Search This Blog

Saturday, March 7, 2009

THE 'CREDENTIALED" MEDIA



For those that haven't seen the Courant's latest addition to Courant.com,"Cityline", check out courant.com/cityline. As the Courant seems to continue downsizing its daily editions, Cityline allows Courant reporters to post articles and information that might not make it into the print edition.

Saturday's Cityline posted a story about Sarah Barr, Mayor Eddie Perez's Director of Misinformation or more aptly a disciple of the "Gospel of Perez".

For some reason, Sarah Barr has a problem with me. I can't figure out what this could be, especially since Sarah has at one time or another considered herself a journalist. Sarah consistently claims that the Perez Administration continues to be the most transparent administration in recent history at Hartford City Hall. Although, I guess transparency can only go so far when job one is to make sure only the good news gets out. When information is put in the public domain that goes against the Gospel of Perez, I can understand that Sarah might feel responsible for not protecting her boss, and at this point in her career another job loss might be hard to take. I can imagine that the Channel 3 termination was tough enough, never mind getting dumped by a Mayor facing prison. How bad can it possibly get ?

When I started my public access program called "We the People", I also began this blog to continue to get information out to the general public. Both public access programming and "bloggers" are considered,for all intents and purposes, media outlets. This has been determined by court decisions, and in many states now, bloggers are covered by media shield laws.In addition, I have also worked for at least three area television stations as a freelance videographer providing video of crime scenes, fires, accidents and the like. In fact, I had been nominated for an Emmy award for video that I had shot for Channel 3, WFSB. I am also a member of "IRE". the association of Investigative Reporters and Editors. (IRE is a great resource and their monthly newletters really give you great ideas on how to uncover corruption and obtain documents)Note to Sarah: the dues aren't bad and it might help to dust-off those job skills, their mentoring program is great and they can pair you with an actual media professional.

In June of 2008, I had requested to be added to Sarah Barr's media notification list. I figured that for someone that claimed to strive for transparency, this was no problem and she would enter me into her database. WRONG !!!!!

The first e-mail request I sent was answered with the reply "and what media outlet do you represent?". I replied that I had the public access program "We the People" which I was sure she was aware of, because I had been told it was an occasional topic of discussion in the Mayor's Office. None the less, I figured she might not venture out of the bunker at 550 Main Street often, what with having to explain search warrants served on the Mayor's Home, a Grand Jury investigation, failing schools, a budget deficit that today approaches or exceeds $36 million dollars, sky rocketing gun violence etc, etc, etc. I offered to provide her with a DVD of the program for her viewing pleasure, but I never heard back. Since I can't force her to place me on the media list, I did the next best thing. I requested her media list through an FOI request, and since the list is public information , she is obligated to provide it. Again no response, and the FOI complaint was filed with the State of Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission.In September the case was docketed and Disciple Barr was sent her notice that a complaint had been filed. Not surprisingly. that same day, the former Channel 3 employee (until her termination) sent me a list of names via e-mail, some of them I recognized as media people. I guess she thought that would make the complaint go away. Once again Sarah, wrong. The hearing will be held later this month and I look forward to hearing Sarah explain her position, under oath. Apparently a City Hall employee overheard a conversation between Barr and another employee that same day, and when Barr was asked why she just didn't provide the list in the first place, she replied "I just don't like him". The walls have ears in the Mayor's Office, and from what I understand the flower pots and lamps may also, with Federal Agents at the other end.

So anyway, it came as no surprise when Jeff Cohen from the Courant asked me yesterday what I thought of Sarah's press release about Monday's State of the City speech being released to only "credentialed media". I wasn't surprised and actually find it comical. Even though I'm not a "paid" journalist, I try to stick to the facts. As you can see from my postings, I have documents, e-mails and whatever I can find when I address an issue and try to present facts in a responsible manner. And since Monday's speech from Eddie to his Kingdom will most likely border on a fantasy tale, I really don't need an advance copy. The other problem with Sarah's press releases is that my inbox usually gets jammed with people forwarding them to me after she sends them out. It usually is ten or fifteen minutes after she sends them, so I am getting them delayed.I didn't go to school in Hartford, so I'm a fast reader, and they are typically pretty light on the content side, so I can live with that.

Again, check out http://courant.com/cityline when you have a chance, we are trying to make Jeff Cohen a legitimate blogger

Thursday, February 19, 2009

DAN NOLAN FIRED, BUT EDDIE PEREZ KEEPS HIS JOB

This was originally posted in July , 2008. The Courant is reporting that Deputy Chief Dan Nolan was terminated from the Hartford Fire Department on Wednesday.


Deputy Chief Dan Nolan, seated, center


"More than two months after Hartford Deputy Fire Chief Daniel Nolan was placed on paid administrative leave amid accusations that he offered leniency to Hartford Fire Department recruits in exchange for charitable contributions, his status remains in limbo." Hartford Courant Article, 7/2/08 http://www.courant.com/community/news/hfd/hc-hfdfire0702.artjul02,0,4971831.story


This is the height of hypocrisy, the City suspends an employee for trying to teach future city employees a sense of community by getting them involved in charitable events and public service. No accusations of Nolan benefiting from the actions, no accusations of pay-offs, just maybe using a tactic that others didn't approve of.
Yet we have a Mayor under Grand Jury investigation, accusations of dirty deals to line the Mayor's, certain Council Members and other city Hall employees pockets, dirty deals for crooked politicians and payoffs for parking lots, dumpster deals and alleged contract steering on school building projects.

Where is the same standard being applied? Shouldn't we also be calling for Perez to be placed on suspension until his investigation is conducted.If the facts are truly as they are laid out here, Dan Nolan should be commended for his actions. In a society where it is all about "me first" Nolan's actions should be encouraged to teach young persons what leadership is about and a sense of community pride.
It will be very interesting when the real cause for this action eventually comes out. Most likely someone politically connected whose toes Nolan stepped on.

HARTFORD SCHOOLS BUDGET CUTS

More on this as I have time to put my thoughts together, but after reading and hearing about budget cuts and layoffs at the Hartford schools, it makes me wonder what the primary function of the Hartford school system is.

I may be over simplifying this, but I feel that job number one of any school system is educating its students. To that end, I also feel that the most important tool to achieving that is qualified teachers. Yet, here in Hartford we are laying teachers off while at the same time we are keeping the media people employed.If the numbers presented in Helen Ubinas' blog are accurate, which I believe they are, $219,000 is spent for two positions in the "Communications Department" for Nancy Benben and David Medina, both former Hartford Courant employees. In addition, Kelvin Roldan, a former Perez staffer and State Representative, was recently handed a $99,000 a year position with the school system, for what is any ones guess. There are many more positions that should be looked at before one teacher, guidance counselor or teacher's aid is laid off.

The business of the Hartford Schools should be educating students, not rewarding people beholding to Mayor Perez.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

PEREZ PHONE RECORDS SEARCH WARRANT

Jeff Cohen at the Hartford Courant continued his coverage of the Perez Administration Corruption scandal in today's edition. Cohen outlined the search warrant served on Verizon Wireless for Perez's cell phone records, an apparent critical piece of evidence to establish probable cause for Extortion, Conspiracy to Commit Extortion and Larceny 1st charges. These allegations appear to be above and beyond the initial charges of bribery and larceny already filed against Perez.

This affidavit details conversations, e-mails and correspondence involving Perez, Abe Giles, Deputy Corporation Counsel Carl Nasto, Lee Erdmann and others regarding a $100,000 "pay-off" to Giles.

The affidavit was originally on Courant.com

The affidavit in its entirety can be viewed here:

Perez Cell Search Warrant

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

HARTFORD: UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE



"RELAX, YOU'VE GOT MASTERCARD"


Just when I thought that the Perez Corruption scandal would give me plenty to stay occupied for a while, I received a call about an e-mail that was sent to all employee's in the City of Hartford's IT Department, Metro Hartford Information Services (MHIS). Apparently Eric Jackson, the Chief Information Officer for the City never received the word that the City of Hartford is in a budget crisis, and never saw the stories that we broke about the misuse of City of Hartford credit cards, known as "P" cards or purchasing cards.

Well, recently Jackson hosted two breakfast meetings for his staff, coffee, juice, bagels, muffins, all the trimmings and spared no expense. Relax, no problem, the City is paying for it on its credit card. Only one problem though, the person in purchasing who has now been forced to do their job because of all the scrutiny, rejected Jackson's charge card purchase as apparently not a valid use of the card. I guess there is hope for City Hall, isn't it amazing what a Grand Jury arrest warrant can cause.

So today, Jackson sent an e-mail to all of his staffers through his "Principal Administrative Analyst" Dawn Meucci requesting that they all kick in $10.00 to cover the cost of his mistake.

You can't make this stuff up, is any one capable of showing leadership and managing this city? Mr. Jackson has not returned my call for comment. Maybe Mayor Perez could collect from his staff to pay for those two airline tickets to Ireland.

Here is the e-mail:

Mhis Breakfast

NY TIMES CALLS FOR PEREZ TO STEP ASIDE
















TEXT FROM NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL, 2/2/09, PICTURE FROM COURANT.COM

Editorial
Hartford Pays the Price

Published: February 2, 2009
Mayor Eddie Perez of Hartford, a Democrat, was arrested on Jan. 27 on bribery and other charges. For the good of the city, Mr. Perez should step aside while his case unfolds. Hartford, Connecticut’s capital, is the poorest city in the state and one of the poorest in the nation. It cannot afford a chief executive who has three years left on a four-year term and who is sure to be deeply distracted by the need to lodge a protracted legal defense.


Mr. Perez says that he has done nothing wrong. He deserves a fair trial. Yet the well-being of his city is also at stake. Hartford is unlikely to attract the private investment or public help it so desperately needs while its chief executive is accused of corruption.

Mr. Perez is the latest in a string of Connecticut officials — among them a governor, a state senator, a state treasurer and several mayors — who have been arrested for corruption in the last decade. Mr. Perez is alleged to have hired a city contractor to do thousands of dollars worth of home renovations in 2005 and not paid him until the authorities started asking questions two years later.

The 25-page arrest affidavit quotes the contractor as saying he never expected payment for work on the mayor’s house, calling it the price of doing business with the city. The allegations, which surfaced in 2007, didn’t prevent Mr. Perez’s re-election to a third term.

The charges are serious, and no matter the outcome, will take months or even years to resolve. In the mean time, Hartford deserves unblemished, undistracted leadership.

One encouraging sign is that state, not federal officials, investigated Mr. Perez and brought the charges against him. For too long, Connecticut has failed to vigorously pursue homegrown corruption, leaving it to federal officials to investigate most serious allegations. More aggressive state enforcement would almost certainly lead to cleaner government.