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Thursday, May 14, 2015

Monday, May 11, 2015

WHO PAYS THE DEBT? ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE SEGARRA RECKLESS MANAGEMENT

That title might be misleading , I don't think anything the Segarra Administration does can be called management.

I would ask if any of my readers know of a bank or lending institution would allow anyone to sell their home and not pay off the mortgage but instead pocket the money. That is essentially what the City of Hartford did today.  The State Bond Commission today approved the ill conceived sale of the Church Street garage by the City of Hartford to the State of Connecticut.

The sale apparently is for $14 million dollars, but no mention of the $7 million dollars in remaining debt still outstanding on the bonds  originally sold for the garage.  Will the debt be paid off with the proceeds or will we continue to pay interest on the $7 million for years to come. The smart thing to do would be to pay off the debt, but when is Mayor Segarra known to do the smart thing as it comes to the finances of the City.

It is probably more important to be able to say that the budget is balanced   for Segarra in an election year than it is to saddle the taxpayers with $7 million dollars in non producing debt.    

I think Ronald Reagan used to call it voo-doo economics, it is all smoke and mirrors                                      

Sunday, May 10, 2015

WHO IS BEHIND THE POLL?

Friday evening I received an e-mail from a resident who questioned a phone call they had received and the polling questions asked. The person was sharp enough to write down the questions word for word and then traced the callers number back to the polling company. Saturday I received more phones calls and spoke to more people who had received the call.

I think by the nature of the questions, it isn't too hard to figure out who commissioned the poll, but you never know, unless his campaign is willing to admit it, or when the next campaign financial filing is due and we see which campaign actually pays the bill.

Here are some of the poll questions:


If you knew John Gale had four kids and a wife and lived here for life would that be a positive or negative thing?

If you knew John’s family was from an immigrant background and his uncle was Johnny Duke, is that a  positive. or negative thing?

According to the e-mail as well as the other callers, there were two or three more of these positive statements, before they ask who  the e-mail author would be supporting for mayor.

There was a question about whether the e-mail author would rather support an attorney that worked for the public interest in Hartford or an attorney that worked for the federal government

They asked my opinion of  Governor Malloy.

THEN, the BOMBSHELL, according to the e-mail 

The pollster asked  “Would this statement make you feel more negative about a candidate?  If a candidate was an attorney who had his law license suspended due to failure to pay client fees " would that affect your decision

I did a reverse phone number look up and it appears they are using EMC Research. http://www.emcresearch.com/index.html

I am not sure what the motivation for the poll was, unless Gale's campaign is actually trying to gauge if there is support in the community for his campaign. I also wonder about that first question, was it to make people question a gay candidate who is married to a man and has no children without actually coming out and saying it? And who has even heard the name Johhny Duke or remembers who he was? And I am not sure which candidate had his law license suspended, I am pretty sure it is not Judge Killian or Luke Bronin, so the only other lawyer running is Pedro Segarra.

TOUCHING A NERVE

 
 
Last week I posted "Transparency". In that posting, I questioned the motives of some of our elected officials and why they actually run for office.  I didn't name one Councilperson by name, he was astute enough to figure out it was him. I had mentioned a Councilperson of 16 years and what he had done ( or more appropriately not done) on the Council during that time.

Councilman Ken Kennedy was at the Mayoral Forum Thursday night at the library. As soon as I entered the room, the esteemed Councilman approached me. Not even a hello, how you doing, nothing. Kennedy entered into his public tirade and stated " I have only been a Councilman for 14 years, not sixteen as you said on your blog." And then the kicker, he claimed" I have passed plenty of legislation on the Council, I am going to print it out and deliver it to your fat ass to show you"

That should be a very short print out.  But even more surprising was Kennedy's promise to "deliver it to your fat ass". Councilman, does your home have any mirrors or even a scale? I don't think you have met a cheeseburger you didn't like in the last few years. It also exhibits why we need a change on the Council. There is a total lack of respect between the Council and their Constituents. Kennedy's addressing me exhibits that. We also saw the Council President lack of dignity when he addressed anti-stadium residents, particularly Joanne Bauer, after the Councils rubber stamp vote to pass the stadium.

It is time for a change to Council people that actually respect and serve the community that puts them there.

Friday, May 8, 2015

NO PLACE FOR RACIST COPS AT HPD

There is no doubt about it, the last few months, and probably even longer, have been very difficult times for police community relations. At the same time Hartford residents and the Hartford Police Department have been working together to come up with solutions to avoid the next Ferguson or Baltimore here in our own City.

It is a difficult tightrope that  Police Chiefs across this country must walk every day knowing they are one step away from the next incident that could ignite a community. It almost seems ironic that at the very same time I am working on this posting, Chief Rovella is in a meeting with several of Hartford's African American leaders to make sure the bridges HPD has built over the years remain strong, and accessible.

But. as the saying goes " one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch". And now it becomes an issue of throwing out the bad apples before they can do any damage. I think, actually no, I hope the picking is swift and decisive in this case to send a strong message to both HPD Officers and Hartford residents that racism within HPD will not be tolerated in any form by anyone.

Recently a Hartford Police Officer, Kamil Stachowitz attended a whisky tasting event at a Connecticut Casino. While there he apparently tasted too much of the whisky. Stachowitz, according to numerous sources within HPD ,created a disturbance at the casino. The Tribal Police were called to apparently remove Stachowitz from the Casino. Also according to sources, an African American Tribal Police Officer responded to the call. Upon confronting Stachowitz, the officer reported that Srtachowitz began yelling the "N" word and went into a  racist verbal tirade, yelling at the Officer at one point "My family used to own people like you" and "My Grandfather used to own slaves".

For some reason , no arrest was made, even though the Tribal Police were recently given full powers of arrest by State Statute after the State Police were removed from the Casino's. It may have to do something with Stachowitz identifying himself as a Police Officer, but I think any professional courtesy should have ended once Stachowitz started yelling the "N" word.

Stachowitz, according to sources, is now out on sick leave under the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Stachowitz has hired an attorney and may be planning on making a claim under the American's With Disabilities Act. Apparently he may be claiming that alcohol dependency or problems with alcohol would alleviate his behavior.

That may be true , but the streets of Hartford are no place for a racist cop. The alcohol helped the words come out, but the mindset already exists for someone that can freely use hateful language like that used by Stachowitz. He needs to go, too much is on the line for Chief Rovella to tolerate such behavior, and I am very confident he will not, EAP leave or  not.

I will post the incident report and any video I receive through FOI requests  here when it is received.

An Internal Affairs investigation is ongoing within HPD.