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Friday, May 15, 2020

A GREAT RETURN ON THEIR INVESTMENT

Earlier this week, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont seemed to reluctantly answer a question from a NBC Connecticut reporter when he acknowledged the contract to Boston Consulting Group. The contract was for $2 million dollars for Boston Consulting to guide the State of Connecticut through "re-opening" the State.

Didn't the Governor put together a panel of so-called "experts" to guide the re-opening goals. To the best of my knowledge, these experts all volunteered their time to spearhead these efforts and didn't cost us anything, let alone $2 million dollars.

I have to ask what expertise Boston Consulting has in this area since the pandemic is unprecedented and no one has expertise in uncharted territory. It seems to me as though Boston Consulting will be receiving on the job training from taxpayers of the State of Connecticut. It also makes me ask why none of the high priced State of Connecticut staff members couldn't manage this, since they most likely have as much experience as Boston Consulting in pandemic response.

I guess the answers may lie in the website opensecrets.org, a website that follows campaign donations. Open secrets lists  the Boston Consulting as a major donor to Democratic campaign operations. Here is their report on Boston Consulting and their donations, https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?id=D000032055.

Apparently Boston Consulting is willing to hedge their bets. The report lists their donations to Democrat's campaign at roughly 80.58% ($244,279 for 2020) of their dollars, they were willing to also donate to Republican candidates totaling 19.42% ($58,874) for 2020.

It doesn't seem like a bad investment, sprinkle around some campaign contributions and get a $2 million dollar contract in the process. It's just too bad Lamont couldn't find a Connecticut company to help.

Monday, March 30, 2020

CIVILITY AND SOME STUPIDITY IN THE AGE OF CORONA

Our society, the last few weeks , to me, seems to have an eerie similarity to the days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on our Country.

People actually seem to be civil toward each other, good deeds are obvious everywhere and people actually seem to be caring about their neighbors. You can actually be slow to proceed at a green light without the car behind you leaning on their horn.Civility. Why can't we be like this everyday? Even when we aren't facing a pandemic.

W have an elderly family friend who lives alone and she was unable to find toilet paper last week. Me and Mom dropped an eight pack off to her  home. We told her we didn't want any potential exposure so we would leave it on her back porch. She called later to ask how much we wanted and we told her nothing. You would think we gave her a winning Lotto ticket.

I think it made us both feel good. Our friend in knowing that someone she could count on actually was thinking about her and us knowing we did something good, even as small of a gesture as it was.

As the old saying goes, no good deed goes unnoticed, we have received much more back this week than any toilet paper could cost. Neighbors have plenty of free time now and the homemade soups, baked goods, potato salad and much more has been making it's way to our doorstep.  The deliveries are usually prefaced with a phone call asking if we are home and can they leave something for us on the porch.

The doorbell rang the night before Saint Patrick's Day. It was a neighbor who had to cancel her weekend St. Patrick Day party and she showed up with a full corned beef and some vegetables she couldn't use. Mom cooked it and we packaged up Corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots dinners for several other elderly people who were home with the restaurants closed. They were all packaged up and set on  the back porch for pickup. We maintained our social distance,

Today, another neighbor came over to get some of the Irish Bread we baked this weekend, she was carrying Banana bread and a container of potato salad she made for us. We will be baking more, but our grocery delivery with buttermilk won't come until Friday (sorry)

Although the pandemic may be the worst thing many of us will probably experience during our lifetimes it seems to be bringing out the best in many people. I wish, and hope, we can smarten up and continue the civility after this is done.

I only wish that the people that are supposed to be our so called "leaders" would forget the political sniping and start leading by example. That goes for everyone, from our President on down , including our 2 US Senators. There will be plenty of time when all is said and done to figure out who, if anyone, dropped the ball on a situation that no one could have predicted 12 months ago.

 I do have to say though that Governor Lamont appears to be showing some leadership and pulling State resources together and playing very little politics with this disaster. I think Governor Lamont would be well served to continue on the course he has set and resist allowing anyone to hijack his press conferences for their own political gain as was done last week by Senators Blumenthal and Murphy . We all are well aware of their disdain for President Trump, in the meantime people are dying and many more will potentially die while they further their political hatred.

And this pandemic also highlights the stupidity of many people also. I am sure we all, or at least most of us with any common sense, were appalled by the news coverage of "spring breakers" swarming the beaches in Florida, some how figuring they were immune because they were in College and partying. Also the ignorance of Florida's Governor, who waited almost a week before taking action to stop the reckless behavior by closing the beaches.

Most likely out of fear of offending business owners who receive substantial financial benefit from the drunken spring break revelers in their bars and clubs Unfortunately, many of those college partiers are now testing positive and suffering from the Corona virus.

I think another example of Corona stupidity is the testing and reporting of Corona cases in the news. The number of infections reported and the hospitalizations reported are partially due to the low number of initial test results and now that it has been ramped up and more results are received daily the numbers seem to double and triple almost daily. I think those infections were there all along, they are just getting identified and reported on a more timely basis .

TO BE CONTINUED...


Thursday, March 5, 2020

6TH DISTRICT TOWN COMMITTEE RESULTS

The 6th District Democratic Town Committee elections were held Tuesday.

 For the most part , the existing current members of the 6th District slate prevailed and the two challenge slates pretty much went down in flames. One slate was led by Council President Maly Rosado with far less than stellar results.

 Roughly less than 10% of eligible Democratic voters in the 6th District turned out to vote.

 There must be a better way. These DTC challenges are a huge waste of money spent by a cash strapped City. Essentially by people looking for some political power and a title.

 They might actually accomplish more by getting out in their communities and neighborhoods and producing some real results

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

WILL IT BE MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL?

Hartford will never be able to advance and get out of its own way if the mindset at City Hall doesn't change.

Tonight, the Hartford City Council will be conducting interviews for the position of Town and City Clerk. The position was opened up on the recent retirement of John Bazzano as City Clerk.
 Bazzano was appointed City Clerk after the sudden tragic death of former City Clerk, Dan Carey.

The position of City clerk is one of the few political patronage jobs left in City hall, besides Council aides, which have no legitimate standards for hiring.

City clerk is an "appointment for life" made by a resolution from the City Council, and although the Council talks about "transparency", this selection process may be the furthest thing from transparent. The Council will be putting on a good show tonight as they pretend to interview three candidates. At least two of the interviewees are political hacks looking for their reward from the taxpayers of Hartford.

One, Noel Mcgregor, is a retired Hartford Police Officer. Mcgregor was also Democratic Town Chairman and close to the corrupt former Mayor Eddie Perez. McGregor has several highly questionable skeletons lurking in his closet that need to be examined to judge his credibility for the position of City Clerk.

First being is the circumstances under which he left HPD. The Internal Affairs reports may not still be available but there are still people that know the details and are willing to talk. One I spoke with today was very familiar with the allegations and evidence obtained  after Connecticut Natural Gas officials apparently made a claim that natural gas was allegedly being obtained illegally (stolen) after persons in McGregor's restaurant on Albany Avenue removed the gas meter and replaced the meter with a "straight pipe" to essentially steal gas for the restaurant by bypassing the meter. One person that spoke to me today stated that they were lucky there wasn't an explosion resulting from the shoddy job bypassing the meter.

Eventually Mcgregor's property became a subject of the Perez Grand Jury when it was discovered that a scheme was developed to over inflate the appraisal that the City of Hartford had obtained for the property as part of a redevelopment project in the Woodland Street/ Albany Avenue area. At one point investigators for the State's Attorney's office uncovered an e-mail detailing the scheme from Perez's Office with the comment "we need to make sure we take care of Noel".

Will the Hartford City Council now go out of their way and "take care of Noel" again ? They probably, will considering it is Hartford we are talking about here.

 The only serious contender being interviewed tonight, as far as I know, is Eric Lusa. Eric was in the Registrar of Voters office and moved to the City Clerks Office shortly after Bazzano took over. Lusa worked under Bazzano's supervision and mentorship for almost ten years and has shown a very competent work ethic and strong customer service skills in the Clerk's Office the entire time. I guess that will probably disqualify him because the last thing we want in City Hall are competent people that aren't puppets to the powers to be.

One other of Bazzano's former staffers Kelly Bilodeau would have been more than capable of assuming the reins, but she was driven out of City Hall a couple years ago with the nonsense. Bilodeau is now the Town Clerk in East Hampton

I doubt the powers to be at City Hall will pay attention to any of this or even do their due diligence before making their "appointment for life".

It is the Hartford way to take care of the political hacks at the expense of the taxpayers.

Monday, February 17, 2020

WHY IS H.P.D. AFRAID OF 29-17 ?



The City of Hartford has an ordinance on its books and has had this ordinance for some time. Essentially it gives the Police Chief in Hartford the authority to require police officers to be hired at any business, including bars , that are determined by the Chief of Police to be valid nuisance and a threat to Public Safety of the businesses "patrons, invitees, employees or the general Public.".

For some reason the HPD Administration seems to be afraid of enforcing this ordinance. There are several businesses, liquor establishments in particular, that are chronic problems when it comes to fights, shootings, stabbings and overall general violent crime. Club Majestic, the scene of Hartford's most recent homicide is a prime example. There have been numerous shootings, stabbings and assaults at Club Majestic in recent history. Yet, Club Majestic remains unscathed and continues to operate with immunity from HPD enforcement.

And make no mistake, Club Majestic is not alone in creating a public nuisance with the behavior of their clientele, These nuisances dot Hartford's neighborhoods, both North and South, East and West. The one thing they all seem to have in common is the owners that are more than willing to allow anyone in , willing to pay the price of admission and drinks. They even seem to ignore State liquor laws without any consequences. One patron shot at Club Majestic was, according to Police, a 19 year old "customer".

The solution to this behavior, apparently as shown by the HPD Administration  is to strip every available resource out of quieter neighborhoods to "babysit" the nuisance bars where the owners refuse to provide proper Security for their customers. They must be reading the articles on "evidenced based Policing"  and drinking the Texas Kool-Aid.

It is wrong to reassign Community Service Officers who should be patrolling the neighborhoods they have built relationships with to enhance the quality of life across the City. These officers, along with Patrol Officers are stripped out to sit in front of problem bars, while most neighborhoods receive far less coverage than they deserve on busy bar nights and weekends at the expense of other neighborhoods

Ordinance 29-17 should be used to force bar owners to maintain Public Safety in their establishments. The Police Chief has the power to do it and it will send a clear message to bar owners to clean up their acts before they have to pay HPD to do it.

It is a matter of Public Safety and the Police Chief can not be afraid to do his job while continuing to dance around the issue of violent crime endangering Hartford's neighborhoods. It is a handful of problem locations but they contribute greatly to Hartford's violent crime, both reality and perception.

A uniformed Police Officer at these problem locations will send a clear message to those entering to take the gun play elsewhere, we don't want it.


Ordinance 29 17  on Scribd

Sunday, February 16, 2020

HARTFORD NEEDS... AND DESERVES A FULL TIME MAYOR

Luke Bronin on the campaign trail in New Hampshire ( Courant photo)


I get tired of people that continually use Hartford and its residents as pawns in their complicated games of ego chess.

Hartford's Mayor Luke Bronin is one of the people that plays that game and thinks no one is smart enough or even cares enough to pay attention. But we do.

If you remember, shortly after his first election he went on the campaign circuit for failed Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. I think the Bronin's and the Malloy's had the moving vans reserved and backed up to the front door on election night, ready for their ascension back to Washington D.C. as a reward from Hillary. I am sure there was much anger from Luke and Sara when the results started rolling in and they realized they were stuck in Hartford. I am sure they never thought Donald Trump could win.

Since that didn't work out as planned, Luke came up with another scheme. He would ride the coat tails of his Capitol godfather Dan Malloy into the Governor's Office. I guess he didn't pay attention to the polls to realize how unpopular Governor Malloy was as he was leaving office.

Regardless, he spent months criss-crossing the State of Connecticut on his campaign efforts when he should have been focusing on the promises he made to the people of Hartford to get elected.

Hartford suffered while Luke ran, but what does that matter, he had his eyes set on a greater prize.

Well, that effort also flopped and Luke was once again stuck in Hartford.

Now at a time when opioid deaths are soaring in Hartford, Hartford School students are assaulting Administrators, violence in the schools is starting to boil over. That evidenced by this weeks stabbing of a student at the Hartford Schools latest showplace, Weaver High School. And lets not forget the gun violence that has given Hartford the proud distinction of the most violent City in Connecticut and most likely New England.

Much of those things are happening under the watch of Luke Bronin, but then again, it is hard to see those disasters when you are out on the campaign trail. Whether that campaign trail was for a failed Hillary, a failed run for wannabe Governor Bronin or now his long shot support for Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg . Bronin spent much of last week out of Hartford campaigning for Mayor Pete instead of staying in Hartford doing his job as Mayor Luke, the job he was elected for.

If nothing else, if by some fluke, Buttigieg is elected, I could probably resurrect the nickname of lying Luke. Does anyone else remember Bronin's campaign promise that he was happy in Hartford and had every intention of completing his four year term as Mayor?

I can picture the conversation now from a snowy café in Nashua , New Hampshire.

Bronin to Buttigieg, "When you get elected as President,Pete  where would I fit into your Administration ?You know I am up here in the cold campaigning for you when I should be focusing on my own mess in Hartford"

Hartford needs a Mayor that cares about Hartford and can honor his (or her) commitment to make Hartford a better place, not to ascend to the next rung on their ladder of political aspirations.

So far we have not seen that commitment from Luke Bronin to Hartford.