Roldan Campaign Hires Perez Confidants, Including Former Chief of Staff
Over the weekend, questions were raised about Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra’s ethics disclosures to the city and whether or not he may be in violation of federal housing requirements. Now, as WNPR’s Jeff Cohen reports, it appears the people behind those questions were paid consultants to Segarra’s political opponent and former advisors of convicted Mayor Eddie Perez.
The Hartford Courant reported Sunday that Segarra had issues on his hands relating to rental property owned by his spouse. The city’s ethics commission is taking the matter up and federal housing officials have said they’re reviewing the matter. Segarra said that if he erred in his ethics filings, he would amend them.
But he also said the Courant’s story was the byproduct of nasty politics from the camp of state representative and possible mayoral candidate Kelvin Roldan – a former Perez advisor and employee.
As it turns out, on that point, Segarra may be right.
According to campaign finance disclosures filed this week with the city, Roldan has paid two Perez confidants. Matt Hennessy was Perez’s chief of staff. His new company has billed Roldan nearly $16,000 for consulting services.
And Roldan has paid $5,000 to a man named Derek Donnelly – the former Perez advisor whose sweeping request for information to the city first raised questions about Segarra’s ethics disclosures.
On Monday, WNPR asked Roldan whether he knew that Donnelly was doing background research on Segarra. He wouldn’t give a direct answer.
Roldan: You know, you can’t blame the question…who asks the question.
Cohen: I’m not blaming it. I’m just asking you if you asked it, or if you knew Derek was asking it.
Roldan: As I said, you can’t blame the person who asked the question.
That’s not how Phil Sherwood sees it. He’s Segarra’s campaign manager.
“Roldan has some gall after associating himself with Eddie Perez to suggest that he’s the one that can be trusted to clean up city hall. Frankly, it looks like these guys are still taking orders from Eddie Perez, and they’re upset that they’re not in power anymore and their boss is on their way to jail.”
Also noteworthy in the campaign filings is this – Segarra has loaned his campaign $23,000 from his personal funds. Also, he had to return $1,000 to his spouse – Charlie Ortiz. It appears Ortiz contributed more to the campaign than allowable.
For WNPR, I’m Jeff Cohen.
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Questions for mayoral hopefuls
Let's see, it's a very interesting race for mayor and we are closing in on the crucial decisions that need to be made by all the political parties. Remember, only a few people, town committee members, pick the endorsed candidates.
Then, a primary is probable, and anybody can run as an independent.
At this writing, the line up is: Mayor Pedro Segarra, Shawn Wooden, Stan McCauley, Edwin Vargas and maybe, State Rep. Kelvin Roldan. On the face of it, the incumbent usually has many cards, but the fundraising totals show a different picture: Wooden at around $150,000, the Mayor $70,000 or so. Roldan and Vargas have raised some cash, as has McCauley. As far as public campaigning, most seem to be keeping their powder dry as to what they would do as Mayor. McCauley has been the most forthright pushing economic development as the tonic.
However, big, complicated questions need to be asked. For example, how do the candidates stand on the legislation to
mitigate our 2012 tax problem? State Representative Matt Ritter deserves credit for carrying the ball on this tough issue.
At this time, it looks like a 3% increase (yearly) in residential taxes, a 5.25% increase in apartments, and a decrease of
13% in business levies (on real properities). All this could be thrown up in the air with state aid cuts, a large drop in property
values or a spike in the mil rate, but, no matter, something legislatively has to be done or taxes on homes will go up 100% next
year.
And, of course, the big elephant in the room is the attacks on various misques of any and all candidates - Mayor and Council.
The tone has been set already - if you want to run for mayor or council, you better be prepared to defend anything you've done (or haven't done) anytime. It will be a bitter, nasty, campaign and reputations will suffer.
Those with significant blotches on their record should take heed.
Roldan: As I said, you can’t
Roldan: As I said, you can’t blame the person who asked the question.
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Well, actually, I do blame him; not for Segarra's failure to report section 8 rents his partner receives, but for creating confusion of no benefit whatsoever to the City and its taxpayers. Roldan's politically motivated to find dirt on Segarra. What he and his buddies have discovered is of no value, indicates no violation of the public trust by the Mayor. There's no evidence that he's misusing his office. He hasn't lied to investigatory agents. Roldan has merely created a public relations tangle that will waste the Municipal government's time and money. I wish the Mayor would give it no further credibility by asking for an outside attorney to aid the Ethics Commission. Just shut up, and give Roldan no further publicity as a purported reformer. Amend the financial reports, let the Ethics guys do their work, keep the focus on the work the City needs done; i.e., the budget.
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