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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

ISN'T IT TIME FOR EDDIE PEREZ TO RESIGN?

Now that the beginning of the Perez corruption trial is imminent, can he really function as Mayor?

According to the Hartford Courant:

Perez has maintained that he can participate fully in his defense and also govern effectively, and repeated that belief in a brief interview last week. He said that no mayor runs a city alone and that he'll count on staff and the city council to do their jobs and help him do his.

"I'm very confident everyone is on point and I'm going to continue to do the job to the best of my ability," he said. "There's a great team here and the team gets the work done."

I am quite frankly tired of hearing about the "Perez Management Team". Most of this "management team" wouldn't be qualified to run a McDonald's restaurant if they were judged by their performance at City Hall. Most people in the private sector would be terminated immediately if they ran up a $60 million "budget gap" or overestimated their revenues as the Perez "management team" has for this fiscal year.

Most "management teams" in the private sector would be shown the door if they "forbid" a member of the Board of Directors from speaking with a Department head as Susan McMullen just did to Dr. Deutsch.

But putting all that aside, we as voters in Hartford elected a Mayor. We did not elect a "management team". We deserve, and we should demand, a Mayor that can focus on the business of Hartford. Hartford is headed into most likely the toughest budget period it has ever seen.

Hartford can not afford being led by an absent Mayor because he is in residence in a criminal courtroom. I have felt from day one of the Perez arrests that he should have resigned. Eddie Perez is a dark cloud over the City of Hartford and continues to bring embarrassment, shame and skepticism over Hartford's future every day he remains in office.

Is Eddie just prolonging the inevitable for his own personal gain or does he really care about the City? Many feel that Perez's exit from City Hall is only weeks away, being brought on by a conviction as a result of his criminal trial. That is several weeks that could be used by "Mayor" Segarra for righting the sinking ship that Perez has captained like Captain Queeg for the last nine years.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

ARENA LOSES !!!!!! HARTFORD...I MEAN HOLLOWAY WINS

Well, after the court battles, State Central interventions and the recounts, the only thing missing in Hartford's Democratic Town Committee Chairpersons race was an exorcist.

The recount ordered by Democratic State Central was held tonight and by one vote, Jean Holloway won the seat. A couple of people that supported Arena the first time around switched over to Holloway and vice versa. Most observers agree that the deciding "vote" was actually no vote at all. Hector Robles, the 6th District State Representative and town committee member actually abstained when the vote was called.

His vote, if cast for Arena, would have tied the vote, essentially leaving the race where it was when Ramon Arroyo cast his second vote, resulting in the ordered re-vote.

Now it is time to see what Jean is able to do with the position. She has been rather silent since the night of the first election. I tend to say what is on my mind, and Jean knows that and she also reads the blog regularly.

The nonsense that has nearly driven Hartford over the edge into political irrelevance needs to stop. People wheeling and dealing for what is best for them rather than what is best for Hartford needs to come to a stop immediately. Holloway needs to set a tone and set it fast.

The days of cronyism and nepotism need to end. The days of people thinking they deserve a nomination strictly because of who they are or who they know needs to end. Rather, political office holders need to be asked " what have you done to make Hartford a better place ?"

Jean, as Town Chair, will have a tough call to make in the next year as the nominations for Mayor start coming in. Since her boss on the Council is expected to run, who will she support?

Today was definitely a bad day for the Perez regime as he lost in court before Judge Dewey in the morning and he was essentially neutered politically in the evening. Can the end for politics as usual in Hartford be far off?

It all depends on Jean's leadership from this point on for the next two years. She hasn't received the best advice in her short and shaky start as Town Chair. Hopefully from this point on, she will feel more confident now that her position is official.

Will Hartford's destiny continue in the direction it is, and has been, going for the last 9 years, or will a new breed of leaders have the fortitude to step up and do what is right for the people of Hartford rather than what is right for themselves?

ON A TIGHT LEASH AT CITY HALL


So much for that openness and transparency we keep hearing so much about in the Perez Administration.Apparently Perez's Chief of Staff Susan McMullen prefers to micromanage all details right down to conversations between acting Department heads and Council people.

From the attached e-mail between McMullen and Councilperson Deutsch, Dr .Deutsch was requesting a conversation between himself and Kevin Burnham, the acting Director of Public Works.

Dr. Deutsch had scheduled an appointment with Burnham until McMullen intervened and apparently cancelled the meeting.

In the e-mail Deutsch asked "are you forbidding him from attending this meeting?", McMullen replied that it was "important that I be present at the meeting". I guess that is the only way of ensuring that the Council is kept in the dark and doesn't come away from the conversation with any more of the truth than Perez wants them to get.

Maybe it is time to start the pool to bet on when this regime is shown the door out of City Hall. I say 10-12 weeks.

Mcmullen Deutsch E-mail

DENIED, DENIED, DENIED AND DENIED


All of the motions submitted by the defense team for our allegedly corrupt Mayor Eddie A. Perez were denied this morning.

Perez was ordered by Judge Dewey to report for jury selection Monday morning and was told not to make any plans other than attending court until at least July.

The week is young though, plenty of time for more frivolous motions before court proceedings actually begin Monday

Thursday, April 1, 2010

HAS THE MAYOR'S NEW CAR ARRIVED?




Eddie Perez has filed motions with Superior Court that he can't get a fair trial because of the "anti-Hartford" sentiment. If he feels so strongly that he is disliked that much by our suburban neighbors, he might want to consider the armored vehicle above for his travel needs.

It might not be a smooth ride and I'm sure the gas mileage is awful, but when has Eddie ever worried about how much he spends.

Seriously though, the above vehicle along with 2 other similar vehicles were recently purchased for use in the Capitol region area by Police Emergency Response teams. The one above will be housed in Hartford and the other two will be kept in Vernon and West Hartford.

The vehicles were apparently purchased through a grant from CRCOG, the Capitol Region Council of Governments.

Hopefully you will never see this vehicle pulling into your driveway, but if it does, maybe it is Eddie coming for coffee

WILL ANYTHING BE LEFT TO RENOVATE AT THE PROPOSED PUBLIC SAFETY COMPLEX?


Last fall I posted about the "new" Hartford Public Safety Complex on High Street.

It seemed that large portions of the structure had collapsed and gaping portions of the brick facade were caving in. I drove by today and saw that the main portion of the facade that was the entrance to the building has also collapsed and the historic entrance is now gone. Large portions of the old brownstone carved entry are laying in a parking lot across the street.

Over the winter months there seems to have been very little progress and even today, there were four cars parked in the contractors parking lot and no one was visible working on the site.

Any bets on when this project will be completed and how much the "over-runs" will total?