Search This Blog

Monday, September 30, 2013

AN OLD SAYING "MANY TIMES THE COVERUP IS WORSE THAN THE CRIME"

It is pretty easy to tell the difference between transparency and a cover up, and this one has cover up written all over it.

A lot of things just aren't adding up with the Saundra Kee-Borges City car Accident, including her statement of apology.

One of the first things that raised red flags for me was the quickness that the HPD press release came out saying that Kee -Borges and the unauthorized operator of her city vehicle fiancée/boyfriend/significant other Terry Waller had  a green light and the accident was caused by the other driver. I e-mailed the HPD Public Information Officer, Lt. Brian Foley and asked how that determination was made. Was it from independent witnesses, maybe some video in the area or was it just Waller telling the officer he had a green light.Lt Foley was unsure and told me he would look into it

 The releases were quick to say that Waller and his fiancée/girlfriend/significant other Sandy Kee-Borges were the innocent victims at 2:17am as they were hit by an evading driver who ran a red light. Call me suspicious , but I just don't accept what a press release says as the truth.

The red flags were raised even more on Monday as I tried to get the incident reports regarding the arrest that Kee-Borges claimed as the reason she let Waller drive her car. I wanted to see the time lines and try to figure out where she was from the time of her sons arrest until the crash at 2:00am.

As I started pushing for the arrest report as well as the accident report, the barricades went up, mainly FOI reasons not to release the report. I called a staff attorney at FOI and got the other side. Their claims for exemption were not making sense.

I eventually received the arrest report for Garrett Borges, through alternative means, as well as the accident report and the attached supplemental reports from all officers involved, none through my FOI requests. I was told that the requests were being forwarded to Detective Wiebusch , since she was the FOI person at HPD.

When I spoke to the FOI Attorney, she offered to call Detective Wiebusch to clarify the matter. She called me back a short time later to say that Detective Wiebusch's voice mail said she was on vacation until October 14th. How convenient.

The time line and excuses are important to painting the full picture, but first, here is Saundra Kee-Borges statement she released earlier this morning.

STATEMENT FROM ACTING CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER SAUNDRA KEE BORGES
 
“Last Friday night while attending the NAACP dinner, I received a call from the Hartford Police Department regarding one of my children. I left immediately and drove to the Public Safety Complex on High Street in my city vehicle of which I have full commuter privileges.  An accident occurred as I was on my way home from the police station with my fiancé Terry Waller, a Deputy Fire Chief for the City of Hartford just after 2:00am. While driving through a green light, another vehicle struck us and then fled the scene. Terry and I were taken to the hospital, where he remained until late Saturday morning.  Thankfully we’re both OK and the police captured the individual responsible for the hit and run. 

I want to thank the Hartford Police and Fire Department, the ambulance crew for their quick action and I want to thank the staff at St. Francis for treating us with such care.  I also want to apologize to Mayor Segarra for any inconvenience or speculation this incident may have caused. Although Terry is a city employee, I should have driven myself. At that moment, I was deeply concerned for my child as any parent would be.”
 
Does anyone else find it interesting that the Mayor's office could release a statement on a Sunday night that he was cutting ribbons at 2 Hartford parks today, but not a word about his COO crashing her city car in a questionable accident?
 
As you can see, Kee-Borges also mentioned that green light again. The fact is that there apparently was no independent determination as to what happened, no video, not even other witnesses. The accident report says that Waller told the investigating officer he had the green light. Surprise, surprise. But apparently when a deputy Fire Chief says he has a green light, that is good enough to cite the other operator.
 
Now I will concede that the operator of vehicle #1 didn't help his credibility  when he ran from the scene, but does that increase Waller's credibility?
 
Sources have also confirmed that Kee-Borges received a phone call at the NAACP dinner sometime around 10:00PM. They said she appeared to be somewhat upset and her and Waller had some tense words before they left the dinner, supposedly to go attempt to bail out her son from the HPD lockup.
 
It appears they had to arrange for a bondsman since Garrett was not released until 5:00am Saturday morning, long  after the crash occurred. Sources have also confirmed that Kee-Borges and Waller had left the public Safety Complex before the midnight shift began arriving at 11:00PM. I have FOI'd the Police Department video to confirm this timeline as the front lobby area is recorded.
 
That then raises the question of where Kee-Borges and Waller were until the time of the crash at 2:17am the question. It potentially leaves over 3:00hours unaccounted for as to where the City Car was as well as where they spent the time and doing what?
 
Considering the crumpled up coupon from J's Crabshack that I found on the ground in the name of Saudra Borges, that might be a good spot to start.
 
Transparency means getting to the bottom of this matter , wherever it leads. We deserve no less and the credibility of the Segarra Administration, if there is any left , depends on it.
 
Where were they? Was alcohol involved? Why was the car still out long after any City business at the NAACP dinner had concluded. What was the blood alcohol content , if any, in Waller's blood ,which was most likely drawn at the hospital when he was treated. If they really want to clear the matter, I think Waller could voluntarily have that information released to HPD without the necessity of obtaining a search warrant for it.
 
It is hard to set a tone of accountability when those at the top are not held to the same standards as those they supervise.
 
In the meantime, any delay in releasing public documents stinks of a coverup, whether intentional or not, and HPD and Chief Rovella have done too good of a job establishing credibility  to get sucked into City Hall nonsense.
 
NOTE: regular readers of the blog are used to seeing documents and are used to reading the reports I refer to. Unfortunately, there is an effort to uncover my sources to keep the public's information from getting out. As documents and reports pass through the review process they are coded and signed  and it is somewhat easy to tell at what point I get the documents based on where they are in the process. So rather than risk  where in the process the documents came from, I have chosen not to post the actual reports until they are released through the regular FOI process.
 
 

 

UNVEILING THE SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Last week I questioned how a City Administration that claimed it was near broke as they cut millions of dollars from the Police Department budget, could all of a sudden have an $800,00 dollar surplus and make an $11 million dollar payment to the pension fund.

A recent Internal Audit might answer some of those questions. It appears that millions of unused dollars from Capitol Improvement projects, some dating back 15 years, are sitting in City accounts without much oversight and very loose controls.

Could this be referred to as the "City Hall Slush Fund"? Only time will tell , but I think the last sentence of the Auditor's report could be very interesting

HARTFORD NEEDS SANDY RELIEF NOW

And no, I don't mean Hurricane Sandy, I mean the devastating effects of the incompetent and negligent mismanagement of Sandy Kee- Borges, Hartford's Acting Chief Operating Officer.

It almost seems like the inner circle of Mayor Segarra tries hard to dream up new ways to embarrass him on a regular basis. The new years eve caviar, stealing back their City Cars, crashing their City car's at 2 am  after City Hall has been closed for hours . Even his department heads that have taken jobs and committed to moving into Hartford  and haven't.

I would think that people who are supposedly loyal to Segarra would exercise much better judgement and decision making , but recent events show that there seems to be no regard for Segarra's public image as they pull their stunts. How do they then survive to pull the next act to make Hartford's mayor look like a fool?

Right now that is the million dollar question that most people are asking. Why is Sandy still there?

It definitely isn't because of any stellar job performance. I think we might see the answers evolve over the next few months  and I think it will most likely be an issue of self preservation. Sandy knows where many of the City Hall skeleton's are buried. I don't say this lightly, but just stand by and I think things will become much clearer as time goes on.

Any regular reader of this blog know that my information is always very solid and I stand behind what I write. Stay tuned for the revelation of the skeleton's

Saturday, September 28, 2013

HARTFORD'S ACTING COO INVOLVED IN EARLY MORNING CRASH

 
 
Hartford's Acting Chief Operating officer and her husband/partner/significant other Hartford Deputy FireChief Terry Waller were involved in an early morning crash at the intersection of Asylum Avenue and Broad Street at approximately 2:00am. According to sources at the scene, both Kee-Borges and Waller were transported to local hospitals after the crash.

It is unclear what City business Kee-Borges would be using the vehicle for at 2:00am, but documents found at the scene indicate Kee-Borges may have been using a coupon for " $20.00 for $40.00 of Fresh Seafood, Drinks, and more at J's Crab Shack in Hartford". J's Crabshack is located at 2074 Park Street in Hartford.

Witnesses also said a Heineken bottle was found at the scene , but it is unclear which vehicle the bottle came from.

This is the second City of Hartford vehicle involved in an after hours crash in the last month.

UPDATE: Saturday, 7:00am- According to sources , Waller and Kee-Borges had been at HPD earlier in the evening to bail out one of their sons who had been arrested on Domestic Violence charges and was also apparently found to be in possession of drugs, more on that when the report becomes available. The Crabshack apparently came into play later after they left booking Also, sources have confirmed that Hartford Deputy Fire Chief Terry Waller was the operator of Kee-Borges City car, not Kee-Borges herself. This should prove interesting how Mayor Segarra handles this one. Waller is apparently not an authorized driver of the City Car issued to the Chief Operating Officer


Thursday, September 26, 2013

MORE SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Jenna Carlesso raised an interesting question today on Cityline. How do you create and pass a budget depending on $3million dollars in concessions from Hartford's employee Unions, and then not even approach the Unions to obtain those concessions? Read Jenna's column here.

The fact of the matter is that any concessions would probably be a very tough sell considering the Mayor's reckless spending habits, including the New Years Eve Caviar event and first class flights and stretch limo's in Washington DC.

 I have to question how we went from dire straits at budget time to an $800,000 dollar surplus  this week. And on top of that an $11million dollar pension payment is suddenly made to the Municipal Employee's Pension Fund. Did they find that money in a shoebox on a shelf in the Finance Department also? Maybe Mr. Molleda found an envelope full of undeposited checks when he was cleaning out his desk to leave City Hall.

Regardless, it really makes me question the accounting practices of the Segarra Administration, maybe it is time for the Audit commission to launch another investigation.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

HOW MUCH MORE ARE WE WILLING TO TAKE?

Let me be the first to say what so many people are thinking. There is no leadership taking place in Hartford City Hall. Mayor Segarra may in fact be a nice guy as every one seems to preface their opinion of him. But he is a disaster as a Mayor.

For anyone that follows this blog, you have probably noted by now that most of his policy decisions are being driven by this blog. Kupiec, Panagore, Jaffe, Burnham, Molleda, City Vehicles,Keney Park, all topics that have been described here, many months ago.

It is time for leadership from Pedro Segarra , and that leadership shouldn't by reading a blog and testing the wind direction every morning.

I for one am becoming quite tired of being made a joke of when you mention the City of Hartford. The Courant's cartoonist Bob Englehart took his shot at the City tonight and he is exactly on point. Hartford is a mess that is mired in politics. You can read Englehart's commentary here at Courant.com
 
 

All of these missteps are totally avoidable though with a little more vision and a lot less "seat of the pants management". It seems as though nothing is done by this Administration until they are finally shamed into reacting

As an example, the current ruckus over take home City Cars. A policy could have been issued months ago by Segarra and the Council, that if properly enforced might have curtailed the City's liability after a recent DUI accident involving the Deputy DPW Director in her city car. The Mayor should issue a policy tomorrow that City Vehicles are for City business only, if you aren't working, the car stays put in the driveway. No shuttling the family around to soccer games or Saturday night at a restaurant.

No personal business in a City Car. Back and forth to work and that's it. End of story. Next should be a no alcohol policy, zero, absolutely none. If you have a City car and are headed to a function or need to stop for a drink on the way home, you aren't going to do it in a City car. Go home and swap out for your own personal vehicle Zero tolerance for alcohol in a City car, from the Mayor on down, zero means just that , zero.

Now there Mayor, that isn't tough to figure out is it? I bet you could have that e-mail distributed to everyone by 9:15 am tomorrow, and by the way, ask all recipients to acknowledge the receipt so that there are no questions when they may violate your policy.

It might also be a good idea to get your Chief of Staff to move into Hartford. We don't need a Meriden resident managing your office. We need someone that cares about and loves the City. The same love that our good residents show everyday they put up with this nonsense. A commute north on I-91 for the sake of a paycheck isn't good enough.

And stop with all of the consultants, we just can't afford recycled managers at $85.00 per hour. I have never heard of our Governor hiring consultants to fill Commissioner positions . He identifies capable people through his connections and brings them into his Office. I would expect the Mayor of the Capitol City would have similar connections to qualified people to fill vacancies.

And finally, jettison your acting COO as soon as possible. In case you haven't realized, all of the problem children on your staff answer directly to her. Clearly she is not capable of supervising or leading  this City forward. I was amazed the day she told the Internal Audit Commission that the P-card problem had been solved when all of the missing receipts were found in a shoe box on a shelf in the Finance Department . Her statement made it seem that this method was an accepted business practice in you Administration.

Her performance as Corporation Counsel has made former Corporation Counsel John Rose look good enough for a seat on the Supreme Court, and that is saying a lot. Her selection of her Deputy, a lawyer that wasn't even legally able to practice law in Connecticut when he was brought in, as well as his intemperance through e-mail and actions speaks volumes about her character  judgement .  I thought when he sent the e-mail claiming a Council person was mentally ill would have been the end, but nope.

Pedro, stop embarrassing us and do the job you were elected to do. A political science college student could do a better job than we are getting now. I would really like to see some vision and see where you expect us to be 5 years from now, and Detroit is not a suitable answer.