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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

ADVICE FOR rJo WINCH: TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE GAS AND SHIFT IT INTO NEUTRAL


Luckily I have unlimited minutes on my cell phone because it seems to be ringing constantly. Probably the number one subject now is regarding the replacement of outgoing Councilmembers. One is leaving on a high note as he ascends to the State Legislature, the other on a low note after a corruption scandal and her arrest toppled her 17 year political career. Thank you Matt for your service to Hartford and continued success at the Capitol.

What they both have in common is the rush by Council President rJo Winch to fill those seats. Although it took weeks to fill the Council seat vacated by Mayor Segarra's rise to the Mayor's office, the rush to fill Matt Ritter's seat before the body is even cold (sorry Matt)is highly questionable. The theory being laid out earlier in the week was that Winch had the five votes on the Council to slide her pick in under the "political" radar without any problem. It appears that Winch's pic is her close friend, Sean Arena.

Winch apparently isn't concerned with information that came out earlier this year regarding Arena's registering his vehicles in New Canaan to avoid Hartford's high taxes and mill rate. To read that entry, click here

The votes seemed to be in place for Arena and Winch earlier in the week, but that was also thrown upside down after the announced "retirement" of the corrupt Councilwoman mentioned above, Veronica Airey-Wilson. It seems that Airey-Wilson is Winch's fifth vote for Arena.

Now here is where the problem arises. According to Hartford's City Charter a vacany can only be filled AFTER it occurs, and then it must be done within 60 days. Any attempt to fill Ritter's vacancy before he resigns January 3, 2011 would be a violation of Hartford's Charter. The specifics can be found in Hartford's Charter, Chapter 3,section 4, subsection C, subsection 2. It clearly states that a Council vacancy "shall be filled by a majority vote of the Council within sixty (60) days following the vacancy.

Now, Airey-Wilson's resignation takes effect on December 31, 2010, which is 3 days BEFORE Ritter's resignation. Hence, Airey-Wilson can not legally vote for Ritter's replacement and Winch's fifth vote for Arena disappears into thin air, like a check written for countertops. Not that Airey-Wislon or some others on the Council pay much attention to laws if past practice is any indication. This most likely will put into jeopardy the plans to replace Airey-Wilson with her nephew Corey Brinson, but more on that in another posting.

Although the current Council President may consider herself a political power broker after she squashed her competition for the Council President's vote by getting Aponte to flip and support her, she may want to listen to her constituents. Just as a reminder, Winch was the low vote getter last go round for Council elections by almost 1000 votes to the next closest Democrat. She recently lost her bid to unseat the incumbent State Representative Doug McCrory in her home district by close to a 4 to 1 margin.

That might seem to indicate that her support in her own home district is tenuous at best, some might say close to non-existent, and how that lack of support translates to citywide votes would not seem to be strong. People are sick of the back room deals being shoved down our throats. Has anyone heard of Winch calling for any resumes or any consideration of a pool of qualified candidates?

This backroom politics is what has killed our city and it needs to change. If Winch continues down this path though it should prove beneficial next fall when the voters will hold Winch and others accountable for their acts.....hopefully. Anyone who under estimates the voter discontent that just swept this country, is either blind or most definitely doing it at their own peril.

Is another shellacing in the works, Hartford style?

THANK HEAVEN FOR SARAH BARR


I still receive regular calls asking me how Sarah Barr still has a job at Hartford City Hall. Until today, all I could tell people was that I was as confused as they were. Common sense would say that the spokesperson and the face associated with a corrupt, criminal Perez Administration would have been shown the exit at City Hall quickly if a fresh start was really happening.

After all, Barr was the one who was credited with creating the "Gospel of Perez" that taught Perez's staffers the fine art of spinning and embellishing the truth. The "Gospel" was all about the message, forget about the truth. Barr was also the one standing by Perez manipulating the media as Perez faced the Grand Jury and had his home searched by authorities. She was also there as arrest number one took place and there again during arrest number two. She was there at the prayer vigils and Function Room pep-rallies and she was there putting name tags on all the Council Chamber chairs reserving them for Perez Cheerleaders at the State of the City addresses.

I thought that would be a no-brainer for Mayor Segarra, Barr would be out the door. Especially since Segarra seems to have no problem handling the media on his own, and the speeches seem to come from the heart rather than from a script as was the Perez style. And whether those speeches were written upwards, backwards or right to left to account for the "dyslexia defense", there is no doubt Barr was the Perez mouthpiece. And if budget cuts were really needed , Barr's $80,000 or $90,000 plus salary would be a good start.

All those thoughts went out the window today when I realized Sara Barr's true value to the people of the City of Hartford and restoring our image as a thoughtfully run City. Just when you think Hartford is a laughing stock and can't do anything right, Sara Barr steps forward and earns every penny that the taxpayers of Hartford have paid her since she lost her job at Channel 3.

Anyone who has followed the debacle of this years "Festival of Light" must have seen that Hartford appeared to be a huge disappointment to countless children and adults. Many of them families who ventured into Hartford last Friday for a spectacular holiday event. The only problem was that those who ventured in were left in dismay after the switch was flipped, and what to their wondering eyes did appear,...... but an artificial tree lit in the middle of Bushnell Park.

Luckily for us, all the disappointment has now been forgotten by one little media statement from the Barr spin machine......"WE DID IT FOR THE SQUIRRELS". Yes you read that right, the lack of the 250,000 twinkling lights promised before the event apparently happened out of consideration for Bushnell Parks wildlife. Lights require wires. Wires carry electricity. Squirrels eat wires. Birds land in trees. Trees have lights, the same lights with wires that carry the electricity that the squirrels might eat and, as the Barr theory goes, birds could get electrocuted as they land on those wires that carry the electricity that the squirrels eat.

Brilliant, brilliant...absolutely brilliant. It is so bizarre that people will have to believe that. And tell me what suburbanite wouldn't be willing to overlook the original failure and give Hartford a second (or maybe even third, fourth, fifth or more) chance. Consider the alternative, the poor little squirrel falling from the tree, smoking nuts and all after eating the wrong wire before the bird could land and electrocuting himself. This might be a good time for the "chestnuts roasting" joke, but I will choose not to.

So anyways, back to Barr. For a city that seems to have a severe credibility issue on just about every front, why would we even think of using the truth when the absurd will do just fine. Why would anyone admit "we screwed up, we underestimated what the public expected" when you can tell people "we did it for the squirrels".

From what my City Hall sources tell me , Barr will next take over media efforts for the Hartford Police Department. Tell me I'm crazy but her next effort is also brilliant. Those same visitors to the City who were disappointed by the "Festival of non-Lights" also seem to have serious concerns about Hartford's gun violence. Barr's latest effort will kill two birds with one stone. That might not be the right choice of words if we are concerned about electrocuting birds on the lights, but I'm not as good at the spin as Barr is.

Anyway, the new plan like I said is brilliant. Barr has apparently instructed the Hartford Police Department to immediately cease referring to anyone taking a bullet as a "shooting victim". Instead, according to her directive fresh out of the Mayor's Office, from this point forward any one shot in Hartford is to be referred to as "suffering from a severe case of lead poisoning". Like I said before, absolutely brilliant. Shooting victim scares people, "suffering from a severe case of lead poisoning" should change everything, it worked with the squirrels.

If they fell for it with the "doing it for the squirrels" defense, why wouldn't they buy it with the "lead poisoning" defense, hopefully it will work much better than the "dyslexia" defense, I guess two out of three ain't bad.

Keep it up Sarah, these fools will never see through the smoke and mirrors.

P.S., it also gives me a reason to re-use the lovely pic above. Many people asked me where I got that pic from and in all honesty the photographer who took it recently passed away. I'll never forget how the photographer loved seeing me use the pic and was proud of the naturalness and quality as opposed to the "staged" photos he seemed to dislike. Brian Libert was never seen without his camera and loved clicking away, many pics were flattering and many were not, but they always seemed to capture the true essence of his subjects personality. Don't you agree?

Monday, November 29, 2010

CITY HALL SOURCES: AIREY-WILSON TO RESIGN


Above: arrest photo of Councilwoman Veronica Airey-Wilson
For the second time in less than a month, embroiled Hartford Councilperson Veronica Airey-Wilson is managing to take the easy way out.

Airey-Wilson, who played a role in the Perez Corruption scandal and was eventually arrested along with Perez ,took Accelerated Rehabilitation to avoid going to trial.
After that decision many were calling for her resignation for her violation of the public trust as an elected official.

Now, it appears as though Airey-Wilson will be able to avoid those calls for her resignation and save face, courtesy of the City of Hartford's pension fund. City Hall sources have advised me that Airey-Wilson submitted her paperwork to accept early retirement shortly before today's 5:00PM deadline. According to those same sources, Airey-Wilson's "package" also includes paid medical insurance at the taxpayers expense for life.

It seems ironic that the State Attorney General is attempting to revoke Perez's pension for his criminal acts while Airey-Wilson is being rewarded and given a graceful exit from City Hall with her pension.

Friday, November 26, 2010

WHAT THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS USED TO BE

"ANONYMOUS" posted this "youtube" link from last year's Festival of Lights. This is what I'm sure many people expected when they made the trek to Hartford for the "New and Improved" Festival of Lights.

I'm not sure what STN2 is, but the video gives you an idea of what the Festival used to be before it was "tweaked" to a fake tree standing alone in the park. At least they can say they drastically cut the energy usage this year.

UPDATE: From what I can find on their website, STN2 seems to be a news network at the University of Hartford

OK, THE JOKE IS OVER , PLEASE TELL US THE TRUTH


I think I might have finally figured it all out. For the last several years we have all been on a hidden camera reality show just to see how far we would go to tolerate a corrupt, incompetent, overly inflated municipal government trying to kill a capitol city. Any day now, someone will jump out and yell "surprise, we gotcha"

I won't rehash everything over the last couple of years, but tonight's "Festival of Lights" has to be our last performance before the producers of "Surreal Life: Hartford" unveil their project. There is just no other logical explanation, it can't get much worse.

As dusk started to settle over Hartford, I decided that after this afternoon's post about the poor condition of Bushnell Park, I would give the "Festival of Lights" a chance anyways. I left the comfort of my living room and the fireplace, bundled up and I walked downtown. I was pleasantly surprised by the foot traffic headed toward the park and the large crowd in the park.

Suddenly as I walked into the park I heard the countdown ten, nine, eight......three, two, one, zero. I waited to see Bushnell Park in all its holiday splendor as I expected to see all the trees lit up, the pumphouse outlined in miniature lights, essentially Constitution Plaza re-incarnated in Bushnell Park with thousands and thousands of small white lights. I wanted to see the few thousand people in the park feeling warm and encouraged about Hartford's new direction.

I thought something went wrong because after the countdown all that lit up was an artificial tree in the middle of the park. Ok, they must be waiting for the big finale and this was just a tease to get people going, at least I hoped.

The group singing Christmas Carols was entertaining the crowd, but eventually I heard people start mumbling "when are they turning the rest of the lights on?". I was asking myself the same question. I found an assistant to one of our Councilpeople and asked the question when the rest of the lights were coming on?

Almost apologetically I was informed "that's it". That's it? One tree in the middle of the park, and an artificial tree at that. And a few shop lights with colored filters shining on the trunks of a few trees at Jewel and Trumbull Streets.

So I am convinced that it must be a reality show, no one can be this incompetent and still collect a salary. No one can hype an event such as they did with the move of the "Festival of Lights" and be serious about an artificial tree being lit and expect it to draw all those people back into Hartford in the future.

It just seems that every time we are handed an opportunity to excel and move forward we shoot ourselves in the foot. This time we made a point to do better, we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot we made sure to shoot ourselves squarely in the forehead.

At the risk of getting punched out, I asked a few people what they thought as they quickly exited the park. The comments were pretty short and to the point and ranged from "This sucked" to "We're done with Hartford". One person even commented that a police cruiser parked at the curb had more lights on it than there were in Bushnell Park. The sad part is that they probably weren't far off in their assessment.

Like I said in this afternoon's post, I can't figure out why or who made the brilliant decision to move the Festival of Lights from Constitution Plaza. It just seems like it would have been a great opportunity to build the festival and include the latest crown jewel of Hartford, the Connecticut Science Center. But I guess in true Yankee tradition, we don't want any excitement to stir things up.

Oh well, there will be other opportunities, but we'll probably blow those too.

WE JUST DON'T GET IT



A few short hours from now, the City of Hartford will hopefully be welcoming thousands of visitors to the Festival of Lights. I say hopefully because a new venue is being tried this year as the festival moves from Constitution Plaza to Bushnell Park.

Many of us remember the annual tradition of going into the City the day after Thanksgiving to see everything Hartford had to offer to wide eyed kids anticipating the arrival of Santa Claus. Remember the store fronts that rivaled something from 5th Avenue in New York. The animated window displays of G.Fox and Sage-Allen. Then the trip up to the 11th Floor of G.Fox to Santa's Village and ultimately to sit on Santa's lap and let him know what we hoped for under the tree on Christmas Day.

But that was when Hartford was vibrant and wasn't the skeleton of itself that it is now. We actually had Channel 3 that would broadcast live from their Headquarters on the Plaza as Santa descended down the side of a building in his sleigh. Downtown was full of retail and reasons to actually bring a family downtown. Even the Police Department was steps away from the Plaza and crime wasn't a concern with the police presence downtown.

I just don't understand the move this year, and after stopping by Bushnell Park this afternoon, I really do believe we have a city run by people with no clue how to turn this City around.

If you wanted to impress visitors to your home, wouldn't you put your best foot forward ? Just hours before the switch is supposed to be flipped, Bushnell Park is a mess and there is no excuse for it. The leaves in the Park haven't been done yet, large areas of the Park are covered with leaves and trash. There are a few large piles of leaves surrounding the Carousel that seem as though they were just left there by maintenance crews and just never picked up. The picture above is just an example of the condition the park is in.

The other issue I have is why the operation had to be moved to Bushnell Park. Are we limited to how much excitement the City can tolerate as we try to get people back here? Why not keep Constitution Plaza lit as well as Bushnell Park and maybe include portions of the Riverfront? To connect it all together maybe hayrides or horse drawn carriages to move people around downtown with frequent stops at businesses and restaurants that are trying to weather the economic storm in Hartford.

Imagine if we had all the Christmas lights, hay rides, ice skating a bon-fire in the park on the same night there is a Uconn game at the XL Center, people might just talk about the excitement in Hartford.

We obviously know there is a market for it if anyone can remember the lines of traffic waiting to get into Goodwin Park for the old Holiday Light Fantasia.

It just seems that there is very little creativity in Hartford's thinking and just because we want to be vibrant or try to convince people we are vibrant, doesn't mean it is going to happen without some work.

Maybe if we had high level City employee's that actually lived in Hartford, they might notice and actually pay attention to the things we see everyday as residents.