How is it that two neighboring towns can have such widely different standards for their elected officials.
Recently a West Hartford Councilperson announced that he would be teaching law classes in Jamaica for several months as well as being involved with some charitable organizations while he was there. The repercussions were quick to come and the message from his fellow councilmembers was clear.
Essentially, his fellow councilmembers called for his resignation immediately because he was not properly serving the people of West Hartford.
Yet a little bit to the east in the hot bed of corruption known as Hartford, a very different scenario involving elected officials was taking place. A councilmember in Hartford who was involved in the Perez Grand Jury investigation and who was eventually arrested and is now on probation for her involvement, was able to hit the mute button on her fellow councilpeople.
Why is the standard and responsibility for holding public office apparently so much higher in West Hartford? As opposed to the calls for resignation in West Hartford, no conversation has even taken place about the future of Hartford's corrupt Councilperson Veronica Airey-Wilson.
No calls for her resignation, no discussion of her violations of the public trust not even a mention of her violations of the City of Hartford's ethics code. Does this say that Hartford's silence condones corruption? Apparently so if nothing happens.
I know we might not have some of the cleanest hands sitting on the Council when it comes to payoffs and dirty deals, but there are a couple of respectable people still sitting there and saying nothing. How does any Councilmember with integrity sit there alongside Airey-Wilson knowing what she has done and yet they don't say a word?
Why does the West Hartford Town Council obviously understand the awesome responsibility elected officials take on yet Hartford seems as though they could care less? The people of Hartford deserve better from our elected officials.
Those that have been elected by us owe it to us to speak out and set the tone that criminals in City Government are not an acceptable Hartford value.