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Tuesday, September 1, 2009

BASEBALL WATCHING LEGISLATOR


Assistant Majority Leader Henry Genga, Democrat, East Hartford (he's the one on the right)

CARD PLAYING LEGISLATOR #2



Jack Hennesey, Democrat, Bridgeport

WOW, YOU GUYS ARE QUICK- CARD PLAYING REP #1



thanks for identifying the first solitaire playing legislator as Democrat Barbara Lambert, from Milford

IS IT ANY WONDER THE BUDGET IS A MESS?


"WE STILL GET PAID THE SAME NO MATTER WHAT..."


The above image has been secured from the website "courant.com" through the process of aggregation.

It makes you wonder what goes on in the building with the gold dome. As budget talks are taking place as we face probably the worst deficit in Connecticut history, the two legislators in the picture are playing solitaire and the laptop in the lower right seems to have a baseball game playing on the screen.

Why does it look like the only one paying attention and doing something is the Republican, Minority Leader Larry Cafero? (standing on the aisle)

If anyone know's the identity of the two card playing public servants, feel free to post their names here in the comments.

OK, TIME TO VENT A LITTLE, SORRY

I regularly get phone calls from upset individuals regarding the way the City of Hartford is being run. But yesterday was a day with many more calls than usual. It started early in the day and after the Mayor's announcement that he was being arrested again, the calls were almost non-stop. The blog was extremely busy, with the best numbers ever with over 638 hits logged for the day (today isn't far behind with 312 as of 2:00pm) Many of the calls and e-mails were from people appreciative of the information posted, but the theme of the calls and e-mails are usually pretty constant,"keep doing what you are doing, keep speaking out". I am flattered by that, but I have to ask, where is everyone else. There are a small handful of people who regularly speak out besides myself, the Hyacinth Yennie's, the Ron Armstrong's, the Stan McCauley's, the Nick Carbone's and a few other faithful gadflies. We are usually at Council Meetings speaking publicly, although I'm sure we would all prefer to be somewhere else. I know there are plenty of people outraged by Mayor Perez's activity, plenty of outrage over the lapdog council, plenty of strong opinions regarding taxes, public safety, education, opportunities for youth in our city, the list is endless. But where is the public outcry, where is the outrage over these issues. Recently, when a Mayor (and others) were arrested on corruption charges in New Jersey, the reaction of the citizens was swift and decisive. Resignations were demanded and change was implemented. I can count on one hand the number of people I am aware of who have called for the resignation of Eddie Perez after his first arrest, and I am not holding out a lot of hope that I am going to have to start using the other hand to count after tomorrow's arrest. Where are the Union leaders whose members sacrificed, suffered layoffs, furlough days, increased insurance costs and wage freezes to do their share to reduce City spending as a budget disaster loomed. For what? So Matt Hennessey could get a $12,000 bonus? So that the highest paid city employee James Keaney of the Mayor's staff could get an $18,000 "ESI" bonus on top of his $180,000 a year salary? Where is the outrage from the City Council members who essentially have been trivialized and rendered irrelevant by their lack of action to keep Perez in check? Where is the outrage from residents and business people who call the police and receive a poor response due to a dwindling number of Police Officers and a lack of resources? Where is the outrage from homeowners who are being taxed out of their homes by increased taxes due to reckless spending by the Perez Administration? Where is the outrage from some of these homeowners who were behind on their taxes and made payment arrangements with the Tax Collector, only to find out their liens had been sold to XSPAND and they now face foreclosure? Where is the outrage from people who were forced out of their city jobs on bogus charges without any hearing or due process as Eddie Perez pleads for open minds until his "day in court"? Where is the outrage from people who are seeing facilities expand in their residential neighborhoods without any zoning hearings such as the CRT Headstart program on Douglas Street, even though the zone change was denied in 2007?

I could go on and on, and I understand that many people have seen first hand the vindictiveness of Perez and his administration and may be afraid to speak out. People have been forced out or terminated from city employment because of their being outspoken or because of their political connections not supportive of Perez. Just ask people like Clarence Corbin who was terminated. Ellen Nurse who was laid off. Carol O'Connell, wife of former Councilman John O'Connell, laid off as John laid in a hospital bed fighting for his life, just to name a few. Ask the business owners who have suddenly had health inspectors show up for inspections because a fundraiser was scheduled for a Perez opponent.

I guess what I am saying is that this is our city, and the time is now for us to take it back, rather than being sheep led to the slaughter. I don't intend to stop doing what I have been doing, but it sure would feel great to have a lot more people in line with us to speak out for the city we all love and see the potential in. We have a huge challenge in front of us after what this administration has done to Hartford over the last 7 years. ( I will give Perez 1 year of credit since he entered office with so many people expressing hope in his potential as our Mayor)

Please, speak your mind and stand up for Hartford. Be part of the solution rather than remain silent and be part of the problem. In the meantime, keep calling and I'll keep doing what I'm doing.

TAX COLLECTOR EVICTION UPDATE #1

If you follow my blog, you are familiar with the posting I made yesterday regarding Hartford's Tax Collector Marc Nelson facing eviction from the home he has rented in Canton for non-payment of rent. The Judicial Branch Docket sheet was posted showing the Court activity as of August 28, 2009.

Jeff Cohen from the Hartford Courant had posted a story yesterday on his blog, which can be viewed at http://courant.com/cityline, about Tax Collector Marc Nelson selling tax liens to his former employer, XSPAND. Today on Jeff's blog he had an explanation from Mr. Nelson as to why the eviction process was taking place and Nelson laid out a series of financial hardships that resulted in rent not being paid for one month, July 2009. In the meantime I had contacted Attorney Ronald Petosa, who is representing Mr. Nelson's landlord. Attorney Petosa painted a somewhat different picture. Although he would not go into detail, he stated that the money owed was "substantially" more than the one month Nelson was claiming and that no attempts were made to pay the money back. I offered Mr. Nelson the opportunity of an explanation, and he did call me back and stated that he "was not sure what the dollars are" and that "we are hoping we can get caught up". After speaking to Mr. Nelson I received a call from Charles Bevilacqua, the homeowner and Mr. Nelson's landlord. Mr. Bevilacqua related to me that Nelson's explanation was not accurate. Mr. Bevilacqua stated that Nelson has been late on his rent payments every month since signing a lease in late 2008 and that Nelson is currently four months behind and no payment arrangements have been made nor have any payments been received.

Stay tuned for more information. In the mean time though,just a suggestion, there are many affordable rents available in the City of Hartford, and the commute to City Hall is much easier.