Take a look at the picture below of several guns seized today by Hartford's Shooting Task Force and you can make a decision. These guns were seized today in Hartford's Asylum Hill, on Sigourney Street, just yards away from the Asylum Hill Boys and Girls Club.
The STF has been a huge part of the successes under Chief Rovella to reduce violent crime in our City and I hope our Mayor and Governor Malloy are able to work together to continue the funding and fill openings on the STF to continue its work.The successes of the STF haven't happened by luck, it takes money and manpower to take these weapons out of the dangerous hands holding them.
Several openings on the STF are expected to be filled in the next few weeks as Hartford officers are moved to the STF. Under the direction of Lieutenant Lance Sigersmith and the partnership of numerous agencies Chief Rovella and others brought together, the Shooting task Force has had a huge impact on not just Hartford but the Capitol area overall.
The Shooting task Force is an asset that HPD can not and should not have to do without. The guns pictured above were taken from convicted felons today and it should make law abiding citizens shudder to think of the potential of these guns in the hands of convicted felons. Convicted felons lose their right to own guns, and no one can convince me that the shotgun and rifle are intended for personal protection ot any legitimate use.
I am going to try and follow this case to see if the courts do their part and take these criminals off our streets for a long time until they decide to live within society's rules
From today's Hartford Courant, Bob Englehart's cartoon
I get tired of our so called "City leaders" making our City a joke every step they take. Is there anyone in City hall that has the guts to step up and start determining accountability from our six figure sponges leeching off the people of Hartford, with very little in return except providing material for a comedy show?
In 2011 Hartford was a joke with its snow plow operations, now we are repeating the same actions with the same criticisms. Would we be unable to operate as a City if there was preparation and things went smooth, or do we thrive on the incompetence?
Let's start with a few questions. In a conference call last night between the 5th and 7th Districts of the Hartford Democratic Town Committee, many good questions were raised. You might ask why two Districts of the Town Committee are asking questions. The simple answer is because that is what we do. We were elected to represent our neighbors and these are our neighbors that can't get out of their homes. These are our neighbors that can't get ambulances and firetrucks to them.
More importantly, the elected officials that are failing our neighbors now are the same people that we endorsed for their respective offices to serve the people of Hartford. Hopefully we will remember these failures when we are asked for endorsements again and remember the angry phone calls all weekend from our neighbors .
The first question I have, and most of the callers on the conference call wanted to know is who made the decision to pull our plow trucks off the road? Governor Malloy made it quite clear he told his DOT Commissioner to keep state plows on the road for the duration of the storm. I think anyone that knows the Governor would agree that if his DOT Commissioner failed the people of Connecticut like Hartford's leaders failed us, there would be an immediate opening for a DOT Commissioner.
It is called leadership and with leadership comes accountability. A foreign concept to Hartford City Government. Why do we have a DPW Director if the Mayor's Chief of Staff is on the radio from the EOC barking orders directing snow removal operations. He probably has a hard time finding most streets in Hartford without GPS.Maybe they use the campaign donor lists to decide which streets to hit first, that might help explain the strategy. What is his experience with Snow Removal Operations and why weren't they being run by the people that are paid good salaries at DPW?
Another question the Town Committee members on the call had was if they could attend the debriefing held to discuss the storm response. The reply to our e-mail from Mayor Segarra's spokesperson was "We are not planning on having a blizzard debriefing event. " How do you not have a debriefing after an event like this to discuss what worked and what didn't and attempt to provide better service in the future? That is basic management, or do they not want to discuss their failures?
And the EOC, another joke and a colossal waste of space in the Public Safety Building. As of Thursday night, less than 12 hours before the Emergency Operations Center was ready to open, none of the brain trust we pay to deal with emergencies, not the Fire Chief who also loves the title of Emergency Operations Director or the Director of Emergency Telecommunications had bothered to do a dry run of the EOC before it was needed. Imagine the embarrassment at about 7:00pm Thursday when they suddenly realized there was no Wi-fi for internet connectivity and cellular coverage was sketchy at best in the room.
Luckily for Larry Bezel, a HPD employee who handles their network and computers was able to scramble into the night to get internet Wi-fi up and running for the opening of the EOC the next morning. Probably no one will be held accountable for this potential colossal failure.
And the technology that was built into the EOC also came in very handy. The front wall of the EOC is comprised of smaller flat screens for projecting television. It can be used to reproduce images on computer screens or any video that needs to be shared. Apparently it came in handy Saturday night for those being paid overtime in the EOC to watch a Hockey game on the wall in perfect living high tech color while the viewers dined on catered food from Salute Restaurant.
The EOC TV, better than any flat screen, great for watching Live with Kelly and Michael
That television wall also came in handy as freezing rain was blanketing the City and I-91 was being shut down due to numerous accidents Monday morning. A source in the room at the time said that those there, after they finished watching the Today Show, switched to LIVE with Kelly and Michael on the lifesize 10 x 12 wall.
Now I know you might think that maybe traffic cameras or maybe even the local radar might make sense for those managing our Emergency Operations to be viewing, but nope, Kelly Ripa and Micahel Strahan lifesize for the brain trust.
Now it gets even better, If you were digging out a City, what would your priorities be? Maybe heavily travelled routes around hospitals? Maybe routes in and out of the city that carry rush hour traffic? Maybe the area around Downtown that will host the sold out Uconn/Syracuse game tomorrow night?
Nope. I was incredulous when I got the phone call this afternoon that the huge "airport"type snowblower we had contracted to clear city streets was actually in the southend blowing snow on South Street. I had to see that for myself so I shot the video above because I didn't think anyone would believe me, a street that is not a major thoroughfare, is not an artery in or out of the City.
I asked how they decided what streets to clear and they told me DPW Director Kevin Burnham told them he wanted South Street cleared for the rush hour.WHAT? Had anyone heard of Farmington Avenue, Asylum Avenue, Capitol Avenue and rush hour? As I write this now, at 7:00PM,I look out my window at Asylum Hill and Farmington Avenue and Sigourney Street are still total gridlock.
A fire truck or ambulance would never get through even down the center because there is no room for anyone to yield. I do feel comfortable though knowing that South Street is moving smoothly during rush hour.
In the video above , I also took some shots of a few streets in Windsor Locks this afternoon. Notice the streets plowed curb to curb, the huge mounds at the intersections have been pushed back, and Rt 20 in front of Bradley Airport is pushed right back to the curb.Windsor Locks kept their trucks on the street throughout the storm and it shows.
Picture above from Courant.com, clearing snow on Park terrace. It might be easier blowing the snow into the park, but at what we are paying per hour for the rental, does it serve any purpose to ignore the major arteries and have the borders of the park clear?
Windsor Locks kept their trucks on the street throughout the storm and it shows.
Why do we settle for being a joke and when are we going to insist that those we endorse "have a set" and are willing to step up and hold people accountable when it becomes clear they are incompetent and not serving the people of Hartford? Maybe a debriefing and an honest assessment might begin to chnage hartford's course . Admitting you have a problem is the first step in correcting it.
Again, I know it was a historic storm, but it was just as historic in Windsor Locks, Windsor, Wethersfield and Plainfield as Stan McCauley reports and they all seemed to deal with it. Our failure to meet the challenges we need to plan for are also becoming just as historic, or is it tradition.
As if you haven't shoveled enough snow already,and may be shoveling later in the week again, please remember to shovel out fire hydrants near your property, even if it isn't directly in front of your property, having it cleared will save precious minutes if it is needed by the Fire Department
This may surprise you but this post is not going to be about snowplowing, even though I will be the first to say we deserve better in that regard.
No this is going to be about the people we hire to serve the residents of Hartford, and are they here to build their pensions and just collect a paycheck or are they truly public servants.
These thoughts started from a phone cal I received early this morning. It was from someone questioning why a Ford Crown Victoria Police Car with a City of Hartford "HFD" municipal plate was able to pass them every morning on I-91 south, using the HOV lane with only one person in the car. They recognized the driver of the car as Andrew Jaffee, Hartford's Emergency Teleommunications Department Head.. The caller said the vehicle routinely passes them almost every morning headed into Hartford.
I replied to the caller that the bigger question to me was why Jaffee would be on 91 Southbound every morning when as a Department Head, Jaffee, claims to be a Hartford resident as required by his contractand the City Charter. That Jaffee would ignore his contractual obligations to Hartford, especially while the City is under a State of Emergency, seems to be a matter that the Mayor needs to address immediately.
If Jaffee is not living in his Woodland Street Condo, as he has told community members when asked at numerous meetings, but instead goes home to his Suffield home every night, he is perpetrating a fraud on the taxpayers of Hartford and should be gone. The daily journey's in the HOV lane would seem to prove the latter.
Other questions arise also. Why does Jaffee feel he has the privledge to break Connecticuts's laws and drive in the HOV lane as a single passenger in a vehicle that looks like a police car, complete with red and blue lights and antenna. Jaffee is not a police officer now and does not have the legal right to abuse the privilege that most commuters would also like to use.
Jaffe and his Dispatch Center have also been a source of embarrassment for the Mayor and the City. We have a lot of good employees in the Dispatch Center and I am trying not to paint all of them with a wide brush, but since Jaffee took over , several high profile news stories have been embarrassing to Mayor Segarra and his administration, The woman who laid dead in her house for weeks rotting after a dispatcher mishandled a call made national news. Recently a home invasion Police response in the Southend of Hartford was delayed for hours when a dispatcher mishandled the call,
The call was actually deleted at one point from what high level sources at HPD have told me. The actual dispatch was only properly handled after a family member of the victim called Channel 3 out of frustration. Reporter Karen Lee actually arrived at the scene before police did.
Jaffee may very well be in over his head. As a sergeant at the Hartford Police Department, Jaffee was known as a "house mouse" , which is a term that means he was never on the streets as a supervisor but instead handled duties inside Police Headquatrters. Jaffe only supervised a handful of people, mostly handling cell phones, pagers and computers.
Once our felonius Mayor Eddie A. Perez hired Jaffee as the Director of the City's Dispatch Center, and Mayor Segarra kept him on after he took over the Mayor's Office,
he took over a 24 hour a day, 365 day a year operation managing approximately 60-70 employees. A monumental task for anyone, especially someone with very little management skills. Jaffee's predecessor, Gary Stango managed the Department for several years and I don't recall much turmoil under his leadership.
Stango was a retired Lieutenant from the Waterbury Police Department and was given the task of building the newly established Department of Emergency Service Telecommunications from the ground up.
Jaffee, who was also responsible for the creation of the new Emergency Operations Center in the Public Safety Complex. Sources are telling me that Thursday evening as the Center was preparing for its first use in advance of the Blizzard, there was a mad scramble for WI-FI, since no "dryruns" had been conducted to test the Center. Cell service from what I am told is almost non-existent in the EOC with poor reception.
Wouldn't a full scale test of the EOC had made sense long before it was needed ? That's what managers do, think ahead and have everything ready
For what Jaffee is making through his police pension that he is collecting and his six figure salary, we deserve better for our tax dollars. At least maybe if he lived in Hartford as he has promised us he might feel what we go through daily here as residents.
A full audit of all Department heads needs to be conducted, are they actually Hartford residents? Do they own vehicles and have them registered in Hartford paying taxes on them? Are they registered voters and voting in Hartford?
MISSING- CITY OF HARTFORD PLOW TRUCKS, ANYONE SEEING THEM PLEASE CALL THE MAYOR'S OFFICE SO THEY CAN BE DEPLOYED TO HARTFORD'S STREETS.
I don't want to sound like whining because I can look out my window and see we had a historic snowstorm. I can also look out my window and see that no City of Hartford plow truck has passed in over 24 hours. The few trucks I have seen while I am out have been driving with their plow blades up in the air.
Now I understand that the city is divided into specific plow routes, but even as those trucks go to their route, in this case those blades should be on the pavement pushing every flake of snow they can.
This is not just an inconvenience now, it is a public safety emergency when firefighters and EMT's are carrying people blocks in a stokes basket to the closest street that has been plowed. I am getting calls from across the City from residents telling me that their streets haven't even had one pass from a plow yet.
Yesterday, a woman on South Marshall Street a woman went into labor. I happened to be in the neighborhood and heard the EMT's radio that they couldn't get to her because the street wasn't plowed. Everything was in place at the right time and I saw a large bucket loader coming down Farmington Avenue. I got out and stopped the loader and asked the operator if he would do me a favor.
I explained the situation and asked if he could make a pass down South Marshall Street to open it up for the ambulance. He quickly agreed and opened up the street and the Ambulance was on it's way to deliver a baby.
Sadly, the only plow truck doing anything was operated by two Hartford Police Officer's, Officer's Cavanna and Stackewitz, driving a City plow truck assisting stuck motorists and police cars.Maybe if I at least saw a DPW truck moving about I would feel better, but I don't see any.
Hartford always settles for less than stellar plowing operations. This storm is historic, but then again so is Hartford's response, it is what we have come to expect from the DPW, there is no excuse for it.
Former Hartford Assistant Police Chief John Horvath has filed a lawsuit against the City of Hartford in which he appears to claim that he was terminated from the city of Hartford by Chief James Rovella in retaliation for his pursuit of charges against , at the time, IAD commander Lt. Neville Brooks.
The lawsuit appears to be based on m mostly "he said , she said" allegations in which Horvath claims that as retaliation for him pursuing allegations against former Lt Brooks, Rovella essentially eliminated his position as Assistant Chief. Horvath claims that Rovella's actions were as retaliation due in part to Rovella's friendship and support of Brooks. Rovella promoted Brooks to the position of Deputy Chief recently along with four others. Rovella's promotions elevated 3 minority members into the previous exclusively white male Command Staff.
The timeline doesn't seem to add up for Horvath though. He states in the complaint that on or about September 10, 2012, Rovella became permanent chief of HPD and on September 21, 2012 "constructively discharged" Horvath from his position.
The fact of the matter is that Horvath had already planned on leaving and at least a month before Rovella became Chief, on August 14, 2012, or sometime thereabouts, Horvath had accepted the position of Chief of the UMass/Amherst police Department. Realistically, Horvath must have begun to pursue that position a substantial time earlier than Rovella's appointment considering the normal length of a selection process for a Chief.
In an article on masslive.com, Horvath was quoted as saying “I pursued this position because of the team approach at UMass Amherst and the sense of pride that is evident," Horvath said in a prepared statement. "As chief, I will seek to make us stronger in both of those areas, ensure that the police department works with university stakeholders in order to maintain a safe campus environment while at the same time, building relationships that will enhance the educational experience for all students.”
The fact of the matter is that any Assistant Chief knows when accepting the position, that he serves at the will of the current Chief and can be and most likely will be out when a new administration takes over. When building a Command Staff, an incoming Chief typically looks for loyalty and support from an Assistant Chief. Horvath fell short in that area.
Chief Rovella had the luxury of serving as Commander of the Shooting Task Force for an extended period of time before becoming the permanent Chief. During that time he was able to see first hand the workings of the Command Staff at the time . Sources have told me that Assistant Chief Horvath placed numerous roadblocks in front of Rovella and the operations of the Task Force.
Although he talks of the "team approach" at Umass, that apparently wasn't the case at HPD. Sources have told me that Rovella had initially requested the attendance of Vice and Narcotics Division officers at the daily briefings that the Shooting Task Force held to compare notes and strategy. It seems to make sense that vice and Narcotics would go hand in hand with guns, but Horvath vetoed that move and would allow the two Divisions to meet.
Prior to the establishment of the Shooting Task Force , when Hartford was experiencing a large and noticeable up tick in gun violence, a request was made to Horvath to conduct an operation related to the illegal guns in Hartford. Horvath again vetoed the request, claiming no money was available. When the request was revised to conduct the operation on "comp time", it was again a loud "no", desk pounding and all.
I am not speaking for Chief Rovella, but it would seem clear to most observers that Horvath was not a supporter of Rovella's initiatives, and most likely not a good fit to move Rovella's plan forward.
The Horvath lawsuit also seems to claim that the Rudewicz Report, which was conducted after the internal squabbling between Horvath and Brooks boiled over, seemed to vindicate Horvath and the HPD Command Staff at the time. The report, which can be read below seems to spread around enough blame for poor management by all involved. In fact, the Report is widely thought to have resulted in enough pressure to force the Chief at the time, Daryl K. Roberts into retirement.
The report specifically states "However, Command Staff personnel,particularly Assistant Chief Horvath and Deputy Chief Ciesinski, do not escape scrutiny and bear some of the responsibility for the effects of the decision." to remove Lt. Brooks as the IAD Commander. Ciesinski was demoted back to Captain by Chief Rovella.recently .
Deputy Chief Brooks is currently assigned as Commander of the Central District which encompasses the Downtown and Asylum Hill areas of the City .
Also as a sidenote, and I know it is a minor matter, it is interesting to me that Horvath was so concerned about Lt. Brooks' attendance and ethics. but thinks nothing of Umass resources and time to fax page 5 of the lawsuit below back to his attorney, clearly from the Umass Police fax machine. Ethics count at all times, not just when it fits your needs.
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON THIS BLOG ARE STRICTLY THAT, MY OPINIONS.After getting fed up with the lack of openness in Hartford City Hall, I decided to begin a program on Hartford Public Access Television called "WE THE PEOPLE". Through tips received we have been able to expose numerous issues that the Perez Administration would prefer to keep quiet.
Any information received is kept in strict confidence, feel free to e-mail me at krbrookman@earthlink.net or call me at 860-883-2297 with any information.