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Wednesday, April 6, 2016
THIS SHOULD BE INTERESTING
Media Advisory:
For Thursday, April 7, 2016
Contacts:
Matt O'Connor, AFT Connecticut: 860-221-5696
Larry Dorman, Council 4 AFSCME: 860-989-9127
Ben Phillips, CSEA/SEIU Local 2001: 860-977-4442
Workers, Legislators & City Councilors to Hold
Capitol News Briefing Outlining a Path Forward for Hartford
Leaders of unions representing the Capital City's first responders, educators, and other municipal employees to address plans to negotiate, help save millions
Leaders of unions representing the Capital City's first responders, educators, and other municipal employees to address plans to negotiate, help save millions
Hartford - Municipal and board of education workers, area legislators and members of the Hartford City Council will reaffirm their shared commitment to protect vital public services for city residents, small businesses and visitors. They will hold a joint Capitol News Briefing tomorrow, Thursday April 7 at 10:30AM to address the role of Hartford's public service employees as partners in seeking better choices.
Thursday, April 7, is the joint favorable (JF) report deadline for the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. The committee is considering S.B. 464, a controversial proposal to create a "Hartford Sustainability Commission" with authority over the city's municipal and education budgets.
Speakers will include:
- Shellye Davis, co-president of the Hartford Federation of Paraprofessionals and president of the Greater Hartford Central Labor Council;
- Sgt. Rich Holton, president of the Hartford Police Union, will speak on behalf ofthe public service unions coalition, (all of the leaders will be attendance and available for questions);
- State Representative Matt Ritter will speak on behalf of the Hartford legislative delegation; &
- Thomas "T.J." Clarke II, president of the Hartford Court of Common Council, will speak on behalf of the city council.
What: Capitol News Briefing
reaffirming support for better choices than S.B. 464 to achieve Hartford
municipal budget savings.
When: Thursday, April 7, at 10:30 AM.
Where: Legislative Office Building, Room 1-C.
Who: Hartford public service workers, city councilors, and area legislators.
When: Thursday, April 7, at 10:30 AM.
Where: Legislative Office Building, Room 1-C.
Who: Hartford public service workers, city councilors, and area legislators.
THE SEXUAL PREDATOR ASSISTANT SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT
Eduardo Genao, Hartford Assistant Superintendent of Schools.
Let me start with the background first. On Monday of this week, April 4, 2016, I received a call from a community member who had a very troubling story about alleged predatory behavior by Hartford's Assistant Superintendent of Schools Eduardo Genao. The caller explained to me allegations of predatory sexual behavior of Genao involving a 13 year old girl and was looking for advice on how to proceed.
I immediately put the caller in touch with Hartford Police Department's Deputy Chief Brian Foley. Foley is the Departments Public Information Officer but is also Commander of the Investigative Services Division, which handles detectives that investigate juvenile issues and abuse issues.
It should be noted that within minutes of Chief Foley being notified , HPD launched an investigation and moved quickly to protect a 13 year old from a predator.
Unfortunately, the Hartford Board of Education and the Superintendent 's Office did not move as quickly and seemed to turn a blind eye to the predatory allegations when they were notified on March 22, 2016, and apparently did nothing after that date either. Doctor Aaron Lewis , President of the Scribe Institute, began the notification process after being made aware of the allegations on or about March 22, 2016.
The Scribe Institute is a local non-profit that works with Hartford Youth http://thescribesinstitute.org/. The Scribes Institute strives to bolster the academic toolkit of young people and of disenfranchised adults around the world, focusing on reading and writing as the foundation to individual success, personal freedom and strong communities.
Doctor Lewis attempted to notify Hartford's Assistant Superintendent of Schools Dr, Gislaine Ngounou on March 22, 2016 of the allegations. In an interview this morning, Dr Lewis showed me the actual text messages on his phone between himself and Ngounou on March 22nd. .Dr. Lewis's texts outlined the allegations of a sexual nature against Eduardo Genao and Ngounou replied back that she was busy. Here is a portion of the text from Dr. Lewis to Superintendent Ngounou "It's an urgent matter concerning one of your directors with regard to inappropriate child contact. Just wanted to give you a chance to respond before going public. Thanks. Dr. Lewis. "
"Inappropriate child contact" you would think that those words alone would raise red flags and get someone entrusted to care for children to take action. But apparently not in the case of the top staff at the Hartford School System.
I am not quite sure what would take priority over getting to the bottom of allegations of sexual predatory behavior involving a child by an educator. Regardless, nothing moved forward and Dr Lewis also has an e-mail trail to Hartford Board of Education Chairman Richard Wareing, apparently detailing the allegations. The e-mail is below
The Hartford Schools clearly dropped the ball on this one, even though they are mandated reporters required to notify authorities on any allegations of Child abuse or predatory sexual behavior by an adult .
As I said earlier, the Hartford Police Department should be recognized for their quick response when they were made aware of the allegations. , unlike the Hartford Schools.
Shortly after making HPD aware of the allegations I received a call from an internal source from HPD. The source was requesting that I delay posting anything on the blog. Naturally I questioned the request . The source replied that the allegations appeared to be "legit" and HPD was applying for search warrants for Eduardo Genao's home , cell phone, computer harddrive's and related evidence. HPD felt that any advance notice would allow evidence to be destroyed. That was good enough for me to hold off if it meant protecting children from a predator
I readily agreed to hold off for a day or two until I was given the go ahead. On Tuesday April 5th at roughly 8:00PM , detectives from the Hartford Police Department hit Genao's house in Hamden and served the search warrants. The warrant has been sealed by the Court for 14 days, but sources are telling me that extensive evidence of abuse and predatory behavior has been recovered and is indicating the existence of other victims. At least one other potential victim has come forward today alone.
The nature of the texts Genao had sent to the 13 year old included naked pictures of Genao's genitals and very suggestive sexual comments to the child . Genao's texts asked her about her sexual behavior and personal questions including levels of sexual arousal. Those texts and photographs have apparently been recovered by Investigators and are part of the investigation that should lead to arrest warrants being issued.
The investigation also continues into any role those in the Superintendent's Office or at Hartford Schools may have played in covering Genao's behavior or failing to report the behavior to authorities..
Anyone complicit in the abuse or allowing for the abuse to continue through their silence or inactivity should be tendering their resignation immediately. There is no wiggle room on this, abuse of a child is inexcusable especially by anyone in a position of authority or respect over children.
Despite repeated calls to the Board of Education spokesperson Pedro Zayas, no comment has been made available to me. Apparently Kelvin Roldan the Board's "Communications's Director" does not consider me a legitimate journalist, even though I reported the story first and despite requests has not provided me with any information, but as Roldan should know by now, I still get the story.
According to sources , this may not be the first incident for Genao and his exit from a New York School System was under a cloud. Genao was also found to have improperly obtained a job for his brother in the same school system he worked for. Genao was fined $1,000 for his involvement in that scheme. From the "New York Sun" on March 4, 2005:
SUPERINTENDENT FINED $1,000 BY CONFLICTS BOARD
The city's Conflicts of Interest Board announced yesterday that a local instructional superintendent was fined $1,000 for helping his brother get a job.
The local instructional superintendent, Eduardo Genao, forwarded his brother's resume to all principals in his region, Region 2, last August, even though he oversaw 10 of the principals.
Mr. Genao's attempt to help his high-school-educated brother get a job as a school aide violated one of the chancellor's regulations, which prohibits Department of Education employees from hiring or supervising relatives.
Right away, one of the principals who received the message complained to Mr. Genao's supervisor about the e-mail, and Mr. Genao tried to recall the unread messages. Four days after the incident, Mr. Genao turned himself in to the Department of Education at the advice of his lawyers.
- Staff Reporter of the Sun
Here is more on this from the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters:http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/troubleshooters/Hartford-Public-Schools-Administrator-Resigns-Amid-Police-Investigation-374736211.html
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
HPD UNION RESPONSE TO SENATE BILL 464
From Council Hearing last night:
Council President Clarke and the Court of Common Council,
I am Richard Holton, President of the Hartford Police Union. I am here to speak for my 400 plus members in opposition to any resolution supporting the Mayors proposes legislation in the form of SB 464.
There are three areas I would like to cover.
First, is the so called comparison of the Mayor’s bill to the Waterbury bill. This is the furthest thing from the truth, Hartford is not Waterbury. Never mind the difference in the make up of the oversight board and the denigration of the Council’s Governmental power, (like the loss of veto power and the right to approve employee contracts) as well as attacking the retirees. Waterbury was and still is a Finicinal disaster, they were less than a month from making payroll, they borrowed from the pension fund to pay bills, they were in junk bond status, their pension fund was only funded at 4% and they failed to have a property revaluation for several years.
Waterbury Mayor O’Leary testified at the Capitol and he even said that Hartford is not in the shape Waterbury was in, even though he praised the Mayor for his efforts he failed to talk about the devastating effect the State oversight had on the City’s workforce, and currently he is seeking to increase the city's mill rate by almost 2 mills.
Even though previous Mayors have increased the mill rate Hartford is not in any danger of not making payroll, we are no way near Junk bond status, our pension fund is funded at 78%. So don't be fooled into thinking that SB 464 is the Waterbury bill it is not and Hartford is not Waterbury.
Secondly, every union leader has said the same thing, the Mayor has not had any serious discussions in regards to contract negotiations. He has not sat down and produced a budget mitigation plan showing us where he has made and identified cuts and where that puts him and where he needs to be with the help of the unions. By not doing this he has put this city severely behind the eight (8) ball.
To say he needs the oversight to negotiate contracts with the Unions is absurd. Every Union has and will help the city. In our last contract we took two (2) years of no raises, reorganized our pension plan and retiree health care. By doing this we saved the city approximately 3 million dollars in wages, decreased the city’s pension liability annually by Five hundred ninety thousand (590,000) dollars that's approx 2.3 million dollars since the contract was signed; by removing the six thousand (6,000) dollars for retiree medical stipend we have saved the city approx six hundred (600,000) thousand dollars with additional savings going forward. So as you can see we have always worked with the city in “good faith”. A lot could be said for the Mayor’s actions and “good faith” is not one of them.
Third and finally, the issue of looking for solutions, one of the biggest obstacles of getting through this fiscal crisis is the fact that according to “hartford business.com”’ the city has about 59% of tax exempt properties valued at approximately 3.7 billion dollars. No city in this country could operate with almost 60% of the property in a city that is tax exempt. This has to be addressed. You can't balance the budget on the backs of the employees. We have to look at every option available to us. To say a savings in one area is not not good enough, as the Mayor has told us, in my opinion is irresponsible. We have even suggested the idea of the City doing its own towing, it could create jobs and bring in revenue, road and 911 service fees on tickets sold at the City’s entertainment venues, as well as on renters who unless they register their vehicle in the city do not pay any taxes but use the city services. These are just a few of the ideas and I am sure you have a laundry list as well.
The Hartford delegation is not in favor of the Mayor’s bill as written, members of this council are not in favor of the Mayor’s bill as written and the workforce is not in favor of the mayor’s bill as written. As expressed during the public testimony at the Capitol members of the finance committee have said that the Mayor has put the cart before the horse, and I can't agree more. As a city facing a crisis we need to come together and work on solutions, some of these can be accomplished thru “good faith” negotiations, legislation changing the tax structure and brining all of the stakeholders together. By acting alone and alienating everyone is no way to accomplish what everyone wants and that is to make Hartford viable and sustainable.
Thank you for your time and consideration and I will be happy to answer any questions you have.
Sgt. Richard Holton
Hartford Police Union
President
Council President Clarke and the Court of Common Council,
I am Richard Holton, President of the Hartford Police Union. I am here to speak for my 400 plus members in opposition to any resolution supporting the Mayors proposes legislation in the form of SB 464.
There are three areas I would like to cover.
First, is the so called comparison of the Mayor’s bill to the Waterbury bill. This is the furthest thing from the truth, Hartford is not Waterbury. Never mind the difference in the make up of the oversight board and the denigration of the Council’s Governmental power, (like the loss of veto power and the right to approve employee contracts) as well as attacking the retirees. Waterbury was and still is a Finicinal disaster, they were less than a month from making payroll, they borrowed from the pension fund to pay bills, they were in junk bond status, their pension fund was only funded at 4% and they failed to have a property revaluation for several years.
Waterbury Mayor O’Leary testified at the Capitol and he even said that Hartford is not in the shape Waterbury was in, even though he praised the Mayor for his efforts he failed to talk about the devastating effect the State oversight had on the City’s workforce, and currently he is seeking to increase the city's mill rate by almost 2 mills.
Even though previous Mayors have increased the mill rate Hartford is not in any danger of not making payroll, we are no way near Junk bond status, our pension fund is funded at 78%. So don't be fooled into thinking that SB 464 is the Waterbury bill it is not and Hartford is not Waterbury.
Secondly, every union leader has said the same thing, the Mayor has not had any serious discussions in regards to contract negotiations. He has not sat down and produced a budget mitigation plan showing us where he has made and identified cuts and where that puts him and where he needs to be with the help of the unions. By not doing this he has put this city severely behind the eight (8) ball.
To say he needs the oversight to negotiate contracts with the Unions is absurd. Every Union has and will help the city. In our last contract we took two (2) years of no raises, reorganized our pension plan and retiree health care. By doing this we saved the city approximately 3 million dollars in wages, decreased the city’s pension liability annually by Five hundred ninety thousand (590,000) dollars that's approx 2.3 million dollars since the contract was signed; by removing the six thousand (6,000) dollars for retiree medical stipend we have saved the city approx six hundred (600,000) thousand dollars with additional savings going forward. So as you can see we have always worked with the city in “good faith”. A lot could be said for the Mayor’s actions and “good faith” is not one of them.
Third and finally, the issue of looking for solutions, one of the biggest obstacles of getting through this fiscal crisis is the fact that according to “hartford business.com”’ the city has about 59% of tax exempt properties valued at approximately 3.7 billion dollars. No city in this country could operate with almost 60% of the property in a city that is tax exempt. This has to be addressed. You can't balance the budget on the backs of the employees. We have to look at every option available to us. To say a savings in one area is not not good enough, as the Mayor has told us, in my opinion is irresponsible. We have even suggested the idea of the City doing its own towing, it could create jobs and bring in revenue, road and 911 service fees on tickets sold at the City’s entertainment venues, as well as on renters who unless they register their vehicle in the city do not pay any taxes but use the city services. These are just a few of the ideas and I am sure you have a laundry list as well.
The Hartford delegation is not in favor of the Mayor’s bill as written, members of this council are not in favor of the Mayor’s bill as written and the workforce is not in favor of the mayor’s bill as written. As expressed during the public testimony at the Capitol members of the finance committee have said that the Mayor has put the cart before the horse, and I can't agree more. As a city facing a crisis we need to come together and work on solutions, some of these can be accomplished thru “good faith” negotiations, legislation changing the tax structure and brining all of the stakeholders together. By acting alone and alienating everyone is no way to accomplish what everyone wants and that is to make Hartford viable and sustainable.
Thank you for your time and consideration and I will be happy to answer any questions you have.
Sgt. Richard Holton
Hartford Police Union
President
TIME TO REGROUP AND MOVE FORWARD
The past several days have been interesting. Over the weekend I received several calls from people that had been big supporters of Mayor Luke Bronin. Most of them were questioning what they called my blind support of our new Mayor Bronin.
After taking the weekend to think about it and make some phone calls of my own to people I trust, I agree they were right.
If Pedro Segarra or even Eddie Perez were pulling the amateur stunts that Luke Bronin is pulling now, I would have been all over them. I think deep down I was probably hoping things would work out and Bronin was actually making bold, well thought out initiatives to get Hartford back on track. As I look back though, I should have seen more of the warning signs.
It is times like this when I really value my friendship and the "political" mentoring I received from John O'Connell. Like it or not, you always knew where you stood with John and he taught me much about Hartford's politics He was invaluable when it came to budget process and questions, but more importantly he was a student of politics. One of the best lessons he ever gave me is to learn how to count your votes.
If you had something that was important and wanted to move forward, you count your votes to gauge support. If you could persuade or lie up the votes, then move forward. If the votes weren't there and never were going to be there, regroup and build another plan. I thought Luke would know that, but apparently he never counted his votes on the City or the State level before pushing forward with what should have been an ill advised power grab.
And "Power Grab" is not my term, it was a term used by speaker after speaker last night to describe the "Financial Sustainability Bill". It was also disheartening to see all of Hartford's Unions made out to be such a big part of the financial problem at meeting after meeting conducted by Mayor Bronin. I would think that before going to the "nuclear" approach to solve Hartford's budget problems, the Unions would have all been called in to sit down and be part of the solution.
Last nights meeting and the Financial Sustainability Commission Bill was a major test for Bronin's Administration. It wasn't a test that Bronin passed, to be honest it was a resounding failure. It was kind of sad to watch Luke Bronin pushing the plunger to set off the blast for his first implosion. I would think it would have gone much further for Bronin to admit the idea was ill conceived and say that he was requesting to pull the resolution and go back to the drawing board to start over again with a better plan that would work
It was also very troubling to listen to the next speaker to the microphone after Bronin. Melissa McCaw, Bronin's Director of Management and Budget. McCaw's answer to many of the questions asked by the Council were the same " I am sorry, I have only been here a couple of months and I will have to defer on the answer to that". EXCUSE ME! You have a half a billion dollar budget due in less than two weeks and you are "deferring" on critical questions.
There were speakers from the public that came to the microphone that seemed more knowledgeable on Budget issues than Melissa McCaw, or at the very least much better prepared.
The Back Lives Matter protest seemed to really throw a curve to Bronin's rehearsed remarks and forced him off script. I am not sure why the BLM protest tried to ride the coattails of Hartford's Unions , the majority of whom are very supportive of the BLM movement, but it was the Unions night to air their concerns to the Council, Bot BLM. I doubt they garnered much support or sympathy for their cause through their actions
I and many others thought, or were led to believe that had already happened. According to testimony last night from Hartford's Union leaders, it did not happen and in fact the Unions had already put forward cost cutting suggestions, only to be pushed aside.
And what steps have been taken on the City level to attempt a fix of the budget problems, and whose decision was it to jump past any local solutions and go right to the State for help? I understand there are many moving parts here, including that legislative help from the State would need to take place during the Legislatures "short " session this year. The term "kick the can down the road" was used several times times during the night. Our days of can kicking really do need to end and we really do need to come up with sustainable solutions if we are ever going to see our grand list and Hartford's economy grow .
One of those was incumbent Councilwoman Cynthia Jennings asking why we couldn't continue to "Kick the can down the road". I guess that statement might explain why we are in the mess we are in now.
We are still operating in a Democracy though and those sustainable solutions need to come out of equal partnerships. A partnership with all stakeholders siting at the same table, having an honest and respectful dialogue and not through a "power grab" by a Financial Sustainability Commission, locking out the majority of Hartford's elected Council, its residents and its stakeholders.
The solution is within our reach, but we have to be willing to do the hard work to make it happen. And that includes making the difficult decisions, putting the political impact aside and doing what is best for Hartford.
It is what John O'Connell would have done.
After taking the weekend to think about it and make some phone calls of my own to people I trust, I agree they were right.
If Pedro Segarra or even Eddie Perez were pulling the amateur stunts that Luke Bronin is pulling now, I would have been all over them. I think deep down I was probably hoping things would work out and Bronin was actually making bold, well thought out initiatives to get Hartford back on track. As I look back though, I should have seen more of the warning signs.
It is times like this when I really value my friendship and the "political" mentoring I received from John O'Connell. Like it or not, you always knew where you stood with John and he taught me much about Hartford's politics He was invaluable when it came to budget process and questions, but more importantly he was a student of politics. One of the best lessons he ever gave me is to learn how to count your votes.
If you had something that was important and wanted to move forward, you count your votes to gauge support. If you could persuade or lie up the votes, then move forward. If the votes weren't there and never were going to be there, regroup and build another plan. I thought Luke would know that, but apparently he never counted his votes on the City or the State level before pushing forward with what should have been an ill advised power grab.
And "Power Grab" is not my term, it was a term used by speaker after speaker last night to describe the "Financial Sustainability Bill". It was also disheartening to see all of Hartford's Unions made out to be such a big part of the financial problem at meeting after meeting conducted by Mayor Bronin. I would think that before going to the "nuclear" approach to solve Hartford's budget problems, the Unions would have all been called in to sit down and be part of the solution.
Last nights meeting and the Financial Sustainability Commission Bill was a major test for Bronin's Administration. It wasn't a test that Bronin passed, to be honest it was a resounding failure. It was kind of sad to watch Luke Bronin pushing the plunger to set off the blast for his first implosion. I would think it would have gone much further for Bronin to admit the idea was ill conceived and say that he was requesting to pull the resolution and go back to the drawing board to start over again with a better plan that would work
It was also very troubling to listen to the next speaker to the microphone after Bronin. Melissa McCaw, Bronin's Director of Management and Budget. McCaw's answer to many of the questions asked by the Council were the same " I am sorry, I have only been here a couple of months and I will have to defer on the answer to that". EXCUSE ME! You have a half a billion dollar budget due in less than two weeks and you are "deferring" on critical questions.
There were speakers from the public that came to the microphone that seemed more knowledgeable on Budget issues than Melissa McCaw, or at the very least much better prepared.
The Back Lives Matter protest seemed to really throw a curve to Bronin's rehearsed remarks and forced him off script. I am not sure why the BLM protest tried to ride the coattails of Hartford's Unions , the majority of whom are very supportive of the BLM movement, but it was the Unions night to air their concerns to the Council, Bot BLM. I doubt they garnered much support or sympathy for their cause through their actions
I and many others thought, or were led to believe that had already happened. According to testimony last night from Hartford's Union leaders, it did not happen and in fact the Unions had already put forward cost cutting suggestions, only to be pushed aside.
And what steps have been taken on the City level to attempt a fix of the budget problems, and whose decision was it to jump past any local solutions and go right to the State for help? I understand there are many moving parts here, including that legislative help from the State would need to take place during the Legislatures "short " session this year. The term "kick the can down the road" was used several times times during the night. Our days of can kicking really do need to end and we really do need to come up with sustainable solutions if we are ever going to see our grand list and Hartford's economy grow .
One of those was incumbent Councilwoman Cynthia Jennings asking why we couldn't continue to "Kick the can down the road". I guess that statement might explain why we are in the mess we are in now.
We are still operating in a Democracy though and those sustainable solutions need to come out of equal partnerships. A partnership with all stakeholders siting at the same table, having an honest and respectful dialogue and not through a "power grab" by a Financial Sustainability Commission, locking out the majority of Hartford's elected Council, its residents and its stakeholders.
The solution is within our reach, but we have to be willing to do the hard work to make it happen. And that includes making the difficult decisions, putting the political impact aside and doing what is best for Hartford.
It is what John O'Connell would have done.
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