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Monday, November 9, 2009

ROSEZINA'S BIG ADVENTURE, UPDATE #1


Earlier today Jeff Cohen at the Courant posted on his blog (Traveling Winch at http://courant.com/cityline) referencing my entry about Hartford Council Majority Leader Rosezina "rJo" Winch's taxpayer funded trip to San Antonio,Texas at the taxpayers expense. This occurring in the middle of a budget crisis at Hartford City Hall.

Jeff contacted Winch in Texas for her comment on the trip. Her response was that "Brookman needs to get a life". She further related to Cohen that the trip was pre-approved and only cost $1400.00. Well, here is the real story on that. The actual numbers for the trip are $1569.12 for her hotel, $279.40 for airfare, $800.00 for registration, adding up to a total of $2640.52. If Winch uses the same math formulas at budget time as she does when speaking to the media, it sure would explain a lot.

As far as being an "approved" trip, the truth is that approval was given after the trip was already booked. Using a city credit card, Winch's administrative assistant booked the trip. Apparently, from what sources are telling me, Council President Calixto Torres was not aware of the trip prior to it being booked. When he became aware of it, he was extremely upset and questioned how it was booked. After being told it was booked on a city credit card assigned for council use he sent a memo to all council members outlining the use of the credit card. In the October 19, 2009 memo, Torres stated that all purchases over $100.00 on the "p-card" must be approved by him. A copy of the memo is attached below.

Hopefully at the conference there is a seminar on "Telling the Truth when Confronted with Difficult Questions". Add that one to the suggested classes list please Councilperson Winch.

TORRES MEMO:

Torres P-card Memo

MUNIS MALFUNCTIONS AGAIN


After last weeks revelation that a taxpayer funded junket (all expenses paid) was taken by mayoral Chief of Staff Susan McMullen and ten others, the problems with Munis keep on coming.

Last week, the entire MUNIS system was down for an extended period. Now it has been learned that the e-mail portion of MUNIS that forwards messages to city employee's with Blackberry phones has also been down since last week.

Hopefully all of this travel for MUNIS "training" will pay off and the problem will be resolved.

MHIS Director Eric Jackson is apparently unavailable for comment. Sources have said he is in Africa on vacation for two weeks and is then booked for city travel to various conferences for almost a month when he returns.

4:00PM UPDATE- MUNIS/Blackberry service is still down, no anticipated correction date is available according to MHIS.

(Susan, get out your repair manuals from your training and see what you can do)

Saturday, November 7, 2009

HPD INVESTIGATING PRISONER ASSAULT BY OFFICERS


As much as Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts and many members of the Hartford Police Department try to build police/community relationships, it seems that some just aren't getting the message.

Several sources have confirmed that an Internal Affairs investigation is underway into the assault of a prisoner inside the Hartford Police Department booking area. The incident, which has all been captured on video recordings, occurred when one officer, reported to be Officer Rhashim Campbell, entered the cell and allegedly assaulted the prisoner.

After assaulting the prisoner in his cell, Officer Campbell removed him to a larger open area in booking, at which time a second officer allegedly became involved. The second officer is reported to be Officer Kent Lee, a department veteran. From what sources are telling me, the two officers then handcuffed the prisoner and knocked him to the floor , at which time the assault continued with kicks and punches being delivered to him as he lay on the floor.

Although the alleged actions of the officers is deplorable, the response of HPD should be commended. The victim of the assault apparently didn't make a complaint immediately after the incident. What did happen is that one of the officer's involved was apparently bragging about the incident inside Police Headquarters and his comments were overheard by a sergeant. HPD Internal Affairs launched an immediate investigation into the incident and confirmed the beating through the video recordings.

At the time of the assault a supervisor was present in the area, but it is unclear what actions he may have taken to stop or report the incident , if any. The regular booking sergeant was not on duty and Lieutenant Kevin Ahlquist was working an overtime shift supervising the area.

Sources are also telling me that arrest warrants will be prepared for those officers involved once the level of criminal conduct has been determined.

Although this will most likely be another black-eye in the national media for Hartford, the actions of Chief Roberts and his leadership in responding swiftly to the incident should also be recognized as a positive step forward in building community trust and confidence.

A SLIGHT TITLE CHANGE- "IF YOU WERE GOING BROKE, WOULD YOU TAKE A TRIP TO SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS ?"


After last week's revelation that Mayoral Chief of Staff Susan McMullen jetted off to an all expense paid vacation to Florida with ten of her City Hall allies, I am somewhat surprised to hear of more taxpayer paid travel. But then again, why should anything happening at Hartford City Hall surprise anyone.

Council Majority Leader Rosezina "rJo" Winch will this week be taking her show on the road as she jets off to San Antonio, Texas on the Hartford taxpayers dime. Winch will be attending the "NBC-LEO" Congress of Cities and Exposition in San Antonio November 10th through the 14th. All expenses paid by the taxpayers of Hartford, at the same time that employees are being laid off.

Hopefully, Winch will avail herself of the training seminars available during the four days, I might suggest Wednesday's class from 9:00am to noon in room L13"Building Public Trust Through Performance Leadership", if that is full try room L16
"Guarding the Public Checkbook: Local Government Finance".

I am sure when the issue is raised, Winch's response will be similar to McMullen's, that they actually save the city money by taking these trips. That may be true, but drastic times call for drastic measures. If laid off employees are facing foreclosure because they lost their jobs, is it really proper spending any money that is not necessary to vital functions of the operation of the city?

Maybe it would be proper to take part of your salary as a councilperson and pay for your own trip to further your social networking. Didn't the Council call for a travel ban at budget time?

Here is the link to the conference website http://www.nlc.org/CONFERENCES___EVENTS/CONGRESS_OF_CITIES___EXPOSITION/Backtomain.aspx

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I KNOW, I'M BEATING A DEAD HORSE

It seems that anyone outside of City Hall realizes Hartford has some real problems, but once you enter that building something seems to happen to reality.

I keep griping about the lack of leadership at City Hall, and each week it seems to become more and more obvious. I could go back and bring up example after example, but let me just mention a couple of the most recent examples.

Back in the early summer, Reverend Henry Brown stopped by my home and we spoke one night about his frustration with gang violence and the city's response, specifically Mayor Perez's response. Rev Brown told me that he had approached the Mayor in an attempt to set up a meeting to address what Brown saw as the rising gang violence in the City. Perez's response was that Hartford didn't have a gang problem and essentially brused Reverend Brown's efforts off. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly if you take into account Perez's issues with honesty and integrity, at about the same time that Perez said we didn't have a gang problem he was supporting a Federal grant application stating that Hartford was suffering from a "gang infestation". Although I'm sure that at the time the grant application and the Police Department's Intelligence report were being prepared, Perez, and others, never thought that report would see the light of day in any public way. Only through the diligence of a couple of reporters from the Courant did the report become public. Once the report got out, the spin machine went into overdrive. We heard the Police Chief trying to educate us on "formal" gangs versus "informal" gangs, like it makes any difference. Are we supposed to feel any better if a family member is shot or robbed by a "formal" gang member instead of a less trained "informal" gang member?
The Mayor's staff also went into overdrive doing the radio talkshows, speaking a lot but saying nothing. Do five homicides in seven days still keep us in contention as a safe city? And then, one of the most ridiculous comments by our esteemed Council President/Puppet Calixto Torres, "we need to protect the image of the City". No mention of protecting the residents of the city or visitors to Hartford, just the image of Hartford. Newsflash Calixto, take care of the crime issues and the image will fall in place. Most people are getting tired of the smoke and mirrors, and it has become quite obvious that it is a false facade. The bottom line is the question that needs to be asked, and hopefully answered; was the report a fraud or was the grant application itslef a fraud? The answer seems to clearly be one or the other. The Police Department Intelligence report was misleading and contained fraudulent information or the City submitted a fraudulent application to get the $500,000 grant money knowing they didn't have a gang problem. Which was it? Luckily though the truth finally came, it was the media trying to make Hartford look bad, it was all the media's fault.

Then we get the hiring in the Registrar of Voters Office of a person guilty of voter fraud and appropriately fined by the State of Connecticut. When the Democratic Registrar of Voters Olga Vazquez was asked for a comment by the media about Prenzina Holloway being hired, her response was "how much damage can she do on the inside?". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????????? Not even an attempt to disguise this hiring as legitimate. Maybe "she will be an asset during the election period", maybe "we need the help", maybe even "she's still suffering from that financial hardship she used to have her fines reduced so we gave her a job". Nope, none of the above just the brilliant remark "how much damage can she do on the inside". If only that Grand Jury report would be released in its entirety, we could probably answer that question much better as to "how much damage can be done on the inside?".

And finally, in less than a weeks time we have another prime example of the stellar leadership exhibited by those at the helm of the USS Hartford as we steam fullspeed ahead toward that iceberg that threatens to sink us. After layoffs of some of the lowest paid city employees, after cutbacks and concessions by the unions, furlough days imposed on most workers and tax increases imposed on struggling small businesses, we continue to hear about ridiculous spending. As I posted earlier, Mayor Perez's Chief of Staff and ten to fifteen others are in Florida this week at a trasining seminar for the City of Hartford's software system. Would it not have made more sense to fly one instructor to Hartford than it would be to fly fifteen individuals to the instructor, paying their airfare, hotel, meals and who knows what else? It would be interesting to note how many of those individuals in Florida for "training" would readily agree to sit in three days of classes at City Hall for the same purpose. I'm sure several of them would find a reason not to attend the training if it didn't include airfare to Florida and a hotel stay in Orlando.

I spoke to someone that attended a dinner in Stamford last week as part of the "Save Chris Dodd's Job Tour" by President Obama. The person told me that they sat at a table and the topic of conversation turned to politics in Hartford. What about that corrupt Mayor of yours, what about the mess that Hartford is, what about those gangs, what about that crime, why has Hartford become such a joke? I felt bad for the person that was attending a fundraiser, only to hear such negative comments. And the person that relayed this to me is one of the good people that cares about the future of Hartford. If only our Councilmembers and Mayor would listen to these comments and realize they have made a joke, a very sad, sad joke, of a once very proud and prosperous City.

Why is it that everyone on the outside of City Hall gets it?

YOU GOTTA LOVE HELEN UBINAS FROM THE COURANT


Earlier this week I posted about the latest political crony and Perez puppet to be added to the City of Hartford payroll. Today Helen Ubinas from the Courant posted a comment on her blog at courant.com about the Democratic Registrar of Voters Olga Vazquez's comment about the hiring. In light of Prenzina Holloway's actions in 2005 resulting in charges of voter fraud and subsequent fines imposed by the State, Vazquez commented "how much damage can she do inside?"

Look at Helen's blog for the answer to that question, and be sure to click on the link at the last sentence for the real answer. click on "Are you?"

click here to go to Helen's blog