NBTC Censures Senator Lieberman

NEW BRITAIN -The city's Democratic Town Committee approved a "resolution of no confidence" in Senator Joe Lieberman at its December meeting. The move came at the December 11th meeting held at City Hall.

The 12-point resolution, adapted from a more detailed censure resolution adopted by the Glastonbury Democratic Town Committee, won unanimous support at the New Britain meeting. It took issue with Lieberman's role in the 2008 campaign, including a speech at the Republican National Convention and months of campaigning on behalf of GOP nominee John McCain outside of Connecticut. The statement went on to oppose Lieberman's position on a range of issues including:

- Missed votes on increased funding for Homeland Security despite public statements supporting additional resources. "His absence in a debate on legislation to potentially increase security funding to Connecticut's cities meant the difference between the bill passing and losing." said one clause of the resolution;

- The vote to confirm Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General (the only Democratic senator from New England to do so) "in spite of Gonzales' support of torture, rendition and eavesdropping on US citizens";

- Support for the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that denies prisoners the right to habeas corpus, sanctions torture and protects members of the administration from prosecution for war crimes;

- The only Democrat to support the president's idea of private accounts. "Once it was clear that the issue had no traction, Joe Lieberman joined Democrats in opposing the President's plan," according to the resolution;

- Support for NAFTA and CAFTA --the free trade agreements approved without a process to negotiate worker rights, human rights and environmental safeguards;

- Unwavering support of the Iraq war, the greatest contributing factor to the growth in the national debt.

Democratic Town Chair John McNamara said Lieberman's expected pro-Democratic votes in the next Congress will be welcome. And he acknowledged Lieberman's recent statements that he would be in lockstep with the Obama administration on a new economic stimulus package after Lieberman retained the chairmanship of Homeland Security from the Democratic Senate caucus.

"The point of these censures and no-confidence votes, however, should be to send a message to Joe that we are looking for a new senator in 2012," said McNamara. "Going back on your commitments while hiding behind the cloak of 'bipartisanship' or, worse, opposing the nominee of your own party, give politics and politicians a bad name. Senator Lieberman has repeatedly turned his back on Democrats who made it possible for him to serve in the U.S. Senate in the first place."

The no confidence vote from New Britain Democrats did not come as a surprise. In 2006, the New Britain Town committee sent 24 of 31 delegates to the Democratic State Convention in support of candidate Ned Lamont over Lieberman, the largest block of votes opposing Lieberman's re-nomination for U.S. Senate.

The New Britain Committee will be sending its resolution on to state party leaders and to Senator Lieberman to express its concerns on his voting record and role in the 2008 campaign.

Food Pantry for the Disadvantaged Closing!

The New Britain Spanish Speaking Center’s Food Pantry is in Danger of closing due To Lack of Funds cut by the State of Ct.

Rick Guinness of The New Britain Herald with his lead story today announced the sad news for the extremely poor and disadvantaged citizen of the city will be losing their source for food.

He did elaborate how the state’s budget reduced its allocation to the center by a sum of $100,000. At thanksgiving time I notified our readers that the center was just about out of funds. Now according to the Herald report that has become a reality.

Mr. Guinness recommends that we all contact the Governor’s office by sending letters to her requesting a replenishment of the funds to the center in order for them to continue to help the poor with the food they need and count on to survive.

I further recommend that you contact all the legislative members, within your voting district, to request them to contact the Governor to reconsider her actions and restore the badly needed funds at the Spanish Speaking Center.

THE RESTORATION OF A NEW BRITAIN LOCAL NEWSPAPER!

I have looked over the East Hartford Gazette, a weekly paper, which is part of the troubled group of newspapers that own the New Britain Herald and the Bristol press, but is unique in that it has a circulation of 19,100 and is delivered free by a carrier network to every town resident. Because it is free to its readers, you may ask how it survives. The answer is simple: through its advertising program. If you are in business and wish to reach all the residents, you could advertise through this media since the cost would be much less than advertising with a daily newspaper or even direct mail.

An option would be to connect with the Record-Journal in Meriden who successfully operates five weekly newspapers such as The Berlin Citizen, The North Haven Citizen, The Plainville Citizen, The Southington Citizen and the Town Times.

In the event that The Record-Journal has no interest in opening a local office to handle the New Britain’s daily news issues, it may be interested in issuing a weekly paper not only for New Britain but for other area towns that will be affected by the pending closure of the conglomerate news group.

New Britain Mayor Timothy Stewart along with his counterparts including our area state legislatures should arrange a meeting with the publisher of the Record-Journal in order to initiate a common ground of interest for both the newspaper and our City that could resolve our expected loss of news coverage for our city. It may be possible to convert the Herald to a successful weekly like the Gazette, which will make the paper once again profitable for its investors, while at the same time providing a local news source for New Britain residents. If this were to happen, it would be a “win” for everyone.

Sincerely,



Frank Smith

Editorial

At The New Britain Council meeting held on December 10th I was completely shocked to watch the Democratic side of the isle select Sherwood’s puppet that he called to ask this individual if she wanted to go back onto the Board of Education. This selection was made after three council meetings with the selection being the topic of discussion and having a multitude of parents, former Board of Education members, teachers, and many concerned citizens speak on behalf of Jamie Giantonio as being the right choice and that was the choice of the RTC to fill this existing board vacancy. Many who spoke referred to the former board member as being unworthy to fill this vacancy because of her argumentative disposition during board meetings rather than to discuss issues being presented in a polite manner. They also mentioned that she had missed approximately forty per cent of the meetings when she was a board member. Many who spoke did so for the sake of the school children that the school district and its board members are there to protect and to preserve each child’s educational interest.
Mr. Sherwood, being a Democrat, was out of his realm to be involved with a Republican replacement or was it that she would make a good puppet since, is was reported that, she is a former employee where Mr. Sherwood works.
For the Democrats to ignore the many speakers who made substantial presentations supporting Mr. Giantonio’s appointment was somewhat appalling to watch, as all these comments made by the voters of this city in support of Mr. Giantonio were completely ignored by the Democrats--showing that they posses all the power and the voter’s wishes mean absolutely nothing to them. Like sheep not one democratic Alderman voted with his good conscience but that of the dictates of the leadership.
Hopefully, on Election Day, these voters will remember who chose to ignore them. One thing is for certain, I intend to be right here to remind them!

New Britain City Council Members Conflicts

Conflicts All over the Council floor with every Alderman covering for each other!


In addition to Alderman Catanzaro’s conflicts of interest fiasco not only as the head of the HRA Agency but as a city employee, Shirley Black was/is a NB school crossing guard, Ald. Centeno and wife are employees of NB public schools, Ald. Hermanowski’s daughter is married to Dave DeFronzo a teacher at NB High, Ald. ToniLyn Collins is employed at the New Britain Water Dept. are some of the players.

Additionally, the Majority Leader Alderman Trueworthy’s wife works for HRA and Sherwood’s wife works for AFSCME.

And these councilmen are the ones proposing to pass a new “Ethics Resolution for the city Council and city employees; need I say more?

DTC-Chairman John McNamra Speaks Out!

Republicans Descend Into Personal Attacks Over Board of Education Seat

A Common Council vote to appoint Republican Leslie Jacobs to fill a vacancy on the Board of Education has prompted a veto by Mayor Timothy Stewart and a torrent of attacks by Republicans. In his veto message, Stewart referred to Jacobs as "flippant" and "arrogant" but cited no votes or actions by Jacobs as a school board member to oppose her nomination. Jacobs has previous experience on the BOE but has long since fallen out of favor with her party's leadership.

Dismayed that the GOP's hand-picked recommendation, Jamie Giantonio, was not accepted by the Council, Republican leaders have denounced the Council move to replace Marilyn Kraczkowsky, a controversial Republican member of the BOE, who resigned earlier this year.

Jacobs and Council Democrats have been the target of personal attacks and harsh words from Republican Chair Paul Carver and others. Derogatory comments have been posted anonymously on local blogs, including one threat of violence against City Alderman Phil Sherwood.

Democratic Town Chair John McNamara criticized the Mayor's veto message for claiming Democrats are putting partisanship ahead of city schools and children. He also faulted the tone and content of the Republican attacks as "mean spirited", "divisive" and nothing more than the tactics of "schoolyard bullies."

The Council is exercising its judgment and responsibility in accordance with the city charter, according to McNamara. "The Mayor and Republican Chair Carver should make their arguments on the merits of their candidate, and not engage in partisan attacks on members of the City Council and Ms. Jacobs," said McNamara.

"This is the same Republican Party that nominated as their local standard bearer this year Tom Bozek for State Senate, a candidate who suggested that New Britain should downsize its schools by reducing the number of school children by 4,000 through draconian anti-family policies." McNamara said the record of the Mayor and Carver on education and addressing the school district's fiscal challenges has been "abysmal" over the last two years. "If I were a member of the City Council concerned about the quality of education the last person of either party that I would pick would be a rubber stamp for the Mayor," said McNamara.

The Autocratic Alderman Paul Catanzaro:

Some four years ago I wrote an article in our local newspapers describing of the mere fact that you as a city employee coupled with your being an elected city Alderman placed you in a conflict of interest at either location until such time you resign from one or the other.

You ignored the warning with your complacent attitude.

And then a few years back you proposed a resolution at a council meeting calling for the elimination of all city undertakers from being able to serve on the cemetery commission and when it was time to vote on your proposal you were cautioned by the Minority Leader of the council that your vote would place you in a conflict of interest since your boss at the city’s park department, where you work, also serves as the Chairperson of the cemetery Commission. With your complacent attitude you acted as though you are above the law and went ahead by voting for your motion. I again wrote an article admonishing your actions in the local newspapers with your continued disdain of your being within the dictates of law.

Paul, it is amazing that it took all this time for these facts to surface and with the additional complaint filed with HUD about your HRA involvement along with two of your other Democratic Alderman who are in conflict as much as you are and are being dragged through the mud and slime of politics because of your insistence that you can do no wrong.

With the aforementioned facts I cannot agree more with the HUD edict that all three of you, should resign from the council due to your conflict of interest and that mandate includes you, Alderwoman Tonilynn Collins, and the council Majority leader Alderman Michael Trueworthy.

Furthermore; It would be much wiser for all three to not attend any future council meetings until such time all the legal conflict issues have been resolved with the HUD Agency.

The saddest part is watching you tear down the democratic ideology through your extreme desire to show the electorate that you have the power and God help anyone who might come between you and your thirst for power.

MAYOR"S VETO MESSAGE

Parents and Grandparents of New Britain School Children:

On November 19th our Mayor, The Honorable Timothy T. Stewart, issued his veto to the resolution passed by the Democratic Council members and his statement is as follows: [ re-print ] :

To the members of the Common Council:

Our forefathers had some lofty and admirable goals when drafting the Constitution of the United States. They envisioned a government where checks and balances among the three branches of government protected our citizens from abuses of power. They tried to build a system of government where legislatures would debate critical issues with civility and respect and those whose views were in the minority could still speak freely and be heard.

If those framers of the Constitution were somehow magically transported here to 2008 New Britain, I believe they would recoil at how far we have strayed from their vision and how petty, bitter and partisan our local government has become. While our City has always had a reputation for hard fought political battles, I believe last week’s Common Council actions hit a new low in political gamesmanship at the expense of good government.

The debate in filing a Board of Education vacancy should be about the needs of New Britain’s school children. But instead of a debate about children, we had a debate where the participants acted like children.

Council Democrats gave no clear reasons for rejecting a father of two young children with a long history of service to New Britain’s youth. Jamie Giantonio, a young professional who stepped up to take time away from his career and family to serve on the Board of Education, certainly deserved a better explanation than the poor excuse from Alderman Sherwood-that he picked the person who called him on the phone rather than Mr. Giantonio who only sent his a letter. This absurdity would be laughable if it were not being carried out at the expense of the education of our City’s children.

No member of the Council majority has denied that filing the vacancy with Leslie Jacobs is retaliation for a previous vacancy appointment and again, no qualifications other than her once having served on the Board of Education were given. During public participation, ten residents spoke on behalf of Mr. Giantonia---none spoke in favor of Miss Jacobs. In fact, several speakers mentioned reasons why her past service on the Board should be the reason NOT to appoint her to fill this vacancy.

In answering questions at Wednesday’s Council meeting, Miss Jacobs did nothing to hide the arrogant, flippant attitude that earned her a reputation as an ineffective member during her earlier time on the Board. I cannot stand by and let this appointment go through without giving the Council the opportunity to rethink this action and put aside partisanship in favor of doing what is right for this community’s children.

State statutes specifically delineate minority representation on school boards in an attempt to achieve that balance of power as envisioned in the Constitution. It is hoped that an almost even split creates a spirit if bipartisanship that allows Board members to concentrate on educational rather than political issues.

With the appointment of Miss Jacobs, the Democratic majority has only violated that spirit of bipartisanship, they have thrown a live partisan grenade into the New Britain Board at a time when resources are low and needs and tensions are high.

I therefore veto Resolution #30383 in the hopes that you reconsider the chilling message you are sending to people in our community: that political power is more important than sound public policy. Consider this appointment as if you own children or grandchildren’s education depended on it---the citizens of New Britain deserve nothing less.
Sincerely,

Timothy T. Stewart
Mayor, city of New Britain


I strongly urge all the parents to call the leadership of the PTO group for their child’s school and ask them to contact the parents of all the children to attend the Council meeting on December 10th in order to support the Mayor’s veto of the Democrat’s choice for appointment to the Board.

Frank Smith

THE MINORITY PARTY SPEAKS OUT!

The Assistant Minority Leader of the City Council speaking to the Board of Education at their Monday night meeting presented the best warning to the existing Board members not to resign prior to the end of their existing terms.

We all know how the democratic members of the council don’t plan to listen to the recommendations of the Republican Party and in order to show their power over the wishes of the electorate they may even ignore their own party’s recommendation.

The board meeting started at 7:14 PM subsequent to the opening pledges and the public participation had been completed the board meeting had been into some fifteen minutes of their normal business when Ms. Leslie Jacobs arrived carrying pre-mailed board meeting packet.

This of course telegraphed the sure intention of the democratic council member’s intention to override the mayor’s veto.

Why would the board of Education go through the expense of providing the documents together with the mailing cost if the word hadn’t been passed on by the democratic leadership that the veto override will occur?

Council Democrats Ignore New Britain Tradition!

It has been New Britain’s tradition that whenever a member of any board resigns that they are replaced with a member from the same party.

The Republican Party named their choice for the replacement in their requesting that Mr. Jamie Giontonio be the replacement.

The power hungry members of the Democratic Council chose to ignore tradition by their appointing Alderman Sherwood’s puppet: Ms. Leslie Jacobs.

Mayor Timothy Stewart deserves praise for his listening to the parents who spoke loudly against the Sherwood puppet machine by his vetoing the Democrat’s appointment of Ms. Leslie Jacobs.

The Democrats’ claim is that she served on the Board of Education sometime prior, but her record of service there was rather dismal and for the democrats to ignore her adverse past record is derelict at best.

The mayor deserves full support of his veto; however, rumors have it that the power stricken democrats will override the mayor’s veto at their December 10th Council conclave--forcing the unwanted Jacobs appointment onto the Board of Education and ignoring the parent’s wishes to appoint Mr. Giontonio.

I am sure with next year’s election many faces will change on the council if the democrats persist to push their power onto unwanted wishes of our citizens who they are supposed to be serving on the council to represent.

They may ignore the will of the people now, but on Nov 3rd, our voices will be heard loud and clear!

Funds For the City's Poor Cut By State

Unfortunately, The New Britain Spanish Speaking Center of 28 Cedar Street, due budgetary cutbacks by the state, will no longer be able to provide food for hundreds of people affective this coming January according to Ms. Mary Sanders who heads this wonderful organization.

Governor Rell has slashed a sum of $100,000 form the center’s annual budget request.

There are two options left to help the poor in our city and that is to have the city Council to supplement the center’s financial needs from their rainy days fund or to get a local bank to set up a fund drive to help in providing the necessary funds in keeping the food supplies to continue.

The current people being furnished, by the center, with the food supplies, as listed in the New Britain Herald on November 27th. by its staff reporter Mr. Rick Guinness as follows:

Number of adults under age 65 who are being served by the center 390
There are 75 seniors 65-87 years old.
There are 270 Children being served.
Making it a total of people being feed is 735 in 243 households.

I am sure that most of our citizens while driving through the city have witness the poor recipients walking with their familiar carts filled with food on their way back to their residences.

This plea for help on their behalf should be the stimulus for both the city council members and the city residents to join in with their efforts in order to help out in any way possible.

NB Council Conflicts of Interest Should Be Reviewed!

The Common Council of The City of New Britain should examine itself for conflicts of interest.

Besides the complaint filed with HUD against Alderman Paul Cantanzaro, is the additional conflict that is constant by his being an Alderman, President of the New Britain Human Resources Agency and a city employee for the parks and recreation department of the City New Britain.

The conflict persists by the mere fact that the council approves accepting Federal funding that is awarded to the city’s commission on community and neighborhood development which in turn approves and requests funding to be approved by the Council for the HRA agency.

One instance of an outstanding conflict of interest was with Alderman Cantanzaro insistence of voting on the cemetery issue involving undertakers being eliminated from serving on the cemetery commission when in fact his boss at the parks a recreation department, where Alderman Cantazaro works, is the executive director of the city’s cemetery commission. By the mere fact of his making a motion to eliminate the undertakers and subsequently voting on this motion is an example of his display of defiance to the conflict laws and appears to be above the law with this vote.

The council should review the existing conflict that Alderman Cantanzaro presents to the general public with his determined disrespect to adhering to proper conduct as a city Alderman.

He should be told to resign at least two of the positions preferably all three.

OPEN FORUM NUMBER FIVE

OPEN FORUM NUMBER FOUR WAS SO POPULAR THAT IT RAN OUT OS SPACE SO I AM POVIDING THIS NEW FORUM NUMBER FIVE IN ORDER FOR THE RESIDENTS TO TELL THEIR ELECTED OFFICIALS HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT CURRENT ISSUES.

The Pending Demise of the New Britain Herald

It was not shocking news for many of the city’s residents to learn of the possible demise of New Britain’s newspaper. It was very noticeable in its approach since many of their news stands stood idle adjacent to the Herald offices. The readership dwindled due to a lack of news coverage.

Additionally, its reporting style of news coverage changed drastically since the departure of Editor, Patrick Thibodeau. The noticeable change in style seemed to irritate its loyal readers. Reporter after reporter came and left. One would assume that there was a revolving door for the reporters or was it just a low pay schedule with little future advancement in pay that made them move on? Consistency was lost and in time, so were the readers.

I recall Mr. Thibodeau sitting in the front row of the City’s Council chambers and would be insulted or abused by the Aldermen regarding his past news reports but Pat would just sit there showing no emotions and his following day’s report would not even mention the vicious personal attacks, but would only report the newsworthy issues for his loyal readers.

There were many good reporters that followed Pat such as Elisa Hutcoe [Krockmalnyckyj] who subsequently joined Pat as his co editor of a Washington enterprise called the “Computerworld” which is based out of Boston, Massachusetts.

There were many more notable writers in addition to the two aforementioned like Ms. P Riordan, Ms. Herran Kerry, and now Ms. Lisa Backus is holding the fort along with Rick Guinness and Scott Whipple.

I am sure that Mr. William Millerick, a former Editor of the paper, is holding back his emotions over this great loss for our city.

I personally feel what the Late Mrs. Brown, former publisher would say if she were here to say it, along side the late Mr. Vance.

I cannot finish this dialog without mentioning the faithful all around assistant to everyone in the newsroom, Ms. Carroll Miller, who dealt with the public such as me with charm and impeccable grace.

I wish to convey to all who were associated with the Herald a heartfelt thank you for your dedication to your readers and you will all be sorely missed by all the residents you so faithfully served.

Any comments from current or past readers are welcome on this blog and you may make your comments anonymous or you may sign your name to your comments, but feel free to join in on wishing the men and women behind the scenes at the Herald a fond farewell.

Open Forum Number Four

I am offering my readers a fourth open forum to post any issues they feel are important to the people of New Britain. If you have an issue with city government that you would like to share with the rest of the readers, feel free to post it here. Whether it be a problem you experienced with a city agency or official, or something positive they may have done and you would like to share it with the rest of New Britain, this is a chance to do so. Public interest stories are also welcome, so if you know about a person, or group of people that is doing something to somehow make the lives of others better, feel free to post it here.

You are welcome to post items anonymously, or may sign your posts if you choose to do so. Consider this an opportunity to speak up about issues you feel may be important to the people of New Britain. Simply click on the comments link below to leave your message. Thanks for checking in to review my postings and please feel free to check back frequently as I have a number of interesting stories in the works.
This fourth forum is being provided since the third was a great success.

The Obama Transition Phase

This is to give our readers the opportunity to discuss whatever effects they may feel that will affect both their personal economic problems, as they see it, and the national economic downturns, layoffs, and business closings that the new Obama administration presents.

And last but least the adversities the economic dilemma that our city and town governments are currently facing regarding the possibility of being forced to layoff some of their employees.

Please restrict your comments on the national issues to this particular blog in order to free up the local blogs with local issues.

East Side Residents Meet With Mayor Stewart

The East Side Neighborhood Community Action Meeting held with the Honorable Mayor Timothy Stewart at their meeting held on 11-6-08.

The mayor gave his overview as an excellent update of the current and future expectations of the city services for the west end.

He mentioned the rehabilitation that is underway at the old fire station which has been used as the emergency building and will be ready in a few months for public use and scheduling of meetings. He touched on the Broad Street area growth that is occurring.

Leaf pick up whether curb side or bagged with a spring time final pick up after the snow has melted.

Importantly he announced a terrific change in this year’s snow plowing schedules by going from 10 routes to l4 with double shifts and arranging the same routes being done by the same trucks with their first doing the emergency and or public safety routes which will result in faster completion of the task with the same employees becoming familiarized with their routes. He also announced a change from the traditional salt and sand to a salt that is less toxic to the grass and trees by the road side.

He continued by announcing in addition to the standard garbage pickup that they will be introducing a separate canister for the recycling materials which will only have to brought out to the curb every two weeks. Some people place metals and furniture on the on the curb side without arranging a scheduled pick up with the city’s department of public works. They have inspectors checking around the city and issuing $100 fines to these violators.

The Mayor also mentioned that with the new recycling program, the materials are being sent to the Bristol facility, which produces electricity, and suggested that it helps the city to save on electrical cost. He also mentioned that the contractors assigned to pick up the garbage start as early as 4 AM in order to beat the traffic caused by the school busses but that he will negotiate a 5 AM start up when their contract renewal is due. He also did mention that the containers cost the city approximately 800 to 900 thousand dollars which was funded through bonding.

The Mayor elaborated that the planned work for the Walnut Hill Park which will commence after the cancer walk-a-thon on mother’s day in order to correct the pot holes caused by drainage problems on Hart Street and in the Park itself. Due to the major drainage corrections needed to be accomplished, this project will take a long time to complete. Hart Park had its baseball field re-done along with the girl’s tennis courts as well.

He also mentioned that the New Britain Police Department is attempting to fill the current vacancies with New Britain Residents if at all possible with the 70 Applications that have applied. He reported the removal the police sub-station from Broad Street to the West End near the Chesley Park area.

He also explained the city has experienced less income from its investments creating a shortfall on the anticipated budgeted income and we will not hire to fill the vacancies at city hall and may have to go to a shorter work week for our workers because we cannot layoff all of our workers. We have stopped our personal use of city vehicles for going home for lunch in order to save the fuel involved.

He announced the planned west end streets to be repaved are Jubilee, Smalley, and Linwood which is part of a five year plan that was decided not on a political basis but by having a survey done and setting the priority needs.

The Mayor did answered many questions asked by the residents but he seemed reluctant in answering about the cemetery fencing problem since it is a legal matter but did indicate that the individual contractor was arrested and that there is a performance bond involved.

He mentioned the problem properties while under bank forecloses with the banks providing no services such as lawn maintenance and snow removal and how the city has to do the clean ups and having to place a lean on the properties.

Saint Thomas School was also mentioned with the Mayor indicating that a local Middletown developer is interested in making a 55 and over residence with it.

He answered questions about seniors obtaining a tax freeze on their property taxes by their applying at the senior center through Mr. John Coughlin to make the arrangements and especially those who need help in removal of leaves and snow off their properties due to disabilities they too must see Mr. Coughlin in order to prove their income status for their eligibility to obtain the needed help.

Additionally, the Mayor during the Q&A period mentioned how they have portable cameras that can be placed anywhere in order to get surveillance information to help the police department to move forward with their suspected criminal activity investigations. He alluded to some cameras being placed on top of telephone poles and all are motion detected and do work on the internet as well. He also indicated that they are dealing with the taggers by their grouping several of the misdemeanors charges together in order make a felony conviction stick.

The Mayor made an excellent presentation and all those present were well satisfied with all his answers and hoped to see more of him in the future. I should indicate that Aldermen Mark Bernacki and Adam Platosz were also present along with four members of the New Britain Police Department.

Crying Baby Number "Four"

As requested by my readers we are starting crying baby number "four"


Unfortunately, one of our council Alderman Louis Salvio (R) admiringly claimed he blew the whistle and HUD took the money away.

It originated with a complaint he filed with the Hud Agency claiming three Democratic Aldermen were in a conflict of interest regarding HRA agency and Federal Funding. When in reality two abstain from voting and the third was absent from attendance of the meeting in question.

HUD did investigate and cited two Republican Commissioners with a conflict of interest and withdrew a sum totaling $264,248 affecting eight of the city’s agencies.

With the onslaught of winter arriving Heat, Food, and children’s clothing are the priority for the poor in our city but the funds remain with HUD.

At the New Britain Council Meeting this past Wednesday two distinguished individual from The Spanish Speaking Center and The Salvation Army spoke of the need for food, winter clothing for the poor and heating. Unfortunately, they did not mention the large sum for this purpose is sitting at the HUD office in Hartford, Ct.

I am respectfully requesting that you devote the necessary time in order to have HUD release these extremely needed funds in order that our poor can survive this winter with sufficient food, heat, and clothing.
Sincerely,

Boot Finder Number Two For Mayor Stewart

I have received numerous emails as well as phone calls as what the boot looks like.

Therefore, making it the reason for adding the new blog in order to present to our readers what the mechanical Boot Finder looks like. Please remember that they do place two of these bootfinders one on each side of the vehicle so it can read the plates parked on both sides of the street as this vehicle passes by.

A computer is controlling what the bootfinder is reading and it is assumed that a new down load of current information from the motor vehicles department and the local tax department is completed on a routine basis in order to keep the information stored in the bootfinders's computer up to date and accurate.

Be reminded that the city of New Haven after installing the boot system in August of last year reported that they collected $3,000,000 last year of unpaid taxes and expects to collect and additional $4,500,000 of uncollected taxes.
It is hoped that the city of New Britain’s administration will consider employing this system in order to lessen its taxpayers who do pay their taxes to see that this additional income realized as a method to lower the mill rate they are currently forced to pay because of the uncollected amounts owed by the dead beat scoffers.

The New Haven Register, reported by Angela Carter, Hundreds turn out to pay delinquent tax bills waiting line for at least an hour in order to prevent their cars from being impounded. Resulting in added towing and storage cost.

One headline reported by the New Have Register read as follows:
BYE-bye to the Boot; Hello Plate Hunter; by William Kaempffer of the Register who reported that the cost for this electronic doohickey was a sum of $78,000 and that this High Tech Italian made optical character recognition technology. It not only finds those that owe past tax bills but also targets parking ticket scofflaws as well.


West Haven and Bridgeport have evaluated this system for their own use.

Why not employing this system in New Britain?

A Boot for Mayor Stewart

Mr. Mayor: New Britain is not attempting to give you the boot but we are recommending that you get the boot like New Haven did.

With the employment of this electronic gadget called the “plate hunter” New Haven has collected 2.3 millions since the launching of the Boot Finder on August l6th.of this year.

A secondary benefit to this is the elimination of un-registration vehicles in our city thus reducing the insurance rates for our residents because of the reduction of accidents involving un-insured vehicles.

Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. stated that the Bootfinder was a contributing factor to our collecting 98.6% of the taxes due at city hall.

The New Haven Register, reported by Angela Carter, Hundreds turn out to pay delinquent tax bills waiting line for at least an hour in order to prevent their cars from being impounded. Resulting in added towing and storage cost.

One headline reported by the New Have Register read as follows:
BYE-bye Bootfinder; Hello Plate Hunter; by William Kaempffer of the Register who reported that the cost for this electronic doohickey was a sum of $78,000 and that this High Tech Italian made optical character recognition technology. It not only finds those that owe past tax bills but also targets parking ticket scofflaws as well.

New Haven has installed two on a Truck so that it can scan vehicles on both sides of the street as it passes by. It even captured a 15 year old parking ticket that was never paid by the car’s owner.

West Haven and Bridgeport have evaluated this system for their own use.

Why not New Britain?