Jeff Cohen from the Hartford Courant had a story online today at http://courant.com/cityline regarding the large amount of city dollars being spent by Corporation Counsel John Rose on outside lawyers hired by the City of Hartford attempting to defend and appealing Freedom of Information Decisions that have been decided against the City. The requests by Cohen and the Courant involve documents that will definitely embarrass the Dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez and his "transparent" regime, but none the less have been ruled as public documents by the FOI Commission and their orders to Rose to release the documents. Rose's strategy appears to be to delay and stall any release through endless appeals, continuances and hearings. All the while the clock is ticking on the meter for the private attorneys and contributing to the City's deficit, all while hoping to shield Perez from embarrassment by the very documents his actions and his administration have created.
One of the more troubling revelations in the article though is that a major player in the appeals and eventually beneficiary of the billing, is an attorney at the firm of Pepe and Hazard. Attorney Richard Wareing seems to have billed the majority of the approximately $125,000 charged to Rose's office and the City of Hartford. The only person close to Wareing is Attorney Fenton Guest, who sources tell me is a personal friend of John Rose.
The reason I find Wareing's billing troublesome is that Wareing also sits as the Chairperson of the City of Hartford's Charter Revision Commission. One of the major points facing the commission, aside from the makeup of the City Council, is the issue of the Corporation Counsel's Office and its responsibility and accountability under the Charter. To me, this would seem to be a major conflict of interest on the part of any attorney receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the same Corporation Counsel's Office that you are potentially sitting in judgement of the very activities and operations of an office that would most likely affect that same attorneys future income and ability to receive work from the Corporation Counsel.
I would ask for an opinion from the City's Ethics Commission, but we all know that Perez appoints them also. Something seems broken here.
For anyone who follows my postings, I have not been a huge fan of some of Clarence Corbin's management decisions. None the less, I think he was doing a somewhat decent job running the Public Works Department in spite of layoffs and budget cuts and, from all appearances and indications, staying clear of involvement in the corrupt activities of our dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez.
All of that ended Thursday when Corbin was fired by Perez for not following the city's procurement procedures. I am fairly certain there were other reasons that will eventually come out. Although a press release from Perez's office mentioned an "acting Deputy Director of Public Works" who was also placed on adminstrative suspension, the person was not named. Sources have advised me that the "acting Deputy Director of Public Works" was John McGrane. Sources also stated that McGrane accompanied the "lobbyist" to Washington D.C. along with another DPW employee, Marilyn Cruz-Aponte. According to sources, McGrane will serve a 30 day suspension for his actions and afterwards will return as the City Engineer, rather than as a Deputy Director.
Questions still arise as to how much involvement Corbin actually had in this lobbyist plan, and from what my sources tell me , McGrane apparently was the signer on change orders and payment approvals for the "lobbyist". It will probably take some work, but I will try to get these documents from the City and post them here.
I think to many though, the big question is how does Perez keep his job, while Corbin is dismissed. Although Corbin may have violated procurement procedures, Perez has been arrested and charged with fleeceing the city in a scheme to have work done on his home at the City's expense. In the arrest warrant affidavit it alleges that Perez planned to have the cost for some of the repairs hidden in billing to the City through an account for repairs to the Church Street Garage. At least no claims have been made that Corbin attempted to benefit personally from his actions, unlike Perez who's corrupt scheme did benefit him personally in at least $40,000 dollars worth of repairs to his home.
A question for our dishonorable Mayor, Eddie how can you look anyone in the eyes and do what you do? And you might want to be careful about the Ethics violations that you want examined. To quote Councilperson Veronica Airey-Wilson, peole who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
There are more underlying reasons for Corbin's termination other than what was presented in the press release from the information I have received. One of these allegations involves a meeting about stimulus money for the Pope Commons streetscape project and Corbin potentially not "playing ball" with Perez. More on that as we work to verify the facts.
After many comments, news reports and conversations, the Dan Nolan termination picture is starting to become clearer, but the motivation and reasons for his firing are still very unclear.
Rather than try to figure out the entire picture, I hope the attached documents will make the situation easier to understand, and you make your own decisions.
On March 18, 2008, Lee Erdmann, Chief Operating Officer for the City of Hartford sent a hand written memo to Human Resources Director Santiago Malave and Hartford Fire Chief Charles Teale, the subject of which was "re: Fire Complaint" and they were requested by Erdmann to "please jointly investigate attached complaint and report results to me" also noted on the memo in handwriting that appears to be other than Erdmann's it states "possible charges- lying, abuse of power, excessive mileage, creating artificial ___________". The second handwriting has not been identified at this point. Attached to Erdmann's note is a typed document that details "a complaint from wife of Fire Applicant-Did not want to release her name". These documents are attached below. Nolan Erdmann Memo
Subsequent to Erdmann's March 18, 2008 memo, a letter was drafted by Vincent Fusco, President of the Hartford Firefighters Union, local 760 of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) on April 7, 2008. Fusco's letter to Assistant Chief Michael Parker of the Hartford Fire Department reports that "a serious allegation" has been made against Chief Nolan. Fusco doesn't mention who made the complaint, how he received it or if he attempted to verify any of the information. He does state though that "these are serious allegations that must be looked into and investigated immediately"
Apparently after the Union President, Vincent Fusco requested the investigation into the "serious allegations" against Nolan, on May 7, 2008 he did a 180 degree turn and sent a letter to Human Resources Director Santiago Malave expressing his concern that Nolan "is being disadvantaged monetarily by being denied the opportunity to perform overtime and his continued status on paid leave continues to potentially adversely affect his reputation". That letter he copied to Dan Nolan, unlike the first one accusing Nolan of "serious allegations".
Some might question the motives of Fusco in reporting the vague allegations directly to Chief Parker without speaking to Nolan first, none the less, an "Internal Investigation" was begun by Assistant Chief Parker. After Erdmann's memo of 3/18/08 and Fusco's complaint letter of 4/7/08, a "preliminary" investigation was completed. On April 18, 2008, Chief Teale wrote to Santiago Malave, Director of Human Resources, asking to meet with Malave for "review and consultation to determine what must be accomplished regarding this matter". Teale's choice of words "what must be accomplished" seems somewhat unusal, and raises the question as to what the initial goal of the "investigation was. Although the initial "preliminary report" is four pages long, it seems to be very short on specific charges, but speaks about "the 3 anonymous alleged allegations". The report continues to layout the "anonymous alleged allegations, yet does not provide any solid facts or statements from individuals willing to state on the record wrongdoing on Nolan's part. The first "anonymous alleged allegation was that Chief Nolan "is giving out questions to the oral interview before the applicants meet with Chief Teale" in return for a donation to Chief Nolan's Charities. Nolan admitted to Chief Parker to speaking to approximately 10 applicants. The questions reported to be "leaked" are detailed in page 2 of Erdmann's memo above. The questions appear to be very generic in nature, and I would hope that any applicant could answer the questions and not need to be prepped beforehand. Also, since it appears that Teale did not circulate the questions specifically being asked for the interviews, it would be supposition on anyones part as to the questions, other than relying on past history of the type of general questions asked over the years. The final line of "anonymous alleged allegation" one was that Deputy Chief Nolan is involved in many charities ; Cystic Fibrosis, Leukemia, Miami Project, Cherish the Children...
Nolan should be fired just for taking this much interest in charities, how dare he exhibit such behavior.
The second "anonymous alleged allegation" was that Chief Nolan violated the Hartford Fire Departments Vehicle usage policy. This "anonymous alleged allegation" apparently developed through an inquiry brought forth by Assistant Chief of Operations Milner. Milner claims that in February of 2008 he looked at the mileage in Nolan's city vehicle and while doing that he saw a "connected GPS unit" in the vehicle and he "assumed belonged to the Dept" As Milner was "poking around the unit I pulled up the history and noticed travels to the State of Rhode Island and LaGuadia Airport in New York. Milner further states that after discussing the mileage on the vehicle compared to others assigned to HFD personnel that "the mileage difference alarmed me". Milner was so alarmed that he waited until July 10, 2008 to put the "facts" he claimed in writing.
The third "anonymous alleged allegation" in the report was that Nolan "solicited the recruits to donate to a charity that he is involved in" in exchange for a reduction in the recruits "towers". "Towers" are a form of punishment, similar to military recruits or police recruits performing sit-ups, push-ups or extra laps around a running track. Towers require that recruits run a certain number of times up and down the flights of stairs in the training "tower" at the fire academy. This exercise is very similar for the recruits as to what they would face in normal fire situation, carrying equipment or victims up and down in a highrise building, less the smoke and fire. In most cases the "towers" were assigned to the entire recruit class. In Nolan's "Laudermill Hearing", a legal title for the hearing held to result in Nolan's termination, the following exchange took place between Nolan and Teale:
Teale: "There is no standard related to how fast a person should run during fire recruit training. Why did you give towers as punishment for those who you thought ran too slow? Nolan: "As I said, teamwork, motivation, there are weak links in the chain. In order for that chainto be effective, all the links must be present and pull together simultaneously. To me, a lot of people were not giving effort. It was walking time instead of running time and it impacted the whole class"
What was Nolan thinking? Teamwork, motivation, giving your full effort? How could any of that possibly relate to firefighters in a burning building needing to count on the person behind you for your life?
Pages 3 and 4 of the report essentially quote almost sixty "anonymous" statements making accusations without any names or written statements attached. Affidavits were taken from recruits attending the Hartford Fire Academy at the time in question, although the time line on the affidavits is also questionable because they were taken by Ivan Ramos of the Corporation Counsels Office in late September, almost six months after Teale claims the preliminary investigation was completed. Since no other reports were provided through my FOI request asking for "all reports", there are two possible scenarios. One is that the City was attempting to cover their tracks after Nolan refused John Rose's offer,through the Hartford Firefighters Union and Fusco, to go away quietly and they wouldn't touch his banked sick and vacation time or another report exists and the city is not releasing it. That would be a violation of the Freedom of Information Act since the City claims it released all the documents to me, and we know the City and Mr. Rose wouldn't do that.
The affidavits solicited from the recruits all appear to be almost identical, and apparently not in the recruits own words. They almost appear as "form" affidavits that they were all asked to sign, rather than pay for copies of all the affidavits from the City, I randomly picked a couple to have copied. They are attached below, you can make your own decision as to their validity. Surprisingly though, nowhere in any of the affidavits that I read was it ever mentioned that ANY recruit felt threatened by Nolan's requests to participate in charity events or assist in charity fundraising. Not one statement was made that ANY recruit felt as though adverse action would be taken if they did not participate, that they might be terminated, punished or in any way harmed by Nolan if they said no to his requests. In fact on recruit went so far as to on his own solicit gift certificates from a couple of Hartford restaurants as raffle prizes and one recruit who chose not to donate money, donated a gift certificate of his own for "Salsa" lesson instructions that he would provide.
More to come as I continue to try and follow the paper trail leading to Nolan's termination. Also, I will provide more information and try to connect the dots as relatives try to protect relatives forced out of the Fire Academy, only to be re-hired after Nolan's removal. The issue of the pregnant recruit and her HFD connections and how she was protected,and another recruit that shares the same name with a high ranking HFD official snared in a scandal of his own and accused of perjury and how she survived the academy after Nolan threatened to remove her.Read what a Superior Court Judge had to say about this HFD official on the record. More interesting history will be spelled out here as I attempt to get to the real reason behind this termination. If you have more that you think is important, please free to e-mail me.
The following comment was posted today on the blog:
Nolan was dishonest. You should get all of the facts before you print your tripe.
Well, that's the beauty of the Freedom of Information Act. Although the City of Hartford and Corporation Counsel John Rose have made a mockery of FOI during the Perez Administration, eventually the truth does come out. I filed the following FOI request yesterday with the City:
In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act I am requesting the following:
Any and all investigations and/or investigative reports conducted regarding Daniel Nolan related to his employment with the Hartford Fire Department and the City of Hartford, including but not limited to written documents, e-mails, memo's and correspondence as well as any witness statements and supporting documentation.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter
Once the documents are received, they will be posted here in their entirety and we will see where the truth lies. You will be able to read them and make your own decision. A couple things make me suspicious though of the City of Hartford's intent. First, if you conduct a legitimate investigation, I would think that it would not be a problem to outline your allegations for a termination and give those to the employee that is being terminated, it only seems fair. Second, I have yet to have anyone point out to me any other time in the history of the Hartford Fire Department that such an investigation has taken place, especially in the way that this has been handled. Almost a year long investigation handled by the Corporation Counsel's Office under the direction of John Rose. It just seems odd, and to me a conflict of interest, for the investigation to be conducted by Rose, the decision to terminate not handled by the Human Resources Director or Fire Chief, but by Rose and any legal action will be handled for the City by Rose. The FOI documents may prove differently, but we'll see.
John Rose sent me the following response today to my FOI request submitted yesterday:
Mr.Brookman, I have the attached FOI request and have acted to advise the parties who have access to any disclosable documents to collect them and to deliver them to Att'y Ramos of this office. He will coordinate whatever disclosure there will be. Once he has secured the documents he will notify you and you should then contact this office to obtain copies or to inspect same. The number here is 757-9700. We will bill for any copies provided at the per page rate prescribed by law. JohnRose
This is their standard response, and most likely will not be complied with easily. There are a couple exclusions that they could try to use to deny releasing the documents. 1.) That the request involves an ongoing investigation. Since the termination has taken place, that most likely won't float, any competent individual would complete the investigation before taking any action. 2.)The incident involves pending litigation and the release would undermine their defense. According to Nolan no "intent to sue" has been given to the City, so that won't float either. Also, the City could claim that to release the report would be an invasion of privacy for Nolan or that the investigation is not of legitimate concern to the public. Those two also won't float because the accusations appear to involve on-duty conduct by Chief Nolan and didn't carry over to incidents in his private life that would be extremely damaging to him if they were released. As an example WFSB Reporter Len Besthoff and Courant Reporter Dan Uhlinger partnered in a complaint against the East Hartford Police Department (Docket #FIC 2007-702, can be found at ct.gov/foi). In that decision, it involved an internal investigation used for the demotion of an East Hartford Police Lieutenant who was accused of sexual harassment of another officer and the report detailed sexual activity both on and off duty. That report was eventually ordered released to the public by the Commission. Essentially, there are very few instances where internal investigations conducted by a public agency of a public employee are not open to the public's review.
As soon as the documents are received, you can be sure they will be posted, which ever way they go. I'm betting on the guy who has served a couple tours in Iraq, but if I'm wrong, I'll admit it.
More on this as I can develop information, but I spoke with Dan Nolan by phone today to see if I could get a copy of the "internal investigation" that was used as justification to terminate him. Nolan stated that he has not seen or been offered the opportunity to review the report, nor has he been given any specific charges that were used to terminate him. Since the termination has been completed, the investigation for all intents and purposes is complete, and I have filed a Freedom of Information request to review the investigation and related documents. Nolan has not filed an intent to sue the city, so there is no legal reason to withhold the report under FOI laws, in fact Nolan welcomed me getting it and asked me to provide him with a copy when I get it. It makes me believe even more in Nolan's innocence, if he knew there would be damaging information in there , I don't think he would want me to see it.
I spoke with Human Resources Director Santiago Malave to get a copy of the report. He stated that the "investigation" report was done by the Corporation Counsel's Office and he didn't have it. This makes me wonder even more about the legitimacy of this termination. My first thought is that if City Attorney John Rose was in charge of the "investigation" , then of course it must be fair and impartial. I'm sure John Rose would stand his ground and tell Mayor Perez that he can not be influenced and would issue his report based on the facts he develops.
Ok, time to get off the floor and stop rolling around laughing,I know as well as most do, that John Rose's strings are being pulled by the master puppeteer at City Hall, the Dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez. You have to laugh at this stuff or you will go crazy thinking about the lives that Perez has ruined. The only saving grace is to keep in mind a key lesson my parents always taught us- what goes around comes around and people like Perez will get their day. The dawn of Eddie's day has begun and I for one intend to follow it right through until that great sunset on the Perez Administration, when the next chapter begins in Somers for King Eddie and his cast of characters.
The next court date for the Dishonorable Mayor Eddie A. Perez is scheduled for March 19, 2009 at 101 Lafayette Street, Hartford at 10:00am. Feel free to join me there.
I have received many comments and calls regarding my posting about Jose Silva, the 14year city employee, laid off from his job the day he closed on his first home. Every single comment has been about the same as I felt last Sunday when I left the Silva home after meeting and discussing the layoff. One e-mail pretty much said what all of us are feeling after hearing his story;
The story actually teared me up because for folks like us who are foolish enough to believe life is supposed to be fair and bad things are not supposed to happen to good people, this is just offensive. It also just frustrates me because it just makes you feel so helpless to stop what's going on. And the more stories I hear like this, the more I wonder if things will ever change.
It aggravates me even more when I hear Sarah Barr trying to justify some of the hiring going on in the middle of a hiring freeze and layoffs. On one hand you have people like Jose Silva, making around $34,000, who just wants to do his job. On the other hand you have people like former state Rep Evelyn Mantilla, pictured above at the Perez prayer vigil last week, during city working hours. Mantilla stepped aside from her seat in the Legislature to make way for Perez puppet Kelvin Roldan to run. During that time Mantilla was paid tens of thousands of dollars by the Perez campaign as a "consultant". This is all documented in campaign filings of the Perez campaign required under state law. Subsequently, Mantilla was put on the City payroll in the Mayor's office as a "consultant" for approximately $60,000 for a temporary contract. Once that contract came time to expire, Mantilla has now been hired, according to Barr, to implement new software in the Health Department for $69,000 a year, plus benefits. Just a side note, Jose Silva bought his home in Hartford, Evelyn Mantilla moved out of Hartford when she left the legislature. No need to remain in Hartford if she could still feed from the Perez trough without actually having to live here. Also in the picture above (top center, with the coffee cup in his hand, his wife next to him, she runs Family Life Education, a non profit in the city)) at the prayer vigil during city business hours, is Genaro Sepulveda. Sepulveda is the City of Hartford Public Works supervisor who created a stir last year when he lost his license due to a DUI. Sepulveda's job requires him to travel about the city inspecting various facilities. it would seem to most observers that this would require a drivers license. Yet, since Sepulveda is a close ally of Perez, it was revealed to the public that his job didn't require he have a valid license. Although he apparently didn't need a license or use of a city vehicle to perform his duties for a year. Yet now that his license has been re-instated, he has been rewarded with his take-home city car again. Hopefully safeguards have been put in place to avoid the possibilty of a third DUI arrest , especially while driving a city vehicle. We have had enough Crown Vic's wrecked in the last year,I'd hate to see us lose one of the new hybrids, so much for zero tolerance for alcohol in city vehicles. The other person in the pic on the left is Francis Davila, another Perez ally and a State of Connecticut DCF employee, at the vigil, also during working hours, but we have enough problems in Hartford to focus on, the State can deal with its problems.
When you see people like Jose Silva getting laid off but the perpetual feeders at the trough keep their positions, whatever those positions are besides propping up Perez, it makes you wonder. I am not typically a big union supporter, but in this case I hope the city employee unions use a line out of the Jim Calhoun playbook when asked for concessions... "not a dime" with the caveat that once Perez sets the example and scales back his staff and spending, the union membership will gladly follow and do their part, as they always have. And one final thought; Eddie do you really think you will be around next year to give back that raise? I'm not a betting person, but I would take the odds in favor of probably not
THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON THIS BLOG ARE STRICTLY THAT, MY OPINIONS.After getting fed up with the lack of openness in Hartford City Hall, I decided to begin a program on Hartford Public Access Television called "WE THE PEOPLE". Through tips received we have been able to expose numerous issues that the Perez Administration would prefer to keep quiet.
Any information received is kept in strict confidence, feel free to e-mail me at krbrookman@earthlink.net or call me at 860-883-2297 with any information.