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Friday, March 23, 2012

HARTFORD CHARTER REVISION COMMISSION NOMINEES

The Hartford City Council will vote on the appointment of members to the Charter Revision Commission on Monday night. The proposed members are as follows:

Jeremy Baver, 36 Whitney Street, Hartford, 06105 (D)
Corey Brinson, 22 Charter Oak Place, Apt. 1S, Hartford, 06106 (R)
Doreth Flowers, 264 Whitney Street, Hartford, 06105 (R)
Richard Gordon 451 Cornwall Street, Hartford, 06112 (U)
Kenneth Green , 223 Granby Street, Hartford, 06112 (D)
Kevin Henry, 487 Main Street, Unit 2, Hartford, 06103 (D)
John Kennelly, 95 Scarborough Street, Hartford, 06105 (D)
Brendan Mahoney, 160 Fairfield Avenue, Hartford, 06104 (U)
Thea Montanez, 1 Linden Place #306, Hartford, 06103 (D)
Sharon Patterson-Stallings, 40 Clark Street, Hartford, 06120 (D)
Bruce Rubenstein, 80 Goodwin Circle 17D, Hartford, 06105 (U)

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

CITY TO PAY ESTATE OF JASHON BRYANT $1,625,000

The City of Hartford has reached a tentative agreement with the estate of Jashon Bryant for a one time settlement payment of $1.625 million. Although the City of Hartford Corporation Counsel has refused to release any information pursuant to an FOI request, I was able to view documents today that detailed the proposed payment to the estate.

The claim results from the fatal shooting of Jashon Bryant in 2005 by Hartford Police Deytective Robert Lawlor. Lawler reported that as he approched the vehicle in which Bryant was a passsenger he sw a gun and fired his weapon as he feared for his life from the occupants and the moving vehicle. Although no weapon was found later when the vehicle crashed, the operator of the vehicle has been serving prison time for gun and armed robbery charges unrelated to the 2005 incident.

If the City ever releases the entire documents, it should be interesting to see why they chose to pay rather than fight the claim. Although the City claims that the settlement is "sealed" and confidential, a spokesperson at the FOI Commission has a different take on the legality of that.

The State of Connecticut also has a claim on a portion of the settlement apparently for close to $200,000 for money Brant owed to the State for support payments and other items.

Detective Lawlor, who was arrested for the shooting, was eventually acquitted of any criminal charges by a Superior Court jury in 2009.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

IS THE FLU SEASON ABOUT TO HIT HARTFORD?

The "Blue Flu" that is.

It doesn't seem to du much for morale at HPD when the Mayor's Chief of Staff gets a $20,000 a year raise and a Ford Explorer SUV City vehicle and the Hartford Police Department has working without a contract for almost two years now. For more on the "shared sacrifice" and the Chief of Staff's raise, check out the link to Jeff Cohen's blog in the right column

Members of the Hartford Police Union are apparently starting to raise their voices over the fact that they have been without a contract for over 22 months. Several members of the union have called me over the last few days, most talking about the initial planning of "efforts" to get the City administrations attention. According to several sources, a planning meeting is going to be held this week to discuss and "organize" these efforts.

Hartford Police Union President Rich Holton wouldn't discuss specifics of the contract negotiations, but his frustration was clear. Holton did credit acting Police Chief James Rovella with "jumpstarting" negotiations over the last few weeks since his appointment.

Others have told me that there are still major issues to be worked out before a contract agreement can be reached. Among those issues are retiree health care benefits as well as private duty job pay. Currently police officers working private duty jobs are paid straight time for those hours, even though the city recoups and actually profits substantially from the billing for those hours worked.

Another issue being discussed is the privatization of the HPD booking/detention facility. This is apparently being discussed to get more uniformed officers onto the streets, but I'm sure many might question that decision. Booking has been a source of numerous problems, and payouts, for actions of police officers and supervisors working inside that area. I'm not sure that bringing in essentially private security guards is the best choice.

With the current staffing of HPD any slowdown or reduction in the "speed" of services and responses could cripple the already understaffed department.

Others mentioned the possibility of refusing to work "private jobs" which although being costly to the officers, would also cripple construction and road jobs as the warm weather approaches. The MDC project alone may need dozens of officers each day to work on City streets. Under Connceticut State law, Hartford Police officers are required to man those traffic positions as opposed to "flagmen".

A few of the officers I spoke with also expressed their disappointment in what they felt is the lack of a good faith effort by Mayor Pedro Segarra in the negotiations. Unofficially they felt that they stepped up during last years campaign and supported Segarra when mayoral challenger Kelvin Roldan began slinging allegations towards Segarra. The union also endorsed Segarra for Mayor during last November's election. Am potential vote of "no confidence" in Segarra and former Chief Roberts was pretty much squashed when the idea arose last year.

I am not a big union person, but the fact of the matter is that Hartford's police officers probably have some of the toughest working conditions in the state and are well below surrounding towns when it comes to their pay rates. The administration is also well aware that it is costing the City money through attrition when trained HPD officers leave for better pay and benefits in other agencies.

What's fair is fair and the games need to end, Mr. Mayor. For our benefit this contract needs to be settled now.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

THE SIDESHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED


For those hoping to be able to see democracy in action (and I'm being sarcastic) the City hall steps sideshow scheduled for 5:30PM today by Hartford's Republican Registrar Sal bramante has been cancelled.

According to a quote by Republican Michael Fryar from ctnewsjunkie.com that the registrar and the City Council had resolved the issue. Apparently though that is also not correct. There have apparently been no meetings between Bramante and the City Council. One source familiar with the situation told me "there have been nodeals reached. The only thing is that Sal has been told to deal with the finances" and the funding already approved by the Council.

The other part of the story is that apparently many other Registrars of Voters from throughout Connecticut had bought into Bramante's story and had agreed to stand by Bramante at the press conference. Once I posted the documents and the facts yesterday, apparently members of "ROVAC" an association of Registrars of Voters in Connecticut, mailed the links to my story and the documents. That caused many of the Registrars to reconsider their support for Bramante's actions when they actually saw the factual documents.

Calls to ROVAC representatives for comment have not been returned at this time.

Tor read the ctnewsjunkie.com story, click here

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

10 ARRESTED FOR SOLICITING PROSTITUTES

At least ten men were arrested in the South Green area of the City Tuesday for attempting to patronize an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute. The HPD arrest log is below. It is interesting to note the ages of those arrested as well as the fact that most of them are Hartford residents.

Luckily it was an election day so other "johns" were occupied.

3 6 12 Prostitution Arrests 0001

THE OFFICIAL NUMBERS ARE IN

Yesterday's Hartford Democratic Town Committee primaries had some interesting results, most importantly that our entire challenge slate in the 7th Distric were all elected. Also in the 6th District the challenge slate was elected there also defeating the entire "Robles" slate, including the defeat of Al MArotta, Councilman David Macdonald and Hartford Fire Chief Ed Casares in their bid for Town Committee seats.

The 4th Dsitrict "Roldan" slate was also soundly defeated by the "Dibella" slate. This will most likely result in some changes for Hartford in the Connecticut legislature As replacements for Robles and Roldan are likely to be nominated by the new Town Committee's. It might also prove interesting for both of Hartford's State Senators, John Fonfara and Eric Coleman. Both Senators thrw their support behind losing slates which are respoinsible for a large number of votes at nomination time.

I am extremely proud of the slate that was put together to represent the people of the 7th District and look forward to working with them to improve our neighborhoods and our City.

The official numbers are below

Results+03062012+Dem+Town+Committee