Cotto Wants To Prohibit Contributions From City Contractors

A member of the Hartford City Council has introduced a resolution for Monday’s council meeting banning campaign contributions from city contractors.  Meanwhile, the council has a series of commission appointments on its agenda – appointments that were first made by Mayor Eddie Perez before a jury found him guilty of corruption.  WNPR’s Jeff Cohen reports.

 

Councilman Luis Cotto has introduced a resolution that would ban contributions from city contractors to anyone running for mayor, city council, board of education, city treasurer, and the registrar of voters. Cotto, who is a member of the Working Families Party, says the mayor's conviction make this the right time to move the resolution forward.

 

“It’s more relevant now than it has been before. What we saw as a result of the trial were contractors who specifically not only donated to the mayor’s campaign, but helped fundraise. And this is an attempt to begin a conversation to say that, ‘Maybe we should not be accepting this.’”

 

Councilman Kenneth Kennedy is a Democrat, and he likes Cotto’s idea.  But he thinks it may run into some constitutional, free speech problems.

 

What Kennedy doesn’t like is the idea of approving five appointments to various city commissions made by outgoing Mayor Perez.  He apparently made these appointments before last week’s verdicts, but Kennedy thinks the council ought to hold off on confirming them.

 

“We should not act upon them as appointments from the mayor.  I would hope that the council, and I think we will, will have those items all withdrawn. And that will be a decision for Mayor Segarra to decide whether he wants to appoint the individuals.”

 

City Council President Pedro Segarra will be the city's mayor when Perez resigns.