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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

IS A STATE TAKEOVER IN HARTFORD'S FUTURE?

According to several well placed sources, the answer is yes. According to sources, a meeting will be held tomorrow night between Hartford's Mayor Luke Bronin and representatives of Hartford's Legislative delegation. The apparent intent of the meeting is to begin drafting legislation to move toward a State takeover of Hartford's troubled finances.

More accurately, the proposed legislation will form an "oversight board" comprised of Connecticut's Treasurer Denise Nappier, the Governor's OPM Director Ben Barnes, Hartford's Treasurer Adam Cloud and other Hartford business people. This board should not be, and can not be a group of political hacks. We already have that with the Stadium Authority, and look where that has gotten us,over $10 million more in debt This board has to be able to make decisions to get our City back on track without worrying about political ramifications


This is a drastic step for the City to take because much of the local control of City government, especially financial, will be relinquished to the oversight board.


Throughout last years campaign, Bob Killian and others repeatedly said that Hartford was broke. This action now apparently proves that. The incumbent, Pedro Segarra chose to ignore the problem and committed Hartford to an ill conceived baseball stadium deal that plunged us further into debt. And let's not forget the Dillon Stadium deal that plunged us into a Federal Grand Jury investigation

Luke Bronin has repeatedly been telling residents that tough decisions were going to have to be made in relation to Hartford's budget and upcoming deficits and this is probably the most difficult decision Bronin has had to make in his short tenure. This is why we elect competent leaders, to clean up after the incompetent ones we vote out of office. This move should in no way reflect on Bronin, other than commending him to do what is needed at a very difficult time.

But, it has to be noted that this is the mess that Luke Bronin inherited when he assumed Office January 1, 2016. It is also the price Hartford is now being forced to pay for years of incompetence by Mayor Segarra( and his predecessors) and a Council who preferred to bury their heads in the sand, instead continuing to kick the can down the road and hoping things would work out.

The only way to fix a problem is to first admit you have a problem, and this seems to be the first step to getting Hartford back on a solid financial footing.

FROM HPD: WELCOME BACK TO HARTFORD BROCK DAVIS

On December 9, 2015, at approximately 1202 Hours, Hartford Police Public Safety Dispatch Center
received numerous 911 calls regarding an incident in the vicinity of Albany Avenue and Baltimore Street.  A short time later, a male victim arrived at St. Francis Hospital via private vehicle suffering from multiple stab wounds. The male victim succumbed to his injuries was pronounced deceased by the attending physician. A crime scene was established and secured
in the area of Albany Avenue and Baltimore Street. Major Crimes Detectives immediately initiated an investigation. As a result, Brock Davis, DOB 10/03/74, was identified as the suspect in this case.

On January 22, 2016, an arrest warrant was submitted to a judge of the Hartford Superior Court and
approved, charging Davis with Murder. A judge set bond of $1,000,000 was attached to the warrant.
On Thursday, March 3, 2016, U.S. Marshal's Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force members developed information that Davis was staying with an associate in Springfield, Massachusetts.  On that date at approximately 1430 hours, Brock Davis was taken into custody without incident by the task force in Springfield Massachusetts. Davis was processed in Springfield, Massachusetts for an outstanding local warrant and charged as a fugitive from justice related to the homicide investigation.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2016, Davis was extradited from Massachusetts, transported to Hartford Police
Headquarters and served with the Murder warrant.

The investigation was a group effort consisting of the Hartford Police Department's Major Crimes Division,
Crime Scene Division, Shooting Task Force, Capital City Crime Center and the Hartford States Attorney's
Office.

Davis will be arraigned tomorrow morning, March 9th, 2016, at Hartford Superior Court, located at 101 Lafayette Street Hartford, Connecticut.

HAVE YOUR VOICES HEARD ON THE WATER BILL

This is an e-mail I received today asking to help get the word out. I have not looked into the matter extensively, so I don't have an opinion yet on the matter. At the very least, if it involves the MDC , it needs to be watched closely.

ACT TO SAVE OUR CT WATER NOW!
Dear Hartford Resident,

Have you heard of the fight going on in Connecticut to protect our precious public resource, our water, from commercial exploitation? We need your voice to help our legislature pass an important bill:
SB 422: AN ACT CONCERNING RESIDENTIAL WATER RATES,
PUBLIC DRINKING WATER SUPPLY EMERGENCIES AND
SELLERS OF BOTTLED WATER.
 
HOW YOU CAN HELP
 
  1. Submit testimony via email or personally at the public hearing.
  2. Come to the hearing on March 11th with as many friends as possible. We need to demonstrate to our legislators that we want our water protected. No signs or banners allowed inside the legislature.   Flyers and buttons encouraged
  3. Contact your state legislators and members of the Planning & Development Committee to express your support of these bills.
  4. Spread the word and tell your friends.

THE PROBLEM: The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), the public water supply agency serving twelve towns in the Hartford area, has made a special deal with Niagara Bottling, a California based, multinational, multimillion dollar company, to allow them to take up to 1.8 million gallons per day of our public water. Niagara plans to put the water in single serve plastic bottles at a bottling plant in Bloomfield that could produce up to 10+ million plastic bottles per day. The MDC passed rate discount ordinances benefiting only Niagara that would save the bottling company approximately $2 million every year. Bloomfield elected officials gave Niagara a $4.9 million tax abatement over seven years without a real cost-benefit analysis.
 
YOU CAN SUBMIT WRITTEN TESTIMONY
 
Niagara Bottling has started lobbying the CT legislature. It's crucial that each of us sends in written testimony supporting Sen. Bye's "Substitute" Water Bill SB 422 no later than Thursday, March 10th, in preparation for the Legislative Hearing Friday March 11th at 11 AM.
 
1. Your written testimony should be sent as a PDF or Word document to pdtestimony@cga.ct.gov .
2. Include your name and the bill number SB422. Put "Substitute" SB 422 in the subject line.
3. The bill language as raised in committee requires revised language. Support the substitute with such points such as:
  • Protect residents, not water bottlers, during a drought. If the Department of Public Health declares a Drought Advisory, production of bottled water out of state should stop.
  • Rescind water rate discounts for water bottlers . They extract large amounts of our municipal water and spring water, fill the environment with plastic pollution, and profit while citizens are conserving and paying more.
  • Rescind the Special Sewer Service Charge discount for water bottlers (now known as the Clean Water Project Charge). CT ratepayers have paid for years to build infrastructure for clean water; no discounts for corporations.
  • Re-establish a citizen MDC (Metropolitan District Commission) watch dog committee .
  • Impose a moratorium on any new large water capacity agreements until the State Water Plan is completed and addresses this issue.
 
ATTEND THE PUBLIC HEARING IF YOU CAN
 
The Hearing is scheduled for 11 am on March 11th in the Legislative Office Building (LOB), 300 Capitol Ave, Hartford. Plan to arrive early; you may want to carpool. When you enter the LOB, you will need to go through security, so allow extra time for that.
 
Parking: Park in the garage behind the LOB. Pull in the LOB driveway, go around back, and take the garage entrance on the right for visitors (there are signs).  If there is no space in that section, exit, take a right at the stop sign, drive further to the back and there is a 2nd entrance with parking underneath the building. If the garage is full, there’s an adjacent surface lot, and also on-street parking nearby.
 
 
CONTACT LEGISLATORS
 
Call or send a personal e-mail to the Co-chairs of the Planning and Development Committee: Sen. Cathy Osten (860-240-0579) and Rep. Philip Miller (860-388-7208). Other members of the P & D Committee can be found at https://www.cga.ct.gov/pd/. If your legislator is among the members of the P&D Committee, ask them to support SB422.

SPREAD THE WORD AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS.                           This bill needs support from throughout the state.
What happened in Bloomfield could happen elsewhere in CT.
Together let's protect our water for future generations!
             

Monday, March 7, 2016

"WE THE PEOPLE" PROGRAM FOR MARCH 7, 2016

HPD's new Crime Center, Budget talk, HFD swearing in ceremony, Saint Patrick's Day Parade, a little bit of everything this week


Thursday, March 3, 2016

BRONIN STATEMENT ON MIMIMUM WAGE LEGISLATION

MAYOR BRONIN STATEMENT ON LEGISLATION TO RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE

 

— NEWS AND COMMUNITY STATEMENT—

 

(March 3, 2016) Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin released the following statement concerning An Act Increasing The Minimum Fair Wage, H.B. 5370, which is being debated this evening by the State Legislature’s Labor and Public Employees Committee. The proposed legislation would raise the wage, incrementally, to $15 per hour by 2022.

 

“No individual or family should work more than forty hours a week and live in poverty,” Mayor Bronin said. “A fair wage is the right thing to do for workers and an important part of creating an economy that works for everyone.”

 

FROM HPD: HOMICIDE SUSPECT CAPTURED IN SPRINGFIELD

Homicide Arrest Warrant Served in Springfield Ma

On Wednesday, December 9, 2015, at approximately 12:02pm, the Hartford Police Department received citizen 911 reports of a person possibly shot in the area of Albany Avenue and Baltimore Street. A short time later, the victim- Joseph Lindsey, arrived at Saint Francis Hospital ED via private vehicle suffering from multiple stab wounds to his upper body. At 12:33pm the victim was pronounced deceased by the attending physician at Saint Francis. A crime scene was established and secured in the area of Albany Avenue and Baltimore Street. HPD Major Crimes detectives and Crime Scene detectives responded and assumed control of the investigation.

 

Several witnesses were identified and interviewed throughout this investigation. Detectives were also able to secure some key physical evidence that assisted them in positively identifying the accused in this incident. On Friday, January 22, 2016 an arrest warrant was submitted to a Judge of the Hartford Superior Court and approved. The arrest warrant charges the accused, Brock Davis, DOB 10/3/1974, with one count of Murder in violation of Connecticut General Statute 53a-54a. There is a 1,000,000.00 dollar cash or surety judge set bond attached to the warrant.

 

Today, March 3, 2016, Brock Davis was captured and arrested in Springfield MA by Detectives from the Hartford Police Department and the US Marshals Fugitive Task Force. He was charged on outstanding warrants for Fugitive from Justice charges. He will be held in MA pending extradition process, after which he will be transported to Hartford to face the Murder charge.