMullen, Chief of Staff to former Mayor and convicted felon Eddie A. Perez today resigned her position. Most considered her exit from City Hall as inevitable. But before her exit, according to a City Hall source, she has written to the City Pension administrators requesting to boost her pension.

McMullen is somehow asking that her time of service as an employee of the City of New Britain be allowed to calculate her pension. I for one might be convinced to support such a move. We as residents of Hartford do owe her a debt of gratitude. Before you fall out of your chair , consider the facts.

If McMullen hadn't dreamed up the "Dyslexia Defense" for Perez, he might still be a free man today without any felony convictions hanging over him. Susan McMullen and her testimony almost certainly ensured a conviction for Eddie in conjunction with the testimony of Matthew Hennessy. The jurors must have realized the Perez Administration was a fraud after they spent almost a month watching Perez read e-mails on his Blackberry to then be told he was Dyslexic.

Good job Susan, in the end we both were working for the same goal I guess.

McMullen also now seems to hold the record for being terminated as a Mayoral Chief of Staff from the most municipalities in the state. Prior to coming to Hartford she was also terminated from New Britain. Might I suggest Waterbury next?

NO COUNCIL PRESIDENT YET......BUT AT LEAST WE CAN SKATEBOARD

The lunacy continues.

There is still no Council President as the body as a whole can't come to a common decision. For anyone following the debate, it clearly shows, once again, what a dysfunctional body the Hartford Court of Common Council is.

In what should be the most pressing issue before the Council, no resolution to the matter was obtained at Monday's Council meeting. The Council was able to come together to resolve the second most pressing issue in Hartford though. Skateboarders nationwide can now come to Hartford and skate without fear of jail time.

I'm not sure when the last arrest was made for illegal skateboarding, but it is a huge relief to me to know that I can now skateboard without ending up in prison along side our former Mayor and newly convicted felon Eddie A. Perez.

Now for the serious side, you really can't make this stuff up. Forget the leadership of the City, no rush to fill the Council President's position, just continue on like a ship without a rudder.

First off, do the Council members understand the succession outlined in the City Charter? If there is not an actual "Council President" the Council majority leader is technically the "acting Council President". If Mayor Segarra were to become incapacitated, the current Majority Leader would become Mayor.

I have to say that scares the heck out of me. Mayor Winch? I urge everyone, whether you are religious or not, go to your nearest church and light a candle and say a prayer that Mayor Segarra be watched over and kept safe and in good health. And in all honesty, it is not just "Mayor Winch" that scares me but also "Mayor Boucher", "Mayor Torres", insert the name of any Council member and you can see what we are up against.

In the meantime, I think most actions conducted by this Council will be irrelevant. The direction of the City for the next 17 months will clearly be set by Mayor Segarra as he does the heavy lifting while the Council continues to bicker in their sandbox like children.

But at least on the bright side, we can all forget the problems of Hartford as we go out and legally skateboard around the City.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

ANOTHER MILESTONE

An observant follower pointed out to me this afternoon that the blog "hit counter" today hit 100,000.

Thanks for your continued support.

LIKE RATS LEAVING A SINKING SHIP






It looks like Hartford's "Queen of Mean" may be calling it quits or at least is very perceptive and can read the writing on the wall. Perez Chief of Staff Susan McMullen must realize her days at City Hall are coming to a quick end.Apparently McMullen has put her house on the market about a week after the guilty verdict for her former boss was rendered, and two days after Perez resigned.



McMullen was instrumental in the states prosecution and eventual guilty verdict after she concocted the "Dyslexia Defense" which seemed to seal Perez's fate as a convicted felon.

Thanks Susan, it couldn't have been done without you.

Just a word of advice to any prospective buyers, make sure any renovations had building permits issued and that the contractors have been paid. Beware of any granite counter tops.

According to the City of Hartford Assessor's website, McMullen purchased the property in 2004 for $170,000 and the property is assessed at $46,460.

THE PEREZ INVESTIGATION, HOW IT BEGAN FOR ME



It has been a long path from my initial feelings that "something" was wrong in the Perez Administration to the final guilty verdict last week.

I guess my original suspicions were raised after I began receiving threats made directly to me or directed at me by Perez staffers. The first was from the Mayor's Chief of Staff, Matthew Hennessy, and was apparently made to Marilyn Rossetti,the Executive Director of HART (Hartford Areas Rally Together)according to what Rossetti had relayed to me.

At the time, I had made a decision to stay in Hartford and become vocal about issues I saw facing the City. To do that I had decided to become involved with HART, who at the time I felt was a strong grassroots neighborhood organization advocating for Hartford's residents. After getting involved with HART I quickly found that wasn't the case, but that's a story for another day.

At the time I became involved with HART, Eddie Perez was being tested by a severe crime problem and he was preparing to make what many thought would be his first major challenge as strong Mayor. The selection of a new Police Chief was in the works and I began to advocate for Assistant Police Chief Mark Pawlina. Myself and others saw Pawlina as the perfect fit due to his reputation in the community and his years of service to the Hartford Police Department and the people of Hartford.

Mark Pawlina was always accessible and was comfortable in every neighborhood across the city. Mark was "colorblind" when it came to serving the people of Hartford and every person and every neighborhood received Pawlina's full attention.

Unfortunately my efforts were not appreciated by those in the Mayor's Office as a selection for Chief had apparently already been made and did not include Mark Pawlina. An outsider had been selected apparently due to his ties with the Hennessey family and Matt Hennessey's father. Patrick Harnett was brought in from outside as Perez's choice for Police Chief.

During all of this, I received a call one day from Marilyn Rossetti and she asked me to stop by her office at HART to meet with her and John Kennelley who at the time was HART's attorney. I agreed and met with them and Rossetti informed me that I would have to stop speaking out and making my comments to the media.

Rossetti stated that she had received a call from the Mayor's Chief of Staff Matt Hennessey who advised her that if I kept speaking out against Perez that HART's funding from the City would be cut. As I said before, I wasn't impressed with HART's "scripted" operations, so rather than become silent as Rossetti requested, I stepped away from HART.

It bothered me that City Hall could wield funding as a weapon to silence residents, but we now know that is how the Perez criminal operation succeeded. It also bothered me that Rossetti and HART would succumb to such threats, but I guess to some a paycheck is a paycheck.

The next threat came directly to me from Perez sycophant Lew Brown. I had been asked to attend a press conference that the African American Alliance was holding on the steps of Hartford City Hall. I had never really met Lew Brown, but I knew who he was from his days as a Television reporter.

I had parked at the curb directly in front of City Hall and was leaning against my truck waiting for the event to begin. As I was standing there, Lew Brown came out of the front entrance of City Hall and made a path directly for me. He stood directly in front of me and began poking me in the chest saying "I know who you are". I was a little taken aback my his demeanor and actions, but he continued poking me saying that I needed to stop "making the Mayor look bad" by saying what I was saying.

As if the poking in the chest was obnoxious enough, he then went on to state that he knew I had "a close friend on the Police Department" who was in line for a promotion to Captain and if I didn't stop saying what I was saying "my Friend" would never get the promotion.

What were they hiding that they were so concerned about one person raising issues? I was concerned about the threats and as to how this administration seemed to stop at nothing to conceal their activities.

For some reason, at about the same time, people began passing information on to me about questionable activities relating to City Hall and specifically Mayor Perez.
Some of the information made sense and could be easily verified, other information took work to dig out and I quickly realized that something was wrong and the Perez Administration was in a bunker mentality.

Although a lot of allegations were being made, the name Carlos Costa soon became a repeating theme. Costa's name originally began surfacing after he was given a "no-bid" emergency contract for the Church Street parking garage. Although that bid appeared to be a legitimate "emergency" contract, most of Costa's bids for the Parking Authority suddenly became emergency work. The source that provided that information to me was concerned that Costa was receiving special treatment to avoid any competitive bidding process.

At the trial of Perez there was a quick reference to work on the Mayor's home being "charged out" to the Church Street Garage during Costa's testimony. That testimony was never followed up as to whether the Parking Authority actually was billed and paid for work on Perez's home or whether it was just an accounting procedure by Costa.

TO BE CONTINUED......................

HERNAN WON'T LIKE THIS

Hernan LaFontaine wasn't happy with Eddie Perez's guilty verdict, as he stated in his op-ed piece in Sundays Courant. He must not be happy with Attorney General Richard Blumenthal right about now either.

Earlier today Blumenthal apparently sent a letter to States Attorney Kevin Kane. In that letter he outlined his plans to move forward to revoke the pension of former Hartford Mayor and now convicted felon Eddie A. Perez. Blumenthal's actions are allowed under an anti-corruption statute passed in 2008 after John Rowland's arrest.

Blumenthal stated that he will be working in conjunction with Kane's office to revoke Perez's pension. The pension would be approximately $25,000 annually for Perez if he began collecting at age 55 and would be roughly $31,000 if he began collecting at age 60.

Sorry Hernan, I guess crime may not pay afterall.