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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

WHITE HOUSE ACCOLADES MEAN VERY LITTLE ON STREETS OF HARTFORD

 
While the Segarra Administration was out thumping their chest last night in response to the White House's praise  for Segarra's Community policing program, the violence on Hartford's streets continued. A 17 year old was shot in the head on Irving Street last night in a flurry of gunfire. He was taken off life support this morning and pronounced dead. At least 17 gunshots were picked up by shotspotter.

This was Hartford's third homicide in three days, and one of several shooting incidents, At one of the shootings ,  26 spent casings were recovered.

I don't know if  Mayor Segarra is that far out of touch with what is happening in our community or is he just delusional. I think a combination of both is fitting. I am not sure how anyone can instill confidence in the community by only singing the praises and ignoring reality. The fact of the matter is that  Segarra an his Council allies have decimated the ranks of the Hartford Police Department over the last several years. The number of sworn Police officers at HPD is the lowest it has been in decades and will probably be under 400 in a very short time, Three more officers resigned today to retire and start careers at another department.

All of Hartford's walk beats have been ended a few weeks ago (except for City Hall, funny how that works)  Can it be much longer before Community Service Officers positions are cancelled to fill critical patrol positions. Why is it that a recruit class to fill vacant positions was only filled by Segarra to graduate just in time for the Mayoral and Council elections this fall?

Although most active HPD officers are loving the overtime gravytrain, are we going to see Chief Rovella made the scapegoat as his overtime costs skyrocket due to the lack of planning by City Hall? Who is going to accept the public outrage as their CSO's start disappearing, I'm pretty sure it wont be Mayor Delusional standing in front of the NRZ's explaining it.

And while I am addressing Mayoral honesty, I am getting pretty tired of Segarra spouting his nonsense about "second chances" . Why is he supporting second chances now? Has it become politically popular? Does Segarra forget the name of his former staffer Kennard Ray? If you need a reminder, Kennard Ray was an employee in Segarra's office. I way "was" because as soon as it became public that Ray had felony convictions, Segarra quickly jettisoned him from City Hall and fired him. So much for "second chances".

I doubt there are many people hearing gunshots and witnessing the killings that take comfort in the accolades from the White House. Maybe what Hartford needs is a leader that is more into actual results as opposed to the phony chest thumping as the homicides and shootings escalate.

CHIEF HUERTAS, TIME FOR AN E-MAIL


Thursday, May 14, 2015

THE PROBLEMS CONTINUE AT HFD , DONALD BROWN ARRESTED

On April 24th, 2015 at approximately 4:58pm, the Hartford Police Department received a 911 reporting that a person was shot in the driveway of 131 Hebron Street. On arrival, the victim was identified as Lascelles Reid, 31, of Simsbury, CT. Reid was found lying on the ground, suffering from a single gunshot wound to the torso. Reid, alert and conscious, was transported to Saint Francis Hospital via AMR ambulance. Responding HPD Patrol Officers also met with Donald Brown, 54 of Hartford, CT. Brown was on scene and cooperative when police arrived. Brown said he shot Reid with his 9mm firearm one time because he was in fear of Reid. The 9mm firearm used in this incident was secured by officers as well as a single 9mm shell casing. Detectives from the Hartford Police Department Major Crimes Division responded and assumed the investigation. The scene was processed by the HPD Crime Scene Division. 

As of this date, Reid has not fully recovered and continues to require medical attention. 

On May 14, 2015 Hartford Police Major Crimes Division Detectives applied for and obtained an arrest warrant for Donald Brown, for the charge of Assault in the First Degree, 53a-59(a)(5). Judge set bail was $150,000. Donald Brown turned himself into HPD without incident. 

Donald Brown, formerly a 25 year veteran of the Hartford Fire Department, retired on May 1st and is no longer an employee of the City of Hartford.  (Brown was off duty at the time of this incident)

UNDER WHO'S AUTHORITY?

 
 
Several years ago a Hartford Police Lieutenant was shown the door after it was found that he had been printing up what looked like official parking passes, having them laminated and then selling them to anyone willing to pay the price for "Police "parking privileges.
 
Now it seems that someone in the Hartford Fire Department has come up with the same scheme. I have seen numerous illegally parked vehicles around the downtown area, proudly displaying the "get out of jail free" placard , claiming the authority of the Hartford Fire Chief. Many of them are in close proximity to the Hartford Fire Union office  near Linden Place and the claim for being on official business is probably not legit.
 
The Hartford Parking Authority claims no knowledge of the placards and clams the Fire Chief has no authority to offer free parking passes. I have requested comment from Chief Huerta's Office, no response yet. I venture to say it is more likely someone who has been creative with a color printer and a laminator to avoid feeding the meter. In which case parking controller's need to be advised to ignore and ticket these freeloaders.

THE FULL REPORT CAMPAIGN FILING, FOI KEEPING UP WITH TECHNOLOGY

Not everything at Hartford City Hall is a mess. One area that deserves praise is the Office of the City Clerk, specifically Clerk John Bazzano and staff person Eric Lusa ( not to leave anyone out, the entire staff understands customer service and should be an example to everyone in that building, John and Eric are the two people I dealt with on this project)

Shortly after the Mayoral election filings were due, I went to City Hall to review the documents. I wasn't expecting what I was given. The reports were several hundred pages for two of the candidates. The cost of having them copied to then scan as PDF files to post here would have been very expensive , especially at the statutory set rate of fifty cents per page. I appreciate transparency, but not when it would cost me probably over a thousand dollars in copying fees.

The more I thought about it, the more I figured paying  50 cents a page for copies was an outdated way to obtain documents. I also knew almost all of the copiers at City Hall, in fact most copiers in use today, can scan a document to a PDF file as quick as it can copy it.

 
 
One of the things that is apparent with the FOI laws is that they  are constantly trying to catch up with technology. One of the things most people aren't aware of is that if a document is saved or available in electronic format , you can ask for it that way when requested. This alleviates the need to run to City Hall to pick up ,a paper document when it can just as easily be e-mailed. The intent of FOI was not to create a revenue stream for government agencies to be a copying service, it was meant for the easy distribution of documents, the public's right to know.

 Since most business is done by e-mail  or PDF files or Word documents, almost everything can be obtained electronically.

I went back to thinking about the campaign filings. If a staff person in the Clerk's Office was going to stand at the copier and photocopy all of the pages, couldn't they just as easily scan it to a PDF file and alleviate the cost for the copies. I spoke with a person at the FOI Commission who thought the idea was reasonable for the PDF scan rather than several hundred copies. The only problem was that there apparently hasn't been a test case decided by FOI on the PDF scan versus copies.

The FOI person though it was reasonable and said I would probably win the argument if I filed a complaint to set the precedent. The only problem is you have to have a complaint to file first.

I called the Hartford City Clerk, John Bazzano and asked about receiving the filings electronically and explained it seemed to make sense to me to get a scan and it would take the same amount of time to scan as it would to copy.  I was almost hoping for a denial from Bazzano in order to file an FOI complaint to establish the precedent. Within an hour I received the email from Eric Lusa in Bazzano's office with all the PDF files attached. Bazzano has always been someone who understands the meaning of transparency.

There was some difficulty in sending the files because of their size and earthlink's limitations on file size, but Bazzano and Lusa persisted, and the filings are public information here for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you John and Eric for your commitment to open and transparent government

THE FULL CAMPAIGN FILING BY CANDIDATE- JOEL CRUZ 1 OF 1