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Thursday, June 10, 2010

WILL THE REAL "PEREZ PAWNS" PLEASE STEP FORWARD

I was somewhat surprised when I received an e-mail from former State Representative and former Hartford resident Art Feltman on Tuesday.

The header on the e-mail was "Keep a Perez pawn out of the State House".The body of the e-mail is copied below:

Subject: keep a Perez pawn out of the State House!
Date: Jun 7, 2010 8:03 AM

>
> Sen. John Fonfara, my mentor, is being challenged for his seat in a D
>> primary by union leader Ed Vargas, who organized El Jefe's successful
> field operation when we challenged Perez for mayor- although Eddie has
> one foot
>> in the jail house, he wants to put the other in the State House: he
>> never
>> stops!
>>
>> to qualify for public financing, John is hosting a fundraiser this Wed.
>> June
>> 9th, 5 to 7 p.m. at Casa Mia restaurant at 381 Franklin Ave. (there is no
>> min.)- donations from any address in Hartford or Wethersfield (both of
>> which he represents) up to $100 makes his campaign eligible for public
>> financing- contributions from elsewhere help, too- please send a check,
>> payable to Fonfara 2010, to Alex Rodriguez, 81 Cromwell St., Hartford,
>> Ct.
>> 06114- if you can, stop by that p.m., too
>>
>> please give John the chance to present his side to the voters- if you
>> support me, please support John at this critical time: Eddie is down,
>> but
>> not out
>>
>> thank you


I was even more surprised when I received a phone call later that evening from Art Feltman asking me to support John Fonfara and reconsider my support for Ed Vargas. Just to clarify a point, I have not decided to support either candidate, but it is safe to say it will not be John Fonfara. I really do like the Republican candidate Barabara Ruhe and potentially think she would be the best candidate, but that "R" after her name makes her candidacy an effort in futility.

I am not a fan of John Fonfara, and each year observing him I become less and less of a fan. Has he done positive things for Hartford and the State? I guess you would have to give him some credit and say yes.

Does he listen to the concerns of his constituents? Absolutely not. The major criticism I have of Fonfara is the same that many have for their elected officials. John is not accessible and does not return phone calls. This is just not my observation, but numerous people I have spoke with have voiced their dissatisfaction with Fonfara's not having the common courtesy to return calls.

It is also not acceptable to pay attention to your constituents only when you are facing a serious election challenge, or in the couple months before an election when you are soliciting donations and votes.

But back to the e-mail from Art Feltman. I found it interesting that Feltman referred to Fonfara's potential challenger Ed Vargas as a "Perez Pawn". I'm not overly friendly with Vargas, I do know him though, and I would not consider him a "Perez Pawn". I think at one point Vargas was friendly with Eddie Perez, and like many people has realized the error of his ways and has now distanced himself from Perez.

I had spoke with Fonfara shortly before his last re-election bid and told him I hoped a serious challenge would be a wake-up call for him. I had said that no one is entitled to an elected position indefinitely and any politician had to earn their seat everyday of their term. We spoke about the return phone call issue as well as others.

The one thing you may notice is that Senator Fonfara never seems to miss a photo opportunity with Mayor Perez. I brought that up to Feltman when he was claiming that Vargas was a Perez pawn. Art had no answer for that and I even mentioned that Fonfara marched shoulder to shoulder with Perez in Sunday's Puerto Rican Day Parade. Along with Fonfara and Perez was State Representative Kelvin Roldan.

I pointed out that if ever there was a Perez Pawn, it was Representative Roldan and I asked Feltman if he was supporting Roldan in his re-election bid. Feltman said he would "never support Roldan" and it just seemed ironic to me. In fairness, I am working with Roldan's challenger, Angel Morales as his campaign manager. Art wouldn't answer if he was going to support Morales.

In looking at Fonfara's campaign filings for his 2007 election bid, it seems that he has paid several Perez "pawns" thousands of dollars to work on his own campaigns. Among them Evelyn Mantilla who has benefited quite well from her alliances with Perez as well as David MacDonald who serves on the Board of Education as a Perez nominee and works for Fonfara at the Capitol.

We don't need more negative campaigning, the facts are the facts. To see who John Fonfara was paying during his last campaign, his last filing for the 2008 Campaign is below. The actual pay-outs begin on page 18.

Fonfara Seec30 January 10 Filing 3451

DYSLEXIA? IT COULD EXPLAIN A LOT, IF IT WERE TRUE



It would be easy to be sarcastic regarding testimony today that Eddie Perez suffers from Dyslexia. In respect to those who actually suffer from the affliction, I will not be sarcastic at this point.

As one who has watched Eddie Perez read his scripted remarks for years, I would agree that he is a terrible public speaker. Has he appeared to have a problem reading the remarks? I would say no. I am far from an expert on the topic, but people suffering from Dyslexia usually have long pauses as they attempt to make sense and unscramble the printed word in their minds.

Eddie just seems to have a problem reading, not making sense of what he is reading.

Unlike Democratic candidate for Governor Dan Malloy, who has been upfront about his education issues and his dyslexia diagnosis, this appears to be a last minute diagnosis by a desperate Chief of Staff. It would be interesting to see if any documentation is available to confirm this diagnosis by an actual medical professional.

The other sad part about this is the total lack of trust in anything said by Perez or his administration. When Dan Malloy speaks about his dealing with dyslexia over the years, no one questions it. When Perez's Chief of Staff mentioned dyslexia in the courtroom today as an excuse for Perez not reading his e-mails, her claim was immediately suspect.

Maybe the Perez staff has been reading and taking notes from Malloy's life experiences. Mayor Perez, you are no Dan Malloy.

If it is true, Perez has done a good job of hiding a disability that there is no reason to hide. If it is a concocted attempt to sway a jury, it just adds to the list of Perez's despicable traits.

It is too bad that the Mayor's credibility has sunk so low that we now have to ask for proof of his disability claims.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

BREAKING NEWS...CHIEF ROBERTS UPDATES HIS BLOG



Sorry Chief, it's only been ten months since your last blog entry.

To read the Chief's latest blog entry just click on the link in the right hand column

THE PROSECUTION RESTS..... AND NOW ETHICS MATTER


If nothing else has been learned from the Perez corruption scandal, at least someone is paying attention to the City of Hartford's Ethics code.

Apparently Cirque du Soleil has offered complimentary admission to numerous City of Hartford officials and employees.

In a quick response, Hartford's Chief Operating Officer David Panagore sent out the following e-mail to Hartford Department heads and the City Council:

From: Panagore, David B.
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 1:36 PM
To: Dept Heads (City)
Subject: A COI Advisory
Importance: High



Many of you may have received an invitation to a private preview for Cirque du Soleil on June 16th (See below) . After conferring with the Corporation Counsel, I share the following advice and direction.



Accepting free tickets to an event falls within the ambit of the ethics code. Without knowing the value of each ticket, the provision in the Code proscribes receiving gifts aggrgegating more than $100 in any calendar year so with Cirque tickets one could run afoul of that prohibition pretty quickly. For example, any staffer who issues a permit for the Cirque show is well advised not to take tickets. Every employee of the City is covered by the Ethics Code and, quite simply, the better part of valor is simply to not accept any free tickets or other such gifts.



If you have any questions, please contact myself or John Rose.



If only he had been around a few years ago and could have changed "cirque du Soleil tickets" to "granite counter tops", the City could have avoided a lot of embarrassment and avoided a corruption trial.

Friday, June 4, 2010

CAN SARAH BARR BE TRUSTED TO TELL THE TRUTH?



Another opportunity to use this picture of Sarah Barr, but also a time to shed some light on whether she understands her job and more importantly does she understand truth and honesty.

The greater question though is do any of the so called "staffers" of the Perez inner circle understand why they are there. It is pretty obvious that none of them are there to actually serve the City, they are there to support the Mayor. But even in doing that, they are terribly incompetent. How could anyone that is supposed to be loyal to their boss allow embarrassing incident after embarrassing incident to occur. I don't care for Perez, most people realize that, but does anyone in his office have his back and really try to protect him?

Sarah Barr ,as an example, has done more to harm Perez than she has done to make him look good. And right about now it would take a lot to make Perez look good, but it is almost like his staff go out of their way to embarrass him. Could you imagine anyone like Sarah Barr or Susan McMullen surviving their stunts if they worked in the CEO's office of one of Hartford's major corporations like the Traveler's or the Aetna.

I can almost guarantee that if someone with a suspended license was allowed to be hired and then drive the CEO of Aetna for several months, many people down the food chain would be on the unemployment line right about now. But not at Hartford City Hall where incompetence is rewarded almost daily.

It also raises a lot of questions though, the most important being how many other drivers are operating the hundreds of city-owned vehicles that shouldn't be behind the wheel driving. What process is being undertaken to check on that? Knowing the way Hartford operates, probably none. Hartford's version of "don't ask, don't tell"

After I posted the information regarding the Mayor's driver being arrested for operating under suspension I e-mailed several questions to Sarah Barr requesting answers to a few questions I had. In her capacity as the Communications Director for the Mayor, that is her job to answer questions.

I know she won't answer questions from me, but I really don't need her comment because I usually have my facts together long before I even attempt to contact her.

In today's Hartford Courant she apparently did answer questions for them, but her answers seemed far from the truth, if not actually outright lies.

When she was apparently asked if a background check was performed before the driver for Perez was hired, according to the Courant article, she said a background check was performed but "nothing that was red-flaggable" came up.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Unless he had a phony license, a drivers license expired for several years should have been more than "red-flaggable", it should have been "rockets red glaring-able" to grab someones attention. But again, in this administration no one ever acknowledges errors, every thing is always done right.

Barr went on to state, according to the Courant,that the background showed "There were no violations. Nothing came up in the normal process of the check". Does anyone want to place bets on whether an actual background check was ever performed ? My money would be placed on no, absolutely not.

Barr went on to state that "The city did not make a photocopy of his license when he was hired".As part of the hiring process, she said, licenses are examined but there is no requirement that they be photocopied the article stated. My understanding is that for any employer to comply with Federal Law, two forms of ID must be provided and copies kept to verify the employees immigration status when the I-9 form is completed. At the very least the employer must verify that the documents "appear to be genuine and relate to the individual and record the document information" according to federal law.

Maybe since Hartford has designated itself a "Sanctuary City" it can choose to ignore Federal Law.

These are the questions I had e-mailed to Sarah Barr requesting comment:

I am preparing a posting for my blog regarding this and I have a couple questions.

1. Was anyone injured and the extent of the injuries?

2. What was the extent of damage to the vehicle?

3. Was the vehicle leaving the Court after dropping the Mayor off?

4. What process is undertaken to check a city employee's driving history and driving record before allowing them to drive City vehicles?

5. Was anyone aware that his license had been suspended?

6. What was the purpose of the Mayor's Chief of Staff calling the investigating officer to City Hall

None of these questions have been answered by Sarah Barr. That's probably better off though, I'd prefer to deal with the truth rather than lies.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

NEIGHBORS WORKING TOGETHER TO GET IT DONE

Not every neighborhood in the city has a strong NRZ group operating in their area. But many residents still want to work together for the good of the City. Here is a perfect example. Whether you live in this area or not, crime is an issue we all face as Hartford residents.

Feel free to join the meeting tonight.

Community+Meeting+Flyer[1]