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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

WHERE IS WILLIE NUNES WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

During the Grand Jury Investigation into the administration of Eddie Perez, it was found that former Perez Chief of Staff Susan McMullen and Perez crony Kelvin Roldan had concocted a phony e-mail name to apparently avoid detection of FOI requests. The phony name of "Willie Nunes" apparently became a Perez staffer who was used when no one wanted to lay claim to e-mail documents.

As much as I had hoped things would change and the transparency would become real, that apparently never became the case under the new Administration of Mayor Pedro Segarra. Making a complaint under the Freedom of Information Act is a cumbersome process. It could take months, if not more than a year to wind your way through the process. Typically in the end, even after repeated violations under the FOI laws. the punishment is usually a slap on the wrists and a stern"don't do this again"

One of the largest fines levied was after a complaint I made against Perez's former Corporation Counsel John Rose.. He claimed documents didn't exist during a hearing , and once I started producing the documents and laying them on the table, the hearing officer didn't appear too thrilled. I had already obtained the documents through another source, unbeknownst to Mr. Rose.

Although the hearing officer recommended the maximum fine of $1000.00 against Rose, the full FOI Commission eventually reduced it down to $250.00, which the City of Hartford paid. So where was the sting to Rose for breaking the law? It was the taxpayers of Hartford that paid for him.

The Segarra Administration seems to have a well orchestrated plan for controlling the message and information coming out of City Hall. It has nothing to do with providing information to the public, it is about portraying the Mayor in the best possible.  The Mayor's media office is all about image. his spokespeople have been giving their marching orders , make the Mayor look good at all costs. It it is an interview about snow plowing or crime stats, it must be spun to make Mayor Segarra look good.

I have two FOI requests pending with the City of Hartford through the acting Chief Operating Officer Saundra Kee-Borges for months now , and yet no response. You might ask why, and when I explain what I asked for, it will become clear why they are stalling. They will most likely be a black eye for Mayor Segarra and his operations, but the public still has the right to know. The first one, submitted on November 30, 2012 was as follows:

In accordance with the Freedom of information Act, I am requesting the following for review:

Any and all documents, letters ,and correspondence, including e-mails regarding the sale or transfer of property at or in the area of 95 Park Street from the City of Hartford to the Spanish American Merchant's Association. Please include documents or minutes of any meetings held to comply with Connecticut General Statutes  8-24 or any other required laws regarding the transfer of Municipally owned property. Also please include any record of payment received for the purchase of the property.

Also please include any correspondence regarding payment of delinquent property taxes owed by SAMA regarding their other properties to comply with City ordinances regarding the transfer of property with outstanding taxes.

Thank you. Please feel free to contact me for any clarifications needed.


The property in question is actually the site of the new Hartford Hospital Parking Garage. The City sold the parcel to SAMA for $1.00. Yes you read that right, $1.00, no typo. SAMA apparently then in turn sold the parcel to Hartford Hospital for a reported half a million dollars , Yes, you also read that right, $1.00 transformed into $500,000. Not a bad return on investment.

The problems that arise from the transfer are twofold. First , Hartford's Municipal code prevents the City of Hartford from doing business or transferring property to anyone that is delinquent on property taxes to the City. At the time of the sale , SAMA had delinquent taxes due  to Hartford that should have prevented the transfer. In addition, section 8-24 of the Connecticut General statutes specifically outline the process for transferring and sale of municipally owned properties. It appears that none of the steps required by Connecticut law were followed.

I can see why the documents aren't forthcoming. Sweetheart deal or time for another Grand Jury?

 The next FOI request was filed on December 11, 2012 as follows:

In accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, I am requesting the following for review:

Any and all e-mails sent or received by Human Resources Director Valda Washington for the period December 2, 2012, through December 7, 2012. Please provide these electronically where possible.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thank you.


E-mails also come under the FOI Act as public documents. This request was made after a source advised me that the Human Resources Director  Valda Washington had apparently been questioned through e-mails by the Finance Director regarding the use of her City Credit Card and unauthorized purchases.  She was apparently askinb the finance department to remove descriptions of certain reimbursements because as she allegedly wrote in her e-mail "the press would eat that alive" if they got a hold of her spending records on the taxpayers dime.

 Despite repeated requests, the requested documents have not been provided. Hartford's acting City Attorney, who apparently isn't even recognized as an attorney in Connecticut, recently sent me an e-mail trying to convince he believes in "open government writing" personally, I am a champion of open government"

This is a case where actions speak louder than words, open government means providing public documents without unnecessary delay. I am reasonable and understand the e-mails have to be reviewed for any exempt information, but over two months seems a little wrong.  I'm also not sure I believe the volume of e-mails Mr. Van Norden quoted. 800 emails for a 5 day period? Someone should show the HR Director how to turn on her spam filters.

To read Mr Van Norden's response click below.

To read about Mr. van Norden's licensing issues, click here



Friday, February 15, 2013

GOVERNOR MALLOY RESPONDS

Below is the Governor's response to Connecticut's urban mayors as they prepare for their press conference to criticize his budget proposals. Word is that Hartford's Mayor Pedro Segarra reconsidered his involvement and backed out of the press conference and notified Governor Malloy in a letter late yesterday afternoon
  

Thursday, February 14, 2013

WHERE ARE THEIR SOLUTIONS?

According to the Courants' Capitol Watch,  Democratic and Republican mayors from the state’s largest cities will hold a press conference Friday morning at the Capitol to blast Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget.  click here to read that story.

 Does any one realize that the money just isn't there?. Our big City Mayor's have lived fat and happy for far too long with no regard for reducing or controlling spending.

Rather than blast the Governor, maybe it is time to build some relationships, sit down, and deal with each other with respect and recommendations to deal with the problems.Our governor inherited a situation that I'm sure none of these Mayor's would envy.

Tough decisions need to be made and not everyone is going to be happy. I think there needs to be a lot of soul searching on the part of the Mayors for them to question whether they are going to continue to be part of the problem or are they ready to become partners in the solution.

Late word is that Hartford's Mayor Pedro Segarra has backed out of the slam session. Probably a wise choice when we realize that we need Governor Malloy more than he needs us. Malloy has been n0othing but a friend to Hartford since he was elected and moved here

And set thje politics aside, if that is even possible. At least two of the Mayor's probably see this as an opportunity to grind their political axes against Malloy

THANK YOU HPD

I'll be the first to admit that many times I accentuate  the negative. That is what in many cases it takes to embarrass or stimulate action to correct problems. This post is going to be a combination of negative remarks as well as some strong praise.

The first comment is going to be the decision by Mayor Segarra's Communications Director, Maribel laLuz and her e-mail to the 5th and 7th Districts of the Hartford Democratic town committee. How could anyone that has any management sense not want a debriefing of the operations after the storm. Somethings seem to have gone well, but so much also seems to have gone wrong,  a debriefing seems like it is extremely necessary to figure out what worked and what didn't.

To ignore that things went terribly wrong in some critical aspects only promises that we will repeat the same mistakes next time, probably with a couple of different key players missing though. You may not like the criticism, but it will hopefully avoid the same errors happening next time.

As far as the praise, in this storm the true praise needs to go to the Hartford Police Department. Last Friday afternoon as the storm began to build, at about 6:00PM I was at the Public Safety Complex and spoke with Chief Rovella. I invited him to come join me outside to build a snowman. He declined my offer. I keep hearing about a jacuzzi in his new office and he probably didn't want to come out into the cold. ( just kidding on that one taxpayers, there is no jacuzzi, at least not that I have seen)

During our conversation I told him how impressed I was with the snow plowing downtown, the streets looked great and there were plenty of trucks out. He agreed and told me that he was being told the entire City was in good shape. That all came to a screeching halt around  11:00PM as the storm intensified and DPW shut down.

The Hartford Police did not shut down, in fact they went into high gear for the next several days. While DPW trucks were headed for the garage in their vehicles that are intended to make it through the snowstorms, HPD was sending officers out into the storm in their 2 wheel drive vehicles , some equipped with tire chains. HPD never shut down and the calls for service continued to come in while the DPW trucks sat idle.

After the storm was done, HPD Officers in 4 wheel drive vehicles were pulling out stranded motorists as well as police vehicles that were stuck. They were even plowing streets to get EMS vehicles and fire vehicles into neighborhoods left impassable by the DPW hiatus. Yet no one at the Hartford Fire Department or the Dispatch Center sent their crews home because the weather was bad. They fulfilled their commitment to the people of Hartford while DPW did not.

For days after the storm, Hartford police Officers were trudging through feet of snow to make sure no one was trapped inside vehicles left abandoned on Hartford's street. Then the process of towing the vehicles to clear the streets of the igloos began. It was hard to find a plow truck to clear the streets after the cars were towed, But it seemed that HPD Officers stepped up and started taking charge of the snow removal operations.

That is not their job, but it was clear by this time that to get the City opened and alleviate the risk to Hartford residents by impassable streets, someone had to take charge. I spent a little time Sunday afternoon with Sergeant Bremser from the Traffic Division as they towed vehicles and coordinated efforts to get streets plowed. Bremser continued at what seemed almost around the clock Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday getting streets cleared one by one, calling for plows and loaders and keeping contractors moving to where they were needed most.

Bremser wasn't the only one though. HPD had almost 30 officers committed to snow plowing operations and as I travelled around the City and listened to radio communications, I kept wondering why Police Officers could figure out the priorities while those who should be doing it and managing the plows didn't seem as though they were.

One person who was in the EOC for most of the weekend told me that the decision to pull the plows off the road was a decision DPW realized was a critical mistake they could not recover from. I think there was also a lot of bad information that was being relied upon to make decisions in the EOC. Sunday afternoon I texted Mayor Segarra "where are our plows?". Within a few minutes he called me and told me "they are out there' we are making progress."  I replied to him that they may be out there , but they sure weren't in the Asylum Hill area.

 The Mayor said that he was told that almost every street in Asylum Hill had at least one path plowed through it. I told him I had just come back from checking for myself and he needed to go out and check for himself because most streets were still buried and hadn't been touched at all. To Pedro's credit, he called me about a half hour later and said I was correct. He had just driven through the Farmington Avenue area of Asylum Hill and agreed it was bad.

Whoever was giving the Mayor the inaccurate information hopefully won't be around the Mayor again anytime soon. Again to the Mayor's credit, he called me at about 11:00PM  and said he had just driven through Asylum Hill again and the side streets were "sloppy" but passable. That's all I was asking for . If fire, police or EMS needed to get somewhere I wanted to know that they could.

Wednesday night I again travelled around the City  just to see how the operations were going. The outside contractors and the large snow blowers brought in by the City were working like fiends. Farmington Avenue, Asylum Avenue, Park Street and the areas around Hartford Hospital were all being cleared by the crews. Again, it was interesting to me to note that these operations were being directed by HPD. I understand the police presence for traffic control and safety, but the police radio traffic channel was busy all night determining what crew would go where, where they would be dumping snow and determining where the crews would head next.

The efficiency of the operations were a credit to the police Supervisors and Police Officers working in the bitter cold to get our streets clear. One location , Asylum Avenue through Asylum Hill was being cleared curb to curb by the huge snow blower that made me cringe as I thought about the damage that thing could do. I don't think there would be any surviving a snowblower accident with that thing.

Not a DPW vehicle was in sight as I noticed Officer Mike Allen from HPD directing the movement of the trucks and loaders like General Patton during the War. The only thing missing were the pearl handled grips on his weapon like Patton had. I think they made record time outbound on Asylum, making the turn by Elizabeth Park and headed back toward downtown to clear the streets for the morning rush.

The same thing was going on all around critical traffic areas of the City, Lt. Mefferd, the Commander of the Traffic Division was doing a Mike Allen impression around Hartford Hospital and Washington Street and truckloads of snow were hauled away. Again no DPW supervisors anywhere in sight and I couldn't help but wonder why the Snow Removal Operations had suddenly become a Police Operation.

Mefferd, Allen and numerous other Police Officers were getting it done when DPW wasn't so , let it roll, Our streets are passable today.

Maribel, I know it is not your call , but please rethink that debriefing, this can't be allowed to happen again

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

DO WE STILL NEED THE SHOOTING TASK FORCE?

Take a look at the picture below of several guns seized today by Hartford's Shooting Task Force and you can make a decision. These guns were seized today in Hartford's Asylum Hill, on Sigourney Street, just yards away from the Asylum Hill Boys and Girls Club.

The STF has been a huge part of the successes under Chief Rovella to reduce violent crime in our City and I hope our Mayor and Governor Malloy are able to work together to continue the funding and fill openings on the STF to continue its work.The successes of the STF haven't happened by luck, it takes money and manpower to take these weapons out of the dangerous hands holding them.

Several openings on the STF are expected to be filled in the next few weeks as Hartford officers are moved to the STF. Under the direction of Lieutenant Lance Sigersmith and the partnership of numerous  agencies Chief Rovella and others brought together, the Shooting task Force has had a huge impact on not just Hartford but the Capitol area overall.

The Shooting task Force is an asset that HPD can not and should not have to do without. The guns pictured above were taken from convicted felons today and it should make law abiding citizens shudder to think of the potential of these guns in the hands of convicted felons. Convicted felons lose their right to own guns, and no one can convince me that the shotgun and rifle are intended for personal protection ot any legitimate use.

I am going to try and follow this case to see if the courts do their part and take these criminals off our streets for a long time until they decide to live within society's rules

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

THE HEIGHT OF INCOMPETENCE

 
From today's Hartford Courant, Bob Englehart's cartoon
 
 
I get tired of our so called "City leaders" making our City a joke every step they take. Is there anyone in City hall that has the guts to step up and start determining accountability from our six figure sponges leeching off the people of Hartford, with very little in return except providing material for a comedy show?

In 2011 Hartford was a joke with its snow plow operations, now we are repeating the same actions with the same criticisms. Would we be unable to operate as a City if there was preparation and things went smooth, or do we thrive on the incompetence?

Let's start with a few questions. In a conference call last night between the 5th and 7th Districts of the Hartford Democratic Town Committee, many good questions were raised. You might ask why two Districts of the Town Committee are asking questions. The simple answer is because that is what we do. We were elected to represent our neighbors and these are our neighbors that can't get out of their homes. These are our neighbors that can't get ambulances and firetrucks to them.

More importantly, the elected officials that are failing our neighbors now are the same people that we endorsed for their respective offices to serve the people of Hartford. Hopefully we will remember these failures when we are asked for endorsements again and remember the angry phone calls all weekend from our neighbors .

The first question I have, and most of the callers on the conference call wanted to know is who made the decision to pull our plow trucks off the road? Governor Malloy made it quite clear he told his DOT Commissioner to keep state plows on the road for the duration of the storm. I think anyone that knows the Governor would agree that if his DOT Commissioner failed the people of Connecticut like Hartford's leaders failed us, there would be an immediate opening for a DOT Commissioner.

It is called leadership and with leadership comes accountability. A foreign concept to Hartford City Government. Why do we have a DPW Director if the Mayor's Chief of Staff is on the radio from the EOC barking orders directing snow removal operations. He probably has a hard time finding most streets in Hartford without GPS.Maybe they use the campaign donor lists to decide which streets to hit first, that might help explain the strategy. What is his experience with Snow Removal Operations and why weren't they being run by the people that are paid good salaries at DPW?

Another question the Town Committee members on the call had was if they could attend the debriefing held to discuss the storm response. The reply to our e-mail from Mayor Segarra's spokesperson was "We are not planning on having a blizzard debriefing event.How do you not have a debriefing after an event like this to discuss what worked and what didn't and attempt to provide better service in the future? That is basic management, or do they not want to discuss their failures?

And the EOC, another joke and a colossal waste of space in the Public Safety Building. As of Thursday night, less than 12 hours before the Emergency Operations Center was ready to open, none of the brain trust we pay to deal with emergencies, not the Fire Chief who also loves the title of Emergency Operations Director or the Director of Emergency Telecommunications had bothered to do a dry run of the EOC before it was needed. Imagine the embarrassment at about 7:00pm Thursday when they suddenly realized there was no Wi-fi for internet connectivity and cellular coverage was sketchy at best in the room.

Luckily for Larry Bezel, a HPD employee who handles their network and computers was able to scramble into the night to get internet Wi-fi up and running for the opening of the EOC the next morning. Probably no one will be held accountable for this potential colossal failure.

And the technology that was built into the EOC also came in very handy. The front wall of the EOC is comprised of smaller flat screens for projecting television. It can be used to reproduce images on computer screens or any video that needs to be shared. Apparently it came in handy Saturday night for those being paid overtime in the EOC to watch a Hockey game on the wall in perfect living high tech color while the viewers dined on catered food from Salute Restaurant.
The EOC TV, better than any flat screen, great for watching Live with Kelly and Michael

That television wall also came in handy as freezing rain was blanketing the City and I-91 was being shut down due to numerous accidents Monday morning. A source in the room at the time said that those there, after they finished watching the Today Show, switched to LIVE with Kelly and Michael on the lifesize 10 x 12 wall.

Now I know you might think that maybe traffic cameras or maybe even the local radar might make sense for those managing our Emergency Operations to be viewing, but nope, Kelly Ripa and Micahel Strahan lifesize for the brain trust.

Now it gets even better, If you were digging out a City, what would your priorities be? Maybe heavily travelled routes around hospitals? Maybe routes in and out of the city that carry rush hour traffic? Maybe the area around Downtown that will host the sold out Uconn/Syracuse game tomorrow night?

Nope. I was incredulous when I got the phone call this afternoon that the huge "airport"type snowblower we had contracted to clear city streets was actually in the southend blowing snow on South Street. I had to see that for myself so I shot the video above because I didn't think anyone would believe me, a street that is not a major thoroughfare, is not an artery in or out of the City.

I asked how they decided what streets to clear and they told me DPW Director Kevin Burnham told them he wanted South Street cleared for the rush hour.WHAT? Had anyone heard of Farmington Avenue, Asylum Avenue, Capitol Avenue and rush hour? As I write this now, at 7:00PM,I look out my window at Asylum Hill  and Farmington Avenue and Sigourney Street are still total gridlock.

A fire truck or ambulance would never get through even down the center because there is no room for anyone to yield. I do feel comfortable though knowing  that South Street is moving smoothly during rush hour.

In the video above , I also took some shots of a few streets in Windsor Locks this afternoon. Notice the streets plowed curb to curb, the huge mounds at the intersections have been pushed back, and Rt 20 in front of Bradley Airport is pushed right back to the curb.Windsor Locks kept their trucks on the street throughout the storm and it shows.

 Picture above from Courant.com, clearing snow on Park terrace. It might be easier blowing the snow into the park, but at what we are paying per hour for the rental, does it serve any purpose to ignore the major arteries and have the borders of the park clear?

Windsor Locks kept their trucks on the street throughout the storm and it shows.

Why do we settle for being a joke and when are we going to insist that those we endorse "have a set"  and are willing to step up and hold people accountable when it becomes clear they are incompetent and not serving the people of Hartford? Maybe a debriefing and an honest assessment might begin to chnage hartford's course . Admitting you have a problem is the first step in correcting it.

Again, I know it was a historic storm, but it was just as historic in Windsor Locks, Windsor, Wethersfield and Plainfield as Stan McCauley reports and they all seemed to deal with it. Our failure to meet the challenges we need to plan for are also becoming just as historic, or is it tradition.