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Thursday, February 24, 2011

I REALLY THINK WE ARE MISSING THE POINT


The reactionary finger pointing that we have sadly become accustomed to in Hartford government is running forward at full speed. Was it Mayor Segarra showing that he does have a spine and standing up to the Board of Education that torpedoed the appointment of Dr. Kishimoto? Or was it Board President David McDonald proving that he doesn't have a spine by knuckling under to Segarra's demands?

The answer is probably quite simple, but I think we have lost sight of the real culprit. If Mayor Segarra expects us to believe that he first learned that the selection process was flawed just moments before the cheese and cracker platters were being delivered for Dr. Kishimoto's coronation, he really needs to rethink that. The talk in the community for weeks has been how Adamowski was hand picking his successor and if the Mayor wasn't privy to any of those conversations, he is drastically out of touch with his constituents.

The wrangling that went into the selection process and even the e-mails flying back and forth between parents, councilpeople and others painted a picture of a done deal for Kishimoto from day one.

The revelation of the $2.7 million dollars in bonuses revealed here a few weeks ago I'm sure didn't ease any tension between Segarra and Adamowski. The Mayor was actually forced into addressing the issue publicly after it was posted, even though I find his claims of ignorance to the process somewhat surprising.

The final straw though in the derailment of Kishimoto's appointment wasn't Segarra or McDonald. It was from the Trojan horse hiding within the Adamowski/Kishimoto inner circle. It was from one of their own loyal and faithful apostles of the Gospel of Perez, David Medina.

For those not familiar with the name David Medina, here is a quick education. David Medina is a former editor from the Hartford Courant. Medina was a member of the Courant's editorial board at the same time that the editorial board surprised many when they endorsed former Mayor, and now convicted felon, Eddie A. Perez for re-election in 2007. Even though Perez's home had been searched by State Inspectors and even though they were aware that a criminal investigation was in full gear, the Courant's Editorial Board endorsed the future felon Perez for re-election.

After that endorsement by the editors, it wasn't a huge surprise when one of the reported authors of the endorsement, David Medina, landed a $100,000 a year plus job as spokesperson for the Hartford School System. Actually his official title is "Director of External Communications".

From what I hear from most media people I speak with, former media people make terrible "spokespersons" or "external communicators". That seems to be true with the "former media person" in the Mayor's Office as well as the Board's choice of Medina. They both seem to have forgotten where they came from.

In Medina's case, boundaries and ethics seem to be foreign to him. That lack of boundaries on Medina's part was most likely the straw that broke the camel's back in the Kishimoto appointment.Not McDonald and most likely not Segarra either as the finger pointing would suggest.


On Tuesday, WNPR's Jeff Cohen reported on Medina's antics in his willingness to make phone calls and political arm twisting to garner support for Kishimoto's ascension to the Office of the Exalted Ruler at 960 Main Street. You can read Jeff's initial story here, and his follow-up story here

It seems that only after Jeff's story was posted that Mayor Segarra was forced to play his hand and step up and address the issue. The timing was highly suspicious and no matter what the Mayor's intentions were, it just looked like a political move to most peeple. And as you can tell, I am not a supporter of Kishimoto or Adamowski, but to eliminate the choice in the final hour is a showing of a total lack of respect for Dr. Kishimoto.

I do agree that a larger search is definitely in order.Did Mayor Segarra suddenly have some miraculous epiphany at lunch on Tuesday to call a hastily planned "media event" to derail the selection process that he had weeks to weigh in on? Who knows.

The one thing that makes me think it wasn't political on the Mayor's part or re-enforces that Segarra has terrible political advisors is this: If Segarra was actually interested in using the process for political gain, the smart choice would have been to support the only other candidate, Tim Sullivan. Sullivan's mother, Geraldine Sullivan, who also happens to be the sister of the late former Mayor Mike Peters, is still a political force to be reckoned with that can deliver votes.

Most people I have asked have told me that Tim Sullivan is a capable and qualified individual to be the Superintendent of Schools. Not all teachers support him because he apparently sided with Adamowski on the hotly contested issue of assigning seniority for teachers by individual schools rather than by district wide rankings. But even teachers that disagreed with his position on that issue agreed that he could be a good Superintendent.

My point is that if it was a political move, it would have been a no brainer for Segarra to push for Sullivan and most likely garner vote support for making the hometown kid and product of Hartford's Schools himself, the next Superintendent.

But then David Medina decided to throw all the boundaries and ethics away and let his fingers do the walking as he made his improper phone calls. And as anyone knows, apparently except for Medina, nothing in Hartford stays quiet. The word got out, the Mayor was forced to re-act, the Board and its new President had no backbone to stand up to the Mayor. The cheese and cracker platters and the fruit platters were assembled but left unused because the Kishimoto Coronation was cancelled.

And the rest is history, history as only Hartford can let it play out. And finally, for his role in the whole matter, David Medina has been "reprimanded" according to McDonald. Luckily for Medina, in most other places in the real world, Medina would have been terminated and escorted out of the building for unethical behavior like he showed here, especially when it ruined the appointment of his current boss's hand picked successor, embarrassed the Mayor and the Board of Education, a perfect trifecta.

Helen Ubinas also has written her column Thursday about the selection process,another blackeye for Hartford. Click here to read Helen's column

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

HARTFORD BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING CANCELLED....NO CORONATION TODAY

Apparently the pressure on the Board of Education is being ratcheted up and their meeting for today to announce the Coronation of Dr Kishimoto as the replacement to outgoing Superintendent Adamowski has been abruptly cancelled.

More on this later, but a hopefully legitimate search will now be announced by the Board, according to sources.

It sounds like the bonuses to Adamowski, Kishimoto, Roldan and Medina combined with Medina's improper lobbying and phone calls on Kishimoto's behalf might have backfired.

Monday, February 21, 2011

ANOTHER MAYORAL CONTENDER?

Numerous sources are telling me that Southend businessperson Paul Mozzicato is about to announce his run for Mayor. At a Southend small business group meeting last week, Mozzicato apparently informally announced to the group that he intends to enter the race for Hartford's next Mayor.

An official announcement is expected soon.

Mozzicato ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2007, losing out by a very small margin. Many think that Mozzicato's experience as a small business person in Hartford could play a key role in making retention and development of Hartford's small businesses a critical issue in the election.

EARNING HIS BONUS....ONE PHONE CALL AT A TIME


A couple weeks ago I posted about the $2.7million dollars in bonuses paid out by the Hartford Schools. I agree that some of the bonuses might be well deserved by some teachers and administrators, but it still seems to be poor timing by a school system running a budget deficit and potential layoffs of staff.

A few of the bonuses made no sense to me, especially the one paid to the Hartford Schools spokesperson David Medina for essentially doing his job that he is paid very well for.

This weekend though, the entire picture became clearer when Jeff Cohen reported on the shady behind the scene phone calls being made by Medina to influence people to support Dr. Kishimoto for the new Superintendent of Schools. To read Jeff Cohen's report, click here.

To anyone who has observed the selection process for the new Superintendent, it should be pretty clear that it wasn't about honest competition and selecting the best candidate. The process was clearly designed to select Adamowski's handpicked successor, Dr. Kishimoto.

Medina also has a vested interest in seeing Kishimoto picked to run Hartford's School system. Without her, Medina would most likely be on the unemployment line. Especially when it comes to keeping three teachers or getting rid of one spokesperson. Most superintendent's really interested in the children and their educations would choose the teachers first.

Friday, February 11, 2011

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE....AND IN THIS CORNER...MATT ROLDAN


Jeff Cohen had an interesting post on his blog at WNPR radio yesterday. You can use the link to the right to go to Jeff's blog.

Apparently during an interview with Mayor Pedro Segarra, Segarra referred to former Perez bagman Kelvin Roldan as "Matt Roldan". Whether that slip was intentional or by mistake, most feel he was referring to the connection between Roldan and the former Chief of Staff for Hartford's Chief Crook, convicted felon and former Mayor Eddie Perez.

Roldan apparently has embarked recently on a journey of self discovery. Does he want to be an employee of the Hartford Schools?(employee might be the wrong term since no one seems to be able to identify what he actually does) Does he want to be a State Representative? Does he want to be Hartford's City Treasurer? Does he want to be Hartford's Mayor? Or maybe he just wants to live in quiet anonymity as his alter ego "Willie Nunes"?

So anyway, apparently Matt... I mean Kelvin...didn't take too kindly to the Mayor's slip. Roldan sent a sharply worded e-mail to Cohen after the interview aired.

To: Cohen, Jeff; ddownkowski@wnpr.org
Subject: Re: interview for a story

Hi Jeff,

Sorry for my dealyed response, Busy day.

After quickly reviewing the WWL interview I can only say that the poorly plowed roads in Hartford have kept Mayor Segarra confined to City Hall for too long giving him a very bad case of “cabin fever”. This stream of consciousness performance has Segarra; spending $67,000 for four days to rent a snow machine you can allegedly buy for $250,000, defending a $480K payment he approved to a contractor arrested for bribery, claiming to be a psychotherapist , forgetting the location of the Nelton Court Housing project and finally, calling the “poor people” of Hartford “manipulated” and “incapable of performing the analysis” at election time. I think in this context, any additional comments on my part would just detract from this insightful interview.

Thanks,

Kelvin


The whole exchange seems a little ridiculous. Although Segarra may have made a mistake and forgotten the location of Nelton Court, many of Roldan's constituents would make the same claim that Roldan has forgotten the location of his district. Roldan sent out a press release last week urging his subjects, I mean constituents, to send him pictures of poorly plowed streets so he could document Segarra's inefficiency I guess.

It might have made a lot more sense for Roldan to go out and actually walk his district and take a few pictures of his own. Especially in this age of GPS, Roldan should be able to find just about every street in his district without too much trouble.

And I'm not sure what Roldan meant about defending the "$480K" payment to a contractor arrested for bribery. As we heard repeatedly during the Perez arrest and trial..."innocent until proven guilty". And someone that would set up a phony e-mail name for a convicted felon Mayor to facilitate that Mayor's corrupt activities might want to think twice before throwing around any allegation involving corruption.

I'm sure that if we looked deeper into how certain people formerly in the Mayor's office who then landed $128,000 a year positions at the Board of Education might not necessarily have the "cleanest hands".I'm just saying.

And criticizing Mayor Segarra for spending $67,000 for snow removal equipment rentals is interesting also. Wasn't Roldan a key advisor to then Mayor, now convicted felon Eddie A. Perez before Roldan landed his $128,000 a year unknown position at the Board of Education? I might be mistaken, but I think I recall a time when Perez and Roldan could claim responsibility for numerous dollars squandered.

One that immediately comes to mind was the "Wireless Hartford" brainstorm that cost the people of Hartford millions of dollars. That was the plan to provide wireless internet to Blue Hills and Downtown, all paid for by the City of Hartford. Most of that equipment is probably sitting in a city warehouse somewhere now collecting dust and the program was a huge failure.

And that $67,000 dollars is a lot less than the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by the taxpayers of Hartford for attorneys representing Roldan and others when they were brought before a Grand Jury investigating Roldan's mentor...yes, you guessed it....the convicted felon Eddie A. Perez.

At least with the money spent for the snow removal equipment rental we are seeing some benefit and results. The streets are becoming passable, little by little. Not Mayor Segarra's proudest hour, but at least something is getting done.

And as far as Mayor Segarra suffering from "cabin fever", that allegation might be true. Luckily for Kelvin, his frequent travel allows him to spend time at country clubs in much milder climates lounging under the palm trees and playing golf, where he can unwind and forget about his constituents. Constituents of his that comprise probably the poorest district of any other in the State of Connecticut.

And Segarra's comments that Roldan referenced...“manipulated” and “incapable of performing the analysis at election time." probably can't be disputed. How else could you explain the corrupt Mayor and now convicted felon Eddie A. Perez being re-elected in 2007 while undergoing the scrutiny of a Grand Jury investigation which was common knowledge at the time and would lead to his eventual arrest and conviction and sentence of prison time?

I'm just saying.

AGGRAVATING THE CHIEF "WE THE PEOPLE" STYLE


Apparently Chief Roberts doesn't like the term "shake-up".

I attended the promotions ceremony for the newly elevated members of the Chief's command staff yesterday at the Hartford Hilton. The ballroom at the Hilton was full of police officers, their family members, dignitaries and well wishers.I was surprised that Mayor Segarra was not there, nor COO David Panagore or even the Mayor's Chief of Staff. But now that I think about it, I haven't seen the Mayor at the last couple promotion ceremonies.This time he was probably out directing snow removal operations and I think the last time he was making the ice in Bushnell Park.

I was just staring to doze off during the Chief's speech when I heard my name mentioned by the Chief. Just kidding Chief, your speeches are usually pretty good, and more importantly usually short.

Anyway, apparently the Chief wasn't happy that Wednesday morning at about 10:15am he was announcing the management changes and as he later tried to make quite clear to me, it wasn't a "shake-up". A short time later the individual who has been appointed to monitor my blog ( one of a couple from what I understand) frantically entered the Compstat meeting to advise the Chief that "we the people" had the "shake-up" on the blog by 10:18am.

So the Chief made the comment during his promotion speech that "As I was making my changes, Mr. Brookman had it on his blog by 10:18am, someone was telling him what was going on". After his speech, the Chief told me he would love to know how I get my information, and I told him that is the beauty of it, he never will know and sometimes I don't even know who they are.

And just to clarify this, the Chief and I do have a very good professional relationship, at least I think so, the Chief might have a different version, but I doubt it. One of the things I have to say about Chief Roberts is that we have a lot of good conversations, but we also have conversations when I can honestly tell him I disagree with some things that he or his Department do.

The picture above was taken after the promotion ceremony, just to show that we really do get along. The picture was taken by Detective Claudette Kosinski, and I am convinced the Chief had her fix the photo so I appeared chubbier than he does in the photo. Sorry Chief.

According to numerous police sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Chief was seen throughout the day wandering the halls of Jennings Road repeating the phrase "10:18, 10:18, Brookman had it by 10:18, someone's talking".