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Friday, October 25, 2013

WHO IS EARL O'GARRO? ENTREPENEUR OR CON MAN

A few weeks ago, most people in Hartford had never heard the name Earl O"Garro. Now it is the name that is sending shock waves through Hartford City Hall as FBI agents have descended with Federal Grand Jury subpoenas looking into the dealings of Hartford's City Treasurer Adam Cloud and others with O'Garro's company Hybrid Insurance.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars are now unaccounted for as O'Garros' dealings with the City of Hartford and others begin to unravel. This appears to be the beginning of the end for O'Garro's quick rise in the Insurance and business community

As you watch the video, I think you might agree, he would have been better served if he actually took his mothers advice.

Click here to watch directly on you tube if the embed below doesn't work



THE 2013 HOOKER DAY PARADE VIDEO


FEDERAL GRAND JURY TO INVESTIGATE HYBRID PAYMENT

According to sources , the City of Hartford has been served with subpoenas requesting documents related to payments to Hybrid Insurance and dealings with Earl O'Garro. Numerous City Departments, including the Treasurer were apparently requested to provide documents ordered by the Federal subpoenas.The letter to City Departments was distributed by the Corporation Counsel, according to sources. More on this as information is made available

Thursday, October 24, 2013

DEMOCRATIC REGISTRAR VAZQUEZ SETTLES ELECTIONS COMPLAINT FOR $3000.00 PENALTY

An Elections Enforcement complaint filed against Hartford's Democratic Registrar of Voters, Olga Vazquez has been settled after a lengthy investigation. Vazquez was fined $3000.00 for her involvement in the scheme.

The allegations surrounded Vazquez illegally signing petitions that were improperly filed with Vazquez in her capacity as Registrar of Voters. According to the complaint Vazquez and her Deputy Registrar Garry Coleman had signed off the improperly filed petitions to apparently keep the petitions from being thrown out as not being filed properly under Connecticut law.

For me this raises several questions that have to challenge the integrity of the Registrar of Voters Office. In a democracy, voters need to know that the system is beyond reproach. In this case it is not. We wonder why Hartford suffers from such low voter turnout and voter involvement in the system. Might it be because they just don't trust the process and have no confidence that it is above board?

Any one that reads this decision would have to agree with that mistrust. In an office that has three Registrar's , why was Vazquez and her assistant anywhere near these petitions in the first place . Vazquez was actually a candidate on the same petitions she was illegally signing and should have been smart enough to stay away from them to avoid any sign of impropriety or tampering. Clearly she was not.

For another story on Registrars behaving badly, click here

It is time for the Secretary of the State and the legislature to overhaul this system.


Thursday, October 17, 2013

INEFFECTIVE, INEFFICIENT AND PRONE TO ERRORS



 
The City vehicle of  former COO Saundra Kee-Borges after it was crashed. Hartford's Auditors had concerns how she obtained the vehicle in the first place
 
That is how the Hartford Internal Auditors described the City of Hartford's  Take Home Vehicle policy , from the report "In addition, we found that the current process of accounting for and controlling City vehicles is ineffective, inefficient and prone to errors and omissions. " Surprise , surprise on that one.

Although the City of Hartford apparently does have a policy, it was never implemented due to Union objections.
"Although City Administration had developed and documented a "City of Hartford Vehicle Use Policy" (COH Vehicle Use Policy), which included provisions for City vehicles with commuter privileges, it was not formally authorized, issued and implemented. According to notations on the COH Vehicle Policy, it was effective August 1, 2011, however, after it was implemented by the City Administration a number of unions objected, took exception to it and it was subsequently retracted by the City Administration. " according to the report


 The report shows the lack of control and at one point states there wasn't even a process to determine that City Vehicle drivers even had valid drivers licenses. Another eyeopener in the report was a vehicle that logged almost a half a million miles, although the operator of that vehicle was not identified specifically in the report "We noted that the annual mileage on two of these vehicles totaled 90,927 and 495,865, respectively. " the report stated

The report also questions the process by which the vehicle used by COO Saundra Kee-Borges was obtained. That vehicle was recently crashed and was  totaled: From the report 
" A number of issues and concerns were raised regarding how a vehicle that was originally purchased and used by the Police Department ended up being assigned to and used by the Chief of Staff of the Mayor. We obtained a "Transfers or Deletions of Fixed Assets’ form from the Police Department relating to this vehicle. Based on our review of this form and related matter, we noted the following:

a. The vehicle was reported to be transferred to City Hall as of October 10, 2012. There is no indication on the form who requested the transfer of this vehicle. According the Police Department management, the Chief Operating Officer initiated the request for this vehicle to be transferred to City Hall.

b. The form was approved and signed by the individual responsible for managing the Police Department vehicle fleet on October 12, 2012. We believe that the transfer of assets from one department to another should be reviewed and approved by a higher level of management. As noted elsewhere in this report, related policies and procedures were not documented.

c. The form indicates that the vehicle was received by DPW ESD management on October 12, 2012. Police Department management informed us, however, that they personally delivered the vehicle to City Hall.

Police Department management informed us that this vehicle was transferred to the COO at her request and for her use. They also indicated that they were not involved in how this vehicle was assigned after the initial transfer. This represents an example of the policy, procedure and control issues relating to the management, oversight, assignment and use of vehicles with commuter privileges noted throughout this report.


The full report paints a complete picture of incompetence and mismanagement when it comes to City vehicles, it details almost 200 missing license plates that had been issued by DMV to the City.

Read the full report below


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

IT HAPPENED, 1 MILLION PAGE VIEWS

 
 
As of 4:30PM today
 
Thank You for reading