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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

PIGS AT THE TROUGH

I know the title of this posting is harsh, but I think it needs to be. Like the saying goes, "it is what it is". Earlier today when I posted about the Segarra makeover I mentioned that I am tired of the people at City hall that see public service as a means to a large salary and a great pension without much regard for the people they serve.

Here is a perfect example of what I mean. I think the floodgates have started opening of people more than willing to expose what is going on in this City. Mayor Segarra can not continue to run around the city playing the role of humanitarian and saying he cares about the people of Hartford if he allows this behavior to continue.

Last week a sale was held by Taxserve, a vendor contracted by the City to sell liens on delinquent tax properties. Seven properties were sold. Two of those properties were purchased by Terry Waller, the husband/fiancée/partner, significant other, whatever the title is this week  of Hartford's acting Chief Operating Officer Saundra Kee-Borges.

In case you don't recall, Waller is the same Terry Waller that had an unbudgeted position specially created for him by his wife /fiancée/partner, significant other,  or whatever the title is this week  , Hartford's Acting Chief Operating Officer Saundra Kee-Borges. More on that here

The attached document shows the properties and Waller's bid.

This raises quite a few red flags for me. Was Waller given any special information or treatment related to his bidding on the properties. Might he have been given any inside information as to potential development projects or land deals on the table that the City may be working on.

And the biggest question is why? Between the two of them and their salaries and pensions they are coming in at close to a half a million dollars a year. Do they really need to make more off the backs of Hartford shareholders that are struggling to pay their taxes. Are the potential profits to Waller or Kee-Borges worth knowing that they may be forcing property owners out of their homes or businesses?

This is just another betrayal to Segarra by his close allies and it is not helping him at all if he really does want to rebuild his administration.

A request for comment was made to the Office of the Mayor, no response yet, but I will post it when  it is available

Perception is reality and the reality is that this deal stinks.

The document is below, ignore the highlighted line

MAYOR SEGARRA'S MAKEOVER

 
 
Last week Jenna Carlesso from the Courant wrote an article about Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra's attempt to restructure his administration. Here is the article in case you didn't read it.

For anyone who follows Hartford politics and the Mayor, it is pretty clear that a cosmetic makeover won't work. It is time for life saving emergency surgery if Segarra is going to have any chance of redeeming his leadership role as Hartford's Mayor.

Segarra's administration , it might be said, has its share of "nice people", Segarra being one of them. But nice doesn't cut it when you are entrusted to run a corporation with over a half a billion dollar annual budget. Nice doesn't come into play when you need to approach Department heads  and other highly paid employees and tell them "thanks for your service, but you just aren't cutting it". That is what leaders and managers do. You decide when to cut your losses, make the difficult decisions and move on.

Hartford needs to implement some sound business management practices and have people implementing them that actually know and understand what sound business practices are.
The Kupiec debacle is a perfect example. Who was responsible for exit interviews and making sure that all property and keys were accounted for on the day he left? This should have been done before his final paycheck was cut, but we now know it wasn't.

That is a basic management process, turn in your keys, turn in your ID card, return all company property, etc, etc. Even though the official line is that his cell phone was turned in and re-issued, that is untrue. I know for a fact that a City Hall staffer  called him on it Monday morning and woke him up and told him to look out his window, the cops were out front questioning why the car was there.

There has been more than enough information out there to show that City Hall is in a state of chaos , and Segarra continues to accept the betrayals by people that he has placed his trust in. If I rehashed everything here I could be typing for days but let me highlight a few.

Quality of life is not just clean parks and public safety, it also means that we get proper customer service for the things we expect from City hall. One of the biggest complaints I hear is the quality of the response residents get when they call the 911 Dispatch Center. It is clearly time for a change in the leadership there.

First off , Segarra is probably still stinging from the sense of betrayal  from his former Chief of Staff and the breech of trust Segarra placed in him. That same breech of trust exists with the Director of Emergency Telecommunications. He can pretend to be a Hartford resident as is required and essentially perpetrate the fraud every time he walks into Segarra's Office. It is time for the Mayor to stand up and say "I trusted you and you let me down, it is time to move on". That is what managers worth their weight do, it is about protecting the Corporation and your shareholders.

 And for anyone that doesn't get the concept of shareholders, that is everyone of us, City residents that hang in here everyday hoping that eventually we will see our City rise to its full potential once again. Hoping that someone will see City Government as more than just a paycheck and a pension  and realize the obligation they have to us, to actually affect or Quality of Life..

And going back to the 911 Center mismanagement. Why are we paying $120,000 a year for the Shotspotter System. A system that was sold to us as some high tech crime prevention tool. It is currently turned off because the fireworks being lit all over Hartford traumatized HPD with false activations and tied up huge amounts of police resources chasing every bottle rocket lit off on Vine Street.

Managers step up and say it is a waste of precious dollars , take it out. But not in Hartford. Someone probably gets a free shotspotter t-shirt or coffee mug and the annual Vegas Convention, so it must be a great system. This isn't monopoly money. This is hard earned money coming out of the pockets of some of the hardest working people in the state, Hartford residents. Many of them working 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet and to be able to pay their taxes to fund this nonsense.

With all of Segarra's difficulties and missteps, there is no greater or more critical position to be filled right now than that of Chief Operating Officer. There is a huge vacuum in that office right now and every day without a permanent replacement drives us closer to the brink of doom. For Segarra it is time to step up and realize friendships are nice, loyalties are admirable, but you have to be able to confront a situation and say " this isn't your strong suit, thanks for your service but I need to make a change"

Everything that is happening right now in Segarra's Administration can't be discounted. The p-card audits and misuse, the audit detailing poor or nonexistent financial controls in the Finance Department. the lack of adherence to travel policies and reimbursement, these all have a common denominator. The Finance Director and the person he answers to, the Chief Operating Officer.

Clearly no one is paying attention, no one is managing anything other than the press conferences and the ribbon cuttings and the bloom is fading on that rose real quick. Mayor Segarra's office needs some real substance and management, the window dressing is wearing thin.

The proof should be obvious if Segarra is sincere about fixing his administration or if it is just more political posturing that we have become accustomed to. A quick indication will be how long the Chief operating officer position remains in the vacuum state. How long the Ford Explorer SUV continues to head north to Suffield every night driven by his 911 Director also will be telling.

Pedro, it is up to you, are you sincere or just another City hall insider taking us for a ride on fancy words. Time will tell, your choice.

In the meantime, work on those exit strategies, they might come in helpful

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

SABOTAGE?

THE KUPIEC COACH, PHOTO COURTESY OF ALTERNATIVE MEANS
 
 
I  don't want to start a conspiracy theory, but something stinks here.

Any attorney worth their weight knows that pursuing restitution from a a suspected criminal before the investigation is done can seriously hamper the potential for an arrest. yet Hartford City Hall and the Corporation Counsel today apparently announced, according to the Courant, that they were demanding $3,000 in restitution from Jared Kupiec for damages to the vehicle he may likely be charged with stealing from the City.

Several police sources confirmed that accepting or making any deal for restitution would make a successful criminal prosecution difficult.

This is quick action from a Corporation Counsel that is used to moving at a turtle's pace when it comes to protecting the interests of the City of Hartford. May it just be to influence a Judge's decision before any arrest warrant applications are submitted?

May it be that there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye at the present time? Or maybe the whole scenario just stinks and needs to continue to be examined  even closer.

In the words of Council President Wooden " It is just bizarre". Yes it is

Monday, July 8, 2013

AND STILL MORE ON HARTFORD'S DUMBEST CRIMINAL

Here is the Hartford Courant's take on the matter from reporter David Owens  http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-hartford-kupiec-0709-20130708,0,1728039.storywens

George Colli from Channel 30 also did a good story regarding this, you can watch it here

HARTFORD'S DUMBEST CRIMINAL :UPDATE

This is one of those postings that is generating quite a bit of interest, right from the start. It is also one of those the I think the general consensus is to ask" what was he thinking?". The answer is  that Mayor Segarra's former Chief of Staff Jared Kupiec clearly wasn't thinking.

Most of the people calling me also are voicing their sympathy for Mayor Segarra. I also agree with that. Segarra took a 20-something who was clearly immature for his job and slid him right into a position of trust in his administration.

That position of trust was betrayed on several occasions by Kupiec and unfortunately it took Segarra far too long to recognize it. Will it now be Segarra's legacy to be remembered as "Mayor Caviar" or will the Grand Theft Auto Chief of Staff eclipse that?

It is sad, but clearly there is no management taking place at City Hall. The acting Chief Operating Officer is proving everyday that the Council's vote of no confidence in her appointment as COO was well deserved. Commenter's on the blog as well as just about everyone that called me or spoke with me tonight asked "what is the exit process? no one got his keys back?" The answer most likely is that no one followed through.

Did anyone recover City property from Kupiec? I am anxious to see the accounting for his I-pads and the numerous purchases from the apple store on his City Credit Card. Who accounted for that equipment ?

I know that once the Police got involved this morning and Kupiec was called about the car, he was reached on his City cell phone. Why?  Is the City still paying his cell phone bill or did he have his number ported over to his own private account? I think we probably already know the answer to that question without even asking.

City Hall is currently a free for all being managed by a group that has become very good at that "deer in the head lights look" every time the latest crisis arises. It needs to stop. It is about time Hartford starts being run like a business. For what the City forks out in salaries, we should have one of the best management teams around. Instead, I think we like being the butt of every caviar joke possible.

Today's police report regarding the incident is below:

HARTFORD'S DUMBEST CRIMINAL

Some things just defy logic, and this is definitely one of them. This incident reconfirms my belief in karma though.

Early this morning my phone began ringing asking if I was aware of the latest antics of Mayor Segarra's former Chief of Staff, Jared Kupiec.It is one of those things I would have a hard time believing that someone was so stupid if I didn't have the utmost confidence in the source that was calling me.

Well here goes a crazy story. A Hartford police officer on routine patrol this morning observed several vehicles on Capitol Avenue near Main Street that had been broken into and windows smashed out. One of the vehicles was a 2010 Grey Ford Explorer, Ct registration 516XTU, which came back to the City of Hartford Police department, 50 Jennings Road, Hartford.

Neither the officer or HPD's fleet manager recognized the vehicle or the plate as one of their regular vehicles. Eventually another officer put two and two together and recognized the vehicle as the city car issued to Kupiec when he was Segarra's Chief of Staff..

Eventually Kupiec was apparently advised as to what was happening and he came out of the condo he rents , the same address where the vehicle was parked in front of. Kupiec apparently told the HPD officer that he had turned the vehicle in two weeks prior at City hall and he had no idea why it would be parked in front of his house.

Kupiec did volunteer to the officer that he did keep the spare key to the vehicle and had it in his possession.

Although Mayor Segarra , through his spokesperson, originally denied any knowledge of Kupiec's misuse of the car, Segarra later issued the following statement:""I was informed today that Jared Kupiec was using a City vehicle after the conclusion of his employment with the City of Hartford without authorization. I am deeply disturbed and disappointed by this news. We're getting all the facts and will act accordingly." Mayor Segarra.

HPD sources have confirmed that the arrest of Kupiec for taking the vehicle without the owners permission and interfering for lying to the officer is  in process. Apparently the Hartford Police Department Internal Affairs Division is currently handling the matter.

More to come on this.