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Friday, July 29, 2011

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG AND FINALLY....WRONG



Most people that read this blog know that I am a huge supporter of the Hartford Police Department, some would say to a fault. But with that being said, I am not afraid to say when I feel something is wrong, and this is wrong.

This afternoon I was collecting signatures in front of Hartford City Hall to qualify for the Democratic Primary. It was a busy day as many taxpayers thought today was the last day for tax payments. Although many people were reluctant to sign the petition on the way into City Hall, most were more than willing on their way out after paying their outrageous tax bills.

Parking spaces were at a premium around City Hall, in particular the Handicap spaces directly in front of City Hall. At about 2:30PM an elderly woman pulled into the Handicap space and had her "handicap hangtag" displayed from her rear view mirror. A Hartford Police cruiser pulled up behind her and blew the "air horn" of the cruiser a couple times and flashed his overhead lights. After he blew the horn a couple more times, the elderly woman pulled out of the spot and drove off.

I wasn't sure why the Officer did that, but I figured it might have been after the time for the parking bans for rushhour. I was somewhat amazed when the officer parked his car in the handicap spot and proceeded into City Hall. At least three other Hartford residents were standing with me at the time and they all were upset by the officer's actions.

Sometimes I think that some HPD officers don't realize that when it comes to their image in the eyes of the public they serve, they are their own worst enemies. When the officer eventually cam out, he claimed he was backing up another officer but the HPD dispatch center had no record of that.

But so that you don't think it is only the cops ignoring parking requirements, apparently the contract company that enforces parking violations for the Hartford Parking Authority feels they are exempt also. The picture below of the "Central Parking" van was taken yesterday and sent to me by someone that witnessed the driver park in a "No Parking" zone and go into the Dunkin Donuts at Main and Elm Streets for a break.



And just for clarification, the person that sent me the picture of the Central Parking van is more than capable of identifying a "parking violation".

ANOTHER ONE THAT WILL MAKE YOU SHAKE YOUR HEAD IN DISBELIEF

Posters and fliers have been plastered around Hartford City Hall proclaiming a new "Global Medical Benefit". The poster states that the "City of Hartford is now offering a 100% medical travel benefit which gives you access to high quality healthcare in Puerto Rico with no deductibles, co-pays or co-insurance".

The poster further claims that "This benefit is covered 100% by your City of Hartford Health Plan" and that it "Includes airfare, hotel and ground transportation for you and your companion, plus $250.00 for incidentals " as well as "15-17 day stay in Puerto Rico at a world class hotel".

Is anyone at City Hall paying attention to the fact that we are in a severe economic crisis? No one would comment on this but it just seems that we might want to encourage the use of our two local hospitals such as Hartford Hospital and Saint Francis. And further, if we can afford some crazy benefit like this, maybe the City should look at another plan that doesn't offer ridiculous payouts for travel and "incidentals".

Healthcare is an important issue for everyone, but this is just lunacy.

But on the bright side, the poster encourages everyone to "Relax and enjoy your medical vacation".

The poster was too large to scan in, but here's the major point of it below:

Htfd Travel Benefit

Thursday, July 28, 2011

SERIOUSLY NOW, REALLY, YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS


Unfortunately though, this is not a joke, it is true. The City of Hartford is advertising for an Assistant to Chief Operating Officer. Well let me rephrase that, not just one assistant, apparently four new assistants are needed for COO Panagore.

Something bothers me about this, and in so many ways. In a cash starpped City, how do we cut Police Officers from the latest recruit class, yet we can find over a quarter of a million dollars for an already top heavy administration? Does the COO really need four assistants?

And don't expect too many questions from the City Council since they are most likely banking their political futures on the coattails of Mayor Segarra, COO Panagores boss.

The advertisement above was published in the Thursday edition of the "Hartford News"

MY DECISION FOR THE COUNCIL RACE

It has taken me a few days to regroup and move on after the Democratic Convention last Thursday.

Originally, as Jeff Cohen reported last week, I was contemplating working with a slate of which rJo Winch and four others were expected to be a part of. For those of you that thought I had lost my mind, thank you for your phone calls and e-mails.

As I have said all along, you just can't plan these things out and what will be has a way of coming through. The deal fell apart Saturday and a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I need to learn to trust my first instincts and my first instinct was how do I now explain working with someone that I have been highly critical of. I do wish Winch luck in her future moving forward with whatever decision she makes

I think I was overlooking that in part due to the promise I saw, and still see, in a couple of young people that were also going to be part of the slate, in particular A.J. Johnson and Ramon Espinosa. I have to also admit that the other issue was the collecting of petition signatures. It is much easier for 6 people to collect 1600 signatures than it is for an individual to collect the same amount.

I have chosen to run as an individual in the primary and collect the 1600 signatures needed to get on the ballot.

I am trying not to be arrogant when I say that I know I am one of the best candidates for the Council and I have probably done more to bring about change to our City than anyone running at this point. The question is whether Hartford wants to change or is it 4 more years of business as usual. It seems like our elected officials are very good at taking care of themselves and their cronies at the expense of the people of the City.

Ask Alexander Aponte about his $65,000 in legal work for the MDC Clean Waters Project, advertised by the MDC, while Hartford's poorest residents can't even get a job as a laborer on a street project. I asked John Kennelly at the Convention what some of the candidates he was pushing for had done to make Hartford a better place. He couldn't come up with any answers and then shot back at me "What have you done for Hartford?".

I replied back to him if he really wanted an answer to that question, just ask Eddie Perez what I had done to make Hartford a better place. Did he forget of the $1.5 million the former OMB Director told me they estimated the City saved when I raised the issue of misuse and spending sprees on City credit cards? Did he forget about the $2.7 million in "bonuses" given out by the Board of Ed.that no one on the Council , or even the Mayor,knew about before I exposed it?

Well, he retreated quickly and conceded my points.

So my decision to run in a primary will take some work, but I believe in Hartford and I am sick and tired of seeing our City sink more and more caused by self serving politicians. I am tired of decisions being made that will potentially cost us millions of dollars in court costs and settlements, all on the backs of Hartford's taxpayers. And quite frankly, I am tired of the City I care about being a laughing stock over the direction we are moving.

So with that said, I still need help to make this happen. Anyone that can assist in collecting petition signatures over the next ten days would be greatly appreciated. Whether it is 5, 10 or 100 signatures, they all add up. Call me or e-mail me if you can help, 860-883-2297 or krbrookman@earthlink.net.

Thanks.

A WEEK OF HARTFORD'S POLITICS AS USUAL

Last Thursday was the Hartford Democratic Town Committee's nominating convention. As far as the "political machine" operation I am pretty new to it and I really don't want to be a part of it. None the less I was told I needed to "play the game" and make the obligatory calls to Town Committee members. I made the calls, although there were a few I just couldn't stomach calling, so I skipped them. No matter how much I want a nomination, I wasn't going to call an alleged child molester to ask for support.

Most of the calls I made didn't have the courtesy to even return my calls. But from those who did,my numbers before the convention was a count of 28 members who committed to supporting me. Well needless to say I am not delusional and I am well aware that integrity and standing by your word is not a strong point of Hartford politics.

The end result were that only two people stayed true to their word, State Representative Doug McCrory and Donna Thompson-Daniels actually voted for me as well as a third person who had never committed, but liked my views, especially on encouraging small business.

The biggest disappointment though was in the third district where the votes promised to me faded away because "they couldn't upset Minnie". The 4th and 6th districts were also disappointing because although many of the members I spoke with admitted that they thought I was one of the best candidates but they had to support some sort of alliance they had built between David McDonald, Sean Arena and rJo Winch to secure voters in the 4th, 6th and 7th Districts.

Not surprising though was that most members of those districts agreed that David McDonald was the least qualified and most considered him the least competent to be on the Council. But a deal was a deal and like the three Musketeer's. all for one and one for all. The arm twisting was on and it looked like they actually might have had the votes at one point.

Then apparently Minnie Gonzalez saw the handwriting on the wall and all of a sudden realized that the deals being cut might actually result in no Hispanics on the slate.Notice I didn't say the most qualified Hispanic, since the most qualified candidate, in my opinion, Ramon Espinosa was shut out by Gonzalez and her supporters.

Apparently Gonzalez was upset with Espinosa because he had signed an affidavit which outlined potential illegal activity by Gonzalez involving voter fraud a couple years earlier. From what sources told me, at the time of the 3rd District interviews, Espinosa received the cold shoulder from the Gonzalez crew because he had cost Minnie $20,000 in legal fees defending her corrupt activity that Espinosa had the audacity to testify truthfully about.

Another district that was wheeling and dealing was the 1st District. For some reason their candidate of choice was Kate Kowalshyn, a Southend resident. Now other than Kyle Anderson, who was also endorsed, Kate, I think would make an excellent Councilperson and would have definitely avoided the criticism lobbed at the HDTC for not having any females on the endorsed slate.

Now back to McDonald. When he saw the vote count becoming precariously close, he apparently forgot the 3 Musketeer's pledge of "all for one and one for all" and he began cutting his own deals with Gonzalez to secure his slot and jettisoned Arena and Winch. Sources tell me that Stae Rep. Kelvin Roldan also played a role in propping up McDonald to cut a deal for his own votes for Treasurer.

Well, McDonald prevailed and got his votes, Winch and Arena were left on the outside looking in. I do have to say though that even though Arena felt that Roldan had stabbed him in the back to get support for McDonald, Arena stayed true to his word and continued supporting Roldan, although his displeasure was more than obvious.

And you might be asking how the solid female candidate supported by the 1st District ended up. Well at the beginning of the night when the "solid" votes that I had began telling me that they had to make deals to get what they want, I was told by the 1st District spokesperson that i didn't understand "how the game was played". He told me that they had to cut a deal with Minnie Gonzalez to accept her two Hispanic candidates in order to get their choice Kate Kowalshyn.

I guess he was right, I don't understand how "the game" is played, and apparently neither did he. At the end of the night, Minnie got her two picks but the 1st District was also left on the outside looking in, like Arena and Winch, as Kate Kowalshyn was overlooked and didn't receive a nomination.

It was an interesting, albeit disgusting, show of how a Democracy should not work. It wasn't about the best candidates, it wasn't about moving Hartford forward it definitely wasn't about integrity. It was all about the "politicians" taking care of themselves and their deals at the expense of the people of Hartford

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

"BRANDING HARTFORD"

Apparently the buzz around downtown today was all about "branding Hartford". I think before we worry about a new logo, it might be more important to identify what we hope to be as a city.

One of the most discouraging things to me though was that this "branding" is more about downtown than it is a city as a whole. Downtown's contribution to the grandlist is not what identifies us as a City, it is the individuality of of our neighborhoods. That is where Hartford's strength lies if any of the outside consultants took the time to look at that.

I might also ask how many small business people have been approached by these consultants or even when was the last time they were approached by anyone from the Metro Hartford Alliance to see what they need as small business owners. I guess the same question could be asked though of the taxpayers employees working in Hartford's Economic Development Department.

With a mill rate for Hartford at over 71 mills, the highest in the State of Connecticut by almost 30 mills over the next closest town, "City of Hartford" and "Economic Development" seems to be an oxymoron. How can any business compete in this market, fancy logo or not.

I only stayed for a few minutes of the presentation at the Library tonight and as I looked at the cast of characters in the room, it seemed as though many of them were City employees, and unfortunately I didn't recognize any small business owners in attendance. That makes sense though, most small business owners are working 12, 14, 16 hours a day to stay afloat and be able to pay the outrageous taxes in Hartford.

I also was not impressed with the presentation. I have always felt that if you know and believe in your topic, a script is not necessary. Maybe talking points or notes to cover the topic, but to read from a speech shows you don't believe in or know the subject well enough. And no marketing companies from Hartford could have handled the contract?

And finally, I know that when the "New England's Rising Star" logo was drawn up, there was another City using almost an identical logo, except the arc of the shooting star went in the opposite direction of Hartford's. Now I find this new "branding" proposal eerily similar to Hartford Hospital's new logo.

Maybe the designers all attended the same seminar on logo "branding" design techniques.

The old Hartford Hospital logo was the two blue "H"'s forming the cube. Recently Hartford Hospital changed to a more modern logo for "branding" all of their operations under the Hartford Hospital umbrella. Do you find the circular pattern, and even the position of the colors, similar to the proposed Hartford logo?







To read more about Hartford Hospital's "branding", click here. They seem to know why they did it as opposed to Hartford's need to fix its identity crisis

Maybe the Colt's Dome or even the Soldiers and Sailor's Memorial Arch might be more identifiable than a knock off of the Hartford Hospital logo.

The Courant story is more interesting to read the comments, click here to read Jenna Carlesso's story, but be sure to scroll through the comments and read those. You can also click on the link to the right for Jeff Cohen's take at WNPR