After a public(and political outcry) Hartford Treasurer Adam Cloud today announced that he will be giving up and repaying any payment already received of his $20,000.00 pay increase. The increase raised many questions about the process, but now at least one more raise issued to a department head should be raising some red flags and even more questions about the process.
It now appears that Hartford's Human Resources Director is not immune to the pay raise bug. It appears that HR Director Henry Burgos has received several raises in his short tenure with the City of almost $20,000.00. Actually close to the amount received by Cloud. Burgos was a vocal critic of the Cloud raise, but apparently has no trouble keeping his own pay bumps quiet.
In documents uncovered today by 'We the People" , Burgos received a pay increase shortly after being hired.
Burgos was apparently given a pay raise of $4,000 shortly after being hired , 4 months later was given another $10,000 raise , 6 months later he was given anther $3,000 raise for a total of $17,000 in less than 2 years
Burgos's pay raises have totaled $17,000 in the short time he has been with the city, only a couple thousand less than the $20, 000 raise Cloud proposed for himself. Burgos's raises also don't have any air of transparency around them either.
Burgos was originally hired at a salary of $140,000. but in a very short time increased his annual salary to almost $160,000 according to the City's documents. That would put Burgos on par with the City Treasurer's salary if the Treasurer hadn't done the right thing and given up his increase.
The HR Department has approximately 16 employees. That is far less than the Police Department at over 400 sworn and Civilian employees and the Fire Department with similar numbers, yet Burgos is being paid substantially more than either the Fire Chief or Police Chief.
It is unclear at this time what process was followed for Burgos's raises. Did he do it himself or did someone higher up sign off on the raises and why?
The City's "form B" which will show who initiated the raises and who signed off on them have been requested but haven't been provided as of yet.
And why should Adam Cloud be any different than Henry Burgos
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And if that isn't enough, I'll be looking at Henry Burgos's travel records , his recent trip to Las Vegas ,with him and his secretary on the City's dime, another interesting travel companion, also paid for by the City and the potential connection to the Dillon Stadium Grand Jury and James Duckett.
Stay tuned.