The Beginning of the End or "What Hiring Freeze?"

As the end of the corruption investigation at Hartford City Hall seems to be coming closer and closer everyday, there seems to be an effort to take care of certain Perez allies to ensure they have permanent city employment when the ax does fall. One staffer, Evelyn Mantilla, stepped aside from her seat as State Representative in the 4th district when the decision was made that Kelvin Roldan, another Perezite, deserved the seat more. Subsequent to that "step-aside" Mantilla was rewarded with tens of thousandsof dollars in payments from the Perez re-election campaign as a "consultant". After Perez's re-election, Mantilla was again rewarded with a temporay position in the Mayor's Office for approximately $65,000 for a six month gig in Constituent Services. Now that the 6 month position was expiring, Mantilla has landed in the Health and Human Services Department at a salary of approximately $95,000 according to City Hall sources. Phone calls to the Health and Human Services Department today confirmed that Mantilla was in a new position, but none of the staffers there were aware of what her responsibilties were.

Also in a new position is long time Perezite and City contract benefactor Yasha Escalera. Escalera has apparently been hired to fill the position of Bruno Mazzulla, the city's former director of Property Acquisition and Disposition. Should prove interesting to see how Mr. Escalera is going to avoid conflict as his company , Dresca Construction, is apparently still doing business with the City.

And lest we think that the hiring freeze is only circumvented by the Mayor, another position created and filled this week is raising eyebrows. Councilman Pedro Segarra recently closed his law practice at 250 Main Strret in Hartford. As part of that closure, his secretary, Miriam Rodriguez, lost her job. Apparently Segarra felt obligated to keep Ms. Rodriguez gainfully employed , so a position (a new position) was created in the MIS Department of Executive Assistant to Chief Information Officer Erick Jackson. Although I have filed an FOI request to see how this position was filled, was it even posted or advertised, was anyone else even interviewed, and there seems to be many questions surrounding this "hiring freeze hire".

The following is the letter sent to MIS staffers by Eric Jackson introducing Ms. Rodriguez:

From: Jackson, Eric L.
Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 4:31 PM
To: Internal MHIS
Subject: Welcome New Hire
Importance: High

Hello everyone. By now many of you have either met or heard from our newest staff member
Miriam Rodriguez. Miriam’s title is Executive Assistant (EA) and she is responsible for ensuring that I complete many of the assignments I have laid out for myself in addition to those required by the Mayor’s office and all of our stakeholders. Miriam will work in concert with our MHIS directors, Dawn Meucci (Principal Analyst), and Monique Rodriguez (Secretary) to perform the financial and administrative tasks that make our department run smoothly and efficiently. In addition, Miriam will focus on internal and external communications such as the MHIS strategic plan, business plan, and annual report. Miriam’s last work assignment was with the legal offices of Pedro Segarra (City Councilman) where she performed in a similar capacity. I am very pleased to have Miriam join us and look forward to your continued support of management’s continuing effort to improve our service to the city of Hartford and the Board of Education.If you have not done so already, please drop by and wish her well in her new assignment. Miriam is located in the office adjacent to mine.

Best regards,
Eric L. Jackson Chief Information Officer
City Of Hartford, CT
860-757-9474 Office
860-798-3156 Mobile