HAS THE CORPORATION COUNSEL MADE A MOCKERY OF HIS OFFICE? ... OR ... YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

The updated numbers are in and it seems that the City of Hartford continues to spend a huge amount of money on outside attorneys. Considering some of the legal opinions issued by Mr. Rose, Hartford's Corporation Counsel, this might be money well spent if it was in fact keeping the City out of legal problems. But it would appear that Mr. Rose's decisions, under the guidance of the puppetmaster Eddie A. Perez, have led Hartford down a path of continued wasted spending. Whether it is wasted money spent on FOI Appeals and FOI Hearings,(Guest and Associates $80,480 as well as other firms). A no win suit against the Waterford Group in which both sides admitted a draw and walked away (Ford & Paulekas, $188,824. And a few other payments that weren't broken out as to why lawyers were used. Bird & Apostilidis($58,446) could that be the same Apostilidis that retired from the City of Hartford Corporation Counsels Office? Crumbie Law ($155,605) number 2 on the dollar amount billing list? Kainen Escalera ($157,522)number 1 on the dollar amount billing list, any relation to Yasha Escalera, Perez ally and recent City of Hartford hire during a hiring freeze?

And look at the list for Fiscal Year 07-08, Levy Droney ($10,077.50) was contracted for advice on "Ethics". Maybe if we had spent a little more there on ethics advice it could have saved us the $181,503.95 spent on "Grand Jury Outside Counsel".

LISTING OF OUTSIDE LEGAL PAYMENTS, OBTAINED FROM CITY OF HARTFORD CORPORATION COUNSEL'S OFFICE THROUGH AN FOI REQUEST:

Foi Outside Legal as of Sept 15 09