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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

M.A.R.G. MEETS THURSDAY NIGHT

The Maple Avenue Revitalization Group NRZ will meet Thursday night at 6:00PM in the basement of Saint Augustine's Church at 10 Campfield Avenue in Hartford.

Mayor Pedro Segarra is expected to attend.

All are welcome to attend. MARG is one of the most vibrant community groups in the city empowering neighbors to work together for a better Hartford.

IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT....COME ON DOWN


I'm not sure about you, but I am getting quite tired of the headlines.

"Segarra Raises $100,000" , "Wooden Raises More than $100,000 in Second Quarter"....blah, blah blah blah blah. But does anyone know what are they about and what they bring to the table ? Is the Mayor's Office really for sale?

Segarra claims he will make changes in City Hall if he is re-elected. Why not start now? Wooden claims his experience in the Perry Administration as a benefit to the people of Hartford. People in Hartford that lived through the Perry years might disagree.

And Kelvin Roldan, oh Kelvin, Kelvin, Kelvin what more can we say. Roldan, who has apparently had his moral compass adjusted to point in the right direction in the last couple weeks now will lead us out of the land of corruption. I think Roldan would actually take a pay cut if he became Mayor, and he would also have to start doing some work. And if anyone knows, Kelvin surely knows, that the side deals cut in the Mayor's office definitely aren't worth it.

It is still early, but I'm not hearing much substance. The conversations of substance seem to be coming from the candidates that apparently have already been written off because they are out in the community having real conversations rather than talking to the moviemaker donors in Beverly Hills, CA or wealthy attorneys in Washington D.C. who can write out a $1,000 check and think nothing of it.

News flash...many Hartford residents can hardly even afford a $10.00 contribution because of the mess our politicians have put us into. Our politicians seem to understand fundraising and arm twisting better than they do public policy and what is needed in our community.

I'd much rather see a headline that the candidates are putting forth ideas and showing some vision as to how they are going to turn things around from our previous professional fundraisers able to get elected and satisfy the donors who put them there.

Does anyone else have a problem with the campaign filings that show Shawn Wooden's donors are from outside Hartford by a margin of almost 5 to 1 ? They show only 46 donors from Hartford as opposed to 269 from outside Hartford.

And Mayor Segarra isn't much different. He's a little more balanced than Wooden with 124 donations from within Hartford, but the majority came from outside the city, 176.

And while I'm at it lets not forget Kelvin Roldan's fundraising efforts so he can pay off his buddies, over $15,000 to Matt Hennessy and $5,500 to his FOI scribe Derek Donnelley. Any bets as to whether or not we will see Eddie Perez as a "consultant" on his next filing? Nothing would surprise me.

We all will know how much money they can raise, but unfortunately little will most likely be revealed about what they stand for. What about jobs? What about supporting Hartford's small businesses? What about health care? What about reducing motor vehicle insurance rates equal to our suburban neighbors? What about the looming tax disaster threatening to double every property and vehicle owners tax bill?

Too bad that the only other candidates are actually focusing on the issues and talking to people and answering their questions when they probably should be ignoring the problems and raising money instead if they really want to be taken seriously. Do we really want the issues and some vision to interfere with selecting our next Mayor?

In the meantime, if you want to talk to candidates without writing a check, you just might want to find Stan McCauley riding a city bus with the people who can't write the $1,000 checks, or walk a few blocks with Ed Vargas and listen to what he has to say as they both talk to the real people of Hartford.

And by the way,to the other "professional fundraising" candidates, the real people on the bus and walking to work actually vote in Hartford, the Beverly Hills donors don't.And if you recall, Eddie Perez raised almost $750,000.00 in 2007, look where that got him.

Wooden campaign filing provided by Wooden Campaign

Wooden for Mayor - April 10 Report

BUSINESS AS USUAL AFTER A BRIEF INTERRUPTION FOR A HOMICIDE


The City of Hartford recorded its eleventh homicide today in the area of 67 Oakland Terrace.It is the city's third homicide in less than 2 weeks.The shooting took place a little after 3:30 this afternoon.

A little after 6:00PM I drove by the area and was surprised that the crime scene was already clear, no yellow tape, no police, back to usual. Oakland Terrace is a one way street that runs south between Albany Avenue and Homestead Avenue.

I was cruising down the street pretty slow to see house numbers and see which one was number 67, where I was told the shooting occurred. I know I was out of place, but I knew that most likely a large police presence had just left the neighborhood. As I came up on 67 Oakland Terrace, I was approached by two young males.

They wanted to know what I wanted to "buy. It just struck me as odd that they probably had just witnessed someone they knew murdered in the same spot less than 3 hours earlier and now they were trying to sell me drugs. Had they just moved up in the chain and were taking over the "business opening", or is this the way it always is on the streets.

Are they potentially number 12 and 13 waiting to happen over the other "War on drugs"?

I don't know what the solution is, but I do know it won't be a quick fix. In the meantime the bloodshed needs to be stopped. Eleven homicides so far this year is unacceptable. Not to mention the bodies laying in Hartford and Saint Francis Hospital on life support that are only one breath away from becoming a homicide number, and there are a few of them.

In the meantime, Chief Roberts, it is not a sign of failure to ask for help.Whether that help comes in the form of extra money for increased police patrols and attention or if it comes from outside agencies, it is definitely needed. The State Police are not the answer, but DEA, ATF, FBI and any other alphabet soup agency that can send strong messages need to be asked to come into Hartford as soon as possible in much greater numbers than they are already here.

A long hot summer can spiral out of control quickly and we are way too far into the homicide stats for this early in the year. Mayor Segarra announced this afternoon that we may actually have a surplus. If that's the case, put it to use and start the enforcement today. Don't play politics with Public Safety, send a strong message to the gun toting thugs ruining our City.

Business as usual is not acceptable.

OUCH, THIS MUST HURT

The Mayoral campaign is heating up, and everyone is weighing in.

Kevin Rennie, a columnist from the Hartford Courant and also a blogger at "the Daily Ruction", dailyructions.com, posted his review of mayoral candidate Shawn Wooden's performance on WFSB's "Face the State".

Here are Kevin Rennie's comments:

WOODEN BY NAME, WOODEN BY NATURE

Many people possess high hopes for Hartford Democrat Shawn Wooden’s campaign for mayor of Hartford this year. They may adjust them after Wooden’s embarrassing debut on Sunday’s Face the State.

Wooden should not have been surprised by the first question. It was the classic, “Why do you want to be [insert office here]? Mercy, the Day Pitney lawyer seemed stumped. He rambled like he was trying to pad his billable hours. It got worse. Wooden, who has done well with early fundraising, offered a river of generalities in what ails Hartford and how he’d fix them.

The lowest moment came when Wooden tried to dance around the conviction of disgraced former Hartford mayor Eddie Perez. He would not say if he believed the Perez verdict was fair because, after all, he was never in the courtroom during the trial.

During his halting performance, Wooden promised to provide “serious, meaningful” leadership. His potential to do that was not on display during 12 1/2 painful minutes with Dennis House.

To check out Kevin Rennie's blog, click here


To view Wooden's segment on Face the State, click here

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

"SHOW ME THE MONEY"

State Representative Kelvin Roldan, on the right

If you are really judged by the company you keep, political judgement day for Kelvin Roldan may be as close as the Hartford City Clerks office.

After the grenades launched by Roldan in his "anti-corruption" campaign this past weekend, I decided to look at all of the Mayoral candidates filings that were due Monday.

Shawn Wooden's weren't received yet, but as long as they are postmarked by yesterday, that's legal. Ed Vargas's didn't show too much other than he kicked in $10,100 of his own money. Vargas's largest expense so far was $48.73 for printer cartridges.

Stan McCauley's also weren't available yet and by phone he acknowledged that they will be hand delivered to the Clerk's Office today, and he was aware of the $100.00 fine for late filing.

Mayor Segarra's filings were extensive, but very few surprises. He has raised a large amount of money, with the majority of the donors coming from outside Hartford and as far away as Seattle, Washington. Only 124 contributors listed Hartford addresses, 176 outside of Hartford.

Segarra's largest expense appears to be web design and web setup with $8250.00 being paid to a company called "Trilogy" for the design and $2860.00 to "NGP Van, INC." from Washington , D.C. for web setup. Segarra's campaign manager appears to work for cheap with only $5825.00 being claimed for his services. A refund of $1,000 was paid back to the Mayor's partner Charlie Ortiz and was listed as a "refund-contribution".

The interesting filing though was from a candidate who seems to have appointed himself as Hartford's version of the famed corruption fighter Elliot Ness.

If you look at many of Kelvin Roldan's contributors, they appear to have come from the same list of supporters of convicted felon and Roldan's former boss, Eddie A. Perez. You can see the list below, but see how many you can identify. I'll start you off, Susan McMullen, David Medina, John Rose, Christopher Wolf, and the list goes on.

The interesting part is who Roldan is paying with the campaign funds.

I would think that someone who would lob grenades at his opponent for corruption, would try to make sure he would distance himself from the slightest suggestion of impropriety or connections to corruption.

***NOTE*** - Roldan still has not decided what he wants to be when he grows up, so at this time he is still "exploring" his options and hasn't officially announced his intentions. This might make some wonder why he is doing what he is doing and what his real motive is.

Anyway, I digress. If "clean hands" are a prerequisite to lobbing the accusations Roldan did this week, then he might want to stock up on some Purel.

It appears that Roldan's largest expenses so far for his campaign are to individuals who played key roles in Hartford's most corrupt administration that resulted in Mayor Eddie A. Perez getting ready to pack for 3 years in prison. Perez's former Chief of Staff, Matthew Hennessy's business "Tremont Public Advisors" has been paid $15,750 so far according to the recent filings. Perez's former Legislative Liason, Derek Donnelly, has also received three payments totaling $5,000 from the Roldan campaign.

Hennessy resigned from the Perez Administration during the Grand Jury investigation that led to Perez's conviction. He had previously resigned from the Hartford County Sheriff's Office after an investigation into his activities there.

To view Roldans payments to Tremont and Donnelly, click below:
ROLDAN 3-10-11 FILING

Roldan Donors:

ROLDAN DONORS 3-10-11

Monday, April 11, 2011

THE INTENTIONAL "DUMBING DOWN" OF THE HARTFORD FIRE DEPARTMENT

I have tried to repeatedly confirm this information through "official" Hartford Fire Department channels and even through the Mayor. Those requests have gone unanswered. Several sources in the HFD have also showed me text messages sent out and have confirmed that department members have been warned that if they are caught talking to "the media" they face immediate termination. You would think they would have learned something about wrongful termination after the Nolan decision, but I won't beat a dead horse here.

Anyway, a few months ago I received information from sources that that the standards for hiring for the upcoming recruit class were being lowered. The academy time was planned on being cut from fourteen weeks to eight, certification was to only be for Firefighter 1, rather than the normal Firefighter 2 from previous training classes.

The most disturbing part arrived in my e-mail today. Apparently six Fire Department Cadets took the written test. One passed after he had previously failed out of the last academy class. The other five failed the written exam. Apparently plans were in the works to hire the five who couldn't pass the written exam anyways. Once "the media" started asking questions, those plans were apparently scrapped.

Now the disturbing part. Councilwoman rJo Winch and Mayor Segarra have slid an item onto tonight's agenda entitled "Replacement Item #48, AN ORDINANCE ESTABLISHING A FIRE CADET TRAINING ACADEMY PROGRAM AND CURRICULUM.

Interestingly enough, under Winch's ordinance the Cadets who couldn't pass the test, now won't even have to take it. What is the sense of the Cadet program if they can't even pass the test? In theory, shouldn't people receiving special training in the Cadet program be the ones at the top of the list as far as test scores?

According to the Winch/Segarra ordinance :
(1)Fire Cadets must also successfully complete the following components of the Firefighter Civil Service Examination Process:

(i) The Oral Examination
(ii) Physical Agility
(iii)Background Check
(iv)Medical Examination

In case you didn't notice , the written exam requirement has been removed from the ordinance.


For anyone who has never seen a police or firefighters funeral, take my advice, you don't want to. They will send a chill down your spine and have a definite impact on you. I don't want to be viewing any firefighter funerals in Hartford because we have lowered our standards.

And again, anyone who read the Nolan decision can pretty much see as the hearing officer did, that the termination was politically motivated as a result of Nolan refusing to lower the standards. Councilwoman Winch played a role in that when she championed the cause of a recruit, now actually a Firefighter, Felicia Graves. Winch even went so far as to have private meetings in her office with Graves and intervened on her behalf with the Fire Chief at the time.

Reading the hearing officers report shows exactly what is wrong with hiring unqualified persons for apparently political reasons. Even former Assistant Chief Michael Parker testified at Nolan's hearing that he never would have hired Graves when he was the Fire Chief in West Hartford, and he questioned her being hired in Hartford.

If we continue to lower our standards just so that political cronies can get hired, is a potential disaster far off? To read about another Hartford Firefighter who had the standards lowered after he received his employment reference from former Mayor Eddie A. Perez, click here. or here for another story

The Council Meeting's public session,if you would like to comment, is tonight at 6:00PM at City Hall