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Thursday, April 26, 2012

THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG



Relax, you have Mastercard.

That apparently seems to be the mindset around Hartford City Hall as the cash strapped City continues to spend over a million dollars a year on food, beverages and other items purchased on City credit cards and paid for by the taxpayers of Hartford.

Yesterday's posting pointed out a few purchases by one person, the principal at Kinsella Magnet School, but it doesn't appear as though she is the only one.

There is still a lot of digging to do as I go through each cardholders purchases, but if you have the time, take a look and feel free to e-mail any thoughts or questions you may have.

The list may not be entirely complete, for example the Mayor's Chief of Staff Jared Kupiec's card only shows a few weeks of purchases, which is only a partial report for some reason, even though I requested the full report.

It looks like Best Buy as well as a couple of downtown food and liquor establishments are being kept in business by the city credit cards.

FOI Hartford Card Holder Transactions 1 (5)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

ANOTHER REASON DAVID MEDINA NEEDS TO BE SHOWN THE DOOR


How David Medina, the Director of Misinformation for Hartford Public School's still has a job is beyond me.

Jenna Carlesso at the Hartford Courant did a story today regarding the Principal at the Kinsella Magnet School and questionable charges on her City of Hartford credit card. The principal, Pamela Totten-Alvarado, had her city credit card (also called a p-card, short for purchasing card) suspended when some charges appeared. You can read the story here

When Carlesso asked, according to the story, for the record of charges , Medina responded by e-mail in a written statement that "We cannot respond to your request for a comment because all matters involving individual purchase card use are personnel issues and therefore outside of the public domain."

WRONG...WRONG...WRONG and just to be sure the overpaid mouthpiece understands what I am saying....WRONG! Medina is an embarrassment to anyone claiming to be working for open and transparent government. I am hoping his response is just out of ignorance, but as a former editor for the Hartford Courant I would hope he would be more familiar with Connecticut's FOI laws.

Mr. Medina, even if the records were personnel records as you stated, I am sure you know that personnel records are not exempt from disclosure except for a few specific items such as medical records, social security numbers banking information and the home addresses of police officers and firefighters.

I had already obtained the credit card records over a week ago for something I am working on, but I guess there is no time like the present to prove the mouthpiece wrong. Below are the credit card records for the subject of the Courant's article that Mr. Medina claims are exempt. Eliminating Mr. Medina's position would be a budget cut that makes sense.

Tighter controls over these credit cards would also make sense. Anyone that has ever worked in the "real" world of corporate America realizes that documentation is needed whenever a charge is made. Receipts detailing the reason for a purchase, the restaurant or store receipt and usually a note detailing the person being entertained , etc.

As you can see from the attached report, that doesn't seem to be the case in Fantasyland aka Hartford City Hall

A purchase for $140.21 at the Nightclub Belere in Morocco is approved because "per Mrs. Alvarado this purchase was made during her peace corp teacher exchange conference in Morocco 6/30/11-7/31/11". How do you get one of these jobs? A month in Morocco at the taxpayers expense?

Another purchase at Best Buy for $2059.50 on 11/02/11 was approved as "OK" because Mrs. Alvarado said "this purchase was used to reward the 7th and 8th grade students with a dance and activities for good behavior". When did Best Buy start selling high school dances?

A purchase at the Coach Store on 9/26/2011 for $150.00 was approved because Mrs. Alvarado said "this purchase was for a reward for a student at Kinsella Magnet School". A $150.00 Coach handbag for a student? Call me a skeptic, but might there be something more appropriate? And once again, where is the documentation?

Almost $13,000 dollars in purchases were made at Best Buy over several months, all approved, according to the documents, because "Mrs. Alvarado says....". These purchases could all be legit, but don't count on David Medina to shine any light on the truth.

More on the use of Hartford's city credit cards to come. In the mean time, here are the "personnel records" David Medina refused to release to the Courant.


FOI Totten-Alvarado P-card0001

DEMOCRACY AT WHAT PRICE?

The official number of Republicans voting in yesterdays GOP primary have been filed.

An impressive 158 Republicans turned out city wide, (yes, I'm being sarcastic). That averages out to 6.58333 persons per polling place. The City of Hartford paid to have 24 polling places open citywide, although I am being told that at least one polling location had no one show up. Most polling places probably had more paid GOP workers than they actually had voters.

The final dollar amount spent hasn't been tallied yet, but it will most likely be at least $400.00 to $500.00 per vote, if not greater. It would have been more cost effective to take every Republican in Hartford out to dinner and get their vote while they were dining.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

ANOTHER WHEEL COMES OFF THE BUS

Hartford's political "machine", if there actually is such a thing, suffered another body blow tonight. The Hartford Charter Revision Commission had its second meeting tonight and the major item of business was the election of a permanent chairperson. The appointment and selection of the chair is important as that person, in theory, guides the direction of the Commission for its duration.

The permanent Chair is able to decide what moves forward as far as any changes to Hartford's Charter, what eventually is referred to the Council for change, and potentially to the voters of Hartford.

The choices tonight were political insider John Kennelly and former State Representative Ken Green. Kennelly was fresh from his pleading in Superior Court where he accepted probation and court imposed penalties for his recent drunk driving arrest. Ken Green was recently elected along with a "reform" slate, of which I am also a member, for the 7th Disrict Hartford Democratic Town Committee.

The votes of at least two Commission members appointed by Working Families Party
members put Green over the top in the vote count to become Chairperson as well as former Republican Councilperson Corey Brinson's vote for Green.

It was generally expected that those Commissioner's appointed by Mayor Segarra as well as Democratic Council members would have been enough to carry Kennelly, but that apparently didn't happen.

This should be an interesting 16 months under Ken Green's leadership and may result in substantive change to Hartford's Charter.

Maybe there is hope yet.

Monday, April 23, 2012

A VISION UPDATE


BEFORE PICTURE, JANUARY 2012


TODAY'S PICTURE APRIL 2012

In January, I wrote a post that was very difficult to write, not knowing what the future had in store and facing a possible prognosis of losing eyesight. You can read that original post here. Before I go much further, I just want to thank everyone for their support, words of kindness and the prayers that I know were being said, I never knew how many people have "prayer lists" until they began telling me I was added to theirs.

Two people in particular played a key role in helping me maintain my sanity during this difficult time, first is my mother who naturally did what mothers do by supporting me and even insisting on making sure she accompanied me to the office visits with the opthamologist and the laser surgery. She claimed it was because I shouldn't drive after having my eyes dilated or after the laser, but I think it was more to be there if the news got much worse than the first day I was given the diagnosis. I know she had many sleepless nights worrying about what could happen.

The other is my closest friend, who will remain nameless, but anyone close to me knows who he is, and he knows it also. We have known each other for over 25 years and his daily phone calls to make sure everything was OK shows what a friend is all about. The first night I was given the possible prognosis of going blind, he insisted on dragging me out for dinner and get me out of the house and my sulking that night. He is a great husband and father to his family and the best friend someone could ask for.

OK, so enough of the sappy stuff.

For all the original details , read the post above, but today was three months since the laser surgery on my left eye. I was on edge, not knowing what the "verdict" was going to be. The large smile on the opthamologist's face when he came into the exam room, was the first indication I had that it was going to be a good day. My right eye has some issues, but is holding its own compared to what the left looked like

Before he came in, they had tested eye pressures done a few other tests and then took color images of the retina and macula in the back of my eyes. I'm not a doctor so much of it meant nothing, but the images he showed me told me the story. I think the doctor thought he was given the wrong "after" photos, and he said even he couldn't believe the results, using words like "impressive" and "remarkable" to describe the outcome of the laser surgery.

The surgery was done in January, and because of the swelling and condition of the retina I was told at the time it would take three months to determine the results.

Today was the day and you can see from the pictures above the difference. The "before" picture was taken on January 6th, 2012. The yellow and green colors are relatively normal. I guess the green is the preferred shade, but some yellow can be expected for someone with diabetes and my age. The red is not good, white is bad and black is the worst. As you can see from the before pic, the upper half of my left eye was definitely in trouble.

On January 26, 2012 I had laser surgery to try to stop the swelling, or macular edema, in the macula and the retina which had the potential of causing blindness within a year if left untreated and at the time, even the laser wasn't a sure fire fix. My vision had deteriorated so much in less than two months, I was scared of the outcome. I was already being prepped mentally for the next possible step which were steroid injections directly into the eye. I had enough trouble getting used to putting contacts into my eyes, never mind watching a needle coming toward my eye.

The after picture above shows the results after three months. It is not perfect, but the whites and black are gone and just a tinge of red is left. It is still something that needs to be monitored closely for both eyes , but I feel much better than I did on January 6th. And whoever perfected the laser for this surgery is amazing. Prior to the laser this would have been definite blindness.

Thank you again for all of your support.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

WFSB'S HALLIE JACKSON MOVING ON




WFSB's Hallie Jackson will be leaving the Hartford area to accept a new position with the Hearst Television Group in Washington D.C.. Her assignment will be covering Federal government and political stories for almost 30 Hearst stations.

Hallie's last day in Hartford will be May 13th. Good luck to Hallie and her husband Doug