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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

SEGARRA VETOES OVERTIME RESOLUTION

 
Mayor Segarra has just released his veto resolution , striking down the Council's resolution restricting all overtime without Council Approval. the memo is below. It is unclear if the Council has the votes at this time to override the veto.
MAYOR SEGARRA STATEMENT ON VETO OF

OVERTIME AND HIRING FREEZES


--- NEWS AND COMMUNITY STATEMENT---



(April 2, 2013) – Mayor Pedro E. Segarra released the following statement regarding his veto of the Court of Common Council’s resolution to impose overtime and hiring freezes:

“I was elected to this office with a clear public mandate; to make the City of Hartford safer and improve the overall quality of life. Council’s actions make it impossible for the Departments of Public Works (DPW), Police and Fire to keep people safe, respond to emergencies and keep streets clean.

“It’s absurd to suggest that either a Chief or a Department Head needs to call a Council member to get approval before responding to an emergency. We’ve had three homicides recently. We need more police officers not less. The more officers we have, the safer our streets and the less overtime that's necessary.

“Council receives financial reports every month and sees the same numbers I do; we’ve spent 60% of our adopted budget, which is exactly where we should be with 5 months left before the close of the fiscal year.

“Over the past 10 years, before becoming Mayor, DPW lost more than 100 employees. Since 2010 we’ve added approximately 35 back — the majority Hartford residents — and we need to do more to continue improving the delivery of basic and essential city services: clean parks, installation of speed tables in advance of warm weather and pothole filling. It is one thing to do more with less, but quite another to actually do less because we've foolishly tied one hand behind our backs. What Council has proposed is impractical and inconsistent with our charge as leaders.

“Although they, just like me, will need to answer to residents as to why our City has regressed if these freezes are imposed; I have no intention of risking the safety of our City and the progress we’ve made. Our residents, businesses and children deserve better. “

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

CITY GOLF COURSE AUDITOR'S REPORT

Yesterday I posted about management problems with MDM Golf and the possibility that Hartford's two golf courses may not open if MDM defaults. Here is the city auditors report, obtained through an FOI request, outlining problems with MDM Golf

HARTFORD BOARD OF EDUCATION OFFICES RAIDED BY FEDS

High level sources in law enforcement and at both City Hall and the Hartford Board of Education have confirmed that federal investigators armed with a search warrant seized at least four computers earlier today from the Main Street offices of the Hartford Schools.

The City has remained very tight lipped about the search, and a spokesperson for Mayor Segarra, Maribel LaLuz denied any knowledge and said it "sounded like a hoax".

Nonetheless, sources confirmed that federal investigators seized and removed at least four computers as well as documents believed to be records for Hartford High School and other School Building Committee projects. Sources also said they believed that records  were being seized from Diggs Construction as well. Diggs was the construction manager for former Mayor Eddie A. Perez.

One source said they believed that investigators were also going to a basement storage area at Hartford High School that may contain additional documents.

In June of 2011, a undercover operative for the FBI , William Myles, testified to the corrupt activities involving Hartford school building projects during a trial in New Orleans , Louisiana.

A person at Diggs Construction named Derrick asked how I found out and then said "we have no comment " and hung up.A request for a comment from David Medina of the Hartford Schools has not been returned

WNPR's Jeff Cohen reported on that and his story can be found here

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

MORE ON HARTFORD'S FISCAL CLIFF

Much information is coming to light regarding Hartford's fiscal problems. Not all of the information is worthy of a full posting, but some items will be posted here so people can start asking questions and figuring out where their tax dollars are going.

Apparently the city is required to make a bi-weekly contribution to the City Pension fund, the city has not made those payments since last August. That should raise some eyebrows among City employees who contribute to the fund,. Are their contributions  helping to fund the now-banned ESI bonuses?

CITY HALL PAYBACK?


Sometimes I think City hall is full of masochists who just enjoy getting slapped. All  indications are that another solid slap will be on the way soon for the Administration of our City.

This one seems pretty clear but I really wonder what the motivation is or what any possible justification can be. This involves Hartford Police Officer Robert Murtha. Murtha has already won a long court battle with the city after he was terminated, wrongfully according to the State of Connecticut..

The decision cost the City hundred's of thousands of dollars in attorney's fees and back pay, interest and benefits and settlements for Murtha. Now the City is exhibiting their ignorance once again.

Murtha, who completed law school and is actually an attorney is entitled to a 7.5% pay increase as part of the Hartford Police Union's agreement with the City of Hartford..
 The City grants a 2.5% bump for an associates degree, a 2.5% bump for a bachelor's degree  and another 2.5% for a Master's or Doctorate degree. As an attorney, Murtha has his Juris Doctorate degree and has passed the bar and actually practiced as an attorney.

The City of Hartford is apparently refusing to grant Murtha the pay bump, even though according to sources, the raise was signed off by Chief Rovella.Human Resources Director Valda Washington, who has apparently been terminated herself, issued a terse response when questioned by the Union as to why she was rejecting the raise. "it  is my decision and the decision is final"

This will most likely end up in court and will cost the city large amounts once again.

Is it that hard to actually do the right thing or does vindictiveness run the operation

To read more about Murtha's earlier win against the City, click here

WILL HARTFORD'S GOLF COURSES OPEN THIS SUMMER?

Hartford's two municipal golf courses, Keney Park and Goodwin park may be in jeopardy of opening or remaining open for the entire season based upon the default of the vendor MDM Golf of Wallingford.

In a report to the Internal Audit Commission last week, acting Corporation Counsel  L John van norden painted a somewhat bleak picture of the future with MDM as the city has declared them in default of their contract twice now.

Van Norden expressed concerns about the viability of MDM to live up to their end of the agreement and stated to the Commission that in his opinion "they don not have the financial where with all to do this" referring to MDM .

Concerns apparently began when the City received numerous complaints regarding the operation and management of the two courses. An audit was conducted by the City's Auditors and numerous problems were found. One of the larger problems was that numerous repairs and maintenance issues were required under the contract between MDM and the city.

In order to assure that those conditions were met, a letter of credit for several hundred thousand dollars was required by the City. Although MDM did initially provide the letter, it was allowed to lapse. When the city realized the letter had lapsed they requested a new letter of credit from MDM and that was never received.

According to Van Norden" we had some concerns about whether MDM had the financial where with all to do that (supply the letter)We were fairly convinced they couldn't, at that point we declared default again"

Ther is no indication of the amount that MDM is in default or the value of the improvements that have not taken place as required under their agreement with Hartford. According to Van N?orden , negotiations have apparently taken place and MDM was prepared to walk away from the leases The discussions were focused on not creating a lot of controversy in order to get MDM out , according to Van Norden.

Van Norden seemed somewhat critical of the entire process and claimed that much of the confusion occurred because "you had too many hands making the soup". He further stated that "my understanding of where this ultimately has to rest is with the supervision of the COO.

When asked about the process by Attorney Bruce Rubenstein, it seems that some basic practice's were not followed by the Office of the Corporation Counsel. Rubenstein questioned whether  a "hand off letter" was issued by the Corporation Counsel's Office to other City Departments involved to advise them of their responsibilities on the enforcement of the contract. Van Norden said no such notification was given after the contract was complete.

The hand-off letter to the finance Department would most likely have helped the letter of Credit from being allowed to expire if the Finance Department kept track of the dates.

In the meantime, although Van Norden hopes that MDM will be capable of opening and operating the courses, it seems questionable, A of today, the phone number for Keney park has a recording that" the number is not in service, the number has been disconnected", not a good sign