Search This Blog

Friday, May 3, 2013

IT MUST BE BAD

The Audit report that was requested by the Council in response to complaints about widespread Credit Card Abuse is apparently done, according to the City's Auditor, but the full court press is being put on to avoid releasing it. I can understand why, but according to FOI it isn't legal.

I spoke with the education Director as well as a staff attorney earlier today with my questions regarding the release of the report. Although Hartford's Auditor, Patrick Campbell  advised the Council, the requestor's of the audit at Tuesdays budget hearing that the audit was done and he hoped to distribute it the following day.

As you can see from the e-mail text below, he seems to be relying on semantics, repeatedly using the word "issue" to avoid the release.

Mr. Brookman:

I understand you are looking for a copy of the final issued report.  We are working on finalizing the report for issuance.  It has not been issued at this time.  Once the final report has been issued you will certainly be welcome to a copy.

Patrick Campbell


According to FOI, when Campbell said it was done, it was done, which means it is a public document at that point , whether the Audit Commission or the Council has reviewed it, it should be public. I am losing confidence in the performance of the Audit and why the Auditor would try to prevent the release of the document.

I fully expect that a finding will come forth that everything is fine, a little mismanagement and loose record keeping , but other than that all innocent mistakes.

The fact of the matter is that just the New Years Eve Dinner charged to the Mayor's Chief of Staff is enough to request a criminal investigation. They used City funds for their own personal gain and entertainment of their spouses and friends on the taxpayers dime. That is fraud and a larceny from the municipality Any one of us can drive to Rocky Hill and walk into the Office of the Chief States Attorney with documents in hand and request a review. Hell, I'd take the bus if I have to, and Rocky Hill is closer than the FBI Offices in Meriden.

So if the City's Auditor and the Audit Commission are suffering from a case of "Low T" myself and others will be glad to take care of business. If past practice is any indicator, the IAC and the Auditor's have been reluctant to refer anything for prosecution, even well documented thefts of large amounts of cash from the Tax Collector's Office, Seeing the behavior to keep this report from the public, I am not expecting too much.

ANOTHER ONE FOR THE "YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP" FILE

It is ironic that after Eddie Perez was convicted, I thought the blog would dry up because people would start doing the right thing.  Well, let me just say, the information is coming in faster now than it ever did when Perez was Mayor.

One television reporter told me that "Hartford was the gift that keeps on giving" when it comes to material for blog posts and news stories. Boy were they right.

Today when I got the call telling me about an someone who is apparently a vendor for the City of Hartford. They explained that the vendor, who apparently is hired by Development Services to clean up illegal dumping sites in the City, was himself arrested by the Hartford Police for illegal dumping behind the Comcast Theater.

The Police reports are below, but other tan the police reports, the City is being very tight lipped about the incident. I can understand why, how many embaraasing situations can you be expected to have to address at one time> PCards, retiree issues, phony budget numbers, New Year's Eve soiree's and now the illegal dumping by the same vendor apparently paid to clean the messes up.

And now another twist, the employee in Development Services who apparently is tasked with working withe the illegal dumping "cleaner upper" vendor, has now sent an e-mail to Deputy Chief Hightower stating that, from what sources are telling me, she gave him permission for the illegal dumping.

I know that there may be enough illegal activity in the halls of Hartford City Hall, but now employees are giving permission notes for corrupt behavior? I think it might be more of a last ditch effort to save someones contract, but time will tell.

Sources at DPW are telling me that they are in the process of preparing a bill for the cleanup that they will try to collect from the illegal dumper. Maybe they should take it as a payroll deduction from the employeee that thought she had the power to authorize illegal activity.

The vendor, according to sources, is also a vendor for Manafort Construction on the MDC Clean Water's Project. It is unclear if any of the materials dumped illegally were from that project. On the day that the vendor was confronted by Police on Holcomb Street, where he was working for Manafort, Joseph Gallo, an Inspector from DEEP, shut the work down because the illegal dumper was also working illegally at the time because no "Call Before You Dig" notifications were never made and no permit issued for the work being performed.

Where are our Inspectors? is anyone in the City paying attention?

Through a request to the Mayor's Office for comment on the incident, the following statement was e-mailed to me:

Maribel,
As I mentioned to the police when asked yesterday, Mark Swiatowiec is the owner of New England Construction. New England Construction is an on-call City contractor that performs property maintenance services for the City. Mark has been cited for allegedly dumping construction debris on a City-owned lot on New Road. I informed the officer that I find it quite unlikely that Mark would dump on such a high profile City lot, especially when he has dumpsters at his disposal around town.

Please let me know if you need any additional information. 

Truly,

Julianne


Julianne Avallone
Senior Project Manager
Housing and Property Management Division
Department of Development Services
City of Hartford
T: 860-757-9029
 
The incident is outlined in the attached Police reports. Apparently the police were led to the vendor through a piece of unopened mail found in with the debris that had been dumped. When confronted, the suspected illegal dumper told the investigators the mail must have blown out of his window as he drove by cComcast. Sure sounds legit to me.
 
I hope the City has begun the process of removing the illegal dumper from any City purchasing lists and also put a hold on any payments owed to him to pay for the DPW cleanups. I will atempt to obtain the e-mail from Ms. Avallone to Chief Hightower regarding this incident through FOI, it could prove interesting from what I am told.
 
In the mean time, maybe Mr. Swiatowiec should keep his windows up when he drives by Comcast to avoid future incidents.


SAMA, SHOW US THE MONEY

 
 
This posting might more accurately be titled "How many laws can you break before someone starts investigating"?

In what politicians are trying to defend as a wise decision to sell a piece of property to SAMA (Spanish American Merchants Association) for one dollar in return to see it resold for half a million, quite a few things just aren't adding up.

Monica Buchannan from NBC 30 recently did a story on the deal, you can view that here.

In that interview, Mayor Segarra's Chief of Staff Jared Kupiec said that the funds from the sale were "specifically designated for repairs on the building" yet according to SAMA"s lease with the city, SAMA was responsible for all repairs on the building, not the taxpayers of Hartford

Kupiec further went on to say in the interview that the $500,000 was used for "roof repairs, elevator repairs and electrical work". That would be hard to prove though because under Connecticut law, such repairs require permits and inspections before the work begins and inspections need to take place to verify the work is being done properly by City Inspectors.

Kupiec also stated during the interview "ultimately, that building was previuosly non tax paying is now a taxable property".  That statement is totally untrue, SAMA is a non-profit organization and as a result, the City of Hartford will not realize one cent in tax benefit from the property as long as they occupy the proerty.

A $25,000 building  permit was taken out through Hartford's License and Inspections department for the roof repair. It appears that on March 28, 2013 after the media and others began questioning the deal, another $25,000 was added to the value for that permit for a total of $50,000. Only 10% of the half a million dollars can be accounted for and verified through the permits.

If any other work was done, besides the roofing work, it would appear to have been done illegally and was never approved or inspected by the City of Hartford as required by law.

On April 29, 2013, Daniel Loos , Director of Licenses and Inspections sent a letter to SAMA
detailing the permit violations  and requesting that they account for any work that has been done. Any work done without permits is apparently subject to a double permit fee as a penalty.

Calls to Julio Mendoza for comment and an opportunity to provide documentation of any repairs have gone unanswered.

Here is the letter sent to SAMA from the City of Hartford

HPD MAKES ARREST IN MARCH 28, 2013 SHOOTING

 
George Harris
 
Kevan Simmons

Simmons has 28 previous Hartford arrests

Harris has 24 previous Hartford arrests

 
 
FROM HPD MEDIA RELEASE
 
On March 28, 2013 Hartford Police officers were dispatched to Bedford St. on a report of shots fired. Two victims, who were shot multiple times, were located and immediately transported to St. Francis. The Hartford Police Department Major Crimes Division began an immediate investigation. Based on this investigation, arrest warrants were obtained for Kevan Simmons, 21 of Hartford and George Harris, 22 of Hartford.


Kevan Simmons was charged with: Criminal Attempt Murder 53a-49/53a-54a; Assault 1st 53a-59; Unlawful Discharge of a Firearm 53-203; Criminal Possession of a Firearm 53a-217c; Reckless Endangerment 1st 53a-63.


George Harris was charged with Hindering Prosecution 53a-166. Harris was one of the victims in the shooting. Investigators believe that Harris was a co-conspirator of Simmons, and was accidently shot by Simmons in the shooting.


Of note, Kevan Simmons is a person of interest in another recent violent shooting in the City of Hartford. Anyone with information about Kevan Simmons is asked to call Lieutenant Brian Foley at 860-757-4463 or Crime Stoppers at 860-722-TIPS (8477).


Wednesday, May 1, 2013

THE UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCE OF FEEL GOOD LEGISLATION

This is a hard one to understand, but when you rush forward I guess mistakes happen. Most legislators I have spoke with regarding Connecticut's recently passed gun bill agree, it wasn't a great bill, but it had to be done for the families of Newtown. My State Rep. , Doug McCrory actually had the backbone to stand and vote "no" for something he didn't believe in. But before I start going in another direction, back to my point.

Although much of the debate was about "mental illness", there is apparently one provision in the bill that would prevent many people from seeking help voluntarily if they realized they needed help for stress, anxiety or any form of mental illness and even if they voluntarily seek help at a hospital that deals with psychiatric issues ( most hospitals fall into that category). Under the statute, that information must be reported to the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection.

From what Law enforcement sources are explaining to me, even first responders from Newtown that may be seeking counseling and help for stress related to the Newtown response are in jeopardy of losing their firearms if the law is enforced as written.Once the information of their voluntay treatment for any mental health issue is reported, the Commissioner is supposed to revoke their gun ownership permits.

One police source stated to me that even a police officer seeking treatment for chest pains is in jeopardy if the chest pains are determined to be caused by anxiety, technically a mental health problem. In a recent training claas for police officers, it was apparently pointed out that when possible, they should seek treatment at out of state hospitals to avoid the reporting process mandated by the bill.

I'm serious, you can't make this stuff up.

The complete law can be read here:

This bill clearly needs to be reviewed and provide some support and protection for our urban areas and gun violence as well as protect police officers, state troopers and other first responders that encounter tragic situations and wish to voluntarily seek counseling without fear of losing their weapons.

I have to admit I haven't read the entire bill, but section 8 of the bill seems to apply to the mental health problem. I think you would probably be hard pressed to find many members of the State Legislature who read the entire bill also before they voted on it

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

HARTFORD.GOV STILL DOWN?

I was trying to go online tonight to pull up Hartford's Ethics Code. I was trying to  find out if using a City Credit card for personal use, specifically to buy your New Years Eve Dinner, is a violation.

Hartford.gov is apparently still down, so I can't get to the ethics code. I can wait though, City Auditor Patrick Campbell apparently told the Council tonight at his budget hearing that he would have the P-Card audit to them by the end of the day tomorrow.

I have also requested documentation of  the substantiating receipts for two of the big spenders through an FOI request. Although the City acknowledged the request last week, the documents still haven't been provided, which makes me wonder about the record keeping if they aren't readily available, or maybe the file full of the cocktail napkins can't be located.

I am not sure if the website hacking had anything to do with the Hartford Dispatch Center crashing yesterday also. Although I was told the dispatch system was redundant, the backup must have had problems also, since officers were told that they couldn't get case numbers because Team Jaffe was dispatching with pencils and paper.

Try it yourself here