I had requested City Credit card reports through a Freedom of Information request to Chief Operating Officer Saundra Kee-Borges. That report has not been provided by the City, but today I received some of the information through "alternative means". After reviewing the reports below, I can see now why the City did not want me to see them. So much for that transparency they keep talking about.
Take a few minutes to look at how your tax dollars are being spent anyd you might be a little upset that a City on the brink of financial disaster can still spend huge amounts of money on the credit card, much of it for food and alcohol. Fortunately for Hartford, the City Council is finally stepping up and doing what should have been done years. They need to get out the scissors and cut these cards in half. That is what many Hartford residents have been forced to do as the economy has soured, but not City Hall.
One of the highest paid City employees, Jose Colon Rivas seems to enjoy the finer things in life, running up a hotel Bill at a luxury hotel in California. Over $7400 in the course of 6 days at the Hotel Palomar in West wood LA. He must not have liked the thread count on the sheets at the Holiday Inn Express. Relax, you have a City credit card, money is no object when you have a $100,000 credit limit on the taxpayers card.
And as many people in Hartford are wondering where their next meal is coming from or worrying how to feed their families, those with a City credit card have no such difficulties. After a source had called me shortly after New Years and said they saw Mayor Segarra, his Chief of Staff, the Mayor's partner, Charlie Ortiz, an unidentified female and two Hartford police Officers, members of the Mayor's Security detail, dining at Max Downtown on New Years Eve..
The source believed that the entire dinner, a rather large amount, was paid for on a City Cre4it Card.Sure enough, the source was right. Segarra's Chief of Staff , Jared Kupiec apparently paid for the dinner, totalling $707.21 on his city credit card.
How can Segarra look city resident's in the face and account for this reckless behavior, especially when he knows that Hartford is headed for a potential $70 million dollar deficit next year. And how can we cry poverty to the state and ask for help when they see this going on. Are the taxpayers really responsible for feeding the Mayor and buying his wine for his meal as well as for his partner. Do they not make enough to pay for their own entertainment.
I hope the Council really digs into this and demands answers. Look at the printouts below and i am pretty sure you can identify other reckless spending, feel free to comment here or e-mail me info if you are aware of other instances of bleeding the taxpayers of Hartford.
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